Fusion 27 restaurant and catering services — Restaurant in Totowa

Fantastic experience. I've had Fusion 27 on my list for close to two years (basically since they opened) and finally had an opportunity to come here for dinner on Monday night with one of my chums. It lived up to the hype, and then some - and definitely made me feel less guilty about having a full-on, legit meal that early in the week. This is also my first full-throated endorsement of a restaurant less than five minutes from where I live in literally years, probably since Bivio sadly abandoned me for the greener grass of Montclair.

The one caveat for me here is the parking situation. Even though I live one town over from Totowa, I rarely come over here because of the chaos of Union Boulevard and its constant traffic lights and turning lanes; it can take you a solid 10 minutes to drive all the way through the main drag. There's a small parking lot directly behind this building that you can use (and we did), but it was also 5PM right when Fusion 27 opened, and spots were definitely limited. You should be able to find street parking nearby, but it's not as clear-cut as you'd like.

We didn't make reservations but were able to secure a table in the first room by the entrance easily (we were told the second room off to the side was reserved). I was all about the service. Everyone we interacted with was well-trained, friendly and hospitable. My chum literally went to the school of hospitality and can put restaurants through the wringer, but everyone was up to the challenge, including a young woman making her debut that night announcing the specials and desserts. She had probably 10 items or so to relay (all with a solid variety of ingredients) and handled the assignment with aplomb.

The Specials menu got a workout from us; I believe both apps we ordered came from there - the burrata and this watermelon/strawberry salad - and they were both great. The burrata was served on a grilled slice of pineapple, which was a solid mix of flavors. And I'm not a huge salad person but this was the best one I've probably ever had. I definitely prefer the sweeter ones, and this had a goat cheese topping with a purple glaze or something on it that was just magnificent (apologies if I'm butchering the description). I had to be mildly coerced into the salad to begin, but I retracted my reservations on that quickly and would get it again if presented. Good luck finding another review or situation where I talk that highly of salads. It's not happening.

I perused the dinner menu earlier in the day and despite being tempted by some of the entrees presented by our specials guru, I stuck to my guns and went with the short ribs/brown butter gnocchi. Not a criticism, but I was surprised that the gnocchi was a little crunchy/baked; the texture wasn't what I was expecting based on my experience of ordering gnocchi-centric dishes from Italian restaurants. The short ribs were very good - not the absolute best I've ever had, but tender and flavorful. As an added bonus (and we can probably thank the apps for this), I had some left over for the following day's lunch and got to show it off to co-workers (all of whom were astounded that I had a giant meal on a Monday and fixated more on that than the quality of the food. Sigh.). Everything held up VERY well on day two.

That should have been the end of this adventure, but of course a giant brownie sundae showed up as well. I think we ended up leaving a bite or two on the table but that's only because max stomach capacity had been reached. The brownie was very, very moist, to the point where I likened it to a lava cake.

Over the subsequent day, I relayed this recommendation to multiple people - if that doesn't tell you everything you need to know dot dot dot. I'll...

We stopped for lunch on my mom's recommendation. We were welcomed upon entering by Christian, who was eager to tell us about the restaurant. He began by inquiring if we had any food allergies that they would be able to accommodate since all dishes were made from scratch. The specials menu was enhanced by ipad photos they had taken of the dishes. It certainly did whet our appetites as he described each dish in turn! We settled on appetizers of grilled calamari salad and homemade burrata with avocado, asparagus and tomato salad. The fragrant crunchy baked bread they brought out was extraordinary! Our appetizers were quite large in size so we decided to split an entree of homemade ravioli with goat cheese and fig. This dish was the show stopper! Tender light tasty ravioli in a buttery sauce that melted in your mouth. Even though we didn't have much room left for dessert, we could not resist the homemade bread pudding, which is also in the photo. It was absolutely delicious! I did not ask, but I wonder if that same bread was used to make the...

My wife and I have been there several times and dinner was excellent. However the last time I went was a disappointment. I called day of to make a reservation for 4. The lady took it and said we were booked. When I got there later, surprise no reservation. When the owner doubted me I showed him my cell phone with the phone call earlier to his restaurant. He said you have to wait, the people behind is had reservations with open table a month ago. Ok, not my problem, we had a 10 min wait. Again the owner apologized and said he would make up for the inconvenience. Fair enough, however after dinner the owner was no where to be found and the waitress had an emergency and left in the middle of dinner , which is understandable , but the service after she left was poor. Word to owner , if your promise to make amends you should deliver, even if it’s a small gesture...