Hands down absolutely the best authentic Chinese food in Bellingham! The owners, Frank and Sue work tirelessly to deliver some of the most flavorful dishes your taste buds will ever experience! You will not be disappointed.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Melanie Mathers
Super delicious, and very nice portions. Very kind people. A favorite to bring to Blvd park!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
I R
It's hard finding good Chinese food these days but I found some at dragon river!
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 5
Service: 5
Daniel Whitworth
The general tso's tofu was amazing! Great spot, great value, friendly people.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Moi-Manda
I am convinced they only had one woman working when I went but she was ON IT. Service was a bit slow at first, but it was fine. Fried rice & orange chicken were EXCELLENT. Bao zi and pot stickers were also really good. The waitress literally ran after a patron to give her her jacket she forgot. Took a minute to get our orders taken, but food came out pretty quickly after.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 4
Jennifer Fitzgerald
Food wasn't terrible...the sweet and sour pork was very American style and bright red! I would recommend the more traditional fare. I appreciated the pot of hot tea.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 3
Erin Grace
I regret not photographing my incredible food! The service is great, the host warm and welcoming and the flavors from the kitchen were perfect! We ordered the grilled eggplant with pork off the gluten free menu. I have celiac disease so my boyfriend also ordered something from that menu so we could share. I didn’t have a single reaction to the food!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
韩玉彦
delicious noodle
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Chris H
Great food and great service. Get the spicy beef, it's different and I've never had anything like it before. My favorite dish.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Amy Huggins
We went in as a group and the server/hostess (older woman) was very rude to us when turning us away. She told us she flat out refused to serve our group although we were cordial throughout the interaction even though the restaurant was practically empty. We even asked if we needed a reservation. The atmosphere was quite tense and silent so we just decided to leave, and seeing other reviews here it is hard to say we regret our choice.
Wow. Perfection. I ordered the Mongolian chicken and it hit. the. spot.
Deliciously sweet, spicy and savory. Lots of onions, just how I like it. Generous portion, enough for two.
So good that I took the time to write this review while I’m still working on my meal. I see a lot of negative reviews so I wanted to make sure I get my opinion on here.
Service was good, food came out within 5 mins. Pretty bad ambience though, and terrible lighting.
But the food more than makes up for it.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 5
Service: 5
Pratt Fowler
Excellent service and food, very authentic dishes
Kwame Warfield
The food was wonderful…freshly made to order food made all the difference!!! Fresh made potstickers were excellent and the hot and sour soup was fresh and not old. Definitely my new favorite Chinese food restaurant in Bellingham!!!!
Jacob Matthew
I am now wholly convinced that there is something fundamentally wrong with the people of Bellingham.
I don't know if the insular culture just doesn't expose them to very much outside their bubbles, or if everyone's taste buds are permanently burned out from all the booze and reefer. I do know that I am not taking recommendations from the locals seriously again.
I had gotten tired of our go-to Chinese place and wanted to find something a little better. A thread came up on the local reddit where everyone wholeheartedly agreed that Dragon River was the place to go for Chinese takeout. Review on Google Maps bore that out; the restaurant had a 4.2 rating, and the negative reviews were just the usual Karen complaints about service and accusations of racism - pretty standard for Bellingham. My intuition told me to just ignore it, but I decided to go ahead and give it a try.
If you've been poor for any significant part of your life, you know how hard it is to waste food, and you will fully understand my meaning when I say that five minutes into the meal, the whole lot of it went into the garbage. I now understand why Dragon River stopped doing dine-in. If my family and I had been sat inside I would have sent the food back, something I have only ever done once in forty years.
For my meal, I ordered the Sweet and Sour Pork, General Tso's Chicken, Crab Cheese Wontons, and Hot and Sour Soup. First impressions of the meal were 1) that was more food than I was expecting and 2) those colors did not come from anything meant to be eaten. Either they were deep into the kind of food additives that are illegal in more civilized countries, or they pulled their sauces off the backs of poison dart frogs.
The Hot and Sour Soup was the best of the lot, in that it was merely bland. Usually you expect some black vinegar and mushrooms with a bit of pork or tofu, but this was clear broth with cabbage that I initially mistook for a wrong order of egg drop.
The Sweet and Sour Pork and General Tso's Chicken were colored Red Dye 40 and Cola Syrup Brown respectively and were made with the lowest quality of meat imaginable. I could not have told you which part of the animal, or even what animal, the meat came from. It was somehow both gamy and slimy at the same time. The sauces tasted plastic and completely artificial, like something cooked up in a lab attached to a petroleum plant. The Wontons were similarly plastic-tasting and greasy, while somehow managing to be too crispy to be food.
But perhaps the fault is on my end. Perhaps when a restaurant in Bellingham advertises Chinese food for sale, they don't mean ethnic food in the style of the Orient, they mean it in the sense that it is a knockoff product meant to resemble food, like a Chinese handbag or Chinese Legos.
Emily Goodin
We've tried all of the vegan/vegetarian dishes in our family's many dine in visits, and all have been excellent! General Tso's Tofu, salt and pepper tofu, veggie delight, ma po tofu, egg drop soup (not vegan but vegetarian), tofu vegetable soup, egg rolls, and more. Service was prompt and friendly. Our hot tea pot was kept refilled whenever it was close to empty. Dragon River is now on our regular rotation when we eat out. Highly recommended!
