Fugu: Asian Fusion (website)411 W. Gilman St.
3 Adjectives: confusing, disappointing, hopeful?
Price:
app (3-10) entree (8-16)
Authenticity:
Atmosphere:
Overall:
Other Opinions: none so far
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Edit: I returned to Fugu recently (June 09) and the service was much faster, but it was a bit annoying to see that our bill for the four of us included gratuity (and our receipt after we gave them a credit card also had a space for tip)! Shadiness!
---
The first time I saw Fugu, I was shocked to see that a new restaurant had dared to replace the revered Yummy
Buffet and wondered whether it really could live up to the famous/ or infamous previous occupant. Therefore, on opening week, a few friends and I checked out the place. Additionally, we heard that there was traditional on-a-cart dim sum, something the group was very excited about. However, what we did not realize prior to embarking on this trip that dreaming about the dim sum was going to be the the highlight and our expectations were going to be accelerating downhill from this point onward.
Upon stepping into the place, the restaurant's previous occupant was nearly unrecognizable. Major wood and bamboo additions along with dimmed lights and paintings suddenly elevated the status of the place to that of Takara and we were very impressed.
However, once we were seated and given menus, we were quite confused to see that there were two kinds. One was in a fancy blue binding while the others were in a plastic binding and the menus were completely different, yet both featured entrees. Also, dishes like "wonton soup" would randomly be in the Thai section while typical food such as "scallion pancakes" weren't even found on the plastic menu. One of my friends chuckled, "boy, they should really add three letters to their name and rename this place Asian CON-fusion." (This was quite the foreshadowing of what was to come, I now realize.)
Since the only item on the menu that looked immediately fun was the bubble tea (in this case named smoothies with tapioca), we ordered that and proceeded to check out the rumored cart dim sum. This turned out to be a major disappointment as a lone waiter wheeled up to us a cart with three items. He was also very difficult to communicate with so we tried out two of the dishes: sweet bean paste dumplings and what he said was shrimp (but what we were pretty sure was pork, it was definitely not shrimp I will tell you) dumplings. Luckily, it still tasted okay. About 20 mintues later, our bubble tea came out (tapioca undercooked) and at this point we realized we were in for a long lunch. After trying to hail a waitress, we discovered 10 minutes later that there were only five items on the dim sum menu. At this point, we should have probably followed suit with the group next to us and left the place in fury (they made quite the scene) but we decided to stick it out and see just how bad it could get.
Finally, we were able to place some orders off the main menu (after some confusion about the differences between the fancy blue menu and regular menu) and wait yet another deathly hungry 30 minutes for our food. Once again, the food was tasty (order of the basil pasta was especially good), albeit less in quantity than what you would get at a place like Nam's.
Although I do not blame the waiters themselves, I do blame the restaurant management which should have seriously evaluated the type of traffic they would get at this hour on State St. Additionally, there were some gaping issues involved in menu development, waitstaff training, and major deception about the dim sum.
Since there are no other real reviews about Fugu out there, I will make this my obligatory PSA:
DO NOT GO TO FUGU FOR THE DIM SUM ONLY. YOU WILL BE SEVERELY DISAPPOINTED.
Overall, Fugu has some crippling organization problems they must deal with immediately. While the food was tasty enough, the wait time was completely unacceptable. We were there for essentially the entire lunch period (2.5/3 hours) and were either hopelessly confused about the food options or twiddling our thumbs and starving for most of that time. In it's current state of confusion and identity-crisis, I would not recommend Fugu to anyone. Please, just go to Nam's Noodles instead and you'll get a lot more food with comparable taste a lot faster.
3 Adjectives: confusing, disappointing, hopeful?
Price:
app (3-10) entree (8-16)Authenticity:
Atmosphere:
Overall:
Other Opinions: none so far
---
Edit: I returned to Fugu recently (June 09) and the service was much faster, but it was a bit annoying to see that our bill for the four of us included gratuity (and our receipt after we gave them a credit card also had a space for tip)! Shadiness!
---
The first time I saw Fugu, I was shocked to see that a new restaurant had dared to replace the revered Yummy
Buffet and wondered whether it really could live up to the famous/ or infamous previous occupant. Therefore, on opening week, a few friends and I checked out the place. Additionally, we heard that there was traditional on-a-cart dim sum, something the group was very excited about. However, what we did not realize prior to embarking on this trip that dreaming about the dim sum was going to be the the highlight and our expectations were going to be accelerating downhill from this point onward.Upon stepping into the place, the restaurant's previous occupant was nearly unrecognizable. Major wood and bamboo additions along with dimmed lights and paintings suddenly elevated the status of the place to that of Takara and we were very impressed.
However, once we were seated and given menus, we were quite confused to see that there were two kinds. One was in a fancy blue binding while the others were in a plastic binding and the menus were completely different, yet both featured entrees. Also, dishes like "wonton soup" would randomly be in the Thai section while typical food such as "scallion pancakes" weren't even found on the plastic menu. One of my friends chuckled, "boy, they should really add three letters to their name and rename this place Asian CON-fusion." (This was quite the foreshadowing of what was to come, I now realize.)
Since the only item on the menu that looked immediately fun was the bubble tea (in this case named smoothies with tapioca), we ordered that and proceeded to check out the rumored cart dim sum. This turned out to be a major disappointment as a lone waiter wheeled up to us a cart with three items. He was also very difficult to communicate with so we tried out two of the dishes: sweet bean paste dumplings and what he said was shrimp (but what we were pretty sure was pork, it was definitely not shrimp I will tell you) dumplings. Luckily, it still tasted okay. About 20 mintues later, our bubble tea came out (tapioca undercooked) and at this point we realized we were in for a long lunch. After trying to hail a waitress, we discovered 10 minutes later that there were only five items on the dim sum menu. At this point, we should have probably followed suit with the group next to us and left the place in fury (they made quite the scene) but we decided to stick it out and see just how bad it could get.
Finally, we were able to place some orders off the main menu (after some confusion about the differences between the fancy blue menu and regular menu) and wait yet another deathly hungry 30 minutes for our food. Once again, the food was tasty (order of the basil pasta was especially good), albeit less in quantity than what you would get at a place like Nam's.
Although I do not blame the waiters themselves, I do blame the restaurant management which should have seriously evaluated the type of traffic they would get at this hour on State St. Additionally, there were some gaping issues involved in menu development, waitstaff training, and major deception about the dim sum.
Since there are no other real reviews about Fugu out there, I will make this my obligatory PSA:
DO NOT GO TO FUGU FOR THE DIM SUM ONLY. YOU WILL BE SEVERELY DISAPPOINTED.
Overall, Fugu has some crippling organization problems they must deal with immediately. While the food was tasty enough, the wait time was completely unacceptable. We were there for essentially the entire lunch period (2.5/3 hours) and were either hopelessly confused about the food options or twiddling our thumbs and starving for most of that time. In it's current state of confusion and identity-crisis, I would not recommend Fugu to anyone. Please, just go to Nam's Noodles instead and you'll get a lot more food with comparable taste a lot faster.
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