Fusion cuisine combines elements from several culinary traditions in each dish. Cold Fusion, which took over for Branch Street Retreat in December, claims to be an Asian fusion restaurant, but it doesn’t live up to the spirit of this concept–which, ironically, is why this restaurant is successful, as the food is essentially the same as Branch Street’s, and that means the regulars are still here.
In other words, Cold Fusion was able to inherit a steady customer base by essentially changing nothing (atmosphere, decor, food, etc.). I’ve never walked into a new restaurant and noticed zero changes from the previous incarnation.
Look at the menu. It includes the standard items you’d find at any American restaurant: burgers, sandwiches, wraps, salads, pizza … and then the occasional items that supposedly are “fusion.” Case in point: the Korean chicken ($15.95) was two tiny chicken breasts grilled to death and painted with a slight coating of Teriyaki sauce. The chicken was so dry I couldn’t finish it, and this dish should have cost $9.95 at most.
Meanwhile, the dill artichoke salmon ($17.95) would have suffered the same fate as the Korean chicken had it not been for the arugula cream, which was the only element that provided excitement to this dish. Without having tried them, I suspect similar average-ness from the rest of the entrees, including the ahi tuna, ribeye and mango pork tenderloin.
Out of all the burger choices, I wanted to see how Cold Fusion does with a standard burger, so I got the Old Faithful ($6.96). In this case, I was pleasantly surprised by the thick patty and the perfect char-grilled flavor. The onion roll was a nice touch, too.
The baby-back ribs ($8.95 for appetizer, $13.95 for small entree, $18.95 for large) also were good, except that I immediately thought of these as ribs you would find in a diner. Sure, the meat falls of the bone, but the ribs are heavily dependent on the BBQ sauce, which is probably why they’re drowning in it.
My favorite dish was the Bourbon St. Medley ($18.95), made with penne noodles and cajun alfredo sauce with sauteed shrimp, chicken and andouille sausage. Generous portions of the meat were welcome with the creamy sauce that unfortunately had no trace of “cajun” in it.
A quick note about the sides: don’t order the fries. On two separate occasions, the fries I received were way under-cooked. As for the ratatouille basmati rice, it’s a dense pile of mild, purple goodness. It would complement well a spicy or flavor-intensive dish–if you can find any.
Cold Fusion is open every day for lunch, dinner and carryout. It also has live music weekly.
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See more photos in our Cold Fusion Flickr album.
