Dragon-i, Authentic Shanghai Cuisine

Dragon-i (龙的传人) when translated literally means the descendants of dragon and its name had conveyed the significance of serving authentic cuisine from ancient China. Perhaps those who frequent Johor Bahru (JB) City Square mall had known them well as this is one of the few restaurants that had been drawing the hordes.  Dragon-i is serving a decent fare of Shanghai Cuisine with each delicacy prepared by  chefs from mainland China.

Dragon-i shop front

Dragon-i

It was on a Saturday evening and we were early for dinner, there was no queue at all, compared to its other outlet, Canton-i. We were seated and presented with their traditional reddish brown Menu with dragon embossed at the bottom.

Menu

 The dinner crowd after 7pm.

Crowd

Just like a number of chinese restaurant, they had their shop name indicated on their chopsticks.

Wet Towel is chargable at RM 1.00 each. For those who want to avoid additional charges, they can return that to the servers.

Utensils

 La Mian, 拉面 Hand Pulled Noodles was part of Chinese Delicacies and was known as "dragon beard" in ancient days to reflect the importance of food to the emperor. The braised red beef noodle was average on its overall. Broth was tasty and bowl was filled with portions of beef briskets as well as the smooth noodles. During serving, the server had prepared a pair of scissors and would ask if we like to have the length of the noodles shorten.

Braised Red Beef Brisket Noodles - RM 18.00

 Corn Juice was the unexpected, not the usual taste we had, their is of lighter taste. 2 sides of the sweet corn was used to make the drink and then ice blended. Dragon-i was actually the red dragon fruit juice and comes with a thin sliced of plain dragon fruit, too much sweetener was included I felt.

Corn Juice & Dragon-i - RM 8.00 & 12.00 (Left to Right)

 Chilled Drunken Chicken in Hua Diao Rice wine was served in a semi small ball shape. Although it was soaked in the rice wine, I find that the chilled chicken was still lacking of infused flavour. However, this is still their signature's dish.

Signature Drunken Chicken - RM16.00

Every Xiao Long Bao was hand made with 18 delicate folds and had its filling come with a 
mix of minced pork shank, ginger and natural pork skin gelatin, which after steaming, melts into a tasty, delicious soup.They were best served with shredded ginger and vinegar. Overall, still do-able but not the best I had tried so far.

Signature Xiao Long Bao - RM 10.30

Being one of the recommended dishes on the menu, XO Radish Cake was run-of-the-mill for me. Big cubes of carrot cakes were served in the mixture of beansprouts, prawns and eggs. Beansprouts were rather raw in taste and this dish tasted of garlic bits which may be uncomfortable for some. The radish cake was somehow lacking in texture and taste was rather bland, no sweetness or XO.

XO Radish Cake - RM 13.80

Brocolli with Scallop was tasted fine. The brocolli flowers were soften added with carrot, mushrooms as well as scallops with light tasting gravy drenched over them.

RM 32.00

Total Cost about RM 130.05 for two person after 10% Service Charge and 6% Gov Tax.

All in all, the pricing is quite close to what we had in Singapore. Given the choice, I would still prefer the taste of our chinese restaurant back home.

Rating: 3 / 5

Dragon-i
Location: Lot No. J3-36, Level 3
106-108 Jalan Wong Ah Fook
80000 Johor Bahru, Malaysia