Dragon-i @ Pavilion Bukit Bintang

Ever since Dragon-i opened its doors for business a few years ago, hubby has wanted to try their food. The restaurant specializes in food from Shanghai, Szechuan, Beijing and Lanzhou. But each time, a walk past their many outlets in a number of shopping malls would see a long queue of customers waiting to be seated. We have never felt a desire to get in line.


But last week the Dragon-i outlet at Pavilion, Bukit Bintang was relatively empty. That was the week of the Chinese New Year. Many KL-ites have taken the opportunity of the long holiday to get out of town. We seized the chance to try the food.

Three stringed instruments, without their strings, were exhibited on the wall.

A couple of rather strange concoction, some peculiar tea with what looked like corals. Tasted a little unusual, too. I wished we had simply stuck to the more traditional Chinese tea like Jasmine or 'Heong Ping'.

I ordered the La Mein (handmade noodles) in Szechuan Hot & Sour soup. I adore the spicy and vinegarish flavour of the soup. The taste was right up my alley.

Hubby wasn't so fortunate in his choice, however. He ordered the Szechuan La Mein in Hot & Sour Soup. Note the difference in the name of this dish and the one I had ordered. It sounds more or less the same, right? Wrong. It couldn't have been more different than night and day.


The Szechuan La Mein in Hot & Sour Soup was neither hot nor sour. It was nothing like the Szechuan Hot & Sour Soup. Instead, it was sweet with peanut-butter flavour, something we had had before at Low Yat Plaza. 


At that time, we had thought the restaurant in Low Yat Plaza made a mistake in naming the sweet peanut butter soup as 'hot & sour soup', but they must have gotten it right, for Dragon-i produced an exact replica of the soup with the same name. To say it tasted yucky would not begin to describe it. 


I am sure the other items on the menu must be good, though, and that hubby had just made a wrong choice (even though this item had the restaurant's specialty and chef's recommendation on it.) How else do we explain the crowd?? Unless....the majority has no discernment when it comes to food?? Surely not.