Fuji Japanese Cuisine - Westfield branch

We couldn't decide where to go for dinner tonight, so we figured that we will try this Japanese restaurant in Westfield. There is another branch in Edison, which is in Central New Jersey. The menu looks good from the outside, so we decided to go in.

From the moment we stepped in, I somehow knew that we made a mistake. It was about 7:30pm on a Saturday evening and it was practically empty! There were only two other tables, not including us. Also, I noticed that all the staff in the restaurant (from servers to sushi chef) were Chinese, not Japanese! They were shouting to each other in Mandarin. The waitress sat us down and asked what we wanted to drink. I said ice ocha and she didn't know what ocha is! How can you work in a Japanese restaurant and not know what ocha is? Anyways, we ordered our food and waited....and waited.....and waited. They only had 3 tables of customers and the other two were already eating. I do not understand why we had to wait for more than 20 mins before we got this...

Our complimentary miso soup and salad! 20 mins for a small salad and soup??!?! The soup tasted like instant miso soup. The ones that come in little sachets and all you need to do is just add hot water. The salad, don't let me get started with the salad. It's just a bunch of lettuce and some carrots soaked in extra salty soy sauce! You cannot see it from the picture, but it's literally swimming in soy sauce. I won't even bother rating the soup and salad. After waiting for another good 10 to 15 mins, our makis arrived.

We ordered two types of rolls. One is the Philadelphia Roll ($4.95), which is smoked salmon and cream cheese with toasted sesame seeds on the outside. The other was the Dragon Roll ($9.50). The dragon roll is eel with avocado and flying fish roe on the outside. Sweet unagi sauce is then drizzled on top. The rolls wasn't bad but it wasn't the greatest either. I would say it tasted pretty much the same as those you can pick up from the grocery store. I would give it a 6/10.

Kevin ordered Ebi Tempura ($14.95), also known as Tempura Shrimp. The shrimp was not even fried in tempura batter! It was more like Ebi-fry. If we wanted ebi-fry, we would have ordered ebi-fry. The sauce that came with it was some watery sauce. Looks like soy sauce mixed with hot water. I would be really generous to give it a 4/10 rating.

I ordered the Tori Katsu Don ($11.75). It's steamed rice covered with chicken cutlet, onion, vegetables and egg. The chicken katsu was totally tasteless and the topping was just terrible. I would just give it a 3/10. From my previous restaurant reviews, you can see that I am not usually critical about food. When it comes to food, it doesn't take much to please me :P However, the service, quality and taste of the food in this restaurant was way below par.

We asked for the bill and paid using a credit card. When the credit card slip came back, we saw that the amount wasn't the same as the one we previously saw. We checked the bill again and saw that the waitress added in pencil a 18% gratuity for herself!!! It was just the two of us, not a party of 6 or more. Why should there be a 18% gratuity? Granted, sometimes 18% is added in some restaurants in the city but this is a small restaurant in the suburbs! Also, if it's company policy, why didn't she add that on from the beginning but only at the end, and scribbled in pencil??? They insisted that it's company policy and there is nothing we can do about it. We let that slide, but that little incident, topped with the bad food and service made us vow to never return again.

Fiji Japanese Cuisine - Westfield branch
340 South Avenue E,
Westfield, NJ 07090
Tel: (908) 654-6898
Fax: (908) 654-6881