Fuji Sushi 3 (Mandarin) — Restaurant in Jacksonville

WOW! I wrote this original review in December 27, 2019 and they deleted it!!! I'm reposting it because I think people should know about their poor service.

I used to enjoy this location but I will no longer be coming here as there are at least 2 other locations in Jacksonville.

I had family from out of town visiting and brought them here to try it out. Despite Google assistant offering to make your reservation, they DO NOT take reservations. I arrived a little bit before 7:45pm and added my name to the wait list. When I asked the hostess/server Lin how long it would be for a table of 5, she said 15-20 minutes. After 20 minutes, I went in to check on the wait time again and they told me that it would another 15-20 minutes. We sat around for a total of 40 minutes before we were sat.

Our first server was very nice. We placed our orders shortly after we were seated and it took about 30 minutes before any of the food arrived to the table. The service was extremely slow and not at its best today. They ran out of a lot of items but didn't tell us. They simply just didn't fulfill the order. But at precisely 9:15pm, Lin came to our table to do a last call for orders. I asked for a few minutes and she said "okay." Lin came back to the table in 2 minutes and proceeded to rush the table to place their final orders. My elderly parents were with us and it was their first time at the establishment, my father had to put on his glasses and read through the menu but Lin was impatient and rude. She scolded him and mocked him while he tried to read through the menu. I told her that we waited way longer than the quoted wait time and it was their first time here so we would just need a few more minutes. But she continued to scold my father and then started to yell at me saying that she never quoted such a wait time. I told her that I would not be coming to this location anymore and she said "Okay, great!" My father didn't say a word during the whole ordeal but I could tell that he was unhappy with this experience. Lin then proceeded to tell each and every one of her co-workers in her native tongue (Mandarin) that we were holding them up from closing up when the entire dining area was still full with at least 10 other tables. Unfortunately for her, I heard and understood every word as my family speaks the same language. I still tipped 20% because I know they pool their tips and it wasn't anyone else's fault for Lin's poor service and behavior.

I came to this location to enjoy a meal with my family, NOT to let someone yell at my father (who is seriously one of the nicest and sweetest man I know) who would never deserve this kind of treatment. I am mortified from this experience and I CAN NOT tolerate such terrible service and behavior This will be the last time I come to this location. IF YOU EVER WANT TO TAKE YOUR PARENTS TO FUJI SUSHI, GO TO ONE OF THEIR OTHER LOCATIONS SUCH AS SAN MARCO OR BEACH BOULEVARD. LIN IS RUDE AND IMPATIENT! I used to work in service in the service industry and I would never ever treat a guest so poorly. Lin's behavior was ridiculously uncalled for and...

How is this place 4/5 stars? Don’t make the same mistake we did. We chose this restaurant based on the reviews, and it being halfway between our house and that of a family member. Won’t make that mistake again. The entire Fuji sushi chain will be avoided because of this experience.

Granted, we have never eaten here before, so we did not understand how the cryptic menu system worked. It did not help that our server didn’t ask if we were new, or really explain how to order, other than write the numbers of food items we wanted on a piece of paper. That was it. No explanation about portions, no additional information that might have been helpful. So for anyone who is new to this, here are some tips:

There are 2 price options. You get unlimited food from certain parts off the menu depending on which choice you make. Portions are absurdly small. They are served on a child’s plate, or a saucer. That’s for any of the Hibachi items anyway. Sushi portions seemed somewhat normal, 4 piece roll instead of the normal 6-8. Food appears randomly. Do not plan for appetizers to come before entree choices. Sweet tea gets unlimited refills, but we never were asked about refills on our water. Some food never appears at all. I ordered one thing that I think came out as we were leaving - the server took it back to the kitchen after walking around the dining room. The quality of the food is substandard. The steak that came out for my Hibachi choice was cubed fairly small. It was cooked properly at least, but half the size of a bite I would cut for myself. The only pieces that weren’t were the mystery meat cuts. Didn’t look like steak, honestly don’t know what it looked like. But it was not pleasant. See photo. Noodles CAN be screwed up. You’d think that a noodle is a simple cooking exercise. The 2nd batch of noodles they brought to me tasted like they were cooked in bad fish juice. Something was seriously off, to the point I was done with my meal. My wife had a deep dried sushi roll that, in her words, had something funky going on in whatever the fry batter was. At that point, she stopped eating the food - it was that repulsive. One redeeming quality is the close proximity of Crumbl. Their cookies can reset your taste buds and help you forget what just happened. For some reason, there is a huge line of people waiting to get in. It is unwarranted. Do yourself a favor, go to the steakhouse in the same shoppette if you feel like waiting in a line, or Zaxby’s down the street. Your palate will be happy you did.

Between the service and the food, it is inconceivable that this place is even open. We certainly won’t spend any...

Original review, see below for follow-up:

This was my first time going there. Short version - great food for a good price but the service from my server was animal (all other service staff seemed great.)

Longer version - since it was the first time we had been, we didn't know what to expect. We placed drink orders and "Alin" dropped off our drinks and immediately left. We looked at the menu, and then by looking at other tables, realized there was a menu we had to fill out. However we had no paper. We told "Alin" that we needed paper and an explanation on how it works, and her response was "well why didn't you let me know?" Well... Because you just dropped our drinks and left with no chance to say anything.

But food was ordered and it was great. We never got drink refills, but ok not the worst issue. We finish up and "Alin" clears off our plates. We sit... and then ask for a check because we figured she was thinking we were getting another order together and didn't want to have her assume that. Then we ask again for the check... And then a 3rd time. Eventually we had to get a food runner to get any server to print our check. Said server told our server who proceeded to give an eye roll response. But eventually a different server gave us our check. This is why "Alin" is in quotes. If that is the name of the server that gave us our check I didn't want her to be associated with the bad service we received from our server. If Alin was our server, then yeah she was awful.

I will likely be back to try again because I have no reason to think this is a universal experience, but it left a real bad experience overall.

Edit: I did end up going back and my experience was much better. Food was still amazing and no service issues. Giving it the benefit of the doubt that I just had a bad day, and updated the review from 3 to 5 stars and would gladly...