Dragonfly Restaurant

It, alas, has closed. But I’ll never forget the place.
I love morning eating, but dislike most breakfast food.
Dragonfly let me (or anyone) order from the lunch offerings
for my first daily meal, and they had good draught ale to
go with it. And the waiters were friendly, and good.
Thanks.

This place is a mix. The dinner menu is great and the breakfast menu is fun, but our lunch options were disappointing-​especially for a vegetarian.
The service is hit or miss. Our first time it was quick and great. The second time it was 15 minutes before the host seated us even though we had a reservation and 25 before we had water. The server was great, but they were clearly under staffed.
I like the bowl with coconut rice, black beans, plantains and tofu. It was really great.
We will go back, but only for dinner or lunch.

Always delicious food served up promptly by friendly wait staff. I was really disappointed when they ran out of tamales on Sunday morning right before I got there, really should plan ahead and keep this popular item available. I have to admit my alternate breakfast was good though!

Okay there is no doubt that food is delicous and sublime, but I’m never happy when I spend $ 23.00 on entrée and need to eat something when I get home. It was not enough food or filling. I orderd the udon noodles with shrimp. They charged me $ 10.00 to add shrimp??? Our friend pick this place since we are visiting from out of town. We are from Portland and love a good meal and will pay for it, but not worth it at this place. Everything is appetizer filling not meal filling. There also a bit of pretension. The big negative too is high end prices and paper napkins. I’m never a fan of paper napkins because of lack of greeness in using them. I can’t see us coming back here the next time.

Didn’t tell us half of the menu wasn’t available until we were ready to order. Then, we were informed that they were out of salad. Half of the menu includes salad!!!
Asked to cook the bacon well in a BLT. it was cold and not cooked well. Seems they just used the same cold bacon used earlier in the morning.
Extra charge for avocado, but hardly had any on it at all! Server seemed irritated when I pointed it out. I told him to just take it off the bill because the rest of party had food already. He made no apologies or alternative suggestions at all.
Brother Asked for extra eggs since he doesn’t eat bacon and was charged 1.50 for the «substitution.» He said, «what? You want me to take off $ 1.50?» Duh!
I won’t return.

Bad experience
We really like this place
Drove from grants pass with my family
They were from Washington state
I let them know this was the best place
How embarrassing
Was the worst service and food I’ve had in a long time
That’s it for us
No more eating here
They did not even have lettuce

Great food. Had the coconut French toast and raspberry, banana, chocolate chip pancake. Portions were adequate.
Wonderful outside seating with plenty of sun and shade.

All the food was delicious. I tried a bit of the salmon and it was cooked perfectly. I ordered the Brazil bowl which aside from my confusion that it came with chopsticks was wonderful.
My only complaint would be a group of loud people seated near us, but that’s not the fault of the restaurant.

We are locals and love this restaurant. Consistently good food. Best entrée is the double happiness wraps and the Buddha Bowls! Best outdoor dining in Ashland!

Tuesday night at 6pm I look to make a reservation on open table for 2. There are openings in 15 minute intervals for the rest of the evening. Since we are only 5 minutes away we just decide to forgo booking online and walk in, clearly they have availability.
Get to front and blond hostess tells us that they can’t take anyone without a reservation tonight. They just can’t accommodate. We could sit, but the wait time would just be too long to get food served.
What?
I explained that plenty of reservations are available online and seeing that the restaurant was less than half full I was confused. I could actually book a reservation right now for 15 minutes from now, would that work? No, she explained that is the trouble with «these virtual reservations».
Seriously? I walked out and booked a table for 15 minutes later but had zero intention of ever eating here. You don’t deserve our business.

This place has gone far downhill. Nothing was right about my order and even though it appeared to be slow, my food and drinks took forever.

I feel that this place really doesn’t need to issue out all these deals but I’m sure glad they do. Was really surprised at the uniqueness of the food and everything that we ordered was delicious. Really great atmosphere too. There is plenty to choose from on the menu. Wish I didn’t live so far away so I could come back and frequent this place.

You can find Paul and I at Dragonfly every month or so. Sometimes we want to get together with friends and sometimes we just want good food.
Paul can’t get enough of their chili relleno, which is a frequently run verbal special that I suspect will soon be a printed menu item. It is a fresh poblano stuffed with vegetables, cheese, and seasonings, then roasted and topped with your choice of proteins. Paul prefers Dragonfly’s relleno to even those he had in Mexico.
I like their fish tacos, the Brazilian bowl, and the relleno as well. The kitchen is gluten savvy and most items are ok for GF needs.
The garden is lovely and the restaurant interior is dim, modern/​Asian, and relaxing.
Four stars instead of five because the service is hit or miss. Sometimes we are welcomed and recognized as regular patrons. Recently, when we brought three visiting family members to Dragonfly, we felt quite neglected, with extraordinary slow food, drinks in long want of refills, and a server we couldn’t seem to flag.
Plan extra time when dining here. It may be 30 minutes between ordering a meal and receiving it.

