Fuji Japanese Cuisine — Restaurant in Poplar Bluff

Tl;Dr version for those that want a brief synopsis: Good staff, meh food. Could have been due to them swapping to dinner though. Would have been nice to have our food come out at the same time, too... Or within a couple minutes...

So. The waiter, Tristan (Triston?) was great. Attentive, quick to check if we needed anything, loved him. Only one tiny issue: He was, for the briefest of moments, confused by the request of salads with two of the orders. He recovered very quickly, which was good - he thinks quick on his feet. I'm not sure if he was familiar with the menu, but relatively familiar with being waitstaff, or just thrown off by the mention of it as the order was put in.

The food though? Not so much. The third order came out... Approximately 5 minutes before the others did. Even with dinner change it should have been times closer together. It was a bit awkward to be the only one with food.

Orders were: Chicken and shrimp Chicken and steak Steak yaki udon

The chicken on both orders were overcooked - slightly charred to relatively charred. The steak was surprisingly cubed - we had expected a full piece of meat. (Same goes for the chicken, really.)

The rice was.. it has some egg? Soy sauce may have been in the pan at one time before they made it. But there was certainly barely any egg. Absolutely no onion, spring or otherwise.

The salad was a bit sad - iceberg is fine, but there was just a teeny bit of carrot in ours and too much of the house sauce.. My bowl was more like coleslaw, though I'm not entirely sure about the second bowl, I'm sure it was pretty similar..

That leaves the steak udon... Oh, they could have treated you better, my noodly prince...

So, to be fa-- KIND. To be KIND. The sauce was tasty and the udon was lovely.

To be blunt... The steak was bad. It overcooked like it was forgotten on the stovetop while they were swapping over. There was a bit too much sauce and WHY was it on a plate? Much less a plate so large? If you want to serve it on a plate-like thing, it needs to be smaller and with a divot or something - with a plate and a clingy sauce, it's so easy to get far too much sauce and overwhelmed by it, especially if the veg isn't as bright or there isn't enough of it.

(Personally, there wasn't enough, but that's a Me thing. But the veg was absolutely overpowered by the sauce.)

I will say I was... Confused? By the random bit of shiitake that made it onto my plate - was that intentional or accidental? I do think the dish wouldn't suffer from the mushroom element, but it was...

I've never been to a japanese restaurant that did not offer a vegetarian meal. We asked if we could order soba noodles without meat but with veggies. The server (who was very nice) said "yes." I confirmed that it would still have sauce and veggies. She said "yes " and said she would just ring up chicken soba without the chicken. No problem. After a long wait, we were brought the plate in the photo. This is a $12 plate of noodles. This is about the size of one pack of ramen noodles. The cook plated these dried noodles and sent them out. We ordered 2 plates. $24 could buy a lot of ramen at the store. I called the server back over and explained to her I've never seen a japanese restaurant without a vegetarian option and we were just surprised at the lack of food on this plate. I asked her if that was a $12 plate of noodles. She said she would see what she could do. She returned and said the manager wanted to make it a $6 meal. These noodles do not look appealing at all and I told her we would rather pay for the appetizer we ate and leave. She said she would go get the manager. When he came to the table, he argued with me for a while about those being the only noodles they have. We were not trying to get out of paying for anything we had eaten. I've never sent food back in my life. This was already embarrassing and compounded by the owner/manager arguing loudly with us about it at the table. The server was super friendly and I apologized to her, left her a tip, paid for the edamame and vegetable tempura (both of which were about half size portions of what you would typically see) and we left. The only apology came from me. And I am, sorry I chose...

Went there last Sunday, not during busy hour for quick dinner.

The first impression was still alright, the host was just okay at the beginning and the restaurant ambience seems like an old fashioned diner.

Tried their chirashi, since we can measure the level of freshness of their fish qualities from one simple dish. Was simply astounded due to the level of low quality cuts of their fish and presentation.

The yellowtail was not cut cleanly, as if sliced with a dull knife, and the presentation was just unappealing. The portion was meagerly small, and the taste was just beyond describable. Chirashi should not skimp on the quality of fish, especially yellowtail.

The sampler (kurasu was it, I guessed) was barely okay, the cuts were so tiny.

The best thing was only crab rangoons, they were tasty, unfortunately the size was exceptionally small that we can gulp down each in one bite only.

The service from Drew was really warm, friendly, and thoughtful. He always checked on my table even though I was only alone.

In the beginning my table was wiped out clean by the busser, when I left the table to check on hibachi only for 3 minutes, wow he sure worked really fast. But Drew came to the rescue and gave me back new drinks and new silverware.

Not a nice dining experience due to low quality of foods, especially their raw fish.

Cannot comment on the quality of hibachi, but the interior on the hibachi side sure was nice and appealing.

If you are fan of sashimi and raw fish, please steer away from this place.

Nice service but woefully was not backed up by excellent quality control of...