2332 Leonard Street
Dallas, TX 75201
(214) 550-9500
Price: $ (for happy hour)
Hotel Zaza recently started Thursdays "All Night" Happy Hour at the Dragonfly restaurant. It goes from 5PM til close with drinks and appetizer specials for $5 each. They also feature a live band from 8-10PM. You don't need to make a reservation or pay a cover charge. Also, if you dine at Dragonfly, the host/hostess at the restaurant can validate your valet ticket for you!
I went to Dragonfly 2 years ago for restaurant week and really enjoyed it. The food was pretty awesome and the decor is pretty cool. So when I found out about this, I was totally down for checking it out. I normally don't go downtown on the weeknights because it's such a long drive, but I made an exception this time. I also had night class so I wasn't able to get out of class until about 9PM. Geez! So late! haha...i'm such an old fart. :P
The happy hour is located in the lounge area. Since it's winter, they've put a tent up so it wasn't too cold. I think the lounge is usually open and there's a small pool area. It was totally packed! There were only a couple waitresses that were doing their best at getting around to everyone.
I was starving when I arrived so I immediately went for the menu. The happy hour menu selection is very small...only 4 different food items...and according to my friends that were already there...the portions aren't very big.
I ordered the Crispy Calamari Salad (Asian greens & sweet chile vinaigrette) (normally $13~).
It came in a chinese take out box and chopsticks. I thought that was too cute! And made it more convenient to eat since there really weren't any tables. I really liked this. The calamari was awesome. Not over breaded like most places, full of flavor, had a slight spiciness to it. And there was quite a bit of calamari. The salad was also really good, the dressing was sweet and complimented the salty/spicy calamari really well. I could probably eat this as a main dish.I also got the Burger Sliders (horseradish pickle, red onion relish & smoked Gouda cheese) (normally $14~).
The sliders were very good as well. The meat was cooked about medium rare, usually I like medium for burgers but med rare is fine with me as well. The meat had a lot of flavor, and was super juicy. The cheese and the pickles added more flavors to the burger and the buns had really great texture. I don't think I've been to a hh with bad sliders...its not something you can mess up easily.Just a note about the original prices...I'm not sure if you get more when you pay the original food prices, but for $5 I thought the portions were ok. The food was fantastic once again. It wasn't too heavy or greasy so that was good. The venue was nice as well, just kinda loud since the band is playing so you can't really talk to people. But it's a cool little hotspot to check out on Thursday nights!
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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~
Both were pretty good. Good texture and quite fresh. I liked how the salmon was a nice thick strip unlike some places that give you a tiny thin piece.
It was a pretty large bowl and smelled awesome. The noodles turned out to be the korean instant noodles that you can buy at the supermarket. If you've had Shin spicy noodles, you know what I'm talking about. Don't get me wrong tho, those noodles are awesome. I love the texture. The ramen was good! Spicy broth with lots of different seafood in it. We laughed about paying $8 for instant noodles but all agreed that they backed up the price with the additional ingredients.
This was really tasty! I love avocado and I love spicy. It was creamy and spicy and full of flavor. i would recommend this to avocado lovers.
This was also pretty good. We couldn't really figure out what the white layer on top is...texturally it felt like rice noodle. I liked Kamikaze better but this was good too!
I didn't get to try this but it looked really tasty, and my friend cleaned his plate!
Mediterranean Pizza (chicken, pesto, olive, mozzarella, feta) $14~ (added sundried tomatoes $2~). 
Farnatchi Pizza (sausage, pomodoro & mozzarella peppers, onions, olives) $14~ 
All the pizzas were very good. Even though its all thin crust, it was nice and crispy without being too dry or thin. All were full of flavor and had lots of toppings on each slice. My personal favorite was the Farnatchi Pizza, I think because of the sausage. But the 3 Funghi Pizza got the overall popular vote. That was my #2 simply because I'm not too fond of goat cheese, and there was quite a bit of it on the pizza. But I still ate everything because it was all so delicious.
and Linguini Casablanca (shrimp, calamari, baby scallops) $11~ 
The pastas were cooked pretty well. Almost al dente...still had a slight bite to it. The spaghetti with meatballs was good but nothing special. I wasn't that impressed with the marinara. The linguini, however, was very good. It had a nice spicy kick and had lots of different flavors. There was also a lot of seafood in there! If you like seafood, I would definitely recommend this dish.
I can't remember the full name of the dish or the price...it is not on their website menu. I think we could've done without this dish. It was good, but quite small. It was hard to share the chicken, the last piece had to be split among 4 of us...so some people didn't get any. I guess for 1 person it's a pretty good size. The flavors were good but with all the other goodies around, this got lost in everything else.
and Hazelnut/Chocolate Filo $6?? 
The potato salad was pretty awesome. Lots of flavor and not heavy since it has no mayo. I could probably eat a tub of this...that would defeat the purpose of eating healthy tho. haha. The sandwich was very tasty and light, just what I wanted. It was also super filling.
She said it was pretty good but she preferred the pita from Fadis, which is more authentic Mediterranean.
We went back to our table and waited a long while before the food came. My friend even had to go back to the bar to check on it. 
The food was ok...nothing I would rush back for. I did like the fact that they fried some green onion and jalapeno slices along with the calamari. It added extra flavor, not typical with calamari. Its good snacky stuff I guess. It's still an option for late weekend munchies if you're looking for more of a deal. Just don't be expecting any sort of service there...