Yes, the food is delicious. I have returned to this restaurant a number times and have the same experience. The waiters were doing what they can to serve the tables, but the kitchen is too slow.
You know that foodie movement «slow food»? Well the owners of the Dragonfly should understand that no one is advocating for a 45 minute wait from the time one orders until the food arrives. On top of a 30 minute wait to take the order.
I never go to the Dragonfly if I have some other place to be that night.

I went last night after a few years. We sat in the garden which is lovely. The guy who seated us was really nice, but the waiter we got was very distracted (or he just didn’t really seem to be paying attention.) I had a mojito, which was the worst I’ve ever had, and my friend had the Persephone, which was pretty bad too. I had to ask twice for ice and the waiter said, I totally forgot about it! No surprise.
However, I had the steak which was perfectly cooked (med. rare) and phenomenal. I didn’t taste my friend’s dish but it looked ok.

The Unilocal and Open Table reviews were good but I was astonished at how much I enjoyed the food and cocktails. I enjoy fine dining and almost never give five star reviews but the Dragonfly café merits one.
Service was attentive but not fussy. Every item that my date and I ordered was excellent to outstanding.
My main regret is that I live 400 miles from the Dragonfly and so will not be a frequent patron although it is almost worth the drive to dine there.
EZ John

I just saw a review of Dragonfly that was not good. That person must have been having a bad day… this place is a gem! Good service, good food, good music, good coffee & great food!

Dragonfly Café is a very pleasant establishment with lovely garden dining and an easy stroll from the main Shakespeare Festival venues. The menu is an eclectic blend of Asian Fusion and a bit of Hispanic-​something.
The Ahi Tuna on crisp won ton appetizers were out of this world. The various ‘bowls’ and fish dishes provide interesting options. The Pineapple Bowl was a nice mix of flavors and I found the Peanut Sauce had just a nice amount of ‘kick’.
We splurged on Desert and the Coconut Flan was WONDERFUL. The caramel bananas and ice cream were excellent, but your REALLY need a Sweet Craving to appreciate it. The total bill including wine and desert was really quite reasonable.
There is a clear before-​the-​show rush. But we found the service attentive and we finished in plenty of time. If you want to be part of that, make a reservation! (They are on Open Table!) If you are not taking in a play, after 7:30 it clears out significantly!

This would get a full five stars were it not for:
–The waitstaff in general seem rushed and inattentive, and not terribly personable, frankly (could it be the hassled-​looking (angry?), hyper blond mgr/​owner dude, restlessly bustling about the place?). Once we waited 55 minutes for our meal, and could NOT catch the eye of anyone who happened to be flying by. There is an issue with waitstaff training and clearly there is some unhappiness here – it is palpable (again – mgmt: whatup?!!). And yet we return, for we are locals with very limited options especially in winter. But we do not go nearly as often. We miss the charm of the «old days», when the staff was genuinely happy.
–STOP saying you temporarily don’t have espresso because your machine is «broken». It’s been 2 – 3 years… So just get the damn thing fixed already. You’re losing business (it used to be one if the best lattes in town – what happened?)
–Let me be clear – I still like the food and setting, but the new mgmt has created a soulless, stressed out ambience, and that is a shame. We have been loyal since their soft open in ’04(?), but don’t come nearly as often as we used to.
*The one new positive: Kudos to whomever added the new Barrio Chop salad – perfection.

While in Medford with my family, we grew tired of eating only Chinese food so we decided to venture out and see what was around us.
My brother’s friend recommended Dragonfly so we decided to give it a try, after all who ever heard of Latin-​Asian Fusion Cuisine.
We ordered:
Buddha Bowl: Big bowl of steamy lemongrass miso and coconut milk
broth with shiitake mushrooms, noodles, veggies and cilantro
Bonsai Burrito: With brown rice, corn, black beans, shiitake
mushrooms and our asian ginger sauce. Served with chips and
salsa
1 Piece of Coconut French Toast: Coconut bread grilled with coconut
flakes. Served with bananas, pineapple and raspberry purée + 1
piece of Blueberry Pancake (special)
Fruit Face Pancake
Posole (special)
Carnitas Stack (special)
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — –
Buddha bowl: «big» more like small, not enough lemon grass flavor, all you could taste was coconut milk and very little noodles, veggies, protein
Bonsai Burrito: interesting use with brown rice, decent flavors, good use of fusion, probably the best of the worst
French Toast and Pancake: cooked right, tasted adequate, not really exciting
Posole: authentic, flavorful, good spice, carnitas was forgettable and unwanted but no where near «fusion»
Carnitas Stack: not really a «stack», just a long plate covered with black beans and topped with carnitas, once again forgettable
Service was extremely slow… waited over 45 minutes for our food… apparently they sent ours to the wrong table…
Overall Thoughts
Another example of why fusions don’t work