Passion Fin - Asian Fusion Cuisine in the Mosaic District of Merrifield, VA

2750A Gallows Rd

Merrifield, VA 22190

703-204-2969

Passion Fin Dining Room

Passion Fin is more about where it is than what it is. I’ll do my best to focus on the restaurant than on the neighborhood, but one thing that stands out here is while Passion Fin is fair at best, what makes it good is its location in the up-and-coming Mosaic District of Merrifield, VA.

We’ve done the “asian fusion” thing before, and Passion Fin falls into the trap we wrote about in our Kenji Fusion entry back in January. Again, “if you can do one thing well, stick with it. The more you add, the more washed out it becomes.” Passion Fin is no different.

On to the food and service. Jake was a very pleasant and competent server. His attentive service and repeated (but not overdone) check-ins made sure we were satisfied with each course. Elena went mostly Thai, Bill went mostly Chinese. Most courses were very mediocre (see above and the Frasier quote from the Kenji Fusion entry). We started with the Crab Wonton and two soups: Miso and Tom Yum. Average, expected, but not very exciting. Our entrees were Sesame Chicken ($14) and Drunken Noodles ($10). Each were average and needed some “heat”, but requests for hot sauces were unfulfilled, other than some sriracha and a flavorless hot oil. The $8 hot sake was a hit, though!

Sesame Chicken

Is Passion Fin good enough to return? Perhaps. Seems they have some really good specials, and they may be enough to get us back. It will be a long wait though since there are many other Mosaic district restaurants we want to try.

Daily Specials

I did my best to keep the Mosaic District discussion to a minimum; however, I can’t keep it out of the discussion. Mosaic is building and building fast. Situated just off the Dunn Loring Orange Metro line, anchored by a wide swath of condos, stores, and apartments. Just look for the construction cranes, as there is plenty of development happening there. The district is well engineered, and hopefully in time the distinct neighborhoods separated by Lee Highway will be bridged so that the southern area will connect to the newer northern end. Anchored by a series of small-medium sized boutiques, grocers, Movie Theater, and a big box Target store, restaurants are plenty. Ted’s Bulletin, BlackFinn, Ocean Pearl, Four Sisters, Cava, SweetGreen, and Gypsy Soul (getting excellent reviews and on many Top Restaurant lists including Northern Virginia Magazine) serve most of the world’s cuisines. With all these notable new additions, we hope Passion Fin can survive.

Drunken Noodles

Passion Fin is comfortable, open, and well-decorated. Sparse Asian décor separates the Sushi bar, regular bar, and a few separate dining rooms. The lighting is perfect – not overbearing, but can still see your menu and food. Music was a strange mix of 80’s and 90’s pop, certainly not expected, but better than the constant stream of ting-y Asian music. The clientele was diverse, ranging from families to millennial daters.  

Kenji Fusion - Bailey’s Crossroads, VA

3539 South Jefferson St 
Bailey's Crossroads, VA 22041
703-575-8811
 

Coconut Herring???

Before you head over to the Asian Fusion restaurant Kenji Fusion in the Skyline/Bailey’s Crossroads neighborhood of Falls Church, consider this exchange between Frasier and Niles in the old sitcom Frasier*:

Niles: Frasier, I hope you're free tonight. I just secured a table at the most exclusive new restaurant in Seattle.

Frasier: I'm sorry - just not in the mood.

Niles: At least hear me out - this place is the hottest new thing in fusion cuisine.

Frasier: What cuisines are being fused?

Niles: Polynesian and Scandanavian. It's called "Mahalo-Valhalla."

Frasier: Well, perhaps there's a reason why God put those two countries so far apart.

Niles: I had my doubts too. But my gourmet newsletter gave three-and-a-half whisks to their coconut herring.

I quote this show because its further proof I am not a big fan of fusion restaurants. The old adage, “if you can do one thing well, stick with it. The more you add, the more washed out it becomes.” I think Kenji Fusion is evidence of this adage. In and around the NoVA dining scene there are really good Chinese, good Japanese, good Korean, good Thai, etc. Search this blog, or Yelp, or other reviewers and you’ll find them. IMHO, when each of the continent’s menus are fused, it takes a lot of guts, skill, and knowledge to pull it off. Kenji Fusion comes close, the food is OK, but what drops its bar is in its service and décor—both are nice, but fall way short of what a restaurant should be. If Niles’ gourmet newsletter gave three-and-a-half whisks to their coconut herring, then we give 2 whisks to Kenji Fusion.
 

