Dancin’ Dragon & The Dim Sum Room

I can’t believe I just ate here and survived. The food looked colorless and old, and tasted so bad that I ended up leaving after only a few bites. I’m shocked this place even has customers, the health inspectors must have accidentally missed this place or something.

This place doesn’t even deserve a star. My friend had gotten a certificate from Local Flavor and that’s the only reason we went. We were told we had to order drinks, but it didn’t say that anywhere on the offer from local flavor. When we questioned it our server told us they were basically free because we were getting the buffet instead of the dim sum the certificate was for. First off, we weren’t even offered menus and it was just assumed we wanted the buffet. The food was not even that hot and 90% of everything was fried. I feel horrible after eating there. When our check arrived the bill seemed very high. $ 13 each for the buffet and we were charged for drinks. There was a $ 9.00 charge written in on the bill with no explanation of what it was for. Apparently we were told after that it was for a tip. When were questioned the bill they didn’t do anything to make it right. I will never go back there again, it’s not worth the money or the aggravation.

Came in and only 2 people here. Food ice cold. They told us they would microwave it. Really??? Horrible place… AVOID THIS PLACE… There is no manager here so server said oh well you don’t have to eat but you have to pay. Wow. I’m calling the health department…

Absolutely disgusting buffet. Felt really bad eating here since my last time.
Food was stale and had no taste and it was expensive at 13.90 for weekend buffet.
Avoid this like a plague.

Delicious dim sum! Everything was cook to order which meant a little longer wait time but totally worth it. All the plates were delivered hot and fresh by a very friendly wait staff. This place also offers a whole buffet on the other side incase you are super hungry.

Personally I don’t like buffets, so I’m not going to comment on it. On the other hand I enjoyed a great selection of dim sum to include steamed dumplings, steamed buns, wontons, and a few other items. They were all most excellent. The food did take some time to come out, but I will wait for good hot food over cheap and quick. Most of the negative comments on Unilocal seem to be about the buffet, but fail to mention the regular menu.

Two questions: how are they still in business? Poor service and horrible food. Especially the dim sum. This is a Chinese restaurant for goodness sake. How can you make bad dim sum? The second question is how does other Unilocal Elite give it 5 stars. I have to question the credibility of that rating as it seem the last 6 months other dinners felt the same way about bad service and terrible food quality. This is the last time we come here.

I took my 3 kids there on a Sunday Afternoon, food was okay, but the prices are way too high ! I had to pay $ 12.99 for my 11 and 13 year old, plus $ 2.79 for a soda ! That’s $ 15.78 for a kids meal !! Plus the quality is not that great, stay away ! There are much better Lunch places around the Ave Mall ! I even called to double check the pricing after we left and the «Manager «had just excuses, but was not willing to work anything out at all !! This place will be out of business soon with that Attitude and Pricing !!

This place was flat out gross. I went because I had a Local Flavor deal at half price. I showed them the coupon before ordering the buffet and was told I must also purchase a drink. It wasn’t part of the deal but they said it was «their» policy. After threatening to leave, they said I didn’t have to buy a drink.
The service was friendly enough after that, but the food was low grade. Nearly everything is poor quality fried food product that all looks and tastes the same. The sushi was basically just a rice ball with enough tuna to flavor the rice. I was disappointed at what I had to pay, and that was only half price.
I won’t go back, I recommend avoiding this place if you have the opportunity.

The worst buffet I’ve ever had. I’ve read many reviews about this place but ignored them all. Turned out that all the negative reviews were right and I should have listened. Came over the weekend and it was virtually empty. On the weekend? Red flag right there but ignored it. The metal food containers we’re cold to the touch, meaning that they do it on purpose to shut off the heat that keep food warm so that the food won’t dry up. They do this since it seems that their business is not doing so good (low attendance on what should have been a busy day for any business). Instead of taking a loss by discarding really old food, they recycle them and letting customers eat them. They are passing on their loss to the customers which pisses us of. The crabs smells like strong ammonia due to being out so long and the crab claw meat were the size of raisins since it was so old and dry. The fried food was mushy, the sushi was very dry, and ALL the meats we’re so dry that they turned very dark on top (they didn’t bother to turn them from time to time). The noodles had dried ends on them, the clams we’re a bit smelly and many of them were dried up so much they shrivelled up like… yup, raisin size. The hibachi? The raw meat looked glassy slimy and looked old in color and the «fresh» vegetables we’re wilting.
Since the food was cold, a couple of bugs we’re not deterred to hover around the buffet area.
Listen to negative reviews about this place. You’ll be glad you did.
And oh, they didn’t have any raw sushi and sashimi in their sushi bar as they advertised. Just dry rolls.

