While there are a ton of good restaurant options in the Dayton area, especially with Chinese food, there are not a ton of places that focus on a quality dine-in experience. Most are priced for convenience or set up as a take-out or delivery business. This spot actually is one of the few Chef-owned Chinese spots in town, and Chef Stephen can often be found walking through the restaurant and making sure everyone’s food is perfect. This is one of the older spots in town too, having opened in 1995 and rolling along ever since, as the Centerville area has developed all around it.
The restaurant doesn’t just specialize in Chinese food, but it’s also occasionally got Japanese dishes too, like a variety of sushis and other items. What really seems to draw people are the lunch specials. Really, they’re the same kind of Chinese dishes that you see in a lot of other Chinese spots in town, but this one doesn’t do take-out or delivery food. Instead it all focuses on a quality dine-in experience. The menu has a different niche, which is not like the other spots in town. In that the food is made of higher-quality ingredients.
- Happy family: While many spots have this dish as a pretty simple chicken-veggies-dark sauce combo, this one it a triple-meat combo with shrimp, beef and chicken with a sweet sauce. It’s also stir fried with vegetables to make them a little bit of an interesting mix. The dish is also is served with fried or brown rice.
- Fried rice: Mixed with veggies and meat to your choice, this order is huge. The rice is really very good, better than much of the other rice you might try in other places, a very good dish.
- Honey garlic chicken: Crunchy chicken in a lighter honey glaze. It’s got that great honey taste without being too sticky.
- General Tso’s Tofu: A product of the large nearby church populations and their dietary preferences, these cubes of thick tofu are fried and served up in the distinct sweet sauce. Wonderful unusual take on the dish.
- Pad Thai: The restaurant does a variety of foods well, this is no exception. The extra peanuts and bean sprouts give it a crunch, and it absolutely needs the lime to make it all work together.
The restaurant has a very pleasant lavender theme to it, it’s a nice place with a friendly staff with a quick turnaround time on those dishes and a very friendly demeanor in getting refills to you. Of course it would be nice if the place delivered the food to you, but in fact I’d contend it’s better to be able to relish a little in the experience here. China Dynasty is a spot that isn’t like so many of the others in town and I think you’ll really like what you taste.
Recommendations
- The spot is a dine-in establishment and there aren’t options to take out the food. One way or another it’s an experience to enjoy a little more for that reason.
- There are very inexpensive lunch specials that are worth a try if you’re in the mood for it.
- Also, there is sushi to be had if you like it, it’s a new addition to the menu.
Another Food Critic 