Dragonfly Vietnamese Kitchen

I like coming here for phở. This place is now closed. I don’t think they’ll ever reopen since the next door Korean grocery store has taken their space.

has been closed for several months

Sadly, this place is closed now. Owner moved back to Cali.

This is my regular go-​to Phở place. I’m originally from Tucson and having been spoiled by having 2 Miss Saigon locations there (best Phở I’ve ever had) I was looking for a new replacement here in the valley. I tried a dozen places or so before I found this little gem. There seem to be quite a few Phở places around here so it’s hard for any one to stand out, but the food here speaks for itself. I always end up getting the Phở Tai Chin Bo Vein and it is excellent. They tend to be a little skimpy on their meat at times but the broth is so flavorful (and not overpoweringly anisey) that I don’t mind. They also have decent spring rolls but their peanut sauce is lacking– that’s my only real complaint. I wish they had boba teas here– if they did I would just never leave!
If you’re thinking about visiting this place I’d definitely say go for it! It’s a little hard to find at first, being tucked away in a little corner plaza being covered by an Oreganos, so keep a keen eye out! Oh, and if you’re into Billy Joel/​Elton John type of music they have this musician that regularly plays on Wednesday afternoons. He’s not bad– its like Sinatra singing a jazzy Billy Joel.

Been going here for a little over 2 years and the owners feel like family. The food is always amazing and fresh, the owners are super friendly. You can tell the little lady gets joy out of making her food for people and she is damn good at it.
I recommend the Phở, Vegetarian fried rice with veggies, Orange Peel Chicken and the Angry Chicken. Oh yeah, and the spring rolls are killer.

This is our family go to place for Phở. It’s very good. Other dishes are also very good. We are regulars with a half hour drive. The best we have found in the area.

the food is always so vibrant and delicious, I swear I can hear her singing in the kitchen sometimes. We are always greeted with a smile and great service :)

BEWARE THE FISH MINT!!!
This was a new experience for me.
I’ve been to oh-​so-​many phở places all over the country, and not one of them used this traditional (but disgusting) herb called FISH MINT.
Spring rolls — basic — can’t go wrong? oh but it could…
Everyone kept tasting this fish taste and we thought maybe the shrimp had gone bad (we are in AZ, folks).
Then my friend’s salad came out. FISHY.
Then my bun.
I put all the leafy greens in there liberally (I do love my greens), and then I got this big mouthful of… ROTTEN FISH.
BLECH!!!
I literally spit it out and almost gagged.
Finally I called the waiter over cuz I was bankin’ on a free meal (what with the vegetables being left out with rotten fish, or something), and he just laughed and said,
«Oh! That’s diep ca! It’s very good for you. Some people don’t like it… Next time we’ll leave it out.»
and that was that.
Ick.
Who likes the taste of rotten fish? I actually like the taste of fish sauce, so it’s not like I’m a total nay-​sayer on all things fishy… but DAMN… that $h!t tasted NASTY.
I had to google it, cuz I thought he was just making it up. But there really is an herb called FISH MINT.
BEWARE!!!
The Phở is safe. Apparently they don’t serve it with phở.

It is under new management. The food is not quite as good as before. The spring roll wrapper was dried and hard as if it was made a while ago. The phở soup was too peppery, which is very unusual.

A real mom-​and-​pop place. Love the phở and the spring rolls. We come here every now and then. We ordered a chicken dish one time and it was great. I think it was the Angry Chicken. The next time we came and ordered it, it was terrible. The phở is always consistent though. This is our go-​to spot for phở. The lunch specials are huge portions for a very reasonable price.

My favorite Phở but I think it has a new name now?

Had dinner here last night and it has gotten better! Everything was super fresh and yummy! The food is totally authentic and reminds me of my travels in Asia. I think I will be going here more and more now that it is fall/​winter for the Phở. The bbq is also REALLY good!

