Fontana Sushi

05/16/2008 Posted by juliedenver

Fontana Sushi is awful. The rice was old tasting and not soft and easy to eat like other sushi. They use imitation crab!!!!! YUCK. $4 for a California Roll with fake crab- go to John Holly for 50 more cents you get high quality REAL crab. The shrimp was tasteless and the Soba noodles were disgusting- seriously- we had 8 people eating and no one ate them- everyone put a little on their plates and we all agreed they weren't bad- they were disgusting. I bought $100 of food for my family and a family we were having over for dinner. I should not have tried this place for as much as I spent. We were all very disappointed- they can't even cook decent sushi rice?! I called and expressed my disappointment and he said he was sorry he couldn't make me happy and that most places charge $8 for a California Roll. I informed him that his competitors charge a mere 50 cents more for real, good quality crab with melt in your mouth sushi rice. Seriously it hurts to give them $100 for crappy, crappy, low quality food. I could have yummy, high quality food for the same amount of money from John Holly. Live and learn and you get to learn w/o the pain of ordering from Fontana since I have spent this time to write this out. My loss is your gain.

Pros: There are no pros to this place.

Cons: Too many cons to list- see review.

03/22/2008 Posted by ZUSHI

So I normally don't post reviews... can't hold back this time. I am stunned at the similarities between all the reviews in the past year or so of Fontana. My boyfriend and I have the same story. We have been regulars at Fontana for the past six years or so. Regular enough to start being recognized by the staff and eventually they started sending us a free roll or two during each visit. What could be better, free sushi!!!! And then... What happened?!?!?! We gradually started noticing a decline in the service, excessive time to even have water brought to the table, not to mention the food. Hot sake was brought out ranging from luke warm to completely cold. Pretty sure they just microwaved it when this was brought to the waitresses attention. Ughh. The final straw happened about a few months ago. My boyfriend loves uni (sea urchin) and the past few times we've been out for sushi several restaurants didn't have it in stock. So to avoid another bitter disappointment for him we call ahead to ask if they have uni available. No hesitation, no quick trip to check, the person on the phone says that it's available. Should have known better. We get there, have our miso, listen to the girls behind us talk about how they have been there for an hour (the place is totally empty) and still haven't gotten their food. Then it happens, the waiter comes to tell us the dreaded " Sorry, no uni today." Being out of something happens but to tell people on the phone that you have it? That's terrible service. They tried to make up for it with a tofu dish. LOL, have you ever tasted uni? Nothing like tofu. So needless to say, our long six year love affair with fontana is over. Would not recommend eating here at all any more. : ( Oh and when the girls behind us did finally get their food, they didn't finish it and said they would be going elsewhere to get full. Insult on top of injury!! Sorry to see a cozy neighborhood place like this that has no pretentiousness go to the wayside. :(

Pros: cheap

Cons: Slow service, poor quality/availability of menu items, hot sake served cold!

03/21/2008 Posted by skweelz1

My dining group goes to a different sushi restaurant each week and I wanted to give my new neighborhood sushi restaurant a try. I set up a reservation for 15 and they said we would have a private room. We got there and they said the room was too small for us so they packed us in a corner. Only 9 of us were there but waited an hour and a half for our sushi order...yes that is not a typo. The server explained that the manager wanted one sushi chef to make all of our order instead of splitting us into 2 smaller groups...ridiculous! The sushi was average at best. I would suggest sitting at the sushi bar for better service. I was pleased with the $1 size portions but the rolls were nothing spectacular. Many other sushi restaurants worth going to!!!

Pros: $1 nigiri are large pieces and worth it!

Cons: Service and managment needs some major work!

03/01/2008 Posted by edophile

I used to be a huge fan of Fontana's -- great sushi, good price, nice atmosphere. I've probably been there at least a half a dozen times and always would wait in line (sometimes 45 minutes). But the last time we were waiting in line, we watched insects (citysearch won't let me use the "R" word) crawling all over the wall in a room full of people. I can't remember the last time I saw a "R" in Denver, period. Needless to say we left to go Sushi Den -- it costs more but at least the kitchen is open and you can tell it's clean. Later I spoke with a friend who say she never goes there after hearing the place had been closed down numerous times.

