At Fusion World Cuisine, Chinese favorites like chicken stir-fry and hot and sour soup sit next to lamb chops and sea bass on the menu. The national dish of Thailand, pad Thai, sits next to Indian-style vegetable curry. The Web site of the restaurant, which opened in Monument in September, says the theory is “balanced integration, where the original ingredients and culinary techniques (are) harmonized with the creativity.”In practice, I’ve found culinary fusion a lot like nuclear fusion. While it happens naturally all the time, humans have yet to make it happen in any useful way. In Fusion World Cuisine’s case, that means the Chinese dishes cooked by Hong Kong native Waiming Tung are quite good, but, even though the chef has cooked in Bangkok, France and Norway, something about his international dishes gets lost in translation.The restaurant’s decor is on par with the restaurant’s ambition. Tall, elegant booths line one wall. A wavy banquet table swims across the stone floor like a coy in a pond. Floral abstract prints make the walls look like a Marimekko installation. Don’t expect chopsticks next to the wine glasses on the white table cloths. And don’t be surprised when the wine and beer list is better than any other place that serves pad Thai.If you order the right things, particularly the Chinese offerings, you may get the idea that this is the best Asian restaurant in town, and, indeed, the potential is there.But if you order wrong, things get odd very quickly.The fusion soup ($3), which is supposed to be inspired by French cuisine, arrives as a thin, bland version of bechamel, with onions and small pieces of chicken.“It’s almost chowdery,” a friend said, “but without much flavor.”The pad Thai ($12, all prices for dinner) has as strong, oily Chinese accent that makes it taste more like lo mein.The crispy Fusion Sea Bass ($16) also strikes out. The thin fish fillet, overcooked and over-breaded, brings to mind an institutional fish stick. It comes with a few sautéed vegetables and a truly bizarre apple-and-potato mayonnaise salad topped with ripe lychee (a firm, sweet, unusual fruit that tastes and feels a bit like a gummy bear). It struck me as the culinary equivalent of running a great line of literature through a computer translator. If you translate the last line from “The Great Gatsby” (“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”) from English to Dutch and back you get “Thus we, boats hit back current, ceaselessly behave in the past.”The pieces are all there — sort of — but the art is gone, which should probably make everyone think twice about ordering expensive dishes like Fillet Mignon with red wine reduction ($24) or baked lobster ($36).Still, those slightly off-kilter culinary translations morph to perfect clarity when you find Fusion’s sweet spot — Chinese and Malaysian offerings.The beef and mushroom stir-fry ($15), a tumble of tender flank steak with mushrooms, onions, vegetables and a kiss of ginger, is fantastic.The tender chicken satay ($8) comes with a sweet peanut sauce enlivened by a dash of Chinese five spice.The chicken lettuce wraps ($7), full of finely chopped green and red pepper, are bright and well-balanced.By building on these strengths, Fusion could become one of the best Chinese restaurants in the area.

FUSION WORLD CUISINE3 stars out of 5(Split personality)Address: 15910 Jackson Creek Parkway, Suite 100Contact: 488-3900, fusionworldcuisine.comHours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Sundays through Thursdays; 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Fridays and SaturdaysEntrees: $8-$36Vegetarian: PlentyAlcohol: Decent beer and wine listCredit cards: Yes

Thai Fired Prawns at Fusion World Cuisine. Focusing on its strengths, Fusion has potential to be the best Asian restaurant in the area. Photo by JERILEE BENNETT, THE GAZETTE