Burke Fortune House — Restaurant in Virginia

Yelp keeps pulling my review. OK, so here come both barrels. I hope Google can be honest and let it stand.

First, the idiot, and yes I mean IDIOT who took a picture of the fish in the preserver with the thin plastic pulled back (on yelp), gets the dumbell prize of the century. Its like showing a tire off at a garage. And??

The hoshizaka preserver is intended for any and all raw fish products, without plastic covering on each dish. The plastic is just there to keep moisture the same during the course of the fish being on the plate, not that YOU deserved it. Most other places do not even bother and they freeze a good deal of they product.

How many sushi restaurants you go to, make their own tamago on site. each day? Do you even know what that is? Or genuine Sukiyaki?

Have you ordered their fried rice? Its only the best on the planet. Do you know what a grilled hamachi jaw is? Best piece of cooked tuna you will ever taste. EVER.

If you see plastic pulled back, maybe they are very busy? And why would they be very busy? Why are they swamped on Fridays? Why oh why, on both yelp and here, not one bad review for take out? HALF THEIR BUSINESS IS TAKE OUT! They do not need the internet or idiot reviews and frankly, I am glad for them. Their sushi is the best in 3 states, rates near number 1 in the US and the world. I have been to japan on extended visits with all-you-can-eat privileges. And I have spoken to at least 30 different military people who fell in love with sushi over seas, and flock to Fortune House. We, collectively KNOW. It's not perfect every time. If you want that, find a $ 200 a plate sushi place with a 1 year wait and a reality TV show.

First, learn what sushi and sashimi is. Then apply your knowledge. If you work with them, ask questions, BE SMART, you cannot best this. No way. Not in this region. So like I said, DIS them. Go ahead. More food and room for me and those in the know. If you remember Napoleon Dynamite, just picture "you IDIOT" to the negative preachers and KIP saying "YAHESSS" to having more space and fish to himself. I love the comment "and they were out of the fatty tuna". Maybe you should have pulled some from under your arm? NO SUSHI RESTAURANT IN THE WORLD CAN HAVE ALL THE PRODUCTS ALL THE TIME. THEY ARE SEASONAL AND SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY. Most fresh red tuna does not come complete with Toro. Duhhhhhhhh But you experts keep on trying... I'll keep this one to myself. Best kept secret. Let's see? Been there 14 years and counting...

It’s unfortunate that I have to write this review. If I can give zero star I would. I was tricked by the 5 stars reviews. I seriously doubt those are honest reviews. This is our first and last time eating at this place.

I was being questioned about my choice, TWICE, by the waitress. I was ordering the dinner box with nigiri sushi, I saw on their sushi menu that they have smoked salmon. So I wanted to order that, the waitress immediately questioned my choice “why? It’s salty and it doesn’t taste good in Nigiri style.’ I mean, hello? Are you kidding me? I have had smoked salmon nigiri sushi from other places all the time. If they don’t taste good here, it’s your problem. It was getting late for us (7pm), I was with two kids, I didn’t have the energy to argue with her, so I ordered something else. And then when we asked if they have takoyaki (octopus balls), she showed a face like ‘seriously?’ , at that point I was getting a bit angry. She then said they may have it and she would ask the kitchen for us. I mean, Takoyaki wasn’t on the menu, she could have just politely told me ‘sorry, we don’t have it’, and it would be totally fine. We eat out a lot and not every Japanese restaurant has it, I can understand that. That attitude was really unnecessary and downright rude.

We waited almost an hour to get our order when the restaurant wasn’t very busy. Even my 9 year old kid could tell that the restaurant wasn’t busy. But they made us wait for a good 50 min for the food. We sat down at around 6:50pm and we got the food at 7:45pm. My toddler was so hungry she got very cranky.

The order was wrong. The so called waitress didn’t bring a pen and note when she took our order. I told her specifically that we have someone allergic to shrimps so we would prefer just the vegetable tampura, she said yes, and then forgot about it. We still got shrimps. But at that point we have waited for almost an hour. I just wanted to leave that place asap so I didn’t send it back. I should have.

The food wasn’t even good. It wasn’t even worth the wait. The sushi had so much rice. The salmon teriyaki was overcooked and tough. The tofu in the miso soup was a bit sour!!!

It was my kid’s birthday, she wanted sushi, and I felt really sorry that I brought her to that place. We walked in with a smile and walked out utterly disappointed and angry. This area has a lot of other better choices of Japanese restaurants. Save yourself some headaches and...

Honestly, the place might not look like one that would produce amazing quality sushi, but it will surprise you. We randomly searched Maps for sushi around us and were drawn to this place by the massive platters of sushi in the photos and thought, could this be real? We decided it was best to find out. We called ahead to make a reservation for 3 people, which was good because this place is not that big and there were a lot of people out on a Saturday night.

When we arrived we were greeting and seated at an available table and water was quickly served. We pulled up the photos from Maps and showed the waitress and she confirmed that those were the sushi platters found on the platter pages of the menu. SCORE. We asked if it could be customized and they were able to do it up to a degree, which was fair. $120 for 54 pieces of rolls and more sashimi and nigiri than you could possibly eat among 3 people was a steal! To be honest, all the sushi on the menu seemed decently priced. But would the quality match?

We customized our order by modifying a couple of the rolls and waited. Our green tea, salad and miso all arrived in good time, one after the other. The miso was boring and tepid and the salad was your standard bowl of leaves with the peanut ginger sauce.

Finally the platter arrived. (Insert hearts in my eyes!). So much sushi!! We were in heaven. And you know what? It was actually really good! I was impressed. The quality of the rolls and sashimi was fantastic. Everyone admired the presentation. And the three of us impressed the owner (I'm assuming it was the owner), when she was adamant the $90 platter would be enough and the one we wanted was too much for us. Well, we ate 90% of it! Perhaps if we weren't voraciously hungry the platter would have been more suitable for 4 people.

Anyways, I give this place a huge thumbs up! I'll definitely like to come back and try out some of the other rolls they have to offer! It's worth...