Dragonfish Asian Cafe
(503) 243-5991
909 SW Park Ave
Portland,
OR
97205
45.5182
-122.6815
Neighborhoods: Downtown, Neighbors West - Northwest
Reviews & Ratings for Dragonfish Asian Cafe
62 reviews
What users are saying:
Showing 1-10 of 62 reviews
Fresh sushi, fair price
by coldduck
January 21, 2007
Some reviewers here wrote that Dragonfish's sushi isn't great. How untrue. Even after reading of a few bad experiences on Citysearch, I dared to take two out-of-town friends here on a Sunday night. Not at all disappointing - the fish, roe, shrimp, ginger &c was all fresh and good. My party was seated right away, we had a polite and fast-moving waitress and ended up paying just $20 each (before tip) for all the sushi we could stomach and a Tsingtao each. Is twenty bucks a cheap meal? Nope. Mc Donalds on Burnside has $2 chicken McNuggets. But you won't find fresh sushi, a beer and service anywhere else in downtown Portland for much less.
Will not go back
by pdxmx
April 10, 2009
I have been going to Dragonfish for a long time and have loved everything on their menu. My in-laws were in from out of town and wanted to go there as I had pumped the place up to be the best sushi, and man, what an embarrassment! The tables were dirty, there were "Nats" ( as the waiter described them) when I tried to politely walk over to say something after we were all waving them away from our food. Basically, they did not care as a few of them laughed after I said ya, I need a new dish to put my soy sauce in because there are dead nats in it...gross...The boxes that the lunches come in were even dirty..and the food even tasted funky..just a bad experience, and we WONT go back! Total waste of money......
- Pros: Downtown location
- Cons: most everything else
Place to ourselves!
by DRPhibes1
February 24, 2009
My lovely girlfriend and I were on a mission to enjoy some Sushi while visiting Portland. It was 2pm on a Sunday afternoon, and many places were not open until 430 or 5pm. Thankfully we were directed to Dragon Fish. When we walked in, we found that besides the staff, we were the only ones in the place! The bar was inviting and the staff friendly and awaiting our requests. After a ice cold glass of Sapparro on tap, we ordered a basic California roll, and a crab, sprouts, lime, honey, & avocado roll. The ingrediants were fresh and it tasted fantastic! Then we moved on to a spicy tuna roll, again excellent! We discovered that the place was empty because people were awaiting a 4pm Sushi "happy hour". Despite paying a little more for our choices, it did'nt matter, because when you must have Sushi, what's a few more dollars?? The entire staff at Dragon Fish was friendly and attentive to our needs. Thank you Dragon Fish for being open when many, many Sushi bars were not!!
- Pros: Open when others are not. Fresh and friendly
- Cons: N/A
Not really in love
by PDX11
January 01, 2009
Our waiter was hardly there, but when he was he was nice. Our food came out before we had halfway finished our appetizers and literally 5 minutes after we ordered which we were not thrilled about. Obviously not cooked to order. From what I had heard it was a really nice place to go to dinner but after being there it felt more like a chain restaurant. Maybe best to just try this place up if you are staying in the hotel or for sushi happy hour only.
- Pros: Good Location
- Cons: Felt like non-frsh chain food
Amazing Food! by T W. at InsiderPages
Contributor
December 26, 2008
We absolutely loved all of the food and drinks that we ordered. They had a wonderful specialty drink menu and their sushi rolls were incredible. We tried a variety of new sushi rolls, and they were all fabulous. We heard that their happy hour is fantastic, but we were not able to take advantage of that opportunity. The only problem was the service was incredibly slow. It took forever to get our food and to get our drinks refilled.
Great happy hour by Julie G. at InsiderPages
Contributor
October 07, 2008
This is a great place to go for happy hour. It may be a little tough to get a seat, but it is well worth it. The sushi is great and the drinks are good, too.
BEST Dim-Sum in Portland, hands down!
by clingclang
August 29, 2008
I went there two weeks ago and had Dim-Sum with my friend. First of all, it's a lot of food!! We picked three small dishes and there was rice, miso soup and edamame that came with it. She had a Mango Lemonade and I had a Thai Iced Tea. Everything was great-the place was packed, although we didn't have to wait long for a table. The service was friendly and knowledgeable-and it felt all cozy and neighborhoody like Dim Sums are supposed to feel. The *only* thing that was just 'ok' is that there were different people coming around to take our order, bring water, bring out food and I didn't really know who my server was or who I was tipping-I always give 20% in those cases because usually they all have to split it.Otherwise, ACES!
