Fung Mei has been relocating from Buford to the old Corky’s building, in a move impossible to miss if you commute down Pleasant Hill Road east of I-85. My wife drove by on a Saturday, noted the people, the sign saying “Grand Opening” and the crowd. She found it exciting, and we decided we would all go for lunch the next Sunday.
When I first arrived in the Atlanta area, roughly late 1996, Pung Mei, as it was known then, was a very hot restaurant. Found in a cramped building on Buford Highway, they were known for good food, large servings, and decent prices. Soon after, they moved into a larger, more ornate building and some of the charm of the eatery was lost in the process. I never liked the new digs of Pung Mei. I felt trapped in glass. The prices seemed a little higher. The service was less friendly, more remote. Now, with the transition to Duluth and the occupation of a new building, would things change?
Inside, the heavy brick of the original Corky’s combines well with the more ethnocentric touches the owners have provided. There are chandeliers, and aquariums with goldfish, but you don’t feel as if you’re trapped in a glass bowl anymore. The high industrial roof and track lighting helps leave people with a feeling of plenty of space. The restaurant was pretty full on this Sunday afternoon but not to capacity. Most of the clientèle were Asian. There was the young beauty trying hard not to be embarrassed by her more country aunts and uncles. There was the child, bored of his Game Boy, bending his head down to suck noodles out of his bowl of soup. And there were well dressed staff taking the orders of people coming and going.
We were seated quickly, but then the problems begin. This being a reopening, there were some issues. Staff were slow to take orders, and had problems getting back to customers. My wife, tired of the wait, started pointing out tables that were seated after ours was and then served before ours had been. People from at least one table stood up and left due to the inattention.
offal much?
The menu is enormous, 421 items. There is no take out menu (they will be available next week, we were told). I can tell you where we ordered various dishes, but not always their precise names. Since the only way to know truly what is on the menu would be to have a Chinese reading companion, I’m going to do my best about this, and not sweat the details.
The green bean dish, Dry Fried Green Beans, was excellent, and as my wife said, it saved the meal. It’s found in the Sichuan section of the menu, on the very back, towards the bottom of the “Tofu and Vegetables” section. It is rich in toasted peppers, and those toasted peppers definitely include Sichuan pepper, the round red fruits easy enough to find in the dish. My daughter’s comment, toward the end was, “My mouth is numb.” This dish did not last.
Beijing beef was sweetish, spicy, decent fare. Under the nice pile of meat is a lot of cabbage as filler. My wife questioned whether my daughter could eat her dish but she did fine by it.
My dish was “Fish Filets and Tofu and Vegetables in Clay Pot“. I probably would have settled for a black bean sauce dish but my waiter told me this one had no sugars, and I was curious. It wasn’t spicy, and there was plenty of food floating in the pot, thick squares of tofu with decent sized chunks of fish and bok choy. I couldn’t finish it all and stick to my diet.
This dish though, completely divided the table. It’s the first entry in the Sichuan chicken section of the menu, on the back. Rich in spice, I loved it, when it was hot. My daughter described it as “awesome”. But my wife ordered it, and she was off put by the fact the chicken was fried. We could not get her to trade it either. Both my daughter and I tried to get her to swap food with us and she wouldn’t. Instead, we picked the chicken off her plate.
Verdict: Food is good, at times excellent. Service has some opening issues. Recommended.
Fung Mei
1605 Pleasant Hill Road
Duluth GA 30096-4619
(770)-455-0435
September 1, 2010 at 12:22 pm
horrible service at lunch this afternoon. Tried the Hot Pepper Chicken and found it bland. would have been better off at McDonald’s. When the sever finally checked back I asked for my check and she offered a to go box. I told her the food was horrible, and she should have known from the full plate that there was a problem. Rather than getting a manager she presented the check and walked away. I waited for change but she didn’t return to the table. Won’t bother going back.
September 14, 2010 at 6:43 pm
I have eaten here twice. The first time was shortly after they opened and they were obviously still trying to get everthing running smooth. I was very encouraged to find that most of the clients were Asian. My meal of hot and sour soup and shredded beef with pickled mustard (actually shredded beef with mustardy onions and chili peppers) and steamed rice was very good. On the second visit it appeared they had worked out some of the issues with the servers. My meal of soup and chicken with vegetables was tasty, but I was surprised that I was not automatically served steamed rice. The wait staff on both occasions has been attentive and I will definitely give Fung Mei another try.
