On my budget, happy-hour food usually means the stale, salty nut mix that bartenders slide your way to soak up the booze. If I'm gonna start drinking at 4:00 p.m., though, I need something a bit more substantial--and if I can find a mini-meal that's not soaked in vats of hydrogenated oils, so much the better.

Dragonfish has a happy-hour menu that, although at times uneven, offers enough cheap, flavorful dishes to make a post-work trip worth it (although you need flexible office hours; the cheapie menu is only good from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., and then again from 10:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m.).

On a recent sunny afternoon, my date and I sat in the outdoor dining area sipping delicious $2.95 cocktails (the best of which was a refreshing lemongrass lime rickey, with house-made lemongrass vodka and sweet and sour, among other ingredients) and sampling dishes ranging from $1.95 half-orders of sushi to $2.95 and $3.95 plates of Pan-Asian-style appetizers. While the sushi--mostly variations on tuna rolls--comes in a couple of creative combinations, the rolls can be a bit too cold, with a refrigerated taste overtaking real flavor (and it's a pet peeve of mine when sushi is served with smoked salmon instead of the raw stuff). It's better to stick with the other small plates. The tightly tucked, crispy vegetable spring rolls come with spicy Chinese mustard and nuoc cham dipping sauce, and the spicy shrimp satay is served with an equally compelling red chili sauce.

The best dish on the happy-hour menu is the sesame and soy marinated tuna, which serves sashimi-grade fish sliced into tiny cubes and seasoned just enough that its natural flavor is still very present. It must be said that all dishes are served in bite-sized portions, so this is not the place to arrive famished. But for something more tantalizing than your average Chex mix, Dragonfish definitely takes the edge off.