Dragonfly Gainesville

I know that Dragonfly gets a lot of hype, but the sushi rolls really didn’t stand out to me. While they were tasty, they were overpriced and run of the mill. The sushi did not taste overly fresh, and our waiter was very uninterested in our table and spent most of the time talking to fellow waiters.

Where do I stars service was great food was awesome the dumping swerve so smooth and mouth watering I had yellowtail and conch sushi and the bacon wrapped asparagus was so good. Just an all around joy to dining.

Food is great here and the service is wonderful. The only issue are the hostesses, although getting better they are usually huge bitchez. 12 years old and tons of attitude.

Dragonfly was my fav resto in Gville during my 7 years there for school. I went often, for dinner, birthdays, graduations, you name it. And it continues to be as I go back time and time again. The atmosphere at this downtown hot spot simply cannot be beat. While in town this past weekend for the FL/​FSU game it was my #1 priority to have dinner at Dragonfly and show my hubby what I’m constantly talking about every time we eat sushi in DC (nowhere near as good as the sushi at Dfly). Since they don’t take reservations for Friday/​Sat nights we figured we’d show up and wait. If the wait was under an hour, we were going to WAIT, damnit. The wait was only 35 ish minutes, which was great. We walked around the block, I reminisced about my fun times at Lilian’s and other bars and restaurants and got a text that our table was ready right as we were walking back.
We started out with the crabmeat wontons, my ABSOLUTE favorite appetizer. I could eat 50 of these, so good. We also got dumplings (hubby loves them), very good too. The menu has changed since I was last there, the Dragonfly roll is now called The Classic. We ordered a few rolls: Godzilla, Crunch, Volcano, Classic and one more I can’t recall now! It was a great amount of food for 3 of us. The rolls were perfect, as usual. Very good size and just so. good.
Also drank some delish cocktails, I had a martini, my hubs caipirinha and my brother a delicious gin drink. Love this place. Never disappoints!

For a sushi lover like me, Dragonfly is definitely a great place to come with friends or on a date to share some awesome food. The sauteed edamame, Dragonfly roll, and bomb roll, are the items that stand out the most. They also have excellent cocktails, like the Musashi’s Paddle, which has a spicy kick that gives the drink an interesting and fun flavor. Their happy hour is also a great deal, with $ 6 cocktails and yummy appetizers.
However, I’ve noticed that, while the prices have not changed (or even gone up), a lot of the portions have gotten a lot smaller. My friends and I got the Sunomono, which used to be a big shareable appetizer, and were disappointed to receive a tiny plate that each of us could only get 1 – 2 tiny pieces of seafood from.
Also, the service can be a little disappointing. I understand that it gets very busy, but I have been there on multiple occasions where the waiter seemed to lack common sense. My friends and I always get a lot of rolls to share, but instead of bringing them together so that we could share and choose from the ones we wanted, the rolls were brought out to us one at a time, leaving us to awkwardly eat a piece each and wait for the next one. Also, after trying to explain to him how to split our bill, we had to do the math for our waiter to make sure we were being charged correctly.
Overall, the taste and overall atmosphere at this place is great, but price and quality of service make it a little overrated.

I really like Dragonfly– their sushi is solid; its excellent quality and there’s so much variety to choose from. I like their appetizers too– I believe I got the beef short ribs, and they were a great compliment to the meal. The place is packed on weekends and is a great date spot. It is on the pricey side, but it is a great treat to have once in a while.

I was extremely disappointed. The wait was long to get a table, which was expected because I had heard and read such rave reviews. Once we were seated the restaurant was decorated very nice but is very over crowded. You’re pretty much dining with the table next to you like it or not. The menus are overly simplistic. I get what they were going for but at least a little detail would be nice. They’re trying to be fancy is probably the best way to describe it.
The food is all somewhat tapas style which is fine, it gives you the opportunity to try multiple dishes. However for tapas style it was over priced. Nothing was amazing, all mediocre at best. The sushi, while not the worst, was nowhere near what I expected from a place that specializes in it.
The only saving grace was that we had an amazing waitress. She was willing to give more details and make suggestions while being very friendly too.
Will not be returning.

