Fudo Food Drinks Sushi

The area that once was known as Chambodia has become so gentrified in the most textbook case of the word. Chamblee is growing rapidly and becoming the target of big name developers with their cookie cutter mixed-use build plan for every shithole nook and cranny around Atlanta. Let's face it, Atlanta is so over built and congested that there is nowhere else to build except out towards OTP where all the minorities live. Eventually, they, too, will be priced out of their own neighborhoods by righteous hipsters who pretend to crusade for the very people that they kick out. In the not so distant future, the acronym OTP will not be taboo anymore because all the ethic grub and mom & pop shops will have no choice but to move further out due to the huge spike in rents that comes with these mixed-use developments... Most small business owners don't have the luxury of unlimited capital from an ultra rich investor like Ford Fry does to back any project at will which is kinda sad. What's even sadder is that the super affordable working man's Mexi-grub found up and down Buford Highway is 100 times better than any overpriced item found on Superica's Mexican't menu.
So, this new mixed-use development in Chamblee is really nothing special, it looks like every other "live work play" layout... But it does have a few dining options in it already and more to come. They got Bad Daddy Burger, Poke Bar, Chronic Tacos, The Alden and now, Fudo... They carefully avoid using the word "fusion" on their website but "wide variety of mixed Asian food" ain't fooling anyone, either. So, what does Fudo mean anyways? Well... "Fudo means food with no limits." No limits is right... There are 72 fucking sushi rolls on the menu! Seven-T-fucking-two rolls and a lot of them have cream cheese. Sounds like just a fancypants Ru San's to me.
I'm not a big fan of sushi rolls because we all know rolls aren't real sushi... But the self proclaimed sushi connoisseurs who don't eat raw fish will gobble that shit up like there's no tomorrow. But they also do have a sushi and sashimi menu which isn't very exciting and seems a bit overpriced for unproven source of product... It's printed on half a sheet of paper that could be easily over-looked. But they did have sweet shrimp which I'm a sucka for every time just like the goddamn spider roll. Jesus, why am I so obese and low rent... No wonder why I can't get a date... I can't even get a date with my hand after sitting on it for an hour to pretend it's a stranger.
Ok, enough of flapping my flabby jowls and fingering the keyboard with my greasy sausage fingaz... Let's take a first look and see if they are just another Ru San's in a Hanbok... But wait, 90% of the menu are rolls! Eh, fuck it, just eat it Pouch, you ain't getting any skinnier. When in Rome, eat as the Coreans eat...

Tori Karaage. Y'all know I can't resist fwied cheekan in any form... I fucking love karaage. But these sad little white meat nuggets were over salted and had a flat wet batter with no texture. Good karaage should always be dark meat and have a light crispy flaky crust with texture so it can grab on to the sauce when you dip it... But with good karaage you really don't need a sauce. I didn't even finish them... How blasphemous! Trust me, skip them, yo.

Assorted Tempura, shrimp, sweet potato, eggplant, zucchini. The presentation looked kinda chintzy compared to the giant bowl of dashi shoyu sauce but once you separate all the pieces, it was a respectable portion with 2 pieces each. The shrimp tempura was hand battered unlike most places with the frozen premade stuff. Not too shabby.

Sweet Shrimp. As with the karaage and spider roll, I just can't resist sweet shrimp, either. You get 3 shrimp sashimi for $12 which is not too bad... But they were kinda small and one biters. It was fine but it really didn't have that sweetness you would expect from a quality sweet shrimp. The presentation was fancy looking but looks don't always mean it's craveworthy. Let's get to the best part of a sweet shrimp...

Fried heads! Easily, the best part of sweet shrimp... Especially, if the heads are filled with mustard or tomalley or whatever the fuck you wanna call them, wait, how about just brains! And I can stare lovingly into their black beady little eyeballs for minutes on end. Oh, my, I'm getting a blood flow just thinking about licking those black little pearls. The spot-on fried heads were better than the shrimp itself. Would I get them again? Nah, save the money for a spider roll... Speaking of which...

Spider Roll. It looked ok when it came out. I was kinda expecting a more visual presentation with the crab legs sticking out at the end like a peacock tail but sadly this crab had like two little retarded legs twisted together. They shoulda named it the Tiny Tim Roll, instead. It wasn't a bad spider roll, it just didn't wow me like a few other places that do it right with plump fried soft shell crab and minimal filler.

King Kong, spicy tuna, avocado, topped with yellowtail, spicy aioli (baked), masago, scallions, crunch. Jesus, is this a picture of a STD? My god, what kinda gonorrhea mess did I get myself into... Do I eat it or build a foundation for a sunroom with it? I know I said, when in Rome, eat as the Coreans eat... But for fuck sake, how do you even eat this monstrosity? It's like a cinder block. I was actually more interested in how they come up with these names... They have one called B.T.S. but don't tell you what it stands for. They shoulda named this one IBS... Maybe this one makes you take King Kong size dumps. This thing was awful... With all that shit on it, you would think it would be an explosion of flavors but this tasted like eating R13 insulation. The Pouch says pass.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix, salmon, yellowtail, spicy tuna, crunch, spicy aioli Topped with black tobiko. What is this, the Nightcrawler's tail? I must admit, this looked a lot more appetizing than the King Dong roll. It looked a lot cleaner and more traditional. While it didn't taste like much of anything, especially, the fish inside, it was still light years ahead of the previous brick roll...Wait, I got Rick rolled on that last one. But that doesn't mean I would ever get this again... Because I wouldn't.

Like I said, I'm not a big fan of rolls... It's like the gateway sooshee for people who doesn't really care for the real stuff. I still remember this loud ass broad at another Japanese joint telling everybody that she absolutely loves sushi but doesn't eat the raw stuff... Yeah, she was one of those people. So, I paid for the California roll, took her home and pumped and dumped it the next day or maybe it was the other way around... Hmmm, Japanese whisky usually have that affect on me.
I can't say if there will be another visit for me in the future but the staff was great and the owner was gracious and I wish them well. I'm sure they will do fine in this newly developed area, it has the right demographics for their sushi rolls galore. They should put a giant menu on the wall and have diners throw darts at it because no matter which roll you pick, it will probably taste the same as the other 71 rolls... Talk about being Rick Roll'd. On second thought, I don't think I will be back but I will bless their heart.

5070 Peachtree Blvd
Suite A100
Chamblee, GA 30341
http://www.fudoatl.com/