Fusion Cafe
Categories: Coffee & Tea, Asian Fusion [Edit]
Neighborhood: Kearny Mesa8038 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111 (858) 278-1224
- Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Private Lot
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: No
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: No
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: No
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Wi-Fi: Free
- Good for: Lunch
- Alcohol: None
30 reviews
San Diego, CA
"Ah Java Jones, the fact you are across the street is dangerous. The local vibe is fantastic and when you see all your neighbors makes it…" read more »
23 Reviews for Fusion Cafe
The drinks are good, the boba is hard. So if you want boba, go to tapioca express...but everything else is yum :]
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Their drinks are PRETTY GOOD.
They have coconut snow bubble, which is one of my favorite! However, they don't seem to attract as many people as tapex or tea station. This is more like a sit-in restaurant. It's a good place to go to for some reasonable priced Asian food and some good drinks. Their drinks are pretty good, and their desserts look so delicious too.
I love this place! After a yelp search looking for a boba place near my BF's work, I came across Fusion Food & Boba Cafe. Even though it's located directly across from Cheetah's (my BF doesn't work at Cheetah's-haha) I gave it a chance. Glad I did. It's not as packed as other boba places- thank goodness! Inside is a typical boba cafe... tables, and a little lounge area w/ a couple couches. I'm gonna keep this place my little secret hiding place. Haha.
They have slushies, snow bubble (which is a smoothie w/ soy milk or reg milk), tea, milk tea, and a bunch of food (sandwiches, rice plates, soups, appetizers, and snacks). The regular drinks are $2.50, and large $3.00. I ordered the Mango slushie w/ boba for my BF, and I had the Coconut Milk tea. My BF liked his. And I loved mine! I always try to order the Coconut milk tea at other places, and they always say they don't have it or ran out (i.e. Tapioca Express).
To eat, I had their Spicy Popcorn Chicken Fusion Plate. It is served with steamed rice, and mango salad. A big portion for under $5! The cashier was so helpful, and polite while answering all my questions. The food is served with a special dipping sauce for the chicken. I think it is mayo based with crushed peppers, hot sauce, and some other secret items. But it was so good! I am addicted to the sauce. I tried asking the cashier what it is made of, but he was not quite sure. He only confirmed that the base was mayo. But maybe he's just keeping hush-hush about it because he knows I will sell the recipe. Haha. Just kidding.
They also have a frequent punch card. So each time you purchase a drink you get a punch. And free Wi-Fi if you make any purchase!
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This is cafe is a huge hit for many locals for cold drinks and great food. Very reasonably priced, the food is delicious and the servings are large. There isn't much to say other than a great place for lunch especially after a ride.
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This place is ok. I like the spring rolls and that's it I guess. Tapioca Express is better!
This place is great, the owner and staff is very friendly. Great food for the price and drinks are very good. The cafe is weekly car meet friendly unlike the other eateries in the same strip mall!!!! You have to try the Beef strips combo and as to try a drink that is off the menu. You won't regret it!
this place has the best vietnamese sandwiches and spring rolls that i've found in san diego. i'm not a fan of their beverages, but the food more than makes up for that... cheap and delicious! they have good vegetarian options, which i appreciate. and the employees are nice.
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I was happy to find this place ... and wouldn't have had a friend not invited me there.
Friendly staff, good Thai Coffee, and tasty chicken curry. The cushy couches are a real plus.
Be advised: They have this cool game where, if you guess the right number between 0 and 300, you get your coffee free. Thinking about this statistically, this works out to about a $0.01 cent discount on each coffee purchase. You can enhance your odds if you go with a group or listen to the people in front of you.
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5 Stars for taking away my Boba virginity. I'm half Asian and have never heard of Boba until the other day when my white friend brought it up. I'm such a let down to my race. :P
Well, she took me in and showed me the ropes of Bubble Tea. I'm a brand new man and am now ready to serve my brethren race with pride. Oh, and this shit is good!
The atmosphere is cafe'ish with hard chairs but two comfy facing love seats if you want to lounge.
I've never eaten the food so I'm going to leave this for a later update to this review.
Go Boba!
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WHAT?!?!?! An boba place that does not have red bean, mung bean, or taro?!?! Any self respecting asian boba place would have at least one of these! If you're looking for boba tea, Tea Station and Tea-N-More are just a couple blocks away from Fusion. I have not tried the food.