Let’s start with the food simply because it was the only part of the meal that was acceptable. Savvy readers may want to skip this section and proceed directly to the décor and service below. Our orders consisted of several Japanese rolls (Philadelphia Rolls, California Rolls, Tempura Shrimp Rolls, Sweet Potato Rolls—oh wait, the Tempura Shrimp and Sweet Potato Rolls never showed up—more on that later). These rolls were “ok”, but I think a Japanese sushi house could do them much better. Our entrées consisted of Singapore Noodles, Chicken Tempura (never showed up—more on that later), Ginger Tofu with Veggies, and Chicken Teriyaki. All of our entrées passed the taste test, but because they were served out of order and some entrées came out late, detracted from the experience. Again, more on that later.

So you probably are here because you skipped the paragraph on the food. That’s ok,

because this is where the review really begins. Finding a place to start is difficult, so we’ll start with the décor as that is always the first impression. Kenji Fusion’s décor tries. Tries real hard, but fails miserably and ends up being very cheesy. Booths are huge, poorly lit, and very uncomfortable as the tables are so narrow that in order to eat you must sit at the edge of the bench. Great ideas in an open floor plan but too much thought on conveying a contemporary atmosphere and not enough though on diner comfort. The lighting is a too-dark mixture constructed with a back-light behind crystal glass balls. Makes for an interesting scheme, however, the gradual color reflections from one color to the next makes reading a menu extremely difficult. TVs showing sporting events and CNN were way out of place and distracted from the entire experience. Maybe limit the TVs to just the bar area?
 

On to the service at Kenji Fusion. OMG, how bad can service be? Order a sushi roll you’re likely to see a coconut herring delivered. OK, our guy may have been new, but he was inattentive, lacked experience (and a command of English), and did not understand the basics of dining service. Nothing could warn us more since he was very attentive on the front-end as we previewed the menu. He came by at least twice before we were ready to order ensuring we knew and understood the drink menu. Our dining companions noticed his elaborate square drawn out on his notepad, but that’s where the organization stopped. We purposely went slow through our order and “hoped” he would get it right.

We ordered two soups and four sushi rolls as starters. The soups arrived soon enough, but only two sushi rolls ever showed up. The menu states that avocado, crab sticks, etc. can be added to any roll order (for an additional charge), imagine our frustration when we ordered a sweet potato roll with extra avocado and had to argue with the waiter to convince him that the menu actually does say this is possible. Since the roll never came, we will never know if the extra was conveyed to the sushi chef. Did our starters (rolls, salads, etc.) actually start the meal? Hardly. Yes, soups came out first (believe it or not, the ONLY thing on our order that came out as ordered and were quite good), but they were followed by a mish-mash of screwed up orders.
 

You’ll have to follow closely here, because this actually happened to one of our diners: Food ordered—tempura shrimp roll (for app) and tempura chicken meal with Miso soup. What came to the diner? The soup, yes. But an entrée of tempura shrimp (with no roll). Ugh.

Three entrées arrived for the four of us with one forgotten about. We waited about 10 minutes for our Chicken – err – Tofu with vegetables to arrive. Yes, ordered tofu, but chicken came out. Obviously another error that was about as messed up as the rest of the service. I could go on-and-on, but you should be getting the point by now.

As with most fusion-type places, there is an attraction to serving a hybrid of different cuisines. If Mom wants Korean, Dad wants Chinese, and the kids want sushi, perhaps a place like Kenji Fusion works. But works only if comfort and service are not high on your list of dining needs. I’ll pass on the coconut herring.


* FRASIER. “Sweet Dreams” written by Jay Kogen, directed by Sheldon Epps. Original Airdate on NBC: 19th May 1998.

iThai (Revisited), Vienna, VA

8607 Westwood Center Dr.
Vienna, VA 22182
(703) 975-8785

Still a pleasant surprise! We LOVED it then and we still LOVE it now. iThai remains a simple, affordable, no-nonsense, convenient, and most of all great tasting Thai restaurant. Can't beat their savory Num Tok and delicious Drunken Noodles.

With great happy hour offerings, cozy atmosphere, and convenient location (just behind the new Wal-Mart in Tysons, if you have not tried iThai yet, what are you waiting for?

