Restaurant review: Golden Dragon, Elland

EVERY year we go on holiday to Spain and end up in the same Chinese restaurant on the outskirts of Villamartin – a place very popular with ex-pats.

The reason why we become regulars while over there is quite simple.

We are a family of six – and try affording for that lot to go out. The money doesn’t stretch that far.

But at our Chinese in the sun it certainly does with all of us having a three-course meal with wine for under £30. Now it’s quite a challenge to come anywhere close to matching over here and, let’s face it, this is an impossible task.

So we’ve set ourselves a £50 limit. Can a family of six dine in a restaurant around here – not including your fast food chains, of course – for under £50?

We thought we’d have a go and let you know how we got on in terms of price, value for money and quality of food.

And so to the Golden Dragon in the centre of Elland that promises a Sunday lunch served from 3pm to 6pm for £7.40.

The choice is quite big – but you’ll also need to arrive with a big appetite as this one’s a four-courser. Soup to begin, starters, mains and a simple dessert.

This is now a well-established restaurant set in what appears to be a former pub.

There’s a bar downstairs where the takeaway orders are collected with the restaurant in two rooms up some steep steps – along with another bar. There are chandeliers hanging from the ceiling along with heavy red paint up there with a dark green below the dado rail and wallpaper above.

In places it’s looking rather worn – and so is the carpet. Maybe it’s time to bring the decorators in.

It was around quarter full when we arrived at 5.20pm on Sunday. And there were seven of us as one of the kids had brought a chum along.

So the challenge to feed six had suddenly become a taller order. Surely they couldn’t manage it and sort out these secret seven reviewers for under £50?

The soup was a choice of three – hot and sour, vegetable or that old staple favourite chicken and sweetcorn.

We had a go at the lot and the clear winner was the hot and sour. Not that sour, really, but with a decent mount of spice and made the other two seem quite bland in comparison.

The vegetable was reasonably thin but the beansprouts and cabbage lifted it above the chicken and sweetcorn. It was a light offering, while the chicken and sweetcorn needed a generous amount of salt and pepper to give it some sense of oomph.

But what’s this? Little five-year-old Harry got into this soup scene and ended up with two bowls and two spoons in hand with the chicken and sweetcorn and the hot and sour shown no mercy.

He will, from now on, be known as ‘two soups’.

And so on to the starters with the choice of salt and pepper spare ribs, Peking spare ribs, spring roll or a deep fried combination of spring roll, crispy wun tun and a satay samosa. You get three smallish salt and pepper spare ribs that are a tad fatty but certainly well-seasoned while the spring roll had a predominantly carrot taste. As for the deep fried combination. well, you’d have to ask Harry as no-one else got a look-in. He just kept nodding so we’ll take that as a good sign.

We were the only table with a Lazy Susan in the middle, but Susan soon swung into action once the mains arrived, heralded by the arrival of chips.

You could have a choice of fried rice or chips with each mains course and the kids opted for the chips without even stopping to think or reflect.

Those who shunned the chips were rewarded with a good-sized portion of egg fried rice.

The mains were full-on dishes with meat and chunky vegetables with green peppers, onions, carrots, cabbage and broccoli putting in the most appearances.

All were big portions and were solid, traditional Chinese fare that didn’t raise the bar particularly yet didn’t try to duck under it either ... not that duck’s included in the Sunday special choices.

They included chicken curry, chicken chow mein, sliced beef with satay sauce, fried sliced pork with green peppers and black bean sauce, fried sliced beef with oyster sauce and sweet and sour chicken – a pungent dish with deep fried chicken surrounded by a colourful sauce.

Not only was there enough for us all with that meal, there was enough left over for one of us – namely me – to have tea the following night.

As for drinks. Well, we all went for Diet Coke (£1.30) that quickly seemed to go flat.

The verdict at the end was pretty clear-cut.

All the children were full, they thought it was great to get out to a restaurant and they’d all go again.

And it just about made the £50 target with the food weighing in at £51.20, but the drinks took it up to over £65.

So the quest goes on.

Golden Dragon

92 Southgate, Halifax, West Yorkshire HX5 0EP

Tel: 01422 373153

Website: www.goldendragonelland.co.uk

Opening hours: 5.45pm-11pm Monday-Wednesday; 12noon-2pm and 5.45pm-11pm Thursday and Friday; 5.45pm-11pm Saturday and 3pm-11pm Sunday

Children: Oh, yes