Roxu Fusion

I’ve walked by this store front many a time and was a little thrown by the décor. The black table clothes with their bright white napkins led me to believe this was a high price special occasion sort of joint. I was very much mistaken. This place is great. While the décor could use a little warming up the food and drink is delicious. With a variety of happy menu items and customizable cocktails this is a great spot.
I had the chicken Kung pao steam buns and they were delicious. The accompanying side slaw was stellar bonus! I tried some of my friend fried rice and my was it tasty and more than enough to share. Their cashew brittle made it quite the different dish and they did not skimp on the chicken. The steam buns were flavorful and had just enough kick for this gal!
The staff is super friendly and helpful and happy to lend a dinner or drink recommendation.
Defiantly five this place a try!

What a great happy hour! So many different kinds of steam buns (pork belly, shrimp, tuna, chicken, tofu) and sliders and chicken fried rice. For drinks, flavored margaritas, beer specials, hurricanes and wine!
I just want to say that their wine selection is fantastic — a lot of unusual stuff and nothing you’ll see at the grocery store for $ 10. It seems very well chosen and like a place where someone knows a lot about wine. So naturally, I always go for the wine deal at happy hour and have never been disappointed.
The sliders are great — you get one per order and they come with a spicy mayo that I loved. I also really enjoyed their fried rice that was out of the ordinary: cashew brittle, shredded chicken, corn and egg.
I will definitely be back for happy hour and I’m excited to have their regular menu too!

The steamed buns were really good and the sake prices were reasonable but other than that it was not a good meal. I was hesitant to order the ahi poke because I love ahi poke and in Cleveland I wasn’t sure. I ordered it anyway and it was literally frozen. Poke should never ever be frozen. It was sent back and taken off the bill. I decided to go the exact opposite route and get the pirogies but they were very dry. Not sure why they have «deconstructed rolls» on their menu. Seems like they would be very hard to eat so no one at our table ordered them even tho they sounded like they might be good. Will most likely not return.

I would definitely go back to this place. It started off a little shaky when my boyfriend and I split the Salmon & Tuna deconstructed maki. It was hard to eat, esp without a knife, and the flavors weren’t for our liking. But then he got the pork fried rice with the ponzu sauce and absolutely loved it. I got the seasame chicken pierogis and they were delicious. The sauce was to die for. And they gave us a 10% off coupon for happy hour. So that’s a plus. Service was great, and the 2^nd half of our meal totally redeemed the firsr half.

I got the asian chicken and waffles. Might be one of the oddest things i have ever eaten. Theres A Lot going on. Vegetables, strange tasting waffles, maple syrup very peppery shredded chicken and some other type of meat, not sure what it is. The whole thing is rather spicy and just strange. I still cant decide if i liked it or not lol i dont think i would get this again but i will probably try something else next time

The food here was OK. It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t great. The highlight on my visit was the steamed buns. The décor was also kinda cool. What’s nice is that Unilocal has a 10% off happy hour coupon when you check in. And the service was prompt and courteous.

Emily our bartender and server was the best, food was also delicious, I highly recommend it!

As a Lakewoodian, I try to give all new restaurants a try and hope they survive amidst the well-​established, beloved places in the city. So, when my pregnant wife said, «I really want ramen tonight» I replied, «There’s this new place called Roxu that has ramen on the menu.»
Let’s start with what was good:
— the server (don’t remember her name) was very nice, explained things well and was very accommodating
— the ramen was quite tasty; while my wife found it to be a bit too peppery, I really loved the rich broth and shinto pepper flavor
The so-​so:
— the steamed buns (we got the pork and wagyu beef) were ok. The pork was better because it had a nice sauce on it; the wagyu was a bit plain. Both had what we think were chunks of beets — which were a surprise and not really complementary to the buns. The buns come with a side of simple slaw, which had a nice dressing, but all the lettuce seemed to be rib cuts (e.g. the crunchy center of the lettuce instead of the leaf).
— the pierogies had a really thick, dense dough and dry minced chicken filling. It was an ok dish, but not one I’d get again.
The not-​so-​good:
— the sushi. It was sushi night, so I got the Roxu sushi roll. I’m no sushi expert, but I’ve had my fair share and my own personal rule is that the fish needs to be super fresh to make it worth the while. When our entrees arrived, we could smell the fish before it even got to the table — not a good sign. I was tempted to have it taken back, but was hungry and didn’t want to wait for something else. The taste was quite bland and I couldn’t get over the sour smell of the fish. I’m not inclined to order any sushi again.
As said above, I want this place to succeed as I think Lakewood needs the diversity that Roxu represents. I’ll be back for another bowl of ramen sometime.

Just what this neighborhood needed! Chill atmosphere, dark, minimal. The music is a little off (5 year old indie/​alt/​electronic). I always get something vegetarian, not on the menu (or a slight variation of something that is on the menu) — they are super accommodating even though there aren’t a ton of explicit veggie options. Sticky buns are not what I expected but were fab. Decent Asian beer selection, interesting Asian inspired cocktails. Bar tender is great. Tofu is probably the best I’ve ever had.

