The newest restaurant in 5 Points is the Fu Hao Bistro located at 1001 Park Street (at the corner of Post Street). The Asian inspired venue opened this week and offers selections from China, Japan, and Thailand. Jason, Mark, and Joe popped in for lunch the other day and have reported back to us about their experience.
When you first enter the restaurant you are greeted by two life-size stone statues and a smiling hostess eager to show you to your table. The ambiance is fairly nice, with one exception, there are these flashing glow stick things attached to the overhead lights and we started to feel some sort of mind-control or seizures coming on. Otherwise, the entire place is quite nice.
The lunch menu consists of the basics in Chinese food and for a paltry $7.50 you get a main dish with rice, egg roll, and a soup or salad. Jason ordered the Cashew Chicken with a Hot and Sour Soup. Everything was pretty good and there was more than enough food.
Mark had the Beef and Broccoli with a Wonton Soup. Both were good.
Joe(y) had a Ginger Salad and Teriyaki Chicken which were good as well but he prefers the Teriyaki Chicken at a neighboring restaurant, Sushi Cafe.
Overall everything was good, especially for the price. One thing we want to not is that the service was quite slow. Nikki, formerly of Sake House, stopped by the table to say that she was aware of the slow service and that they were working out some kinks for a smoother service in the future. She was very gracious, as were the hostesses and servers. We will certainly go back again.
21 comments:
We had a table of 5 eat there on opening night. The food was delicious! The service was a bit off, but that's true with just about every restaurant opening. I liked the food and atmosphere so much, I took 7 others for dinner again last night. The service had markedly improved in just 2 days. While everyone agreed their meal was very good, some favorites emerged: Peking (Crispy) Duck, walnut shrimp, Thai yellow curry chicken, chicken lo mein and crispy whole fish, which is prepared authentic Chinese style. The deserts are also outstanding. The food is good, the interior is stylish, comfortable and clean, the service is good and improving daily, and the price is reasonable. If I had to draw a comparison with other restaurants, I'd characterize it as a more intimate and cozy P.F. Chang's. Fu Hao Bistro is my new favorite restaurant in Jax!
Honestly, I have no idea how you guys had a good experience there. I had dinner with two friends (one of whom is a chef) on Friday evening with high expectations, and it was just a huge disappointment. Our waiter (who seemed terrified and confused, poor guy) said that everything on the menu was made from scratch--but that can't be true. The ginger dressing was watery and tasteless, the Tom Yum (sp?) soup gave us food poisoning and was scary looking (we've had it before in many other places), and the entrees were just bad. One entree was a chicken dish that had absolutely no sauce, but somehow, was incredibly spicy. I had the shrimp lo mein... but I've had better at that chinese take-out place near the publix. Our other entree was the mango salad, which was just the side salad topped with unripenedd, hard mango chunks and apple bits (to make it seem like there was more mango). Dessert just got worse. We ordered the fried ice cream, which was NOT FRIED ICE-CREAM. It was 2 separate teaspoonfuls (I am not exaggerating) of oddly yellow vanilla ice cream on top of two soggy fried dough cups. How is that fried ice cream? It's not! To make it worse, the soggy cups were on top of a mountain of redi-whip. There was more redi-whip than anything else, and it had melted before it had reached te table. The other dessert was their so-called specialty, which was a slice of cheesecake (that came out 100% frozen stiff--not made there, obviously) with some fried banana thing. For some reason, this dish had a more substantial amount of ice cream... even though it was a cheesecake dish. I sent the "fried" ice cream back since it was not how the dish is supposed to be made, and our poor waiter got yelled at by the woman who was working... RIGHT BY OUR TABLE. We heard everything, and she kept giving me dirty looks every time she walked by me. I do NOT recommend this restaurant to anyone--save your money and send this place packing. Our waiter was awesome, and I hope he gets a better job in a place that gives both their staff and patrons respect.
