Chefusion

I had my first dining experience on the first day of Green Bay Restaurant Week.  The beginning was irritating.  I walked to the hostess's stand, and she said, "Do you need any help with anything?"  

Perhaps she thought I was looking for a pedicure, but I think she may have been a bit daft.  

I had reservations, and was seated, but waited nearly 10 minutes before receiving any attention from our waitress.  However, when Abby, my waitress, did arrive, she did a fine job.  She was friendly and attentive, and hopefully represents Chefusion's standard of service better than the hostess did.

For an appetizer, I had a watermelon and tomato salad with feta, almonds, and olive oil.  It was refreshing and attractively presented.  My main course was a braised veal short-rib.  It was heavy, rich, and didn't really fit the season, but it was cooked nicely and flavorful.  

My primary culinary complaint relates to the lobster bisque my dining companion ordered as an appetizer.  There was a skin over the surface, like you might expect with chocolate pudding from an elementary school cafeteria.  This was nearly as unappetizing as the watery broth and the insanely overcooked lobster in the soup.  It really shouldn't have been served.

Despite some rough spots, there were highlights to my meal that I felt made Chefusion worthy of a revisit.  The menu is quite diverse, and offers numerous dishes that sound to be worth trying.  However, if Chefusion seeks to be a great restaurant, I hope they execute their menu better than they did for my first experience.

Really not a bad place overall, just a couple things that could have gone differently to boost this up to a 4 start review. The food was good overall. Nothing too inventive or creative, but the steak and lobster combo were cooked very nicely. The pre-meal carpaccio was billed as "New York" carpaccio but was just too fatty and lacked most of the other accompaniments one would expect.

The service was good, but disjointed. There were times when some plates could have been cleared sooner and the oils that went with the bread for the second half of the table weren't provided until the bread was already gone. Which was disapointing considering the taste I had was really good. Just a timing issue really. Also they only have room to accommodate one table of 4+ and due to spacing this happens to be directly in line with the door. Everytime the door opened, which was quite frequently since the upstairs seemed to be the joint, the table was blasted with Wisconsin winter weather.

Not a bad place, but I would have liked a bit more from the menu, and a bit less from the outdoors. I'll check out the upstairs next time and skip dinner.

I just ate at Chefusion for the first time recently, and it was a very pleasant surprise.  We went to happy hour on Tuesday, and were pleased to discover some Tuesday night specials that weren't advertised.  We got $2 off cocktails and small plates, and the plates were anything but small.  I ordered a filet mignon crostini expecting a few  toast rounds with some shaved steak on top, but instead got two 2-oz, perfectly cooked mini filets on a herb-crusted toast with had absorbed a lot of the beautiful jus.  On one side was a salad of spring greens sprinkled with balsamic, and on the other, a healthy pile of onion straws. Unfortunately, thinking I was getting a small plate, I also had ordered Mac and cheese, which turned out to be exquisitely prepared with tomatoes, spinach and Nueske's bacon.  I saved most of that for the next day.  These two plates and four cocktails (I bought a round) came to a grand total of $38.  What a deal!