Fuji — Restaurant in Bennington

I stopped in for a late weekend lunch, and the host quickly seated me at one waribashi/paper napkin setting on the 4-seat sushi bar, right next to the front door. Luckily, the TV was muted. I glanced through the menu, filled with too many photos of someone else's sushi, then ordered my usual first-time-patron selection of maki and nigiri. The attentive server quickly took my order and returned with a unremarkable soup.

As I was waiting for my main, I examined the display cooler in front of me: dirt and crumbs underneath, right against the sushi bar, and a dirty mat on top, haphazardly taped in place. As I looked inside the cooler, I was also surprised to see that the chiller tubes inside were not covered in frost. That's strange. I assume they are working, because the glass feels cool to the back of my hand.

I was a little concerned about the tray of (I assume, fresh) cucumber, cut into sheets, to be used in sushi. This sat uncovered on top the sushi cooler (photo) in front of me for the duration of my visit.

The two sushi chefs seemed sure and quick, and presented my main. The plating was simple, with minimal decoration and garnish (photo), and the rice itself was lightly seasoned. The maki were acceptable, with cucumber used for the eel cucumber sourced not from on top of the display cooler, and the spicy salmon actually spicy, although prepared from a pre-mixed tub.

The sushi was a bit better, although there were a few knife skill errors, such as the 20cm slices of bass on top of 5cm of rice. I wasn't expecting to find wasabi under the fish, few chefs add that step. And even fewer actually roll their own tamago. It is usually, as it was here, simply an egg cake. But the overall taste of all the nigiri was pretty good.

Just as I was finishing my main, two teppenyaki chefs began their show to a large group of twenty or so people, about 40 feet away. I try to avoid the noise and cheering that usually spill over from such crowds, but this time I couldn't avoid the heat. Literally. I believe that the two vent hoods over the griddles were either not working or too small - the heat in the sushi bar area, jumped about 15 degrees right after their show began the giant flames demonstrations. Not normally a problem, but it was already 85 outside, and every bit of A/C was welcome.

Although this is quite a trip from the Capital Region, I'll probably return. I just hope by then that they've solved their cleanliness and equipment problems.

2019...

My family and I ate here for the last time today! Although the food is good the place itself is disgusting! When it first opened it was nice and clean. We Sat by the back wall at the middle table and there was dried food on the wall! My wife and daughter were getting sick from the smell of the place. It smelled like putrid grease to me. It has in the past but this time it was really strong! They obviously don't clean the hibachi hoods good enough. The rest room was absolutely disgusting! Dried urine or God knows what, on the toilet seat. You could see the drip marks. I guess that's why they leave the disinfectant and spray cleaners on a ledge with paper towels. Self service cleaning! The floor of the rest room looked like who did it and ran! The floor looked like someone took a dirty greasy mop and moved it around on the floor. You could see the streak marks!! I shuffled my feet on the floor and it was indeed greasy! Totally put me off my meal and although the food was good, the cleanliness of the place leaves me wondering about the kitchen and other places we can't see! To top it off a kitchen employee was smoking a cigarette right outside the front door. Of course we had to walk through the disgusting smoke to get to our car! I'm really sad to see this place go so down hill. We've given them many chances by going back to support a local business dispite our disappointment but they've only gotten...

My family and I went here for lunch the other day, we choose to go during the lunch period (closer to 2pm) because the place has just opened and is extremely busy during the evenings.

The restaurant offers both normal tables and they have 2 Hibachi tables that will seat 18 people. We opted to sit at the Hibachi table with another couple, as it was 2pm there were only 4 people in the place, just the way I like it..

We ordered 3 meals and got 3 sushi rolls to go and the bill was just over $40 so the prices are very very good, so good in-fact I wonder if this is a soft-open with low prices and soon they raise the prices and have a grand-opening... I am not sure how they will survive with such great pricing on their food.

I would generally get my Sushi from Price Chopper and while the quality was always good their prices were a bit high $8 or so for 1 roll... During lunch you can get 3 rolls for around $10 from Fuji so I look forward to some repeat visits and repeat stuffing of my belly...

The Hibachi chef was extremely entertaining and funny, while also making sure he prepared quality food.

Overall great time at lunch with the family, thank you for bringing such a place to our town, I just love this...