The food was not that great. Brown salmon, Sushi that tasted old, and lukewarm green tea. Atmosphere was lame. It was too dark and dank and had an old ice bag freezer that looked straight out of the 90’s that sat in front of a grocery at the front entrance. The $ 2000 flat screen TV that sat on top of the freezer (mind you, an empty freezer) looked like it was holding on for dear life. Fortune cookies were tasteless. Never going back!

Literally The Worst food I’ve ever had. I’d have felt lesz5 guilty eating McDonald’s. Just awful. We ate in the Dim Sum room and it was a total disappointment. The pork lechons tasted like feet, the pork buns were too thick and the sauce too sweet, I couldn’t even finish my sticky rice in a lotus wrap, couldn’t get out if my mind the texture of the meat inside. If you want Asian tapas or dim sum type GO TO HAWKERS, don’t waste your time… or money at Dancing Dragon. We spent just as much $ at this hole we would have at Hawkers which is amazing! Total Regret.
I’ll give one star only because our server was nice.

Service: 1 star. The waitress seemed like she lacked waitressing skills or maybe she’s new. She didn’t know the menu, kept coming back after we placed our order to tell us they didn’t have the size available. Then again to ask what kind of meat we’d like in our fried rice. We order a variety of dim sum plates. She brought the dessert out first. It was the coconut cake. Who does that? Yes, I’d like to eat dessert before my dinner. Makes no sense at all. Then we had no silverware, besides the chopsticks available to eat the «cake» or the rice that came later. We asked her maybe three times. And it seemed like she had to go looking for them. It wasn’t busy at all. The food came out slowly, one by one and she kept asking what else we ordered. We never got our last order. We had to remind her that we were missing one and she came with the cook out to our table and kinda argued in Spanish about it with him. He then brought it out as we were all finished eating and about to pay our bill, then she told us she had to leave and just pay out bill up front. Didn’t ask if everything was alright or apologized for all of the confusion and lack of customer service. Seriously, where did they find her?
Food: 2 stars. The chow something fried rice was good and the pork skin was good. Everything else was not good. Chicken feet was bland, tripe was bland, pork buns were blah and the coconut cake was NOT a cake, the reason we ordered it was because it was my birthday and my three year old wanted a cake to celebrate. It was a huge disappointment! It was a white gooey substance. That’s really all you need to know about that. The pricing of the food was overpriced for what you get. We spent over $ 50 and left hungry and dissatisfied.
Overall, go somewhere else for dim sum. If you’re lucky, go to Orlando. That will be the only place I’ll go get dim sum if I’m in the mood for it.

Ridicules! You call these dimsum?
Even steamed frozen dimsums are better than these!

If I could give this place less than 1 star I would. Way over priced, no flavor, portions were pathetic (child portions). Forgot to give us the rice and vegetables that went with the main dish, but they did provide a small credit for our inconvenience. We did go back to get the rice, but that only proved to be a more disgusting and further aggregating result. The rice smelt as though it had been sitting ALL DAY! If you are a regular Jasmine rice consumer then you know what smell I am referring to.
This is not our first experience here, first time with this owner, but obviously will be our last. If you check out this site before you decide to dine here, the only thing I will say is to keep on driving. To many other restaurants in the area and if it is Asian you are looking for just keep heading north on Southside Blvd. and turn left on Old Baymeadows Rd. In the Publix plaza there are 2 GREAT Asian restaurants right there.

Stay far, far, far away from this place. The service is non-​existent because all they care about is pushing the buffet. We went in an ordered dim sum, because they advertise that they offer it. The first dumpling I bit into was rotten on the inside and I immediately spit it all back out on the table. Do not ever set foot in this restaurant it is disgusting.
And by comparison, I’m an Army vet who was served a cooked camel head by a tribe in Iraq. And this place was worse than that.

