A place that has some serious thinking to do if it wants to stay open in the competitive Jhamsikhel lane.
The first thing one notices about Fusion Restro & Bar is its cosy atmosphere. Comfortable couches and paintings recalling Picasso’s touch sit on one side, and behind a glazed partition lies the bar whose walls are adorned with pictures of rock and reggae legends.
However, the music played during the course of our meal was neither rock nor reggae. The playlist shuffled from Pharrell Williams to One Direction, with songs changing abruptly, which became a constant irritant.
Because the restaurant was named Fusion, we wanted to sample dishes that showed a perfect mix of cuisines from different parts of the world. The menu here sadly lacks original recipes but offers a wide range of classic continental and Asian dishes.
On paper, the Fusion fries with cream cheese sauce (Rs 295) sounded very appetising. In reality, this starter did little to make your tummy happy. The fries were served cold. The warmth of the tasty blue cheese on the top gave the potatoes an acceptable temperature but couldn’t redeem the dish.
Our vegetarian order the sauté tofu and bamboo shout (Rs 395) didn’t fare any better. The tofu and mushroom stew had mostly an overpowering taste. Above all, the rice accompanying it was cold and undercooked.
PICS: AYESHA SHAKYA
The Swiss steak (Rs 515) was the order that we were most excited about. However, if you expect a Helvetian recipe like we did, you’ll be very disappointed. The menu described the dish as a tenderloin steak topped with cheese and rum, and served with sautéed veggies and French fries or mashed potatoes. We were neither asked how we preferred our steak nor asked to choose the side. While the name of this dish refers to the calendaring process of ‘swissing’ the meat to soften it, the steak that came out was hard and cold. The only good thing about this dish was the sauce which had a hint of alcohol, just enough to reveal the savoury cheese. The mashed potatoes, even though cold, was really tasty and creamy.
The three dishes were all served at the same time, thirty minutes after we’d placed the orders and each one of them was served cold. It maybe that the restaurant was simply having a bad day or were short staffed because of the festival time, but Fusion Restro & Bar has some serious thinking to do about its food if it wants to stay open in the competitive Jhamsikhel lane where better restaurants have brought down their shutters too soon after their opening.
How to get there: Fusion Restro & Bar is located in Jhamsikhel, just before St Mary’s School’s compound wall appears to the left.