Pretty good little phở joint. My regular lunch posse (that is what I like to call them — because it sounds better than me and 4 – 6 engineering dudes) wound up here today somewhat by accident, but overall I think we were very pleased with the service and the phở.
The gents all ordered their usual beef phở and I had a chicken in a beef broth. The servings were huge. One of my companions ordered the large bowl, which would have been enough to feed three small children (or this guy). We eat at a lot of Vietnamese restaurants on our lunch outtings and one of my regualar cohorts recently made the best Phở I have ever tasted — so our expectations may run a little high. So, a 3 star review from me for phở is a pretty good one. I’ll definitely head back to try out some of the other menu items soon.

My friend and I split a Steak & Tendon small phở and a banh xeo. We were both very satisfied and full after this meal. This is the best banh xeo that I’ve had in Arizona so far. If you’ve never had a banh xeo before, it’s like a Vietnamese style crêpe/​omelette. The outer part is egg, and inside contains: bean sprouts, meat (pork, I believe), and shrimp. You cut a piece of it, and then wrap it around the large lettuce leaves. Then you dip the lettuce wrapped crêpe into the fish sauce, and enjoy.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE BANH XEO! If you’ve never heard of it, or tried it before, I highly recommend it. Share with a friend if you’re scared to try new things. If you’re adventurous, try it on its own, I think it’s very filling and can serve as a meal.
The phở is ordinary, but other members of my party were jipped on some meats that were supposed to be included in their soup. Small size is definitely enough, even if the waiter thinks it’s a «children size.» Service was okay, but I’d definitely come again, just for the banh xeo. :)

I love this place, They have new owners now. After the new owners came in the food quality is the best it has ever been.
Go on the weekend when the service is the best!

Good authentic Vietnamese restaurant, good service and great quality! I’m in love with green papaya salad as long as seafood combination noodle soup, yummy!

In short? Great food! Bad service. However I can’t look too far down on them seeing that it seems they are recently under new management & seems to be run by a little old couple. Very friendly owner! Best of all they had vegetarian phở with huge pieces of veggies and tofu. Actually if there was one complaint about the phở, it would be there was just too much going on in it! Huge chunks of bok choy, carrots, broccoli & cauliflower florets… I didn’t even come close to eating it all. Phở is one of my meat-​weaknesses and I can’t express how happy it makes me to find a delicious veggie phở. Makes me want to move to Mesa! I wanted to give it 5 stars, but I took one star due to the lack of efficient front help.

#39 = AMAZING. The Thai Tea is also amazing! Yes the place is usually not full, but don’t let that scare you. Love this place.

I gave Dragonfly a try last night and was very pleased with my experience. Good thing I didn’t read these reviews and change my mind. First off, Wednesday night now features a very amusing piano player who plays lots of popular tunes that will have you singing along before you realize what you’re doing. There weren’t many people there, but our waitress was very attentive and cheerful. The best part by far was the food. I had no idea what to order, but settled on a 5 spice chicken. It was awesome. Great flavors I had not experienced before. We also had a beef dish. Can’t remember the name, but it was really good too. I have to say I was surprised. I’ll be sure to stop in again the next time I’m out in Mesa.

— Getting ignored by staff. I almost left and went to Hodori (the safe choice) before being acknowledged and taken to a table when there was only one other person in the restaurant on a Wednesday evening.
— Food took forever to arrive at the table and for awhile I actually thought she forgot about me.
— They BLASTED FoxNews the entire time on a large television against the wall. WTF? Mofos. I have no other words to express my irritation; I should have left as soon as I realized just how pervasive it was.
— Mediocre-​to-​bad food. I had at least a meal worth in leftovers and wound up throwing it out. I always eat my leftovers. The broccoli was an exception, however, and gets massive thumbs up.
While my experiences at the now defunct Dragonfly sister restaurant on Mill were far from perfect, it was significantly superior to this mess. I think in this particular case, I even preferred the «less traditional» version of the non-​traditional menu.
There are a dozen Vietnamese choices in this particular neighborhood. I suggest trying any of the others because «ambiance» (which is hard to create when your fancy display cases are empty and Sean Hannity’s voice floods the room) certainly doesn’t make up for all of the things Dragonfly completely misses.