I tried Dragon- fly closer to when it first opened, and to be honest, I wasn't impressed. I thought I'd give it a second try since it's been around for awhile and has recently come under new management. I can say my experience has definitely changed from the first time to the most recent time.

When I walked in the restaurant, the overall look is very swanky and posh. The interior is very nice. It's sophisticated and sleek, but very dimly lit. A large bar area is lit, and a raised area near the windows has some a few tables to people watch. When I walked in, our waiter, John, greeted us and asked us if we had reservations. He asked if we had a preference for where to sit, and I chose an area close to the window. He set down this small service bar, which has buttons for service, refills or checks. What a great idea. Our service was so impeccable, though, that we never needed it. He also immediately brought out two glasses of water while we looked over the menus.

I really wanted to try a little bit of everything here. I ordered some sushi first: Dynamite Roll and Tempura Shrimp Roll. The Dynamite roll contained crab meat, cucumber, avocado and baked spicy, crunchy salmon with spicy mayo and eel sauce for $12. It consisted of about 10 rolls. It was phenomenal. It's almost like a fantastic California roll, but amped up with some delicious salmon on top. The ingredients were fresh, the rolls were tight, and the flavors were refreshing and dynamic. No raw fish in this roll, so it's also an easy on for beginners. This is one of my new favorite rolls.

The tempura shrimp roll has tempura shrimp, avocado, and cucumber, which is topped with spicy mayo and green onion. This one is $9.50. It comes with only five rolls, and in typical fashion with shrimp tempura rolls, two of the rolls are ends of shrimp. These are always kind of awkward to eat, but they're pretty. The flavors were tasty here, as well. The tempura was crispy, the veggies were fresh, and the sauces added a nice delicate touch.

For my entree, I ordered the pad thai, which consists of shrimp, egg, peanuts, bean sprouts, peppers, onions, and of course, the flat noodles. My portion size was huge. The first thing I noticed were these large, plump shrimp on my plate. That was a nice surprise from the typical pad thai I get. When I bit into it, it was slightly different from what I was expecting. The sauce seem almost more condensed and stronger than I'm used to. But it wasn't bad. In fact, I liked it. Some crunchy veggies helped break up the huge carb-loaded pasta dish, and it added some freshness to the dish. I enjoyed this dish, too. The sushi was definitely hard to follow, though. I had so much leftover, our waiter graciously boxed it up, and even wrote the date on the box for leftovers for later.

Since our experience so far had been fantastic, we decided to try dessert. Boy, was that a good decision. We ordered their specialty that night - a deep-fried raspberry cheesecake with ice cream. Oh my goodness, it was one of the best desserts I've had in town. The light crispy batter on the creamy cheesecake, the tart sweetness of the raspberry combined with the frigid smooth vanilla ice cream was beyond words. I hope this is a regular occurrence because I would go solely for the dessert - it was that good.

One other thing that this restaurant does and does well is their service. I'm just going to say it's the best service I've ever had in Morgantown. If all waiters are as fabulous as John, customers are in for a treat. This place is a bit on the pricier side, so special occasions would be a great time to check it out.


Grade: A