Sunday, June 19, 2011

Dragon King's Daughter - Louisville, KY

I figured it's high time I post this review since we ate there almost three damn months ago, and are headed back to the L-ville area soon for Derby City Con.  After some digging on UrbanSpoon, I couldn't wait to try this place.  After GPS-ing it and realizing it was so far off the beaten path, we almost opted for fast food instead because we wanted to get home so badly.  But, we persevered, got turned around a time or two, but eventually found it. It's in a little area that reminds me a lot of what the UD strip used to be like before it got all fancy-fied.  Just this side of seedy, but fine on a bright sunny Sunday afternoon.  Walking towards the place, we noticed all the windows open and Beck creeping out of the speakers as we got closer. We were quickly greeted and served by who I assume was the only server, and he took our drink orders and answered questions about the menu.  After I looked over the photos I took, I realized one side of the restaurant...

                         ...looked completely different than the other side, where we were sitting.
The decor didn't necessarily match the culinary vibe, but it also didn't seem freakishly out of place, as this place is probably brimming with hipsters on any other given day.

For starters, we got the Chorizo Yaki Onigiri  - a pan-fried rice ball laced with Mexican chorizo sausage & cilantro and drizzled with wasabi mayo.  The rice was a tad dry, but the wasabi drizzle helped in that area.  
  I ordered the Korean BBQ beef (aka bulgogi) tacos.  All tacos come in soft corn shells (though you can sub a bed of rice) with three toppings and one sauce. They all pretty much have a sauce assigned to them, but you can switch it out if something else looks better to you.  I chose spring mix, cilantro, avocado and wasabi mayo. The marinade on the ribeye was wonderfully sweet and the meat was super tender.  The avocados were actually ripe, which is a stretch for a lot of restaurants, and the spring mix that our server suggested added a nice crunchy element.  
The Mister opted for the Tilapia Tempura Tacos with avocado and mango salsa.  When asked how he felt about his meal, he replied with a muffled "This is fucking awesome!"  Good enough for me.

The priciest thing on their menu is around $14 - and our bill came out to around $20 before tax and tip, so the price is right on.  The menu is so expansive and interesting, it was brutal deciding what to order.  I'm very anxious to go back and try some of their "cooked sushi,"  with ingredients like chicken katsu and asparagus tempura.  Scoff if you will at the idea of cooked sushi, but being a food blogger doesn't mean I like everything, or am even interested in trying everything.  I'm not as refined as the judges on Iron Chef - and that's okay by me, because it means I'll never have to eat trout ice cream.  So, putting something other than uncooked fish and tasteless veggies into sushi widens my opportunities.  I'm really hoping we'll make it back there when we're in town for the con next month, so I suppose you'll have to wait and see what this cooked sushi is all about.  Unless of course, you make it there before me - which I highly recommend.  Great food, friendly service and a unique atmosphere.  I'd eat at DKD on the regular if I were a Louisville resident.  

5 out of 5 sporks!  


Dragon King's Daughter on Urbanspoon

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

I cant recommend these items enough:
Jalapeno Cream Cheese Wontons. Make sure and get plenty of the sweet chili sauce.
Dragon Kings Daughter roll. The Unagi with the shrimp just works.
Mikey Aint Right. Crab Salad topping makes this one.
Avocado Tempura Roll. Enough said.

Post a Comment