A few years ago my husband and I heard about Fuji Restaurant in Macedonia Ohio. We've always loved Benihana, but decided to check out this newly discovered restaurant since it was closer to our home. At first, we were impressed with our first few visits. The service was faster because it was a much smaller restaurant, the food was comparable to Benihana, and the prices were slightly less. But after a few visits, things started to change. On one visit, the chef at the adjacent table was visibly ill, and started to sweat profusely, even onto the grill. Of course the diners righfully complained and asked for a manager, but the server became very aggravated with the diners, including our table, and the rest of the evening was not as enjoyable. We gave Fuju the benefit of the doubt since we hadn't experienced any negatives up to that point. However, on the very next visit, the chef had the grill temperature up too high (so we thought), our food was burned and we complained (the manager witnessed this and did comp our meal thankfully), but then on our next and final visit the following month, the same table caught on fire...I mean smoke, Fire Department and the works! The restaurant was full, but no one apologized for the inconvenience, and the chefs and servers were still going as if there were not firefighters all over the place. Our table had not been served yet, so we excused ourselves and have never been back. Benihana has a couple of their regular customers back!
Pros: Smaller, more intimate
Cons: equipment and customer service needs updating
more