- Pros: crazy fun drinks
- Cons: crunchy crab roll delicious but not 'crunchy'
Once was enough and not even worth it the first time around.
by briza415
December 05, 2007
After hearing much 'to do' about this establishment, a friend and I decided to go for their infamous "shushi hour" after a concert at The Schnitz. We figured with its ideal location and the amount of accolades we had heard about the cafe, it was most definitely worth a try. Boy were we wrong. Besides the poor to partly cloudy service the food was no steal at all; the portions were miniscule at best meaning you are paying above average for their happy hour specials for food that turned out being about as bad as the service. The sushi roll was a whopping 4 pieces (yes, I am being facetious) and fell apart at a mere glimpse at the soy sauce and wasabi dipping concoction. The edamame came in a bowl fit for a 6 month old (though it did taste good, but who can mess up edamame?), and the glass of sake was served to me in a dessert wine glass. Thanks for the small sip of spirits to parch my dried lips...no really, I appreciate it. Then came the dessert; the sought after, the coveted, dessert. We ordered the smooth sounding banana cream pie, which the texture reminded me of an apple that was about 2 weeks over due. Yep, it was mealy. Humph, and I thought cream pie was supposed to be, say, creamy? Needless to say, I will not be returning to this cafe as this was among the worst culinary experiences I have had in Portland, especially when we have and are known for our great local restaurants.
Not Good at All
by nhonzel
November 05, 2007
Ugh, service was terrible to start. Took over 5 minutes to be greeted and then 10 more for our order to be taken. Our appetizer arrived and 1 minute later so did my husband's food. My entree came about 3 minutes later. The entree (which is supposed to be served "family style") was given to me in it's serving bowl without a separate plate or serving set. I ended up using the soup spoon from the appetizer dish to eat my dinner. We didn't get a check back until we were almost finished and dishes were not cleared from our table. The food also tasted bad - little flavor and no spice. Very bland. Coconut chicken curry tasted like coconut milk soup and lettuce cup appetizer paled in comparison to PF Changs.
If you want really great sushi and cocktails go to Sinju in the Pearl.
- Pros: Great Location, Potential hot spot after concerts and shows
- Cons: Staff/service non existant
Birthday Bummer
by leequa
August 25, 2007
What a total disappointment! I arrived a few minutes earlier than my friends. I had been there before with a friend for her b-day and she had ordered this delicious Macadamia crusted salmon. It was wonderful, I couldn't stop thinking about it and wanted it for my b-day. So we both knew what we were ordering. She had had it 3 times since the first time and never had a problem. The service was excellent then. That was two years ago.
This time, everything was a total disappointment. My friends arrived but for 15 minutes, nobody bothered to come around and take our order. I stopped one of the servers and asked about our server. She said she would let them know. Took her 5 minutes and when she told the bartender/server, he looked confused. I believe we would have sat there for hours before anyone noticed. He finally came and ordered our drinks....No "how are you" , just very mechanical and Mc Donalds like. Finally got drinks and ordered food. Aps were good. My friend and I received our salmon in good time, but then 5 minutes later my boyfriend received his sushi, then 2 minutes later, my other friend received his meal and my boyfriend received his soup. My other friend didn't receive her meal till 25 minutes later! No manager came up and apologized. Our server never checked how the rest of our meals were, never asked if we wanted more drinks. About 6 different people brought out our food. He brought the bill w/o asking if we wanted anything else. I had told the "hostess" it was my birthday. ARGG!
Ok, the salmon was overcooked, it was not crusted but had a small amount of macadamia pieces on it, the potatoes were bland, wimpy amount of sauce, the crisp red onions tasted like they had been stored in the fridge. When told about the onion, lady replied that's the way they are. The sushi was terrible as was the soup, and the dessert (chocolate truffle) was sub par. Had to keep getting up and asking for things. Never going there again!
- Pros: The drinks were good
- Cons: Everything else
Really bad sushi
by kmartin1975
July 26, 2007
The sushi is incredibly bad. The drinks were imaginative, I'll give them that, but the food is horrible. I rice was dry and the fish bland. Cheap does not mean good value. If you want cheap, try Saburo's for value and quality. I won't waste my money here again.
- Cons: Food is not worth even happy hour prices
