| Artful fish, loud music, beautiful people at this trendy Santana Row lounge |
Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 1040
Reviewed: 11/11/2005
Rating: 8
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Ive always seen the ads of Blowfish Sushi in the Metro and one of the agents Grace spoke highly of it, I think it was time to make a visit. Blowfish Sushi isnt your typical sushi place but more of a lounge/bar/sushi fusion/hip place to be. The crowd consists of young professionals just looking to have a good time out. We had a Friday night reservation at 9'ish and the place was quite loud and nearly filled to capacity.
The atmosphere is very chic with the dark wood furniture, polished floors, and modern fixtures. All over the restaurant were televisions playing anime and with music pumping, people appeared to be enjoying themselves.
I was a bit reluctant to believe that something this nice could serve fresh fish. Browsing through the menu, they had the standard nigiri, fancy fusion sushi, maki rolls, and other items you wouldnt find anywhere else. We decided to take a sampling from each of the areas.
fluffy crustacean - appetizer thats some sort of a lightly fried pastry thats stuff with crab, lobster, and other goodies. Served on a white plate with the decor, presentation looked good but thats about it. I could not differentiate between the lobster or crab. $13 is a high price to pay for seafood stuffed buns. (Image #6)
seared hamachi - very good, served with asparagus tips and mango salsa. fish tasted fresh, would order again. $10.25
Toro and Maguro Nigiri - fish was good, its not the best Ive had. The maguro was an excellent cut and pretty much fell apart in my mouth. The toro almost melted. Served at room temperature, I like it slightly chilled. If you look at images 8 and 10. LOOK AT HOW SMALL THOSE PIECES ARE. Maguro - $4.75...ahh...that somewhat tolerable. TORO - $13 for 2 slivers of what they call fish. Im calling Blowfish Sushi out on this....its a f*cking ripoff! you can skip nigiri all together, save your money for a real sushi house.
Buddha - I think they call it buddha since these rolls were monsters. A lot of rice involved and little fish. Probably wouldnt order again. $10.25
Ritsu Maki - shining star of the night. It was simply amazing. The fish was tasty, presentation was beautiful, the mix of mustard and the tarty dipping sauce make this a wonderful order. $9.50 (image 11)
Rainbow Maki - I didnt like this one too much, its $13.95 and one of the fishes was stinking to high hell. This bad fish affected 2 of our pieces while the rest were good.
Zen Garden - green tea heaven, green tea cheesecake, green tea ice cream, green tea sweet syrup on the plate, everything looked and tasted good on this plate. Dont miss this one. $7.75.
So here's my deal, if you want a typical sushi house, Blowfish Sushi is not the place to visit. If you are looking for a hip scene where specialty rolls, fusion dishes, dj music, fancy mixed drinks are your favorites, you are going to enjoy Blowfish Sushi. The fish tasted fresh but it comes at a high price. The items above with 2 sake drinks rang in at $120 including tip. We left hungry and grabbed some slices of pizza on the way home. I enjoyed the scene and would come back for another visit although I would skip the nigiri/sashimi and stick to the maki rolls.
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Reviewer: Grace
Total Reviews: 42
Reviewed: 12/24/2005
Rating: 9.5
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This is by far one of my favorite places to get sushi, and I've sampled a bit around the bay. They are pricey though, but I think that it's totally worth it. My favorites are the sashimi combination. 20 bucks gets you 15 pieces of fresh sashimi, plated on this cute little bowl with dry ice. They have a good sampling of different types of fish and it's the cheaper route to go. Instead of ordering nigiri for around 5 bucks a pop, you get a bunch of pairing of fish, and I love the ama ebi that's included with the combination, so fresh and sweet.
The ritsu rolls are unbelievably good. They simply melt in your mouth. They are tiny and leave you wanting more, but the experience is definitely worth it.
I also like the godzilla roll, it has a lot of ingredients that wouldn't seem like it would go well together (macademia nuts, mango, ama ebi, etc) but it's totally yummy!
Blowfish does have items on the menu that are a bit overdone. They have an ego roll which conists of uni, toro, and something else (I forget) and they put it together in a fat roll where you can't tell the ingredients apart. They have a bunch of other rolls where they kind of cram a lot of good stuff together, which takes away from the whole. It's still good, but making them smaller would definitely improve upon the food.
Dessert is yummy! I've tried their green zen garden, which is simply the best green tea cheesecake ever to touch my mouth. It is creamy and sweet, and plated attractively. I've also had the banana flambe/crepe (I forget it's name) and that's very good too. They also have this sake martini with white peach juice, and that goes well with the meal
I like the ambiance of the restaurant, although it's really dark and I have trouble getting my way around. They have flashy cel's on the walls, anime playing on tv screens, a bar with a dj lineup on certain days. A lot of people say that blowfish is overrated because of the whole trendy feel to the place, but if you look past that, it's some good eats =) What keeps this place from getting a 10 in my opinion is the price in comparison to the portions, how dark and loud the restaurant can get, the location in SF is well lit and the music isn't so loud, and some of their rolls could use some revamping. Other than that, I would definitely reccomend that you try it out at least once. |
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Reviewer: wchane
Total Reviews: 148
Reviewed: 8/31/2006
Rating: 6.5
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I do not like this place for lunch or dinner. The only redeeming quality this place has as a restaurant is the meal sets at dinner paired with the cucumber cooler.
Sushi - They're fresh and well made, however I prefer traditional sushi. Simple, undressed, and 'clean.' Blowfish offers a variety that I refer to as 'California Style'd Sushi' and not only that it's taken two or three levels beyond. Order the Inari and you'll see what I'm talking about. Inari by tradition is a wad or sushi rice wrapped in sweet bean curd. Blowfish translates this into diced tofu tossed with shallots and green onions served over rice and packaged in seaweed. I actually told our waiter that we did not order that, he told me it was the inari and i just replied with , 'oh.'
Meal Sets - I recommend the butterfish, whatever it costs it's worth it.
Lunch Bentos - Don't confuse the S.Row location with the SF location, lunch means two completely different things between these two locations. SF I highly recommend for lunch, S.Row was more along my reviews of their sushi. what? huh? ugh.
Ambiance - this place has none, it has an Atmosphere, it's LOUD how you can carry on a conversation in that sound pit is beyond me, if you're having dinner with your mother in law...well...maybe this place would work. Other then that I love it, the industrial poured concrete mixed with soft suede drops and hard wood tables. The lounge/pit is also awesome. first come first serve unless your party is big enough to justify the rsvp.
Bar - Great, I'll come here to drink anyday, and actually do.
Staff - Awesome, and good looking too.
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