In December of 2015, a long-time and locally favorite restaurant closed in Davenport. Riefe's (pronounced REE-fees) Restaurant was open for 69 years - 66 years in the same location - when brothers Rick and Dan Riefe decided to close down the restaurant that was started by their grandfather and father in Bettendorf in 1946 and moved to Davenport in 1949. Riefe's was famous for their big breakfasts and great comfort food. (Click here to read about a Road Tips visit to Riefe's from a few years ago.) The building sat empty for about a year before another restaurateur came forward to purchase the building for a new restaurant - a sushi place. We sort of laughed at the irony when we heard that a sushi joint was going into the old Riefe's, but when they finally opened in March of last year we were sort of intrigued about trying the place out. One Friday evening not long ago, we decided to finally give Fuji Sushi and Grill a try. (see map)
It took about three months for the transformation of an established family restaurant known for their comfort food into a sleek looking sushi place complete with a dance floor for a late night club scene. It was actually sort of weird to look around the place when we first walked in, given that the outside of the building hadn't changed much - if any - from when it was Riefe's. It looked like the booths from the original Riefe's in the front dining area were still there, but they had built a small sushi bar where the wall between the dining room and the kitchen once stood.
The person who waited on us was Michelle Zheng, the owner of Fuji Sushi and Grill. Michelle is a native of Hong Kong, but her brother, Jeff, is a sushi chef learning the trade when the Zheng family lived in New York for about 8 years. Along with her cousin, Jessie Chen, the two have stakes in a number of restaurants around the Quad Cities including the Great Wall Chinese restaurant which is located literally across the street from Fuji Sushi. They also run Panda Garden in Bettendorf, another Great Wall over in Rock Island, and a Chinese place in nearby Geneseo, IL.
In addition to the the Chinese restaurants she owns in the area, Zheng also owns a sushi place in Bettendorf - Sakura Express - a small hibachi/sushi joint that opened a little over two years ago. With the success of the sushi restaurant in Bettendorf, the Zheng was confident that she could maintain a bigger sushi place somewhere in the Quad Cities. And, so far, they seem to be doing very well considering the place was nearly full when we were there.
To us - who had been going to Riefe's for nearly 25 years - the transformation from a family restaurant to a sushi restaurant was somewhat strange and remarkable at the same time. While there were still hints of Riefe's in the front dining room, the transformation to a sushi place just seemed out of place to us.
The back area of the restaurant was also decidedly different from the days of Riefe's. Japanese artwork hung from the wall, while Japanese-style lanterns hung over the bar area and the booths. The back dining area at Riefe's is now the late-night dance club that Michelle Zheng put in.
We decided to sit at the sushi bar. However, it was unusually high for a sushi bar, and small, too, with only four seats. We sat on some high-backed chairs and we were still having trouble getting comfortable at the high bar. My wife - who is a shortcake - was especially having trouble as the counter for the sushi bar was chest high to her. I remarked that we could almost stand up to eat and it would be more ergonomically beneficial. While we could easily see the sushi chefs at work, we could also look back into the kitchen
We ordered up some mai tai's from Michelle to get us started and the sushi chefs surprised us with a chef's special they gave us to try. They didn't really tell us what it was, but we figured out that it was white tuna and cubed mango on what appeared to be a Pringles potato chip. But it was actually very good and it went well with the mai tai's.
After my wife ordered up a Kani salad to start, our first foray into the food at Fuji Sushi was a combination of spicy salmon, spicy tuna and crazy tuna rolls. The crazy tuna roll had spicy tuna in it, as well, but it also came with some crunchies and topped with an eel sauce. Quite actually, all three of the rolls were excellent. And they were also quite filling.
But not filling enough for me to want to try some of their sushi. We got (from left) salmon, white tuna and four pieces of the smoked salmon. The smoked salmon was rather mild in its taste - it didn't seem to have that forward smoky taste I usually find for good smoked salmon sushi. The white tuna was actually pretty bland, but it was still fine when dipped in the soy sauce and wasabi mixture. However, the regular salmon was to die for. It was so tender and flavorful, it literally melted in my mouth. It was like eating a small stick of butter the way it melted on my tongue. It was some of the best salmon sushi we've ever had.
After we got over our initial shock and amazement of a sushi place in the middle of what was the old Riefe's family restaurant, we thought the sushi at Fuji Sushi and Grill was very good. The mai tai's were also very good, close to the ones we used to enjoy on our trips to Hawaii. Other than the somewhat uncomfortable sushi bar, we pretty much liked everything about our visit to Fuji Sushi. We're hoping that a sushi place on the west side of Davenport can sustain business as not a lot of specialty restaurants have flourished on that side of town. But we're thinking that Fuji Sushi has a good chance of making it.
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