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Today, I met up with a new acquaintance for lunch. This was long overdue and I’m so glad that we had the opportunity to connect with each other! After back and forth between where to dine downtown, we unanimously decided that Bluefin Restaurant would do the job. I actually hadn’t dined at Bluefin since around 2006 or 2007! With that amount of time in between visits, I wasn’t how many changes I’d find – from new owners to menus to standards. The list goes on. For that reason, I was a bit apprehensive about trying it out.
The servers were immediately attentive upon arriving and I absolutely felt welcome from the time I arrived so kudos to the staff for welcoming its patrons expeditiously and with a genuine spirit. I arrived a bit earlier than my guest, which allowed me the opportunity to look over the place. I was impressed with the inside interior of the restaurant. Bluefin restaurant has private rooms for groups to dine. What a quaint and a wonderful way to host some intimate dining sessions with friends or even orchestrate co-working lunch for creatives.
The restroom was nice, but I was a little confused as to why the doors were open on each side. The main doors of the bathroom are open on each side before going into the bathroom to the separate stalls. This was a little weird to me and I wanted to ask, but avoided it (lol).
By the time I came for my ‘mini tour,’ my new friend arrived and we sat down to order. The wonderful thing about the Bluefin Restaurant is that they have a variety of cuisines to suit your taste. For someone as indecisive as I am, it can kind of be overwhelming, but I had a taste for sushi so that narrowed things down a bit.
The lunch menu at the Bluefin Restaurant is relatively reasonable (hey $6.99!) and you can try the Habachi chicken, Korean chicken tacos, or a Bibimop. I ordered the Hurricane Roll, which consisted of Crab, Spicy Crawfish, Cream Cheese & Sweet Soy Sauce ($11). I also ordered the Spring Rolls ($4.99) and both were delicious! I feel like I could have eaten 10 of those spring rolls. My dining companion ordered the Tornado Roll, which consisted of Smoked Salmon, Crab & Cream Cheese With Sweet Soy Sauce ($11) and a chicken Bibimop. She enjoyed the roll, but found the Bibimop to be a bit bland and in need of seasoning aka flavor.
No matter the sushi restaurant, I always seek to try their spicy mayo, because not all spicy mayo recipes are created equal. I am very picky about spicy mayo and the Osaka restaurant has the greatest of all time. Bluefin’s spicy mayo was just ‘okay.’
The Good: Lunch was delicious, timely, and the staff were more than accommodating to us. The interior of the restaurant is beautiful with a foreign flavor.
The Bad: The location requires you to find parking as do many places downtown, but paying anything over one dollar per hour (while parking for lunch) is ridiculous to me. This is not the fault of Bluefin, but I certainly wouldn’t want any patrons to pay $7 for parking (as I did) just to dine in. The restaurant’s bathroom situation was also a little confusing to me and I certainly should have asked about it. Having the bathroom door open is kind of an invasion of privacy.
Recommendations: No matter the dish, always keep flavor in mind. Also, their deep fried batter could use some modifications.
Have any recommendations for where I should dine next? Comment below. What’s your favorite sushi roll combination?
What do you think?