Fuji Ramen — Restaurant in Colonial Heights

TL;DR - condiment options are awkward/lacking and all you get at the table is salt and pepper, food was bland, waitstaff lacked confidence (most likely very new to serving, so it's alright), interior smells pretty funky, and the price is pretty high for the quality...

My number one critique: put some more condiments on the tables! Soy sauce and Sriracha would be good for starters, but even a few others would be great. When I asked the server for soy sauce, I was brought a tiny dish that maybe contained a tablespoon of sauce. I probably shouldn't consume excessive amounts of it, and that's my business, but regardless, I was not the only person at the table, and it would have been nice if we did not have to individually ask for little tiny dishes of soy sauce, or feel awkward in wanting/needing to ask for more.

When you walk into the restaurant, it has a bit of a stagnant fishy smell. If you've ever been to Tan A Market in Richmond and walk about 1/3 of the way down the candy aisle, that's the same smell you'll find here. Be prepared. It was a bit off-putting and overbearing.

The server seemed a bit nervous, so perhaps this is their first serving job. I won't fault them for that. But they were very quick to rush off, and we had to try to flag them down a couple times to ask for more sauce and to inquire about the mixed up order requests. No refills were offered, even after empty glasses sat on the table for a while. It's nice to have a server who isn't completely overbearing, but it's also nice to have someone check in periodically - or at least stand where you can be seen if we needed to flag you down. A few people stood at the hostess stand, but our server would disappear for a while at a time. And again, it was not busy at all while we were there; perhaps there were critical things to be sorted out in the kitchen that we were not privy to. They also didn't seem to know the menu very well, and when we asked if they had a favorite dish, they said, "I don't know." ....That's a bit of an odd response. Even framing it to say, "I don't necessarily have a favorite but a lot of people get insert basic dish" would put a more positive spin on it and make us feel a bit more confident in choosing a menu item.

I got the grilled chicken ramen - pretty basic, but I wanted to set a baseline. It was incredibly bland. The only thing that had any flavor was the chicken and the corn, but that ultimately was not saying a lot. My dish came out correctly, however they did mix up parts of the order of the others I was dining with. There were only three other tables seated while we were there, so to think that an order got mixed up at a relatively low-demand time seems a bit unsatisfactory. The requested changes to their orders were not very complicated (leave out one ingredient, substitute another); sure, accidents happen, and management did offer to remake the dishes, but by the time the server even returned to the table for us to make this mix-up known, we were already done eating. Also, I personally didn't try it, but my friends who tried the takoyaki said it seemed undercooked and that the texture was not right. The edamame was pretty good though.

The sodas/waters were lukewarm and the ice was almost completely melted by the time they made it to the table. I know more ice means less beverage, but a little bit of cold soda always beats a lot of lukewarm watery one. Maybe that's just me.

I wanted this place to be great. My friends and I have been waiting for a while in anticipation since we first saw the sign go up a few months ago. But it was a bit of a let down. They've only been open for a little over a week, so maybe they're still working out some kinks, but it will probably be a while before I return, if ever. Frankly, for $20-30 per person, I expected a lot more.

I'll keep an eye on the reviews over time. If the general consensus seems to improve and stay positive, maybe I'll give it another shot in a few months. They have the potential to be a great hidden gem in Colonial Heights, but they have...

Ok so this one kind of hurt to have to write. Ive been waiting on this restaurant to come open for months because i love ramen but the closest shop to me is 40 minutes away so i was really excited for this place. Unfortunately I was let down.

Service was okay. I could tell that my waitress was new at waitressing so i give grace on that. But several things we ordered were wrong. She corrected it once brought to her attention so i wont harp too much on it, but they definitely could use some more practice there.

Thats not why i was letdown.

The Foood! It really needs work. We go to the ramen spot in richmond and their ramen is on POINT so to come here I expected it might not be AS good but it wasnt close. The broth was not flavorful at all and mine had kind of a fishy aftertaste which i wasnt a fan of. I had the chasu ramen and added crispy chicken my husband had the yokai ramen and also added crispy chicken. Our crispy chicken had no seasoning. It was pretty much flavorless breaded chicken. A let down because everything LOOKED amazing but didnt taste amazing. We got 2 appetizers the yokai buns and the pork gyoza dumplings. The yokai bun had no flavor except the mayonnaise. The pork had absolutely nothing on it. Bland as can be. Disappointed there. The pork gyoza actually was hard to find the pork. It was like a spring roll inside which was weird to me. Maybe my waitress brought out the wrong thing but that was unlike any gyoza ive ever had and there was barely any (if there was even any) pork in it.

Lastly the price.

Before tip we were looking at 65 dollars for 2 people. Kind of steep for lunch time. Especially for flavorless food.

Overall im highly disappointed but willing to give another chance just because its the only ramen place around and its new and maybe i ordered the wrong thing. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. But there was NOTHING i ate that i could compliment. I hope they get better. My husband was already saying he never wants to come back again. I’ll have to convince him to give it another chance because he thought...

First off, I want to say that I understand this is their first day open, but having managed restaurants in the past including opening, they definitely needed more time and practice. We were very excited to see a ramen place opening in colonial heights and wanted to support them on their first day. Unfortunately, our experience today at Fuji was very poor. First, we walked up and a man came out of the restaurant and told us, “I wouldn’t even bother going in, I’ve been waiting an hour and a half with no food in sight,”…. Yikes. Once we got in and were seated, we noticed the staff were very unorganized, with servers bumping into each other and not remembering which tables they were serving. Our server even checked with us three separate times to confirm what we ordered, and brought my wife the wrong order TWICE. By the time my wife had received the 2nd wrong order, we just accepted that we weren't going to get what we asked for. My wife’s pork was chewy and overcooked, and there were several main ingredients left out of my meal altogether. As we were leaving, we noticed a table behind us sent every single meal they ordered back and wanted a refund. Lastly, this is a small gripe, but the portion sizes were deceiving for the price, it was much smaller than expected. Fortunately, our server was very kind and definitely tried her best, but obviously some fine-tuning needs to happen in this establishment.

We would love to see Fuji get better and thrive, as CH needs a restaurant like this. I do believe they needed at least another month to properly train their servers and test menu items. I would return, but probably not...