02/12/2008 Posted by MadamFire

I used to really like fontana susi but too have noticed them going down hill. Last time I went there I noticed a health inspection sign that was placed in a spot that would not have been visible had I not sat down to wait for my pick up order. They had a long list of health code violations. Bad ones! Things like not keeping food at a regulated temprature, not providing a smoking area for emplyees.. there were like 5 violations. When I finally did get my california rolls they were really just sloped together and not rolled tight at all. Last time I had a problem with the crab smelling sour when I complained they accused me of trying to get a free meal. I was just concerned about others getting sick and was treated like a scammer. Fontana is deffenittly a place I will stay far far away from in the futre. I will probably start eating susi from go fish or sondonas- Some place that does not have a problem with sanitation or health code violations.

Pros: nice fish tanks and lot's of windows

Cons: health code violators

08/11/2007 Posted by penmo

This place was enjoyable at one time, but it has definitely gone downhill. I noticed a negative change when I got sick from their sushi. I know eating sushi makes you more prone to getting sick but I have had sushi lots of times at many different places and have never gotten sick. The next time my friend and I gave it another try we had another bad experience. Her Unagi was not fully cooked and should have been. We told the watress and instead of being courteous about it and either replacing the piece or taking it off our bill she just defended it by saying it should be fully cooked and there is no way it wouldn't be because they receive it already cooked and just warm it up in the microwave. Well how lovely, microwaved sushi....what a turn off... And she still didn't replace the piece or take it off the bill! They have Poor service, bad sushi, and it takes forever to be seated and acknowledged by the servers. Avoid this place.

Cons: Bad Service, Risk of Getting Sick, Microwaved Sushi

07/10/2007 Posted by thinkpink5836

The fish was so fresh and so good. I loved everything about this place. The only down side was the rice. It wasn't traditional sushi rice, but for the price I can look past that. The staff is very nice and can answer any questions you may have.

07/10/2007 Posted by dxschro

I've visited Fontana's many times before, but after my last visit I most likely will be very leery to go back for another sitting. We went to dinner there on a Monday in July of 2007 night. The place was pretty slow and we were seated right as we walked into the door. We were directed to the north corner of the building, where we were seated at an uncomfortably placed table with a broken chair. Once we were seated it took only a few minutes to see a waitress and order our drinks, at that time our waitress identified herself at the beginning, but we only saw her once again after that when she presented us with our bill. There were several different waitresses that brought different items so it was hard to tell who our individual waitress was. We were refilled with water 3 times before our food was served. We also had noticed that other parties that had been seated after us were server much earlier than we were. When the food finally came with its 45 min wait and it was nothing but average. Understanding that the price is very affordable, you don’t get a large portion for your money. Upon inspection of my dinner I found the sushi to be rather unpleasant. To name a few, the Squid was at about room temperature along with about half the order, the only thing that was cold was the normal fish over rice orders. The rolls were good, they also could have been a bit cooler, but it is hard to mess up on a roll otherwise. The arrangement of the food was excellent as always, but one thing I have noticed is that the colors are very scattered, not in an arrangement of light to dark. Our total time from approach into the restaurant, until exiting was 2 hours.

01/22/2007 Posted by resinwich

If you're not into spending $100 on dinner for two at Sushi Den, Fontana is a nice substitute. We're there constantly, and that's after trying a lot of other places around Denver. For some reason, nothing can quite surpass Fontana's combination of quality and vlue. The $1 "happy hour" prices are nice (especially for their salmon and eel, which are great), the service is usually good, and the sushi is excellent 95% of the time. Parking is a bit of a pain at times, but you'll figure it out.

06/09/2006 Posted by rater3

We finally went to Fontana Sushi based on several people's recommendations. The first time we were there, we had to seat ourself (and it wasn't busy). The Sushi was very good and we went back. This time we, and several other folks, waited for 20 minutes before someone even talked to us to get our names to add to the waiting list! Then a month later I saw some story on FoxNews about health code violations. Net is, that even though the Sushi is good/average and I could even overlook the health issues because it looked clean to me. The lack of customer service is enough to keep me away.

Pros: Pretty Good Sushi

Cons: Parking, Lack of Attention to Customers