I had lunch there and was not impressed. It wasnt bad, but it definately wont be on my top 5 of lunch, much less dinner places to go.
another thai place, really......
these food photos look like the deposits in my cat's litter box
Classy
went in for lunch the other day, the service was good, we had the short blond female server, although the manager seemed to be jumping in to help the servers when it was not required, and micromanages them a little to much, as we noticed her talking to our server, the conversations seemed to make her more and more nervous. the only other complaint we had was that one of the male servers was making inappropriate comments to the other, female, servers, and one of the hostesses. the food was great, and the decor was amazing, especially the dragon being painted on the eastern wall of the bistro. the food was good, and we enjoyed the bistro overall, but if the manager felt uncomfortable with the servers doing there jobs, she should not have corrected then while the restaurant was open. we had no complaints, but the manger seemed to make our server nervous.
I went in for dinner a few days ago. I thought it was great. The manager, the short chinese woman, was abraisive and rude not only to us but to her servers, bt the service we recieved there made it all worth while. Two of the male servers made sexist comments toward me and one of them smelled heavily of booze, but our waitress, a petite girl with short hair, she was cute and hd a huge smile. I wish i could remember her name, but she had very short hair, up by her ears. She was very short too. ASk for her,s he was great.
She made it all worth it. I'll deffinitely go back there, she was so friendly and prompt. The food was ok. I liked the sweet n' sour soup. I didn't so much care for the ginger dressing. It kinda sucked. My date let me try some of his.
I was greeted by a tall, leggy brunnete, with a warm smile. She lead us to our table and made sure we were comfortable before leaving, instead of running off in a hurry like alot of hosteses do.
Our server was there very quickly and gave us great recomendations.
She gave us plenty of time to order, not taking to long to return, nor rushing us.
The bus girl was eager to please and she did indeed please.
The male server with the brown hair smelled of booze and the blond male server openly hit on me, prompting the brown haired one to do the same. I felt sexually harrassed and I could tell that many of their workers did too.
The music repeated itself. We were there for only a few hours, trying very much to enjoy our meal and the music replayed itself repeatedly, over and over, it was very grating!!!! Did they have no more songs to play? I'd be willing to donate a cd to that worthy cherity, how 'bout yall?
The manager was a bitch. I didn't like her at all. She yelled at our server within our ear shot when she was doing absolutely NOTHING wrong. I wouldn't return if she couldn't serve me. She was awsome and she's what made the experience one of the best I've had since I'd moved to Jacksonville.
Our bus girl stopped by often to keep our drinks filled and not once did they go dry. Koodos to her.
THe other bus girl did the same and I must say the service team at Fu Haos is infact, a team, except for the the afore mentioned men. I'd rather them not be present the next time I dine there, but I'll put up with them for the great service I recieved from our server.
We finished our meal and ordered our check, but for some reason the blond male took it upon himself to ask us if we wanted desert. WE had already asked for and recieved oru check and he wasn't even our server. He stood over our table like a vulture and he seem vaguely juvinile, at least to me.
When we got up to leave, the hostess from before and the shorter brunette were so friendly. If I weren't so devoted to my boyfriend and our girlfriend I'd deffinitely go for her. She was cute and friendly, but the taller was seemed more confident in herself and was ubber pretty/cute, so was the blond buss girl.
The hostesses offered friendly wishes for our return, in the near future and allowed us to snagg a couple of fortune cookies and a take out menu. If I'd had more cash on me I would have tipped them. THey'd earned ti and I felt bad that I had spent so mch on dinner I didn't have anything lef tto give them.
Tha'ts another thing. THe food was expencive, we had to go in togetyher on it, but it was worth it.
Over all, a good experience, Highly recomended. I wish I'd asked the anmes of the two lovely hostesses, why don't they wear name taggs? But deffinitely ask for the short girl. I wish I'd remembered the name. They are friendly and introduce themselves right off. But ladies, try to stay away from the two males I mentioned, but the bald one was pleasant when I spoke briefly to him as I went to the bathroom. I like him, he didn't stare at my tits, the other two did. Boo for them, koodos to the others.
3 out of five stars, mainly because of the manager and the two pigs.
I think they were all kinda nice and the chinese manager was sweet. He was really nice when he greated us. You have no right to call him a she.
The hostesses were gracious, the tall one was sweet, the short one wasn't so mych. She'd be better if you got the stick out of her butt.