Amazing sushi restaurant! We are very fortunate to have sushi this good in a small town like Gainesville. The place is definitely one of the top restaurants in town. My favorite is the Cobra Kai Roll: Snow crab delight, red onion, tomato, tempura flakes and lemon slices. Topped with Loch Duart salmon and finished with a garlic-​shiso pesto and aged balsamic. Different than any roll I’ve tasted lately and certainly one of my new favorites. The aged balsamic and lemon slices paired nicely with the salmon, creating an exceptional and unique roll. I typically order this with king crab and tuna.

Great place, great vibe, great food. Back again to Gainesville to feed my daughter for the semedter and this is our go to place. Suchi is very good quality, well presented and very tasty. We sat at the bar and waitress was excellent, very polite and friendly (sorry did not get her name but she is the only red head). She and sushi chef Bobby were constantly recommending different options and they did not disappoint. Black dragon, euro trance and big boss were all excellent. Tuna flat bread appetizer is also a must. Only downside is their portions are a little small but then again you do not want to eat cheap sushi.
A definite bright spot in Gainesville. Look forward to coming back.

I would say that I’m a foodie, and I was thoroughly impressed with this restaurant. A ton of locals kept recommending this to me, so I decided to go while on my business trip. This is some of the best sushi I’ve had. All the ingredients are fresh, you could tell by just looking at them, and the flavor is outrageous.
I went for happy hour, and wasn’t really into the basic maki rolls, so I decided to get the Ultimate Roll with Tuna — a California roll with tuna sashimi on top. Naturally, I was still hungry, so I took a look at the sushi menu. With rare ingredients that you don’t usually see at a standard sushi place, I knew I had to order a roll.
I got the Godzilla roll, which had smoked eel, cucumber, cream cheese, scallion, avocado, fresh strawberry, and eel sauce. I wish I could order every roll on the menu!
With a glass of wine on happy hour, my total ended up being $ 25.00. Totally worth it!

I love the short rib miso ramen! Sorry Crane Ramen, but this is way better than anything at Crane because the broth is more flavorful and the meat is better too. Don’t get the pork ramen though because it lacks flavor. Ironically the short rib miso has pork-​miso broth and the pork ramen doesnt so that’s probably it.
I also love their Shochu Mojito (jinkoo shochu, lavender simple, mint, lemon juice, filthy cherries, soda water).
I ordered the shisito peppers once and thought they were bland so not worth it.
Never had bad service. I will never sit outside again though, my ramen was attracting so many tiny bugs that I could not eat in peace, I had to wave my hand over my food the whole time unless I wanted some extra protein in my soup.

Dragonfly is terribly overrated. I would give it to them that their drinks are fantastic, but the new menu changes have made the food even more overpriced. The portions have gotten a lot smaller and the prices have increased. I understand that their fish tastes like it is a better quality, but some things are just ridiculous. The Sunomono we got was $ 8 and consisted of 4 tiny pieces of sashimi.
I would understand why people like to go there for the cool vibes, but there are so many other delicious sushi spots in town that won’t break the bank. With the hefty price tags, I would expect better service. Our server was a really nice guy, but he lacked common sense. One of my friends ordered hot food and he gave her her (tiny $ 8) skewers all at different times from her rice. By the time she compiled her «meal» everything was cold.
My entire table decided to share seven rolls. We were starving and expected to get all of our rolls at once to make it easy for sharing. This definitely was too much to ask for. Instead we got seven separate deliveries of rolls and since there were four of us, we would each grab one piece of sushi then awkwardly stare and wait until the next roll came. It made sharing so much harder. I had also mentioned to my server that it was my friend’s birthday. Nothing was done at all. If you want quality sushi with the service to match, I would suggest Mahzu. Don’t believe in the hype. I would only come back to dragonfly for the happy hour because I actually really did enjoy the drinks.

3 Stars. Why? Being hip and downtown won’t justify cleverly contrived yet mediocre Sushi.
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If we’re going to treat Sushi as a commodity, I see no shame in departing from all tradition and exercising the freedom to create original rolls like the «Surf ‘n Turf» with Shrimp and Bacon or «Black n’ Bleu» with NY strip and bleu cheese.
But the quality still has to be there and Dragonfly’s creations leave much to be desired.
The server-​recommended fried Krab wonton appetizers are a step up from those deep-​fried rangoons found at bad Chinese Takeout, drizzled in duck sauce.
Their namesake «Dragonfly Roll» is all heat, no flavor. The «Mango Tango Roll» is sweet on top of sweet.
Sauces, toppings, tempura shavings, garnishes. Food served only as an accompaniment to cocktails. Modern décor with traditional handwriting. Kurosawa’s ‘Throne of Blood’ on flatscreens, playing on loop.
I get it.
Though what frustrates me most about Dragonfly is that I still can’t decide whether it’s the best incarnation of a bad idea or a poor incarnation of a great one.

