Is there parking at City Dragon?

There's a small parking lot in the plaza, but it fills up quick—street parking along El Cajon Blvd is free if the lot's full. Metered spots exist on side streets if you need them. The plaza area can feel sketchy at night, so daylight visits are safer.

Can I just walk in or do I need a reservation?

Walk-ins are fine, but everything's made to order now (they used to be fast casual), so expect a wait during lunch and dinner rushes. Calling ahead or ordering delivery/takeout might be smarter if you're in a hurry.

Is City Dragon good for kids?

Yeah—it's casual, neighborhood-friendly, and has plenty of kid-approved options. Salt and pepper chicken wings and fried rice are solid bets for picky eaters.

Salt and pepper tofu and salt and pepper chicken wings are reliable hits. Go mild on spice unless you know what you're doing. Skip frozen-feeling options and stick with fresh, made-to-order dishes—quality varies depending on what you pick.

Do they have vegetarian options?

Yeah, they offer vegetarian dishes. The salt and pepper tofu is a solid vegetarian choice if you're looking for something with flavor.

What about delivery and takeout?

Both are available through their own delivery and third-party apps like Uber Eats. Fair warning: some reviewers report quality drops on delivery orders, so dine-in or takeout pickup might be safer bets for better food.

When's the best time to visit?

Lunch or early dinner works best to avoid waits and crowds. It's a solid weeknight spot for North Park locals, so evenings can get backed up with orders.

City Dragon — San Diego

“City Dragon is the free-delivery Chinese counter that drops off orange chicken while Olympic slow-cooks lamb and Kin Len preps papaya salad three doors down.”

While Olympic and Kin Len anchor 30th Street with sit-down lineups and regional specificity, City Dragon works a different angle—counter-service Cantonese-American basics delivered free to your North Park apartment, the kind of operation that survives on speed and proximity rather than wok theatrics or chef pedigree. This is the spot you call when you want salt-and-pepper wings and fried rice without leaving the couch, not the place you visit for hand-pulled noodles or regional technique.

The menu runs standard—orange chicken, broccoli beef, chow mein—with mild-to-spicy options and a decent vegetarian lineup that includes salt-and-pepper tofu. Quality swings depending on what you order: the wings and tofu get actual wok treatment, while some seafood dishes lean closer to steam-table reheat. It's made-to-order now, which means longer waits than the old fast-casual setup but theoretically fresher output. Delivery is the real value proposition here—free within range, which matters when you're weighing a $17 fried rice against driving to Convoy.

The physical space is pure counter-service—order, pay, wait by the register—tucked into a cramped plaza off El Cajon with metered side-street parking and sketchy adjacency that makes delivery the smarter play. This isn't a tap-list hangout or a weekend brunch destination; it's the neighborhood utility that keeps North Park renters fed on Tuesday nights when cooking feels like too much effort and Kin Len's wait is an hour deep.

Best move: stick to salt-and-pepper anything, order mild unless you know their spice scale, and use the delivery option—it's free and saves you the plaza parking nightmare. Skip the seafood-heavy dishes unless you're feeling adventurous.