The servers were nice. I agree about the bald guy, He served me, he was cool. I like the lunch there. The chicken was a little spicy, but I like it.
THe service as great, the hostesses were hot, the food was alright, but the atmosphere was outstanding. Two thumbs up.
i think you guys are a bunch a idiots!
this place is an amazing place to eat at and i would go there all the time if i had the money. nikki, the owner, is awesome! shes chinese and adorable. shes so sweet to everyone. she is a little harsh on the servers but you need to understand that she jus opened up a new resturant. she only wants it to be perfect. get real!
i went there for dinner and ordered the cashew chicken. it was DELICIOUS!!!
their food is amazing and so is the ginger dressing. this is most definitely my favorite chinese/asain/thai/whatever resturant in town.
oh, and i remember my servers name, it was damien, or damen or something like that, but he was loud yet entertaining.
and none of the hostess had sticks up their asses! so shut up. and stop being so harsh.
overall, i like it...a lot!
oh, and however wrote the other ones, learn how to spell!
I concur, the cashew chicken was DELICIOUS!
I certainly think Nicky was a sweet heart, but the sweet and sour soup could have been spicier. The hostesses were great, our server was great. I remember his name, too, Mike. He seemed too refined to me to be a 'Mike' but to each his own.
When all was said and done, I really liked. I'm going there again.
Sorry, HOT and sour soup.
The food was great, the service was great, the folks were great, it was great.
The food was good and the place was very pretty but the manager a small asian women seemed to be making her servers nervious whern she corrected them in front of the costomers, and it seemed that she was doing so without reason other then that it was wonderful.
STAY AWAY! Two of us went to eat there for dinner. We ordered the Pad Thai and Lemon Grass with Tofu instead of meat. When we got our bill we were charged for the most expensive Pad Thai and Lemon Grass (the one with shrimp) plus an extra $3 for tofu. The manager said it was the restaurant's policy to charge the highest amount plus the additional charge. He then said that it is typical to use chicken, beef, and/or pork in the sauce of Pad Thai and other dishes and that they use it in all their dishes so that if it is modified they have to remake the sauce thus the upcharge. I asked my chef friend who said that is completely false.
This is a warning to anyone that for whatever reason does not eat those products, this restaurant uses these products in their food and if you want tofu instead a $10 Pad Thai will cost you $17.
I go here a lot, and other than the austere booths and bright lights, I love it. The food is FANTASTIC. I can't believe the guy above me is bitching about a special-ordered dish being $17 when every other Thai place in town charges more than that as their regular menu price. WTF? Ever been to Lemongrass, Poms, Thai Bistro, etc., etc., etc.???? $17 will barely buy you an appetizer at most of the insanely overpriced Thai places in Jacksonville. This place is actually very reasonably priced.
I'm in love with the hostess. And the spinach and tofu soup. The Pad Thai is plain, but expensive if you add vegetables and/or Tofu (god forbid both!)--they need more vegetarian/vegan options.
To the anonymous person who's suggesting learning how to spell, please learn how to write coherently with proper punctuation and grammar before making such a request (or calling people idiots when you clearly are one yourself).
That entire post seemed like a poorly written response from someone who works there (management, perhaps?) or someone who was encouraged to advertise on their behalf. I've never seen anyone try to justify a restaurant manager's poor attitude for such a ridiculous reason. Nothing makes a diner feel more uncomfortable than hostility.
Your post was awkward, yet entertaining to read because it was so terribly written. I must say, it's quite lovely how you start a new line after every sentence (if you could call them that).
It was funny.
Look, I'm doing it now.
The difference is that I am capitalizing the first word of each sentence.
Isn't that a bizarre concept?
Snap.
We eat there all the time and everytime we do, we leave saying "I really hope this place stays open"... we recommend it to all our friends. The food is delicious, the price is great, and the service is fantastic. The only thing is, PLEASE get rid of those terrible neon lights. They are hideous and so out of place! I get that they look like bamboo and all with the theme of an Asian restaurant.. but the neon blinking things are terrible & you can't ignore them! However, maybe now people will go just to see how awful they are and that was the plan all along :)
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