This place will, I suspect, be different. For one thing, it's beautifully designed, with a blond-wood parquet floor, black-lacquered wooden tables, Japanese screens and a series of trompe l'oeil brick wall insets, which add a quirky, industrial feel like you get in those Japanese fusion joints in LA's warehouse district.
Those wooden sake boxes behind the bar may or may not belong to regulars, the way they would if we were in Japan. I had to be told by one of my twentysomething guests the name of the band on the sound system, because our Polish-born server had no idea. (Turns out, it was a hot group called Arcade Fire.) Clearly, Dragonfly is courting a young crowd.
The menu is essentially divided into two parts: One page lists the sashimi, nigiri sushi and handrolls. The other is labeled izakaya, Japanese for sake bar food, a variety of hot and cold appetizers, yakitori on skewers and a few noodle and rice dishes. In all, there are around 75 dishes to choose from.
I ate regularly at izakaya when I lived in Tokyo. If I had to guess, around 50 times as often as I ate sushi, which is to a Japanese man what quiche is to a real American guy. So in Dragonfly I immediately grabbed a Kirin Ichiban, fried shishito peppers with a side of sweet miso, a dish of edamame (boiled green soybeans that you pop out of their shells) and onion rings—tempura battered and served with lychee-spiked ketchup, all good at spiking the appetite.
First, we had some cold starters. There is a tangy, sesame-oil-laced seaweed salad and a delicious tuna poke—chopped raw tuna served on wonton crisps with shiso and seaweed. I love this beef carpaccio, too, filet mignon splashed with rice-wine vinaigrette. And even a mixed green salad makes its point here thanks to seaweed, cucumber and peanut dressing.
Then came a parade of hot dishes, all grazing size and tinged with Asian influence. Banana-leaf salmon is meltingly tender and generous in size, considering the $5.50 price. The fish is steamed with miso, minced shiitake mushrooms and rice wine.
Braised short ribs are even more impressive, although something that hasn't reached sake bars in Japan yet. The meat falls apart when you look at it hard, and the seasoning, a spicy black bean and garlic sauce, is addictive.
We also ordered what the menu describes as chicken meatballs, a dish you can get on any Tokyo street corner from vendors cooking on small hibachi grills. These could have used a tastier glaze, but otherwise were fine. And we had filet and shiitake, also on skewers like the meatballs, and found the dish utterly terrific.
Since my guests clamored for sushi, I had to comply. But first I had the servers bring out a platter of Dragonfly's terrific sashimi—yellowtail, salmon and ahi—which were all sushi-grade, perfectly sliced and resolutely fresh.
They do sashimi a number of ways: D-Fly Style, with lemon, herbed oil and smoked salt; Spicy Miso, with a spicy, sweet glaze; or Ginger-Garlic. But I recommend you do it Nobu Style, with ponzu sauce, cilantro and thinly sliced jalapenos.
And if you do opt for sushi, you can do so with confidence. Nigiri, meaning fish on top of a clump of rice, comes two pieces per order and is top quality. D-Fly Rolls, the other option, are exotic creations such as the Mexican, which employs spicy tuna, avocado and mango, garnished with tempura jalapeno. As they say in Japan, que bueno!
Come at lunch, and you can get the bento-box special: miso soup, a green salad, edamame, grilled shishito peppers, a choice of fried or white rice, California roll and any of six entrees, including pork tonkatsu or shrimp tempura. There are a number of desserts such as chocolate cake or green-tea ice cream, but they are not the reasons to come here.