BY OLIVIA ROSS, STAFF WRITER
When you hear the words sushi and tacos, they are often in different sentences. At Dragon King’s Daughter, they not only exist on the same menu, but as one dish.
Dragon King’s Daughter is an eclectic spot, located near the corner of Grinstead Drive and Bardstown Road. This Asian and Latin fusion spot is a quintessential Highlands restaurant for many reasons, but above all, because of its happy hour.
DKD, as it’s commonly known, has multiple happy hours that put other Highlands spots to shame. It is affordable on its own, but when you come during happy hour, food and drinks are both much cheaper. There’s a daily happy hour from 4 to 6 p.m., and a late-night happy hour from 10 p.m. until close on Monday through Saturday. On Thursdays and Fridays at lunch time, DKD also has a bento box special that comes with a roll, soup or salad and two appetizers for $6 to $9.
The restaurant offers a fusion of items, including sushi, flatbreads and tacos that can be served traditionally or with sushi in them.
“The menu includes traditional items perfected over centuries in the Far East as well as contemporary fare created with a unique twist of our own,” the website says.
What really shines at DKD is the sushi menu. The roll that is by far the most popular, and my roll of choice, The Indulgent has spicy crab, cream cheese and avocado, and on top of all that, is tempura fried. If you aren’t a sushi person but still want to partake in the sushi craze, DKD offers a Chicken Katsu Roll, which is basically fried chicken sushi.
There is also a roll on the sushi menu called The Frosty Sunbeam. This roll contains mango, cream cheese, salmon and avocado. There are sushi rolls for everyone, with cooked, uncooked and vegetarian sushi menus.
The prices at DKD are reasonable, with rolls ranging from $6 to $14. The menu has a wide variety of items, so even the pickiest eater can find something to satisfy his or her Asian fusion cravings.
DKD is a great spot to go grab appetizers, a meal or even a drink with friends. The dessert menu certainly is not something to skip over either, with fried Snickers and fried Oreo sushi rolls on the menu. The red bean ice cream is also a well-known gem that only the regulars seem to know about, said Haaken Magnuson, a regular customer.
The atmosphere is busy, as DKD is almost never slow. The restaurant always features art by local artists, and another big hit among customers is the heated toilet seat in the women’s bathroom. This restaurant certainly fits in with Louisville’s unofficial slogan, “Keep Louisville Weird.”
Although the service is hit or miss, and you might need to be prepared to wait around for a while depending on if you’re there at a busier time, DKD is always good. This is a restaurant where you are not going to walk away dissatisfied because even if the wait is long, the food is always phenomenal.
Dragon King’s Daughter is located at 1126 Bardstown Road and is open Monday through Wednesday from 3 to 11 p.m., Thursday through Saturday from noon until midnight and Sunday from noon until 10 p.m.