{"id":149,"date":"2020-11-22T19:40:55","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T01:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=149"},"modified":"2026-04-02T18:22:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T00:22:18","slug":"heaven-dragon-rio-rancho-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=149","title":{"rendered":"Heaven Dragon – Rio Rancho, New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Heaven Dragon Chinese Restaurant in Rio Rancho<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From Norbert, the Norwegian Ridgeback of Harry Potter<\/em> lore to Smaug, the greatest and most powerful of all dragons in The Hobbit<\/em>, dragons are a familiar icon in modern literature, movies, music and pop culture.\u00a0 Dragons are symbols of fantasy, whimsy and magic, often representing ancient legends and far-off lands.\u00a0 They range from the malevolent, fiery tempered, scaly fire-breathers (insert your favorite mother-in-law reference here) to the affectionate benefactors of mankind.\u00a0 What could possibly explain the popularity of dragons?\u00a0 Could it be because dragons once existed?\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Stories of dragons are pervasive in such ancient cultures as the Chinese, Australian aborigines, Babylonians and Welsh.\u00a0 Ancient Chinese cosmogonists actually defined four types of dragons.\u00a0 The Heaven, Heavenly or Celestial Dragon (Tianlong) guarded the heavenly dwellings of the gods.\u00a0 The Earth Dragon (Dilong) controlled the waterways while the Spiritual Dragon controlled the rain and winds.\u00a0 The fourth, Fuzanglong, was the dragon of hidden treasure. \u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

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Egg Rolls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Heaven Dragon of Chinese mythology may have looked down from its celestial perch as emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties visited Beijing’s Temple of Heaven to pray for a good harvest.\u00a0 The Temple of Heaven is one of two large, colorful photographs (the other is of Wi Mountain) on the walls of the main dining room of the Heaven Dragon Chinese Restaurant in Rio Rancho.\u00a0 That’s as ostentatious as it gets in this rather austere restaurant located next door to an Albertson’s grocery store in a busy shopping center.\u00a0 It’s an attractive restaurant not dominated by stereotypical Chinese restaurant accoutrements. <\/span><\/p>\n

Ambiance by subtraction or minimalism is sometimes a good formula and in Chinese restaurants, that’s especially true if there are no buffet troughs to detract from the dining experience.\u00a0 Thankfully Heaven Dragon doesn’t offer a buffet.\u00a0 It does provide a very robust take-out business.\u00a0 It’s not uncommon to see throngs of diners waiting to pick up their orders.\u00a0 The menu is replete with many of the “Americanized” Chinese favorites diners have embraced.\u00a0 It’s not a menu that will excite staunch seekers of “made in China” authenticity, but it says a lot that throngs of guests frequent the restaurant.
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Fried Wontons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While eat-in diners wait for their orders, your server brings over a small, complimentary plate of peanuts<\/em> liberally sprinkled with powdered sugar.\u00a0 This “amuse bouche” (sweet peanuts) may not tantalize your taste buds, but it won’t make you thirsty as salty peanuts might and it just could tide you over until something more substantial arrives at your table.<\/span><\/p>\n

That might be fried<\/em><\/strong> or steamed dumplings<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 Since this appetizer comes eight to an order, ask for four fried and four steamed dumplings.\u00a0 You won’t be disappointed. Heaven Dragon’s dumplings are some of the best in the Albuquerque area.\u00a0 They’re accompanied by a dumpling sauce made from soy sauce, Hoisin sauce and just enough chile oil to add a piquant potency.\u00a0 The dumplings are quite good by themselves, but that dumpling sauce makes them something special.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Chicken With Mushrooms<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

22 November 2020<\/strong>: As at many Chinese restaurants, an appetizer order of egg rolls is quite popular.\u00a0 Rather than order them as appetizers, savvy diners might opt instead to order one of the special combo platters in which an entree is accompanied by egg rolls and pork fried rice.\u00a0 Heaven Dragon’s egg rolls<\/strong><\/em> are nothing special, but that can be said about virtually every Chinese restaurant in the Albuquerque area.\u00a0 They’re golden brown and crispy on the outside with a standard filling of cabbage and pork inside (you can find it if you look really hard).\u00a0 Perhaps owing to their middling quality, the sauce offered with these egg rolls is the ubiquitous cloying candy apple red sauce.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Less exciting (or more disappointing depending on whether your perspective is glass half full or half empty) is an appetizer order of Bar-B-Q Spareribs<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 Available in small or large sized orders, these ribs are heavily lacquered in a cloying sauce that dominates the flavor profile.\u00a0 You’ll be hard-pressed to discern any smokiness in this bar-b-q.\u00a0 Nor can it be described as “off-the-bone” or “fork tender.”\u00a0 The ribs are chewy and tough, but it’s the sugary qualities that are least endearing.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Sweet and Sour Chicken<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

22 November 2020<\/strong>: Interestingly, the original name given to wontons, one the most popular and traditional Chinese appetizers translated to “chaos.”\u00a0 Eventually as Chinese characters started to form, they were rechristened “wonton.”\u00a0 Eat too many fried wontons<\/strong> <\/em>at Heaven Dragon and you just might find yourself weighing one ton.\u00a0 That’s because an order of fried wontons yields ten wontons at least twice the size of most wontons you find in the area.\u00a0 Not only are the deep-fried wrappers golden brown and as crispy as potato chips, they’re stuffed with pork meatballs about the size of a marble.
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The menu is replete with many standard offerings, but if you prefer something other than the de rigueur sweet and sour offerings, you may want to opt for something designated on the menu as “chef specialties.”\u00a0 During my inaugural visit, my eyes settled on mango beef<\/em><\/strong>, an entree I first had in a Vietnamese restaurant in Denver.\u00a0 Done well, this is a dish that melds sweet, savory and tart tastes in a gravy of deliciousness.\u00a0 The only thing lacking in Heaven Dragon’s version was mangoes in-season.\u00a0 Had the mangoes been just slightly sweeter, this would have been an excellent entree. <\/span><\/p>\n

