My husband's boss turned us on to a new place in Addison called Fast Furious that became an immediate favorite.
The menu at this Japanese fusion restaurant is unique and fresh, covering the gamut of Asian food cravings from sushi to bidimbap bowls with concise and exciting offerings.
The menu itself is a little gimmicky and confusing. The attempt to incorporate car related terminology to keep with the theme of the restaurant is lost unless you have identical brainwaves to whoever came up with it. Although, come to think of it, I'm not an auto mechanic- it may make perfect sense to someone who speaks car. Either way, at first the menu looks like it's outlining chronological steps to ordering like some places offer, but by the 3rd or 4th visit I realized that the random titles are just separating sections of the menu into type. For easiest ordering, at least the first time, just look at the display of labeled photos on the wall.
In addition to the dinner menu, there is a hot bar with certain classic a la cart options available. The potstickers are good, perhaps not amazingly unique, but how many ways are there to doll up a potsticker? I only look for it to resemble a potsticker and be hot.
Now let's get down to the food. My husband usually gets the Wow Bowl (featured above) which includes lightly battered crispy chicken, fried rice with bits of egg, strips of seaweed, raw cucumber, raw, diced bell pepper, and is drizzled with two sauces, one a sweet hoisin based sauce, and the other a flavored mayonnaise based number. If you are looking to be filled and satiated, this is the bowl for you. you may opt to get the mayo sauce on the side, however, as it does seem to kind of take over and weigh you down by the time you finish sometimes.
I usually get the Spicy Bomb, which lives up to its name like you wouldn't believe. It starts with a base of white rice, chopped Iceburg lettuce, and cucumbers, which you'll be grateful for to cool your mouth and face as you delve into this devilish dish. The chicken is marinated overnight in a jalapeno marinade, giving it a ton of flavor and heat on its own, and then is smothered in jalapenos and a Sriracha based sauce that just barely straddles that line between too spicy to notice the flavor and really yummy, vinegary flavor. This dish is not for the faint palates out there- but if you love a hearty burn in your belly, this is for you. I personally squeeze a couple of lemon slices over my dish to balance the heat a little bit, and I find that amplifies the actual flavor of the dish, keeping it from being overpowered entirely by the spice.
A friend of mine tried Fast Furious for the first time with us the other day and she ordered the beef and shrimp with noodles. She gave high praise for the flavors and mostly virtuous option, though pointed out if you are looking for a healthy option, the noodles aren't the best starch for that.
Now for the bad news. I'm frustrated to have to write this because the Addison location has been nothing but amazing every time we've been. But when we found out there was another location opening on Greenville Ave in Dallas, we were excited because it's not as far from our neighborhood. So excited, in fact, we went twice to see if it had opened yet while they were still getting ready for opening. Therefore I hope it can be chalked up to a green staff that I have to criticize at all, but what kind of food critic would I be if I didn't report the truth?
If you've read my review of Wendy's, you're probably already aware of how important food safety is to me. When we went to the new location to eat and take photos for this review, my husband ordered the potstickers, as we often do. What I didn't see, but he noted, was that they just reached into the hot bar with their bare hand and grabbed the potstickers. Now this is a no-no on two levels for me. first of all, your hot bar should be keeping cooked meats at a temperature of 165+ degrees. That should really be too hot to touch with a bare hand. Sure enough, they weren't even warm when we got to the table. Secondly, and most importantly, EW! PUT SOME GLOVES ON OR USE TONGS! That's super gross. I didn't make a stink about it at the time, because my husband had already watched it happen and hadn't said anything. He noted that the employee had been deliberately trying to itch his/her nose without touching hands to face, so he did think s/he was trying to be careful about germs, but that's not how it works. The other thing is that it was about 7:00 when we were there and it was totally empty when we got there:
This makes sense for a new location on a Tuesday at a somewhat late hour, and a few patrons straggled in as we ate, but I guess the cook got bored, because he repeatedly went into jarringly loud, lengthy drum solos with his tools on the metal flat top, making conversation difficult until he finished.
Here's the thing. I LOVE the Fast Furious food. I LOVE their menu, and I have never in about a dozen visits had a single complaint about the Addison location. I have introduced several friends and family to the restaurant, all of whom have called it an instant favorite. Fast Furious was actually one of the restaurants that inspired me to start this blog. I have additionally had a couple of good experiences at the new location. So I hate to have to put anything negative in this review. But I also know that sometimes there are a few innocent kinks to be worked out in training employees at a brand new location.
I acknowledge that the Greenville location is brand spanking new, with new employees and possibly new management, and their food still tastes excellent. So I'm going to issue a challenge. I will go back to the new Greenville location of Fast Furious in about a month, and if my experience has improved I will write a full retraction. I want restaurants to succeed, be discovered- that's why I write this blog. I want people to find new favorite foods and places to eat, I don't want to injure reputations. But I also insist on a quality experience and safe food handling practices. So for now, I think you should ALL check out the Fast Furious in Addison on Belt Line and Marsh, or the one on Royal and tell me how it is- I haven't been yet- and hopefully in a few weeks I'll be sending you to the new location as well.
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