Thursday, June 11, 2009

Naples Blue Fish Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar Review

Blue Fish Japanese Restaurant opened several months ago in the Bed, Bath and Beyond Plaza, Airport and Pine Ridge, and it has very good quality Japanese food. We sampled sushi, sashimi, Hibachi Steak and Lobster, and Tempura items- all passed with flying colors. The food is beautifully plated. You enter, briefly face a Japanese drum, and turn to your right. On the left is the Hibachi room, which is fun for kids to octogenarians, as the chef 's a skilled showman, doing a great job entertaining, slicing, dicing and cooking amidst towers of steam, and a wonderful sizzle. Straight ahead is the main dining room, with a full bar serving creative mixed drinks, separate sushi bar, and plenty of room. One guest noted we were sitting where the band used to play, when this site was the Ridgeport Pub. Service is quick and attentive. The owner, Mike Yang, is on premises and quite helpful, as are the servers. Water glasses and drinks are well attended.

I like to start with BBQ Eel ($5) at a sushi spot. If it’s tender, succulent, a good portion, the sauce is finger licking good, then I’m happy and order away- I know I’m in good hands. The sauce is a chef’s secret, and Blue Fish’s sushi chef's preparation gets our smiles of approval, so we ordered more. A lot more! The eel came on the same plate with our Butterfly roll (14) and even has a “mushroom” of a tiny yellow squash on top of the wasabi. Cute. The Butterfly roll has spicy tuna, topped with tuna and avocado.

The Tempura appetizer is a good assortment of shrimp and vegetables lightly deep fried in a thin batter, and served with dipping sauce for $6. It’s ample, tasty, and the batter is delicate-the way it should be.
We had the Naples Roll ($13), with spicy tuna and spicy salmon, avocado and tabiko, lightly deep fried, as we wanted a mild heat, and Blue Fish got it right!

The Po Boy Roll (14), is a favorite, with tempura shrimp, cucumber, avocado, lettuce, crawfish, and fried soft shell crab, wrapped in a soy bean sheet.We ordered a variety of other rolls, and I forgot to write them down. Not to worry. They each came beautifully presented, one to two on a plate, saving valuable real estate on the table. The seafood is driven over daily from Miami, and it’s fresh!

We splurged, sharing a Hibachi dinner. It comes with clear soup, salad, steamed or fried rice, and the entree is cooked with noodles, onion, mushrooms, squash broccoli, and had 2 shrimp as appetizer. We picked the Filet Mignon and Lobster tail(32) and it’s worth it. It’s enough for two people, with the filet cooked just as we asked, and the lobster was perfectly cooked. It’s such a pleasure to not have to return food! Our Japanese beers are just right for the filet and lobster. I really prefer beer, over wine, with Asian and Indian foods. Go figure.

Blue Fish has a large open room, and a smaller hibachi room, full bar, and sushi bar. Lunch and dinner specials. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday there’s Dollar Sushi, check for others!

5425 Airport Pulling Road, Naples 596-6688

2 comments:

fldinner said...

Always wanted to try that restaurant. Thanks for the review.

Sushi Naples said...

My bf and I decided to check out Blue Fish the day after Thanksgiving around 4pm. We were the only customers in the restaurant. I ordered diet coke and was told they were out of diet soda. What restaurant, that isn't busy, runs out of diet soda? So I ordered a lemonade instead which was fine. My bf and I LOVED the Miso soup which actually had a great flavor to it and the tofu were soft. The salad was the best I've had a sushi restaurant b/c the dressing was a creamy vinaigrette. I could have eaten those two items for the main course and been very happy. I ordered the Basto Box (I'm not positive on the exact name but it's the dinners that come in large wooden boxes and they refer to them as lunch box) and it was very good as well!! My boyfriend ordered two rolls and he said they were good, especially considering the price. Over all the service was very attentive, though since we were the only ones in the restaurant I'd hope it'd be. I would say the decor and seat set up does make it feel like you're in a cheaply renovated bar.