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General Tso’s Chicken<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alas, during our second visit, another chef’s specialty nearly proved the undoing of my appetite.\u00a0 The menu’s description was of “fried scallops and aromatic walnuts<\/strong><\/em>, lettuce in brown sauce served in a crispy fried potato nest.” Here’s what was delivered: a fried bowl (ostensibly of potato) reminiscent of the greasy taco salad bowls served in Mexican restaurants piled with miniature fried scallops and candied (not aromatic) walnuts sitting atop shredded lettuce. <\/span><\/p>\n

Delivered on the side was a bowl of what resembled and tasted suspiciously like a vanilla pudding–wholly unlike any “brown sauce” I’ve ever had at any Chinese restaurant.\u00a0 While I usually like sweet and savory combinations if the sweet isn’t overly so, I’m averse to anything overly cloying and this was one of the sweetest concoctions ever set before my table. Hoping to salvage this “sauce” I added an entire bowl of house Chinese mustard and even the gunpowder incendiary mustard couldn’t “defunkify” it.\u00a0 Ultimately I resorted to eating the scallops with Sriracha sauce. In the breath following my admonition to the waiter to bury the aforementioned entree, I praised the restaurant’s rendition of beef chow mein fun<\/em><\/strong> which was garlicky and delicious.\u00a0 The thin rice noodles, white and green onions and profuse garlic melding was almost as good as the scallops were bad.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Roast Pork Fried Rice<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Smartened up by two disappointing chef’s specialties, my third visit was a venture into Americanized Chinese food.\u00a0 Any departure from the mundane seems to extend many Chinese restaurants beyond their capabilities and that may be the case at Heaven Dragon.\u00a0 Such restaurants, however, sometimes do a wonderful job in preparing all the standard favorites.\u00a0 That’s probably from all the practice they get in turning out large volumes of American favorites such as sweet and sour anything.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sure enough, Heaven Dragon does a fair to good job in preparing such entrees as Orange Chicken<\/em> <\/strong>and Lemon Chicken<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 Some aspects of these dishes disappoint while others were surprisingly good.\u00a0 Both are very heavily breaded and the overall quality of the mostly dark meat chicken is not very high.\u00a0 Their biggest saving grace were the very tangy and nicely piquant orange sauce and the tangy, lip-pursing lemon sauce.\u00a0 Both sauces deserved better.<\/span><\/p>\n

22 November 2020<\/strong>: While sheltering in place under the governor’s “two-week reset,” my Kim and I resigned ourselves to take-out.\u00a0 So that our bounty would sustain us for several meals, we ordered three dishes: chicken with mushrooms<\/strong> <\/em>and a “family dinner for two<\/strong><\/em>” comprised of General Tso’s chicken, sweet-and-sour chicken, two egg rolls and roast pork fried rice.\u00a0 To prevent spillage during transport, the sauces were put into a container.\u00a0\u00a0 The candy apple red sweet-and-sour sauce was easy to figure out, but the General Tso’s chicken sauce lacked “pow,” personality and discernible flavor.\u00a0 Nor did the General Tso’s chicken dish include any vegetables.\u00a0 Essentially our entrees consisted of three heavily breaded fried chicken dishes we didn’t enjoy.\u00a0 The sole saving grace was a generous portion of roast pork fried rice.
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I’m not well enough versed in the dragon diet to know whether or not a dragon might enjoy a meal at Heaven Dragon, but recent experiences may make my own visits extinct. <\/span><\/p>\n

Heaven Dragon<\/strong>
\n4300 Ridgecrest, S.E.
\nRio Rancho, New Mexico<\/strong>
\n(505) 891-0888
\nLATEST VISIT<\/strong>: 22 November 2020
\n# OF VISITS<\/strong>: 5
\nRATING<\/strong>: Good<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0\u2013 good food, decent service, and a clean environment; provides a satisfactory, dependable, and standard experience
\nCOST<\/strong>: $$
\nBEST BET<\/strong>: Orange Chicken, Roast Pork Lo Mein, Fried and Steamed Dumplings, Deep-Fried Wontons
\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Norbert, the Norwegian Ridgeback of Harry Potter lore to Smaug, the greatest and most powerful of all dragons in The Hobbit, dragons are a familiar icon in modern literature, movies, music and pop culture.\u00a0 Dragons are symbols of fantasy, whimsy and magic, often representing ancient legends and far-off lands.\u00a0 They range from the malevolent, fiery tempered, scaly fire-breathers (insert your favorite mother-in-law reference here) to the affectionate benefactors of mankind.\u00a0 What could possibly explain the popularity of dragons?\u00a0 Could it be because dragons once existed?\u00a0 Stories of dragons are pervasive in such ancient cultures as the Chinese, Australian aborigines, Babylonians and Welsh.\u00a0 Ancient Chinese cosmogonists actually defined four types of dragons.\u00a0 The Heaven, Heavenly or Celestial Dragon (Tianlong) guarded…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,141,265],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chinese","category-new-mexico","category-rio-rancho"],"yoast_head":"\nHeaven Dragon - 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