Neisha Thai, Tyson's Corner (Vienna), VA

8027 Leesburg Pike Suite 110
Vienna, VA 22182
(703) 883-3588

Num Tok and Tempura

After many years at the Tysons Corner Center Shopping Mall, Neisha Thai relocated across Leesburg Pike (Rt. 7) to the converted office building containing a Nordstrom Rack and a DXL Men’s Fashion store. The fancy dining hall at Neisha Thai is decorated with wood-carved lanterns, cave-like walls dotted with gemstones and impressive water sculptures. This restaurant is definitely not an ethnic dive.

We came to Neisha Thai for a "linner," finding the restaurant completely empty of customers. We were told that their grand opening was the previous week and was packed wall-to-wall with their old loyal customers from their years at the Tysons mall. They had no specials in terms of discounts or dishes, but we were hungry, so we decided to try it.

Drunken Noodles

The dining experience was quite underwhelming. Although the waiter explained the dishes to us, particularly how their Drunken Noodles were different from those in other Thai restaurants, after he brought us the food he sat at the bar with his back to us giving us very sporadic service. Our water and lemonade went unfilled almost until we finished our meal. Getting his attention was rather difficult, especially over the relatively high volume of music, but since we were literally the only customers in the restaurant, it should not be that difficult to get the waiters attention.

Now for the meal. For the good: The (what appeared to be homemade) lemonade was refreshing on the hot afternoon and tempura appetizer was good. In addition to the typical veggies found in the typical tempura appetizer, Neisha Thai’s contained an unusual sampling of asparagus and baby corn and was fresh and good with no oily texture. That's about all the good we can muster for this entry. For the bad: The Num Tok appetizer had a strange sweetness to it, which is unusual, since Num Tok, in our experience, is typically salty and spicy. This one was bland. Although we were warned that they make their

Pineapple Fried Rice

Drunken Noodles in a broth, not dry, this one could be more accurately described as "soupy." But worse than just soupy, despite having 2 peppers next to it on the menu, it was tasteless and bland, again with a strange sweetness like the Num Tok. Their Pineapple Fried Rice dish was served in a half-pineapple, which looked unique and interesting, but unfortunately it looked a lot better than it tasted. We took it home for leftovers and it lingered in our fridge for days, underscoring the unappealing taste.  We have never had Thai leftovers linger in our fridge.

If it was for décor only, we’d return; however, the measure of success for a good restaurant goes far beyond waterfalls and cave-like walls. For good Thai food, we are not likely to return to Neisha Thai. The great tastes and great service of neighborhood places like SweetRice, Tara Thai and i-Thai are definitely a better choice.

Sweet Rice - Thai Cuisine - Falls Church, VA

1113 W Broad St
Falls Church, VA

(703) 241-8582

Don’t blink when you’re driving down Rt 7 on the east side of Falls Church City or you’ll miss Sweet Rice.  Hidden in a small 2-store building on Main St in Falls Church City next to a bakery and across from the Giant/Staples strip mall is a bit of a hidden gem.  A small, clean, and comfortable restaurant which was not too busy the night we visited.  An added benefit is that Sweet Rice is a very local place for us and we’ve eaten there before.  The décor is borderline sparse, but it’s the food that drew us back, not the orient-themed vases, prints, and plants.  This was our second time dining there, and Sweet Rice did not disappoint.  The staff was friendly and courteous and the food was tasty.

Have a favorite Thai dish that’s not on the menu?  No worries.  If Sweet Rice chefs know the recipe they’ll make it for you.  Elena loves Num-Tuk and did not see on the menu.  Not only did they make it for her, but made it with non-traditional ingredients like chicken instead of the traditional beef.  Needless to say, it is TREMENDOUS!

Our favorites at Sweet Rice start with a few appetizers including the unique Blanky Shrimp, 5 large shrimp wrapped in an egg noodle and deep fried served with sweet sour sauce.  Entrees included the Nua Ka Ta, a sizzling platter of marinated beef flank stir-fried in sesame oil and served with pickled vegetables and the stand-by Chicken with Cashews.

We’ve never had a bad experience at Sweet Rice.  One time we had a wonderful evening with friends, other times as a couple.  Each time it’s a new experience in eating some great Thai food. Bottom line, if a good close location adds to the overall appreciation of a restaurant, then this place gets a few extra notches.  Since its close, we are excited about returning there for more great meals and wonderful service.   

We recently heard that Sweet Rice has updated their wine list, so definitely worth going back for a visit.