---

Restaurant review: Fuji Express at Landmark Mall
***1/2 (of four)

---

I ventured to swanky Pentagon City Mall recently to do a little shopping and people watching. One of the first stores I visited was Baby Gap, even though I don't have a baby, but I have friends who do and I like to keep up on the latest baby fashions anyway. What an experience! Two-hundred dollars later I walked out with a leather bomber jacket sized for a two-year old and a baseball cap that looks like it would fit perfectly on a grapefruit. I don't want to spoil the surprise for my girlfriends or their little ones, but hopefully they will come in handy this Christmas!

After Baby Gap I hiked down to Abercrombie and Fitch. I don't even like their clothes, but you have to admit, those college boys who work there are awfully adorable, even if they are wearing baggy jeans! A girl can dream, right? Anyway, they always seem to be playing something that sounds like the Human League in their stores, and that's like a magnet for me, and I ended up buying three pairs of boxer shorts, a fleece pullover, and a wrestling singlet (whatever that is), all of which I plan on giving to my brother.

All this shopping made me hungry! Unfortunately, the hunger occurred after I had left the mall, so I couldn't just hop on over to the food court there. But since I was headed south on I-395 and I was in a food court mood, I decided to take the Duke Street East exit and try out the food court at Landmark Mall. I parked outside Sears, made my way up to the third level, and I was immediately overwhelmed with choices. Chik-fil-A? Taco Bell? Flamers? My answer, ironically, came in the form of a question: "Would you like a sample taste?"

I turned to see who had asked that provocative question and saw the bright neon lights of Fuji Express. Underneath stood a sassy Asian temptress brandishing a toothpick skewered with a glistening piece of chicken teryaki. "Who does she think she is, so smug and confident, thinking that somehow, with a sample taste, I'll be won over?" I thought to myself. I decided then and there to accept her challenge. I walked over, grabbed the sample, and seconds later was transported to flavor paradise! If there is a God in heaven, he must be eating this, I thought as I savored the sample taste. I must have this for lunch! I quickly ordered the special, which included the teryaki chicken plus sweet-and-sour chicken, both low in fat and high in flavor. After I ordered came a barrage of confusing questions. Well, actually only two questions. "Fried rice, steamed rice?" was the first, but I couldn't understand what she was saying because she was talking so fast and she had an accent, so I kept pointing at the teryaki chicken I had sample-tasted, and then I just ended up smiling and trying to look away, and she ended up just giving me the fried rice. Then she asked what I wanted to drink, and I asked for a lemonade, and even though she said "lemonade, right?" she gave me iced tea, but that was okay, because I like iced tea too, and who cares what you're drinking when the entree is this good!

At Fuji Express, the emphasis is on emphasizing that the emphasis is on healthy cooking. There are huge posters which feature a review from the Fairfax Journal. I've always wondered who read the Journal, but someone must because they're still in business and apparently making enough money to hire a restaurant critic. Whoever that is, I could probably just take their article about Fuji Express and write "ditto" under it!

Home