Little Dragon

2205 W. Rosecrans Boulevard
Gardena, CA 90249

(310) 327-1281

http://www.yelp.com/biz/little-dragon-gardena-2

http://www.grubhub.com/la/little-dragon/

Rating: 2.5 stars

Typical cost for lunch: $-$$ ($5.5 - 7)

What was ordered: Kung Pao Chicken, Cha Chiang Mein, Boiled Meat Dumpling

Date of visit: 14 March 2011 (3^rd or 4^th visit)

Review: Trying to find a highly regarded Chinese restaurant around here can be a daunting task. We got excited when we came across Little Dragon with 4 stars on Yelp. When we showed up we realized we had been here a couple times before for the Cham-Bong (or Jjam-Bbong). So… we broke the first rule of Aerolunch and went in to review with our new-found standards. Little Dragon is more properly described as a Korean Restaurant that serves Chinese food or a Chinese restaurant run by Koreans. It doesn’t mean a whole lot to me other than they serve Cham-Bong – a spicy noodle soup with lots of seafood, and you get Kim-chi as an appetizer.

Based on Yelp reviews I ordered Cha Chiang Mein (that’s how the restaurant spells it; most reviewers on Yelp spell it Jja-Jang Myun). The Cha Chiang Mein was a big pile of noodles with a black, soy bean sauce poured on top. I agree completely with the only review on Yelp that did not like this dish. The noodles tasted like box spaghetti noodles and the sauce was not incorporated into the dish. I feel like maybe I don’t have the palette for Cha Chiang Mein but I know I won’t ever order it again.

We also got the Lunch Special Kung Pao Chicken. This was actually quite good… a nice sweet bbq sauce over chicken and vegetables. On the disappointing side, my friend asked them to make it with only white meat chicken (we would have happily paid extra), however they were either unable or unwilling to accommodate the request. Since it was a Lunch Special it came with fried rice, an egg roll, and a fried wanton. A bit of a pedestrian dish for a Chinese restaurant but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The Boiled Meat Dumplings on the other hand were pretty terrible. “Boiled Meat Dumplings” may not be the most appetizing name but I figured the poor translation was a good indication of authentic delicious-ness. I was wrong. They were plain boiled pork in a lumpy, soggy, poorly-formed dumpling skin. It doesn’t take a genius of Asian cuisine to know these were a poor excuse for dumplings.

In the past I have ordered the Cham-Bong, though I have never actually been able to find it on the menu (I was with people “in the know”). As I mentioned before, it is a spicy noodle soup with a bunch of seafood. For the price (around $6) you get quite a bit of seafood, but I am rather apathetic about the taste. Its spicy, but not much else. My only other exposure to this dish was much better.

I will leave the Cha Chiang Mein off the score card; the Kung Pao was a 4 star dish (minus ½ star for not being able to accommodate a simple change), the dumplings were 1 star, and the Cham-Bong 3 star. I give Little Dragon an overall rating of 2.5 stars. Go if you’re dying for some Korean-Chinese food, otherwise if you find yourself here with a group stick to the Lunch Specials.

-Ben