Their food isn't that bad, but their Coconut Snow Bubble is way better than Tapioca Express. I prefer mine with some boba.
I normally can't bring myself to go there and NOT have a slushee, since I'm a child of the 7-11 slurpee generation, you'll have to forgive me I'm a product of Gen-X.
I've been going here for about a year at my newish job in Kearny Mesa and not sure how we stumbled in this place but it's perfect for lunch.
I like this place, I'll not sing it from a rooftop maybe but certainly I could be cajoled into admitting it here on YELP.
I like the food too, and the prices are way low which is nice for work lunches.
If you're not hungry get a Lychee slushee with Boba that will fill you up, since Boba is filling and no extra charge. If you don't like Boba, get the lychee jelly or the other flavors, yum.
I've tried the hot buns with egg and pork inside, sides of salad, veggies are nice on the side of your favorite dish. I've tried the veggie wraps, I've tried the curries, the point is it's fusion, meaning a blending of a variety of foods, mostly from Asia, and worth a try.
Additionally I would encourage you to check out the whiteboard menu options which are constantly changing near the cashier, some people read from the menu and order some use the white board.
For me it's all about the Whiteboard!!!
I'm addicted to Vietnamese food and I'm a harsh critic. The food sucked. Place was urban, nice, and comfy though.
The sandwiches were the worst I've ever had. I tried the BBQ pork. Super dry, unsweetened meat, skimpy on the butter saue and veggies, and seemed all bread.
The other dry dishes I tried were just it- Dry. Unimpressed and never again.
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Would have given 5-Stars but can't because.........
1. Location
2. Owner's not interested in expanding business... :(x
4-Stars:
Really good FRESH Asian food. The shrimp spring rolls (aren't fried!) are amazing and delicious! The Wonton Soup with Jalepenos is AWESOME! The Boba drinks are delicious! But I'm not a big fan of the Boba themselves... Not into spongy balls in my drinks but hey, if it's your thing..........
Nice staff and I would have never gone there not for being a part of the www.socale36.com group.
I would love to see them open a location in the Hillcrest or Downtown area. Would do gangbusters! But..... they aren't interested....
The prices are great for the quality and quantity of food you get.
Best,
-T
I WANTED MORE BALLS!!!!
it was only 11am and they were pretty shady with the boba...should i have asked for more balls?
the bread was good, but they chop off the ass of the bread! if i knew that they did this, i wouldve told them to keep the ass on my bread.
my pork sandwich was dry. i thought it was chicken.
i shouldn't expect so much because it's not like we were in westminster or milpitas.
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This is the only place that I will go for in terms of Vietnamese sandwiches or quick yummy rice plates + iced teas on the go. Lunchtime is quite busy.
I love their papaya milk tea (using green tea), chicken sandwich & the pork or chicken rice dishes. The curry they make is the same base curry that my aunts make for family gathering, it's alittle on the spicy side after frequent spoonfuls of it, since the intensity of the spiciness will build up. I've tried the beef version, which I'm not fond of as much as I love the chicken curry (potatoes, onions, carrots!
The LCD tv & magazines keep it entertaining. It's too bad that they don't open that late, only around 9PM versus Taste Tea Station that's also on Clairemont Mesa Blvd that opens later.
The food is reasonably priced considering the amount & there will be a small side of veggies or salad.
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pros...usually fast and friendly service. the food is mostly snack foods and light meals. they have wonderful selection of drinks, which is what i think their specialty is. they have iced drinks, slushies, and tea based drinks. any drink can be a boba or non-boba. i do love the little snacks that they serve, the spring rolls are quite good. hot, steamy, and fried goodness. they also have some nice sandwiches as well.
cons...the place can get pretty crowded at lunch time. so either avoid it or be prepared to wait for a table. you can always get your food to go. the prices are a bit high for the size of the food. but i guess it just depends when, who and what you order. i went about month ago and i had a really juicy and meaty sandwich, but just last week, my sandwich was anemic and anorexic in filling. but still pretty tasty.
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Fusion Cafe is my favorite place to go grab something to eat. Their food is very taste and well prepared and the drinks are awesome. Boba, smoothies, ice coffee.
The staff is the friendliest bunch you will find.
Half of the week, there are car gatherings. Tuesday is all cars (Subaru's, Mitsubishis, etc etc. Wednesday nights are European cars. Thursday has S2000 and Nissan's. Even Sunday evenings.
