Blue Sushi Sake Grill

We found ourselves at Trader Joe’s at the Summit one date night as we tried to figure out where to eat for our date night. We love Ono Poke, but we wanted to try something different. We noticed that there was a new sushi restaurant where the CPK was located. There was one problem though…. a huge line was outside waiting for a table. We thought that it was because it was new, so we made a note to come back on our next date night. Again, crowded… so we knew it had to be good. It HAD to be!

Months later, we were out at the Summit doing the last bit of our Christmas shopping and decided to try our luck once again. And SCORE! There was no line and no waiting at lunch. I was so excited because I was craving sushi…. and pho but I can’t have both. HA!

It’s important to note that their menu is divided into RAW and NOT RAW. And they have a pretty great selection of vegan options. We didn’t try any of the vegan roll options, but we will next time!

Our starter was the seaweed salad. It always has to be when I’m having sushi. The seaweed salad is vegan@ It is a mix of seaweed, cucumber sunomono, scallion, and tossed in sesame dressing. I looked up sunomono so you wouldn’t have to - it refers to vinegar-based dishes and is commonly served as a side dish. It literally means “vinegar things”. I loved it! It’ll always be something I order.

Also I have to note that we didn’t bring our camera so all of these pics were iPhone pics. The lights were also incredibly warm which is awesome for date ambiance but not so much for photos. But we do what we can. Nick always orders the smoked salmon nigiri. Every time. One day we may surprise each other and go with another salad and nigiri. This is the “Everything” Smoked Salmon. It is a RAW option. It is smoked salmon on top of cream cheese stuffed rice tempura, topped with everything furikake, scallions, and ponzu sauce. There were two pieces per order. I loved it BUT I didn’t love that it had been sitting in the ponzu sauce for a bit too long. I imagine that it would have been awesome if we were able to dip it in the ponzu sauce - if the sauce was on the side. That may just be me and my tastes but it the sauce soaked into the rice… more that I would’ve liked. Honestly, next time we order it, I’m going to ask for the sauce on the side.

The sushi roll to the left (front) was the Salmon Skin Roll (RAW). It is made of crispy salmon skin, bonito flakes, cucumber, avocado, burdock root, ikura, and lemon. There are 8 pieces. I love crispy salmon skin and burdock root… and pretty much everything else in this roll. So yea, this I really liked this roll.

The sushi roll to the right (back) was the Snow White Roll (NOT RAW). It had crispy seabass, avocado, burdock root, bibb lettuce, soy paper, and a creamy spicy eel sauces. I can’t put my finger on why I didn’t love this roll. It wasn’t memorable.

This is the Hawaiian Roll (NOT RAW). It was tempura fried and had mango, salmon, crab mix, and mango sauce. Again, not my favorite BUT it was because it was deep fried. I find that I’m not a fan of deep-fried warm sushi. I’m good with tempura fried things inside of the roll but not a fan of the whole roll being fried. This was Nick’s order! I didn’t read the menu so I thought it would have pineapple in it… but it does not. HAHA! I told Nick that I didn’t taste the pineapple and he gave me the DUH look…. it’s because it had mango in it. Oops!

Out of all the rolls we ordered this is our favorite. It’s the Beach Roll (RAW). It has seared albacore, spicy bigeye tuna, spicy crab mix, burdock root, avocado, cilantro, serrano, and ponzu sauce. We should’ve ordered two. The burdock root was extra crunchy. I noticed the burdock root in this roll but not really in the others. The serrano was the perfect pop of heat.

I’m excited to come back to Blue Sushi for dinner. I’m going to invite friends, so they’ll share their rolls with me.