Fusion, White-Tablecloth Indian on Georgia Avenue and Delafield Place in Petworth - Closed

[clchurch]

According to the Prince of Petworth, a new Indian Restaurant has just opened in Petworth. I am somewhat skeptical about anything with the word "fusion" in it, but it appears to have a great pedigree - click.

[Rhone1998]

We tried Fusion last night. Let me first say that this is the sort of place I really, really wanted to like. Young, very warm and friendly couple opening a place (and an Indian place in a city with few good ones) in a marginal neighborhood...it's a very pretty space, white tablecloths but not stiff or formal in any way (owners kids playing in the back of the restaurant)

The menu leans mostly toward North Indian stand-bys -- tandori prawns, chicken tikka masala, lamb korma, shrimp malai curry, that kind of thing -- with a few twists (and somewhat odd-sounding ones at that, for instance wild alaska smoked salmon, prawn mouse and dill cream cheese )

Fusion has only been open since Tuesday, so I would hesitate to pass final judgement, but our first impressions of the food weren't that great. Generally, our dishes were underspiced. For entrees we tried the shrimp malai curry and the lobster masala. It seemed that the two seafoods were added to exactly the same base, which was coconut-milk based and quite frankly bland. For appetizers, we had ragda patties, which the menu describes as spiced potato patties, chick peas, tamarind and date chutney. The patty was again underspiced, and mushy when you would have expected crisp. We also tried the crispy spinach salad. I'll avoid a direct comparison to the more famous example of this dish down in Penn Quarter, but judging Fusion's version just on its own merits it unfortunately was underspiced (theme of the evening) and kind of oily.

So, they have some kitchen issues to work out quite frankly. But hopefully they get things on track and make a good go of it there...

[Waitman]

We had a similar experience and came to similar conclusions.

[Rhone1998]

Does anyone know if the chef whose dishes Todd Kliman admires in today's chat was there from the beginning, or is a new addition to Fusion? I would certainly be willing to give this place a second try if changes have been made...

[saf]

Does anyone know if the chef whose dishes Todd Kliman admires in today's chat was there from the beginning, or is a new addition to Fusion?

I believe he's talking about Barry, who is also the owner and has been there all along.

I like the place, although I think it costs a bit much for what it is, so we haven't been there in a while.

[DonRocks]

PoPville just announced that the building housing Fusion is for sale - no mention of whether or not it's closed, but it's apparently moving to a new location.

Fusion is owned by Barry Dindyal who also owns The Hitching Post.

[DonRocks]

Fusion is closed. The owner says he's looking for another location, but we'll see how that goes. Indeed, the article cited above sounds like the building housing it was for sale, so this could have simply been a forced closure through no fault of the owner. (Thanks SF)

Going from left-to-right: 4815, 4813, and 4811 Georgia Avenue NW: Fusion, a building with a realtor's sign on it, and what used to be Moroni and Brothers:

[saf]

No, he left on his own. It was sad. (My favorite yoga studio used to be across the street, and moved for similar reasons. Several other businesses also left around the same time.)

There was a series of crimes in the block, and very poor response from the police and from council member Bowser's office. It meant a ton of expenses for the businesses, and a lot less foot traffic, which was not all that high to begin with.