MARYSVILLE — A recent Saturday was filled with shopping, so my friend and I decided to grab a quick bite at the new Magic Dragon in the Winco shopping center.
This Magic Dragon restaurant opened in March and is the latest in the chain that started in 1992 as part of the Uwajimaya Food Court. Unlike the original buffet-style eatery inside the landmark Asian store and grocery in Seattle, the stand-alone restaurants don’t have the exotic and exciting atmosphere that highlights a visit to Seattle’s International District.
The Marysville restaurant is sparkling new with beautiful dark hardwood tables and chairs that are in stark contrast to oversized posters of food, a self-serve drink dispenser and a stainless steel serving line, which give the small restaurant a fast-food feel.
The menu is posted above the serving area, and the choices and prices are ranked by number of items. There’s a one-item bowl for $4.45 that comes with either steamed or fried rice or chow mein. The two-dish combo is $5.99 and the three-dish choice is $6.95 and includes the rice-chow mein choice and two others. For lunch, the two-item combo is $4.99.
My friend and I decided on the two-item combo. He had mushroom chicken and egg roll, and I selected honey sesame chicken and pepper steak. We both had chow mein instead of fried rice, and added soft drinks.
Our choices were spooned into divided containers. The first thing I noticed was that all the vegetables in all the dishes were the same — celery, carrots, onions and bell peppers — just in different combinations. Consequently, there wasn’t much taste differentiation between the mounds of food in each of the Styrofoam wells.
The pepper steak isn’t on the printed menu but is part of the franchise’s standing choices. This dish was the weakest of our meal because the thinly sliced beef was stringy and tough but soggy from soaking in marinade too long. Also, there wasn’t a black pepper or chili pepper taste, only an off-putting, flour-heavy brown gravy taste.
My honey sesame chicken began with a bit of chicken in a heavy coating and deep fried. This was smothered in a red-colored sweet sauce, and I didn’t detect any sesame flavoring. It tasted as plastic as it looked. And there didn’t seem to be much difference between honey sesame chicken, sweet and sour pork, orange chicken and kung pao chicken.
Our chow mein was a predictable mix of soft noodles, chopped cabbage, onions and carrots.
The best of the lot was my friend’s mushroom chicken, which was actually a tasty mix of fresh mushroom and zucchini slices stir-fried with chicken in a soy-based cooking sauce.
This was definitely shopping mall-style food. If you’re like me, you’d rather go to Ranch Market on Highway 99 in Edmonds for your Asian foodstuffs and enjoy the buffet there or eat next door at T&T Seafood, which has some of the best Chinese food in Snohomish County.
Herald restaurant reviewers accept no invitations to review, but readers’ suggestions are always welcome. Reviewers arrive unannounced, and The Herald pays their tabs.
Contact Anna Poole at features@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