Dragonfly is my favorite restaurant in Gainesville! I ate here both times that I came to Gainesville before moving here permanently, and it is where I first took my girlfriend when she came to visit. The service, food, and ambience all score high marks.
The sushi at Dragonfly – while not always «authentic” – is amazing, and I have eaten sushi all over the world: DC, NYC, LA, SF, and even Tokyo. Although Dragonfly might not place as much importance on their rice, it still is very good, and the seafood quality is great. The combinations of flavors in their rolls and nigiri are exciting and delicious. I would highly recommend that you try a few different items from the sushi bar if at all possible.
They also have a seasonal menu, which is usually quite good. However, I haven’t tried it enough times to say for certain… maybe I have just been lucky. The cocktails are definitely worth mentioning and (more importantly) worth trying. However, I have found the service at the bar to be a little lackluster over the course of my experience. I am not sure though… perhaps, I am just impatient. Still, it seems to take overly long to get a drink regardless of whether you order it at the bar pre-​meal or the waiter puts in the drink order as you are seated. Yet, I keep ordering them.
TLDR: Eat here, order multiple items from the sushi bar, get your drink order in early, enjoy.
The only truly negative thing that I have to say about Dragonfly is this: There is an odd bleach/​moldy smell by the hostess stand. My girlfriend thought it might just be from the carpeted mats soaking up the rain. I don’t know. I am just happy that it is confined to the hostess stand.

This is by far the Best sushi around Gainesville for dinner. Best atmosphere, Great service and all around the best sushi! A must try if you haven’t. The Bomb roll and the Crunch roll are really good. Best roll is the Spicy tuna roll with jalapenos! Awesome:)

I have mixed feelings. The fish isn’t bad and is well prepared, and the rolls are delicious. However the prices and portions are outrageous. They introduce the menu saying ‘we are a japanese tapas restaurant, basically we decided to have smaller portions per plate.’ Sounds funny until you realize the prices are more than typical NY prices for less than half the amount of food.
It’s hard to get full on tiny slices of fish without decimating your wallet (unless you’re there to splurge), and while the raw fish is well prepared, the cooked food was mediocre at best.
For 12 $ you can get a full bowl of ramen elsewhere that will leave you belching.

Chilled ramen ($ 12) — the sous vide shrimp was a bit overcooked and portion was small. But they do preface this in the beginning by saying everything is tapas style. Otherwise good
O renji roll — yummm
Seared wahoo sashimi ($ 6) — 3 pieces. Delicious
The 4 stars is for the quality of food. Not sure if I would go again since it was pricey. And I’m from NY, I know pricey.

Honestly, I do not see the hype about this place. People make this place sound amazing, and seeing the huge wait outside the restaurant makes you this this place is good, but for the price, it really isn’t. I am a sushi addict, and the sushi here is not that amazing. I can order a $ 15 sushi here and it be smaller with less meat, than a $ 6 sushi at bento. I think people just come for the fancy feel of dressing up and eating out. But I don’t see what is so fancy with an crowded restaurant where you barely have space to come in and ask for a table.
I have been here 3 times and not only over spent because 2 rolls of sushi is not enough, but 2 out of the 3 times, just a few hours later my stomach did not agree with the food at all, possibly bad sushi. And I eat a lot of sushi from so many different restaurants in gainesville, and this is the only place where I had a bad result… twice.
I will give it to them though, their wontons are delicious!

Best sushi I’ve ever had. Usually I get a side if eel sauce, sriracha, and spicy mayo for adding to my rolls, but you don’t need any dipping sauce here. My favorite roll is the Cobra Kai– it’s a must for anyone looking for a creative, one if a kind roll with unique flavors.
Happy hour is great for price friendly amazing sushi.

Some of the better sushi I’ve had, I’ve had at Dragonfly. This place usually does not disappoint for good quality very flavorful sushi rolls, good service, and a trendy lively atmosphere.
The bomb roll (add jalapeño) is our favorite. If you want a crab topped roll that packs a bunch of flavor, try the volcano roll as well. The rest of the menu is pretty delicious as well. Try the pork ramen.
Whether dinner with friends, or a family night out this is a great choice (If you can get in and the wait it is not too long)