Menu was varied enough to be interesting. Steam buns were unique and perfect to share as an appetizer.
Shrimp noodle bowl had a generous helping of saffron threads which made for a tasty broth.
Can’t go wrong with the Sesame chicken pierogis, Asian comfort food-​yum!
It was quiet on a Monday– but I expect that will soon change.

A new spot in Lakewood that has been open a couple months. Didn’t go in for food, however my drink and experience left a superb impression on me and I will be going back to try their Ramen, deconstructed sushi, and Chicken & Waffles. If you are looking for a refreshing, delicious, beautiful (and strong) cocktail, please order the Cucumber Lime Gin Fizz-​One of the better Gin Fizzes I’ve had in my life. Also, order a sake bomb so you can check out the cool presentation.

‘A’ for effort but they missed the mark. I ordered the chicken, shrimp, and pork belly steam buns. Too much bread and not enough protein. I also ordered the cheeseburger steam bun. So strange! The party was thin like White Castle but with ZERO flavor. Not even salt. And the cheese was a tiny dollop of cheese sauce. Not at all what I expected. The shrimp rice was not very good at all. The shrimp was not fully cooked and had an aftertaste, possibly from the freezer? The rice was drenched in soy sauce. I couldn’t handle all the sodium so I had to stop eating. Lastly I had dessert. The lavender icecream was solid as a rock. It was plated nicely but I thought I was going to break my spoon. We had to leave it at the table because it wasn’t thawing. The food plus 2 glasses of wine was $ 50. I don’t see a reason to go back, other than the nice waitstaff.

Tried Roxu with a few friends for dinner recently and found it to be pretty good. I will start with the best and work may way down from there.
The cocktails were stiff and tasty. I fail to remember the names of my cocktails, but one was a flavored mojito and the other was a spicy mule of some sort. Both were very good. In particular, the mojito was correctly balanced which I rarely find. The spicy mule was really spicy and maybe a bit on the peppery side but still enjoyable. My friends tried the create your own Hurricane (the type of drink you create changes by season, according to our lovely waitress) and they said they were fantastic. There was also a decent beer list.
The food was mixed depending on which dish I tasted. I personally had the Chicken and Dumpling Bowl, which was ok but lacked much flavor. The steam buns were all fabulous. And we tried the Green Tea Machi which is less of a dessert and more of a «palate cleanser» according to one of my friends. It’s was not super sweet, just cold and icy and sort of like a chewy lightly sweet ice milk.
The ambiance and décor was simple. Honestly, I don’t remember what it looked like… simple, bright, and white?
I will definitely try it again. It had some interesting choices on the menu and the happy hour looks fantastic. And I am always in the prowl for a hot new happy hour option.

Delicious, lovely cocktails, very reasonable pricing, excellent service. I am also happy to hear about their late night happy hour. My hungry service industry tummy thanks you! I will be back, and often.
The steam buns were delicious, as were the lettuce wraps, and the cucumber mint gun fizz.

I ordered the Hollywood «deconstructed» maki.
While it tasted good it was really
Hard to eat and I would have much preferred it to be in a traditional roll

I am so bummed that I have to give Roxu only 2 stars… I was very much looking forward to it being great… FAR FROM IT!
I will start with the only great thing – THE WINE!
My friend and I shared a variety of steam buns all which were pretty flavorless. We also shared shrimp fried rice and the shrimp was undercooked (ahhhhhh!) and the only flavor you could taste was soy sauce because it was drenched in just that. We finished with the Green Tea Mochi dessert, which was also not very good! It was so extremely hard that you couldn’t eat it and was covered in lavender bits which didn’t taste very good at all.
Overall, I was very disappointed and like I mentioned before… I REALLY WANTED TO LIKE THIS PLACE! :-(

Roxu was a let down. I think I’m done with asian fusion for a while as my expectations seem to be totally out of whack for what the reality seems to be. I’ll check out Roxu again in 6 months as maybe my experience is attributed to the restaurant’s recent opening and growing pains. I think they have good ideas, but the execution isn’t quite there.
The tuna steam buns had little flavor, although the tuna itself was good. there was a little splotch of green sriracha on the plate, but it wasn’t enough to use for buns. The buns themselves were soft and pillow-​y.
As far as sushi goes, the only items on the menu were 3 deconstructed maki rolls. My friend and I ordered two rolls to share. We figured we’d try those, and order something else later as needed because we didn’t know how big/​small they’d be. We ordered the spicy tuna and hollywood. each deconstructed roll was served on a small wooden serving board. They looked beautiful, but were difficult to eat regardless of whether using a fork or chopsticks. It was hard to taste all of the ingredients together at one time as you could only get a bit of this and a bit of that. You couldn’t cut into the deconstructed roll with a knife because the board was small, and the stuff on top would fall off. Half of the stuff fell onto the table. It looked like a 2 year old ate at our table. The hollywood was the best of the two. but again, it was hard to get one complete bite. Half the time I was eating just rice and spicy mayo, or snow crab and cucumber or avocado foam. My friends and I usually order a bunch of sushi rolls and share everything, so maybe that’s where we went wrong in trying to share it.
We ordered cocktails from the drink menu, and they were good. Too much fresh lavender on the drinks as every sip left a bunch stuck on my lips, in addition to the lavender I drank. Beer, wine and sake too. Happy hour until 6, including specific menu items, but there was just one happy hour cocktail (ginger margarita) in addition to beer/​wine/​sake during happy hour. It’d be nice to be able to try some of the regular menu drinks at happy hour as they’re $ 10 a pop.
Service was attentive. Our waiter seemed like he was on fast forward, but was friendly and knowledgeable. 2 other members of the staff also stopped by our table in to see how things were.