September 25, 2010 at 9:58 pm
I took my family to Fung Mei on the corner of Pleasant Hill and Sweetwater for dinner and as I first walked in the door I was somewhat impressed by the decor it seemed to be a nice place to eat. After waiting 10 minutes to be seated (with several tables open) the six of us were seated right out in the open where there would be no way that we could be overlooked. 38 minutes passed without anyone even stopping by to give us water or tell us that someone will be with us shortly or take our order or anything. Ten more minutes passed when no one even made eye contact with us while all around us other customers (Asian) were being served. Every other table around us had been given refills and even others (whites & Asians) who had been seated much later than we were had their food while we had yet to be even given a word. Finally I had been at the end of my patience and I noticed other African Americans entering the restaurant and thats when I decided to spare them the same racism that we had encountered I advised them that we had been there for 40 minutes without a word being spoken to us AT ALL and they may want to consider whether they wanted to spend their money there at which point the African American family had decided to leave. As we were leaving the hostess approached me asking if there was something wrong at which time I had told her that there should be no reason that six people who were sitting out in the open have to wait 40 minutes without even being noticed. I informed her that I guess that Black money is no good there she had apologized and I told her that I will spend my money elsewhere. She then offered to provide us with free meals which I declined. This was a bold upfront display of racism that I refused to not let others know the type of service that we (and other blacks) have to endure. I will not go back there and I will see to it that blacks in that area know what type of racist service that goes on there (if they dont already know) and so they wont get support from us because our money is no good there. so Fung Mei…..Fung YOU
October 12, 2010 at 9:01 pm
“I informed her that I guess that Black money is no good there”
“This was a bold upfront display of racism that I refused to not let others know the type of service that we (and other blacks) have to endure.”
At the risk of sounding apologetic for the restaurant (bad service is bad service, and it’s unfortunate that you experienced this), you sound a lot more racist than the restaurant. News flash, just because you had a bad experience doesn’t mean it was a racial issue. Saying crap like “black money is no good here” only adds to the problem.
January 24, 2011 at 6:59 pm
I am so sick and tired of the race card being used as a weapon by a person who is so obviously racist, and, I would venture, has an entitlement attitude. I bet You have no idea who, what or why the freedom marchers did what they did so you can sit in the same restaurant. All you know is that you have a race pistol, and you like to pull it out to hear it go bang against other people you don’t like.
John, grow up, grow a set, and be responsible for your actions… you give black people (and yes, I said “black” people), like me a black eye.
October 14, 2010 at 1:32 pm
I have known the owner for over 20 years. They are not racist. It is not out of the ordinary to call to their attention if you have not been attended to but stop calling everybody a racist when there is no customer service. Sometimes I feel like the blacks are too self conscious on this racial thing. Trust me black money is as good as white or asian money maybe the attitude is not.
November 4, 2010 at 7:12 pm
I find it comical for people to assume that african americans are being “sensitive” whenever they say they’ve experienced during such experiences as what john encountered. I live across the street from the restaurant and considered going this evening, however I am choosing not to based on John’s review. I do agree that sometimes racism can be a matter of opinin and based on the situation, but if I sat in a restaurant for that long and watched everyone of every other race being served, I would draw the same conclusion. I have seen the same behavior at the local asian owned beauty supply stores in the area as well as the spa near gwinnett mall.Just last week I watched an asian beauty store owner acuse an african woman of stealing while she had the woman’s credit card IN HER HAND ALREADY and swiping it for the woman’s purchase. After the woman emptied her entire purse to prove the owner wrong, the owner simply called the woman crazy, threatened to call the cops, and then refused to reverse the 60.00 that she charge the woman for products she didn’t even have. Not ONCE did she apologize. I have experienced the same problem in several local asian own businesses. I understand it could happen anywhere but it is becoming evident that this area has some obvious race issues.
July 19, 2011 at 10:27 am
as a Chinese American, I can tell you that very few Chinese restaurants have good service. The staff do not get paid well. Fun Mie is a dumpling restaurant chiefly – if you go, order the dumplings as they are what this restaurant does best. The mistake that non-Chinese make is that they order all of the Chinese food they know off of any Chinese menu, but most authentic Chinese is regional. You should order clay pot from a Cantonese restaurant, but not potstickers, etc.
September 29, 2011 at 9:52 pm
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