Hands down absolutely the best authentic Chinese food in Bellingham! The owners, Frank and Sue work tirelessly to deliver some of the most flavorful dishes your taste buds will ever experience! You will not be disappointed.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Super delicious, and very nice portions. Very kind people. A favorite to bring to Blvd park!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
It's hard finding good Chinese food these days but I found some at dragon river!
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 5
Service: 5
The general tso's tofu was amazing! Great spot, great value, friendly people.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
I am convinced they only had one woman working when I went but she was ON IT. Service was a bit slow at first, but it was fine. Fried rice & orange chicken were EXCELLENT. Bao zi and pot stickers were also really good. The waitress literally ran after a patron to give her her jacket she forgot. Took a minute to get our orders taken, but food came out pretty quickly after.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 4
Food wasn't terrible...the sweet and sour pork was very American style and bright red! I would recommend the more traditional fare. I appreciated the pot of hot tea.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 3
I regret not photographing my incredible food! The service is great, the host warm and welcoming and the flavors from the kitchen were perfect! We ordered the grilled eggplant with pork off the gluten free menu. I have celiac disease so my boyfriend also ordered something from that menu so we could share. I didn’t have a single reaction to the food!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
delicious noodle
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Great food and great service.
Get the spicy beef, it's different and I've never had anything like it before. My favorite dish.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
We went in as a group and the server/hostess (older woman) was very rude to us when turning us away. She told us she flat out refused to serve our group although we were cordial throughout the interaction even though the restaurant was practically empty. We even asked if we needed a reservation. The atmosphere was quite tense and silent so we just decided to leave, and seeing other reviews here it is hard to say we regret our choice.
Atmosphere: 1
Service: 1
Restaurantji Recommends
Wow. Perfection. I ordered the Mongolian chicken and it hit. the. spot.
Deliciously sweet, spicy and savory. Lots of onions, just how I like it. Generous portion, enough for two.
So good that I took the time to write this review while I’m still working on my meal.
I see a lot of negative reviews so I wanted to make sure I get my opinion on here.
Service was good, food came out within 5 mins. Pretty bad ambience though, and terrible lighting.
But the food more than makes up for it.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 5
Service: 5
Excellent service and food, very authentic dishes
The food was wonderful…freshly made to order food made all the difference!!! Fresh made potstickers were excellent and the hot and sour soup was fresh and not old. Definitely my new favorite Chinese food restaurant in Bellingham!!!!
I am now wholly convinced that there is something fundamentally wrong with the people of Bellingham.
I don't know if the insular culture just doesn't expose them to very much outside their bubbles, or if everyone's taste buds are permanently burned out from all the booze and reefer. I do know that I am not taking recommendations from the locals seriously again.
I had gotten tired of our go-to Chinese place and wanted to find something a little better. A thread came up on the local reddit where everyone wholeheartedly agreed that Dragon River was the place to go for Chinese takeout. Review on Google Maps bore that out; the restaurant had a 4.2 rating, and the negative reviews were just the usual Karen complaints about service and accusations of racism - pretty standard for Bellingham. My intuition told me to just ignore it, but I decided to go ahead and give it a try.
If you've been poor for any significant part of your life, you know how hard it is to waste food, and you will fully understand my meaning when I say that five minutes into the meal, the whole lot of it went into the garbage. I now understand why Dragon River stopped doing dine-in. If my family and I had been sat inside I would have sent the food back, something I have only ever done once in forty years.
For my meal, I ordered the Sweet and Sour Pork, General Tso's Chicken, Crab Cheese Wontons, and Hot and Sour Soup. First impressions of the meal were 1) that was more food than I was expecting and 2) those colors did not come from anything meant to be eaten. Either they were deep into the kind of food additives that are illegal in more civilized countries, or they pulled their sauces off the backs of poison dart frogs.
The Hot and Sour Soup was the best of the lot, in that it was merely bland. Usually you expect some black vinegar and mushrooms with a bit of pork or tofu, but this was clear broth with cabbage that I initially mistook for a wrong order of egg drop.
The Sweet and Sour Pork and General Tso's Chicken were colored Red Dye 40 and Cola Syrup Brown respectively and were made with the lowest quality of meat imaginable. I could not have told you which part of the animal, or even what animal, the meat came from. It was somehow both gamy and slimy at the same time. The sauces tasted plastic and completely artificial, like something cooked up in a lab attached to a petroleum plant. The Wontons were similarly plastic-tasting and greasy, while somehow managing to be too crispy to be food.
But perhaps the fault is on my end. Perhaps when a restaurant in Bellingham advertises Chinese food for sale, they don't mean ethnic food in the style of the Orient, they mean it in the sense that it is a knockoff product meant to resemble food, like a Chinese handbag or Chinese Legos.
We've tried all of the vegan/vegetarian dishes in our family's many dine in visits, and all have been excellent! General Tso's Tofu, salt and pepper tofu, veggie delight, ma po tofu, egg drop soup (not vegan but vegetarian), tofu vegetable soup, egg rolls, and more. Service was prompt and friendly. Our hot tea pot was kept refilled whenever it was close to empty. Dragon River is now on our regular rotation when we eat out. Highly recommended!
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