Once they finalize a menu and work out the kinks of being «new» this place will be great. HH hour till 6… they need to offer more drink specials to make it worth it and I’d suggest extending the hours bc they will have lots of competition being next to Barrios whose HH goes till 7.
Decent food specials on HH. We tried the pork belly bun, Kung pao chicken bun and shrimp bun. Pork belly and Kung pao delish. Shrimp just did not work with 2 tiny shrimp on a big bun. Chicken lettuce wraps were decent. Only $ 5 on happy hour. Not sure worth $ 10 regular price.
Server was great!
Sadly I ordered the Asian pierogies only to find out the chef had no idea what they were or why they were on menu. And it was my BD so a bit sad. Changed to the pork belly fried rice. It was good. I’d suggest they leave the pork belly in slices rather than cut small… make it like the beef fried rice. Two others got fried rice… one liked one did not. It is more of a sticky fried rice. Another got a deconstructed sushi roll and loved it. Two others shared the beef salad and lobster salad… they were under impressed.
It has good potential. Hopefully they read the reviews and learn from them.

There are some things to like here, but so far they have a lot of kinks to work out before they can really turn this into the restaurant that I think they are trying to be.
First the good.
The steam buns. The bun was fluffy and had the slight chewiness that I really like. I had the wagyu strip bun, and would definitely order this again.
Udon bowl. The broth was delicate, complemented the udon noodles very well. The wagyu beef that came with my order seemed as though I was accidentally given gristle. I ended up eating around the fatty/​rubbery part and what meat I was able to eat was tender and rich in the beef flavor I expected.
Now for the not-​so-​good. I don’t want to call it bad, because it wasn’t horrible, but they were small annoyances.
Atmosphere. It is LOUD. I mean REALLY loud for the space. The acoustics are so bad that you can literally hear the conversation from 2 tables over as if they were sitting at your table. There is also a lack of anything on the walls. I don’t know if it is because they have only been open for a few weeks, but the design of the interior was so bland you could mistake that you were sitting in an office cafeteria. There is a lack of the space being «vibrant» like some of the other well known «Asian Fusion» style restaurants in Cleveland — like Voodoo Tuna and Noodlecat.
Service. While our server was polite and did his best to answer any questions we may have had, it was starting to become annoying that he would check in on us every few minutes. It was so much so that he even apologized, and said that the management requires the wait staff to do it.
Price. This will be a huge issue in regards to getting repeat customers. For the occasional diner it may not be a deal breaker, but restaurants can only survive on establishing a healthy following of repeat customers. Being two doors down from Barrio may also hurt their business, because well… it’s Barrio.
So, overall, there is a lot of promise here, but they are still learning how to crawl when they should have just hit the ground running.

I knew going into this to have low expectations, but it didn’t even live up to that. Asian fusion is often a lazy way for chefs/​businessmen to capitalize on Asian food’s rising popularity. And this is a great example of that.
First of all, it’s overpriced for what you get. Sushi isn’t anything special or better than Panda Wok on W 117^th (yes, Panda Wok actually makes decent sushi) and is 50−60% more expensive. The noodle bowls for $ 12 (their website still says they’re $ 10 which would be more reasonable) is quite pricey considering how little thought or meat goes into them.
I had Asian Chicken and Waffles and my wife had the Pork Ramen. The chicken was a large pan fried thick chunk of chicken breast. The dish would have worked way better if the chicken wasn’t so thick and wet, and would have been much better with a more crispy exterior. The waffle itself was bland and the maple chili didn’t stand out. At least you could tell they made the waffle in house, it had green onions. Slight kudos for effort.
The Ramen was in all honesty terrible. Once again, another Cleveland spot that fails to live up to the quality of a packet of Korean instant. The broth had no complexity and they forgot to add any salt. There was also almost no broth — see my photo. Rather than having a soft boiled or even hard boiled egg, they dropped the egg straight into the soup. Which maybe would have been OK if they hadn’t overcooked it. The pork was tough to chew and didn’t look freshly cooked at all.
I feel bad writing this review because Roxu’s renovation of the building looks fantastic, but neither of our dishes showed any attention to detail. Everything sounds so fancy on menu with «organic» this, «local» that, «sous vide» this, but without getting the basics and the flavor down it doesn’t matter.
With all the fantastic Asian food Cleveland has, I probably won’t be heading back here. The sign of a good restaurant working out their opening kinks is that you find some parts of the meal really good and others you can tell they messed up. The food we had didn’t have anything in it that stood out as showing promise. 1.5 stars.