The TV is great for sports and movies and American Idol, etc. Free internet access for customers with laptops. Best place in San Diego to just hang out with couple friends.
They even have party trays to-go. Highly recommend you drop by and check it out.
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chill and yum!
taste: their popcorn chicken with their special sauce is bomb!! their combo meals are more than what you pay for!! they have their fusion snowbubble special boba drink that is a tropical treat!! i love it! theres not many places in san diego with vietnamese sandwhiches and for that... this is the place to go! they have the best fried rice!!
decor: a modern boba place... a few couches... tables... board games and a large plasma!! oh! and free wi fi!!
room: decent space... not ever too crowded
service: the people that are there are great!! the seem like they have a family business, and it shows... their sweet and and you can tell...
price: great!! u get what you pay for and a lil more on the side...
overall: the place is great! great to study or chill... they have movies on sometimes... or go there to play some cards... there are car meets one day out of the week... so its interesting to see them sometimes...
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normally they would only get 3 stars, but they got plus 1 for holding the socaleuro car meets.
fusion is an inexpensive boba cafe/fusion restaurant serving a variety of asian and american style dishes ranging from asian soups, bbq, curry, steamed buns, and burgers with fries. they've also got a variety of drinks with some interesting flavors for their boba teas and slushies. the staff is friendly and they're a host to local car meets within the strip mall. it's a small place with a big screen tv, and would seem like an ok place to hang out at..
the food there is good, but not great. i like it and won't complain much because of the price. i used to work down the street and my co-workers and i would order food from there all the time. a combo meal could cost you about $5 and the sides /appetizers could be as little as $3 or lower. the boba is good, but i really couldn't tell if it were good or bad anyways because it all tastes the same to me. my co-workers loved the red bull slushy, in fact, there was one guy that would always try to get one right before coming in to work. as far as the food being healthy...it's not. come one now, you should know by now. cheap eats do not equal healthy food.
wed. nights are the socaleuro car meets (plus one star). they meet at 7pm and if you're a euro enthusiast than this would be a cool place to look at cars or to show off your ride (i'm an enthusiast). if you're the type to burn-out and speed up and down the street, then please don't show up.
i'm not sure of this anymore, but if you ordered a certain dollar amount and were within the vicinity, they would deliver to your workplace. 9 times out of 10, they would mess up our order, in fact, it got so bad that they stopped delivering to us. we eventually had to pick up our orders, and they still got something wrong...minus one star. regardless, we still ordered from there anyways. can't beat the price.
* what i liked
- short ribs
- bbq pork (the bbq chicken isn't so good)
- popcorn chicken
- deep fried banana roll with a scoop of ice cream - a lot like turon?
- wed. night car meets
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One of my favorite tea places in San Diego. Fusion is also probably one of the best places for cheap good eats in the Kearny Mesa as well, and it has the best deals out of any of the boba joints. Drinks cost $1.50-$2.50 depending on what you order, and there are a variety of teas, slushes, snow bubbles and other fun Asian drinks that you can try. Also, there are inventive drink flavors such as yogurt green tea and avocado, and you can mix and match up to 3 of any of the dozens of flavors in your drink.
Food at Fusion is a real deal as well, consisting of various Vietnamese and Chinese treats. Lunch boxes filled with rice and BBQ pork or chicken curry cost under $5, or you can upgrade and get Fusion's tasty chow mein (the yummy thin noodle kind) or fried rice. Great popcorn chicken, chicken curry buns, Vietnamese sandwiches, and springrolls as well, all priced for a student budget. On weekend evenings, they even have happy hour discounts on food and drinks.
The atmosphere and staff make this a great place to hang out as well. You can watch DVDs with the servers on the big screen TV, play board games on the coffee table by the couches, or check out the hot rods parked in the lot for one of the meetings that various car enthusiast meetings that they hold here. Fusion is a great little establishment, and you'll quickly become a regular there!
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If you love Boba i would have to say this is a great place to get an icy treat. Plus they have fantastic Vietnamese Sandwhiches.
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pulling into the parking lot of this place i noticed a bunch of guys standing around looking like they were about to go all tokyo drift. later i noticed an article about how this place is a meeting spot for the "awjunkies".
as far as the drinks go, they were good, and reasonably priced. my snow bubble could have been a bit less watery, but i've had much worse. i also ordered some creamcheese wontons. i thought they were severely lacking in filling, but i liked what little there was. besides, for $2.50 i got like 8 of them and that's not too shabby.
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