At least now I know! Everything was cold or undercooked, the sushi was warm and mushy but I should probably expect that at a buffet but dang this food was just bad! They do Chinese and Filipino and I wasn’t impressed with any of it.
Let’s just give a rundown of the issues, the spring rolls were just mush, I wish I had taken a picture of the air browned salmon, the coconut shrimp had no sauce, the generals chicken was cold, the adobo was supper fatty and undercooked.
There was nothing good about this experience other than leaving.

Really craved some dim sum and the closest was on the other side of the city or in Orlando. This place was nearest to our home. I would think it would be good, but today wasn’t so much. In the past, when they first opened the dim sum room, it was fantastic, but it steadily became… mediocre. My friend and I ordered 2 chicken feet (4 – 5 feet per plate), 1 steamed shrimp ball (4), 1 fried shrimp balls (3), 1 steamed meat ball (3), and 1 shark fin (4). My friend ordered a side of white rice for herself, which came near the end of our meal. That means they forgot it when it was on the paper. And it’s funny how 3 different waitresses looked over the paper to make sure we got everything. Altogether, they probably stopped by our table about 20 times.
The shark fin was steamed well and good. Different taste and good to try it.
Chicken feet was very bland. Taste more like water and no seasoning… did not like it. In the past, it was delicious but not this time. You can taste the difference.
Steamed shrimp ball was okay.
Fried shrimp balls was smaller than normal. They were usually the size of your fist and not its the size of a ping pong ball…
Steamed meatball took the longest to get out. Not sure as to why we have to ask about 5 times that we were missing it when, again, it was on the paper. The taste was very bland and the texture didn’t feel like it was real meatballs. The texture felt like a rubbery feeling and wasn’t great.
Overall, the food was mediocre. Service was a bit sloppy. I think it’s best to order from the main menu and buffet than dim sum. Probably would not come back for dim sum anymore…

This place is inside the buffet restaurant, but separate. Just let them know you’re there for dimsum/​Chinese. It’s fairly new and my family brought me here to check it out. Their dim sum is above average and their yeung chow fried rice blew my socks off! Its one of the few places to get dimsum, period, in Jacksonville. It’s also definitely the best dimsum option in jax. It’s far for me to come here usually, but I WILL MAKE THE TRIP FOR THAT YEUNG CHOW! Also recommending the fried pork belly ^_^.
This place is family owned by a Filipino/​Chinese/​Caucasian family and very friendly. Great service and food all around.
I can’t speak for their buffet… I probably won’t be trying it anytime soon with the dimsum that close by…

Yay for more Dim Sum in Jacksonville!
I was super excited to head this way after having the Dim Sum Room at Moonbeam Bash, so made it a double date and headed down this past Friday.
This was only my 2^nd Dim Sum experience… and I was a little nervous about ordering, since my sis-​in-​law and her family weren’t around to order and explain to me what everything was…
When we walked in, we were asked immediately if we were there for Dim Sum (and we all responded with a resounding YES!) so we were lead to the little dining area to the right. (Yes, the other side is still the buffet, which I discovered on my way to the ladies room.)
I was very glad to see a couple of combos offered so we could all try and share a ton of things, and descriptions for each item. Yay! Took the guess work out of ordering, so I let Adam go to it. (and a nice recommendation via Unilocal from Kriss R about the lotus wrapped sticky rice. THANK YOU!)
We started with some sweet and sour soup… and let me tell you, this bowl was HUGE! (And only like 3 – 4 bucks… what a great deal.) We added a little spice to it and it was fantastic.)
We ordered the pork and duck, a few things I wasn’t really sure what they were… including some dumplings, the sticky rice, and a sweet sesame ball. The duck was by far my favorite, seasoned perfectly and so juicy it fell off the bone. The pork was pretty good as well, and the sticky rice was AMAZING. There was also a fried shrimp dumpling (of sorts) that was out of this world as well.
We washed it all down with quite a few Kirin lights and left super full, but still feeling great.
I can not WAIT to bring the sister-​in-​law when she comes in town to visit. :)