Wednesday, January 19, 2005

New restaurant!

Graswich has an item that refers back to my Escalade item. Apparently, some Escalade owners are not wasteful jerks cuz they get their heaps used. Right. Anyway, his column's good today, so check it out: http://sacbee.com/content/news/story/12077933p-12948097c.html

I ate at a new place last night. It's called Dragonfly. You may not have noticed it because of the blinding opulence of Zocalo, which it is right next to. By the way, has anyone noticed the weird patio lights at Zocalo? They look really expensive and kind of hobbit-y. Dragonfly is Asian-fusion. I know, lame. But, it's actually pretty good. I am kind of realizing that I was giving it a bit too much credit last night because I was anticipating writing a review and thought I can't slam every new restaurant. The inside is pretty nice, it has the ubiquitous TV but that's more over in the bar area and I couldn't see nor hear it from where I was sitting. It's all warm and dark red inside. It was pretty close to empty on a tuesday night around 6:30, while Zocalo was crammed to the gills. My sister and I split some veggie spring rolls. All the food came a little too quick for me. This might sound dumb, but the dishes came right away and each new one came before we had finished the other one. If the place was more crowded, this probably wouldn't be a problem. Anyway, the veggie spring rolls looked beautiful. They were garnished with bright ribbons of beets and there was a squiggle of mango sauce on the plate. They were very fresh tasting, but they lacked a certain something. I think if the dipping sauce had been spicier, instead of mostly just fruity, that would have helped. I wished there was some sriracha hot sauce on the table. I also got a Chimay ale on tap, which was pretty warm (maybe it's supposed to be?). I wanted wine, but they didn't have any wine by the glass for less than 7 bucks. That's lame!! They should have some cheapo cabernet for five or six. My sister and I each got a crispy calimari salad. Centro has a calimari salad that is great, so I thought it might be like that. Centro grills the calimari, not fries it, though. The salad was good, but I felt like it was a guilty pleasure cuz the greens were kinda bland so I was mostly just eating the same kind of generic fried calimari appetizer that I complain that all restaurants serve. But fried stuff is good, so it tasted good. Oh yeah, I should mention that unlike when I am at a Kurt Spataro restaurant, there were lots of items on the menu that sounded good, and that I might like to try some other time. There was a whole group of pretty pricey entrees along the lines of "grilled ahi steak with wasabi mashed potatoes". Dragonfly also had a list of about ten of those fancy kind of sushi rolls, with all the sauce and crap. We split a Kamon roll. It was gigantic, but for 14 bucks, it better be. It had shrimp tempura inside and maybe avocado, and some raw tuna on the top that had been mixed with sauce. The whole thing had been lightly seared along the top, probably with a little blow-torch thingy, and that added a good charred flavor. Hmm...can a charred flavor be good? Well, you know what I mean. It was really tasty. The server was really nice but not too hover-y even though she didn't really have any other customers. Oh yeah, our hostess looked dead-on like a foxy Vulcan. So, altogether, thumbs up!! But I would bet that it goes out of business, so if you're interested you should probably go soon.

5 comments:

Alice said...

I ate at Dragonfly with a bunch of folks on Sunday night. The spring rolls had too much onion but the taro chips were extremely tasty if a bit greasy. Leon's coffee was weak and luke warm; the espresso creme brulee was also room temperature but it tasted really good. The salmon fetuccini was excellent, however. I'm not sure how they did it but they got squares of salmon slightly charred on the outside but really juicy on the inside so it kind of exploded in your mouth. Other folks thought their meals were okay, especially the prawn/scallop thing that Camille ordered. But, the chicken supposedly tasted like duck and the sushi roll was nothing to write home about. The most surprising thing about the interior was the bathroom sink in the ladies' room. It was made of undulating ceramic and had a long vertical slit for a drain. . .

leon said...

I had that Kamon Roll. It was good, but I could have gotten something equally as good at Taka's for 1/2 the price (and half the size, so I could try another roll as well). My Chimay was cold, and I also tried the mango mojito which was pretty good. Like Alice said, the coffee was damn pathetic. If they aren't going to have good coffee, they shouldn't carry dessert.

Anonymous said...

I realize that I am not the classiest diner in Sac, nor am I someone who likes to shell out money (which I never have) on fancy foods, but the whole concept of fusion is tired. and really what is the concept? As far as I can tell its a hodge podge of acceptable asian foods made with food from california? right?
so a sushi roll with blackbean peanut sauce and guac?
sweet.
and please get your fucking fruit puree out of that fucking squezze bottle. Unless it is dessert I suppose.

-natalie

beckler said...

Grace just told me she ate at Taka's and that it was good so I should give it another try. I like the ambiance but my food wasn't great. Sounds like you guys had a pretty similar experience at Kamon. So-so, but I think I'll give it another try sometime. Definitely better than Sammy Chu's was, but that's not saying much.

Anonymous said...

Taka is EXCELLENT! Get Avocado Scallop. Its the best thing ever created.
Urton