New and Improved Zeno Now Called Fusion

 

 

Last weekend, I met some friends for dinner at the restaurant-formerly-known-as-Zeno - now called Fusion. And was happily surprised by the super loungey, swanky decor and new sushi bar that has replaced a fairly sterile, uncomfortable, cafeteria type of space that was okay for lunch but not a place you wanted to hang out at night. When Jefe and I lived in Uptown, we went to Zeno for lunch almost every weekend and I always ordered the house salad with parmesan ranch dressing (instead of the balsamic they normally serve it with - not that much of a tweak). The waitstaff would get my order right about half the time, which is the main problem with this place..the waitstaff is hit or miss..some are great, others are pretty awful. And I can criticize waitstaff because I was a waitress for 5 years, from the time I was 18-22. They really need to kick it up a notch to match their new decor if they want people to frequent their establishment. We chatted with one of the owners and learned they also own Drink Uptown and downtown and a few other places of that caliber (ie cheesy places I won't step foot in due to number of douches who go there and the incredibly bad drinks..I went to the rooftop of the one in Uptown once long ago for happy hour and was disgusted by their watered down, horrible "martinis" - strange that a place called Drink can't seem to make one.) They've done a great job transforming Zeno into a classier place but don't seem to know how to run a classy joint like they want Fusion to be. The sushi (don't worry, I only had rolls that were cooked) was surprisingly good and they've kept their old Zeno menu, which is a bit of a hodge podge for dinner - but definitely has some good items, plus a great dessert menu. They offer a lot of great happy hour specials on food and cocktails, so I'd recommend checking it out for one of their two daily happy hours- 4-7 pm and 10 pm-close.