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
First up is the much talked about 
I don't know about you, but whenever we go to a carnival or somewhere with a carnival like atmosphere (like the boardwalks on AC and Jersey Shore), we MUST get some funnel cake and lemonade! I just love funnel cakes, it's so unhealthy yet so yummy :P
After the yummy funnel cake, we continued to walk down the boardwalk and here it is! 
So we headed down to ride the Wheel. It cost $6 per person for two rounds on the Wheel. Initially I wanted to try the 
We saw the big Nathans signboard from the Wheel and took it as a sign that it's time for a late lunch! When you think of food in 
We bought two cheese dogs, some cheese fries and 
As the sun begins to set, it was time for us to head home. We had a whole lot of fun and seemed somewhat reluctant to leave. We were really glad we didn't let the season slip away and not visit this ever so famous summer destination. Until next year, goodbye 
All I needed to do was mix the muffin mix with milk, eggs and oil. Then just scoop the mix into the muffin pan. 
So many people!! There were just people everywhere! The streets were closed off to traffic and we saw many people walking around with medals around 
The NYC Marathon is really big here in NY. The route goes through the five boroughs of NY (Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx & Manhattan), starting from Staten Island and ending at Tavern on the Green in Central Park. 98,000 people from all over the world applied to run in this marathon and 38,000 people made it pass the finish line. Over 2 million people turned up to support the runners. This numbers make the NYC Marathon the largest marathon in the world. 
We joined the rest of the crowd to cheer on the runners at the last 200m of the marathon. The whole street was lined with flags from countries around the world. It was actually quite a sight to see the faces of the runners finishing the race. It doesn't matter how long it took them, just finishing the race was an 
Do not be confused over the many signs in front of the shop. There is one saying "Pho Tan Haoi" and another saying "Miss Saigon Cafe". I am guessing they didn't bother to change the signs after buying over the shop :P It's a relatively big restaurant and it was full when we walked in. 90% of the customers were Vietnamese families, now to me, that's a very good sign. The decor is nothing to shout about and I wouldn't say its the cleanest place I have been to. It's basically a no frills restaurant. The staff were very friendly though. 
One glace at the menu and I was pleasantly surprised. It was very affordable and you can get a basic bowl of Pho for as low as $3.75. We each ordered a Pho and shared two appetizers. Within 3 mins, our first appetizer arrived! I am not kidding! Maybe less than 3 mins. I ordered, took out my camera to take a photo of the menu and before I could put the camera away, the first appetizer arrived!
Of course we had to order the Goi Cuon ($3.75 for 2 rolls) . It's more commonly known as the Summer Roll. The prawns were very fresh and large. I just love the sauce that comes with it! My only complain is that the rice paper was very sticky and we had difficulty biting into it. I think the rolls were made in advance, thus causing that to happen. Fresh ingredients and good sauce but nothing really spectacular. I would rate it a 6/10. 
Our second appetizer was the Cha Gio ($4.25 for 4 pieces). This is the Vietnamese Spring Roll. I took one taste of that and I was like WOW! It's really really good. I only know that it's stuffed with minced pork, shrimp and mushrooms. I do not know what else is in there or how the stuffing was marinated. All I know is that it's really good and we even took some home!! I would give a high 9/10 for this.
I ordered the Pho Dac Biet ($5.95) as my main. Dac Biet actually means "Special" in Vietnamese. It usually means " a combination of everything" in this context. My rice noodle came with briskets, navel, frank, omosa, tendon and eye of round. Yup, the whole works! The beef broth was pretty good and the beef slices were tender. Apart from that, I would say it tasted like any other Pho. Just an average 6/10.
Kevin had the Pho Suon Nuong ($6.25). That was the best dish for the night! It's rice noodles in beef broth with grilled pork chops by the side. The pork chops were out of this world! I told him that I would most definitely order that the next time around. It was tender and had this smoky BBQ taste to it. There was a tinge of sweetness to the marinade and it was lovely. The pho was of course just average. I would give a 10/10 for the pork chops!! Yes, its THAT good!!
The meal came with complimentary hot tea but we ordered the Ice Vietnamese tea with Condense Milk ($1.95). It's good but the glass it's served in is really really tiny. We wanted to try some desserts like the Che Ba Mau (Rainbow Ice with Coconut Milk) but we were already too stuffed. Maybe the next time. 
