Restaurant Review: The Blue Fish (Washington)

 

Friday evenings, you'll most likely find us at a sushi restaurant and then home with a Redbox movie where I most likely fall asleep before the end. Tired much?  The Blue Fish (not to be confused with Blue Fish on Richmond) is a new sushi restaurant on Washington, having just opened about three weeks ago. They have another location in downtown right by the Verizon center and several locations in Dallas.  I have to say, I pretty much loved this place - while pricey, it was really unique and good! Best part - so close to me that we timed it going back home - six minutes!

Our waiter, Aaron, was very nice and so soft-spoken, he literally could recommend something and it would be hard to say no, because he's so nice. We took three of his recommendations and liked each one. 


Ahi Tower (Sorry, no picture): It's rice, snow crab, avocado salad and tuna tartar piled up into a tower. The waiter brings it to your table and "mixes" the ingredients together, ensuring that the wasabi sauce and caviar are well incorporated together with the said tower. Flavors are delicious mixed together, and I probably could of had a bowl of that for dinner and been pretty happy. 


Julie's Roll (Picture above):  Julie is the sister of the owner and a top recommendation by the waiter. This was my favorite roll of the night.  Snow crab, salmon, asapargu (no rice) wrapped lightly in seaweed then wrapped on the outside with cucumber and lightly drizzled with ponzu sauce. A must order for when you go. The crab tastes incredibly fresh and the simplicity of it with the light ponzu sauce makes it so light and refreshing. No need for soy sauce. Perfect. 


Rock Manhattan: This was a beast of a roll where each piece took two bites and was packed with a variety of ingredients - shrimp tempura, snow crab meat, jalapeno with crab and spicy tuna on top. It had a crispy topping with a variety of caviar. Excellent.

We also tried the Spider Roll, which was good - nothing fancy, just what you expect.  This is a must for us when trying a new sushi restaurant. If they can't make a good spider roll... well, I just don't know what to say.

Their order of salmon sushi (2 per order) was good but I wasn't blown away by the salmon. You want good salmon sushi or sashimi- go to Osaka instead.  

Overall, this is a new favorite sushi place for me. While a bit more pricey - the specials rolls cost between $12-16. If you check in at Yelp before 7, you get 20% off you meal. The waitstaff was excellent - courteous, filled our drinks (including my hot tea!) and management stopped by to ensure everything was good.  Another small gesture that they make that I love - each person gets their own dish of wasabi and pickled ginger. YES!  I love that no one else touches the same wasabi and I have a wealthy pile of pickled ginger all to myself.  I'll need to try again and see if it's just as good, but for the first time, not bad at all.  The other perk (who knows how long this will last) but they have a large parking to themselves. Don't valet and just park in the adjoining lot or there is street parking on the side.


The Blue Fish
5820 Washington
Houston, TX 77007
713.862.3474

Restaurant Review: Toyama Sushi

"Oh look, there's a new restaurant. I wonder if it is good. We should go sometime."  Then we typically forget about it. As such, this conversation with Ross probably happened a good 5-8 times every time we drove by Toyama on Shepard but we finally tried it!  Walking in, the restaurant features clean designs, bright colors and several areas for seating - booths, tables and a modestly sized bar. I have to admit, I automatically cringed just a wee bit wondering if this was going to be a Zake or a Ra where they start playing club music to make it a little more hip, but no fear, it wasn't. 


As we looked at the menu, we immediately commented that the menu is glaringly similar to our favorite sushi restaurant, Osaka, on Westheimer. The waiter informed us that they are sister restaurants - queue my big smile and soon to be happy stomach.  

Owned by Shirley Li, who also owns Osaka, Toyama is a nice surprise. It is apparently named after a small town close to Osaka and as I write this, I actually remember my family trip to Japan several years ago where we actually visited this city - touring the castle museum and a sake brewery =).  

As for the sushi, the quality of the fish tastes fresh, sushi roll options are varied but without any fuss and the prices are very reasonable. They also had a 50 percent off sushi and rolls when we went on a late Saturday afternoon.  However, I do have the say that the quality at Osaka is just a little bit better. When we have the salmon sashimi at Osaka, it is like butter and we have a little sigh of happiness. At Toyama, it just didn't seem to be on the same level but I give it leeway as it's a fairly new restaurant.


Here's what was on our menu. The first is a chopped scallop roll - very simple, to the point, no embellishments. One of my favorites simply because I love chopped scallop so much but if you are really want the best chopped scallop that I've tried in town thus far, go to Miyakos.  We also had a roll that was the other favorite of the meal - white fish sushi roll with seared tuna and strawberry. I was surprised by the fresh, bright flavor the slice of strawberry added to this roll and how well it complemented the fish. The crab roll topped with fresh salmon and crunch was also good but out of everything we tried, probably our least favorite. Simply good but nothing spectacular.


Oh, and the added perk of Toyama? Following the tradition at Osaka, we received a complementary appetizer and ice cream with fried banana dessert.  Yes, please!  Overall, the restaurant is a great alternative to Osaka if you are looking for a much less expensive meal, especially if you go during their happy hour.  Service is quite good and they refilled our drinks and cleared our empty plates often.  My only qualm I have is their location and most specifically, their parking lot which I think literally only fits 5-8 cars. You'll most likely end up having to park in the neighborhood and walk to the restaurant.  We've been two additional times since our first visit and we leave with pretty happy stomachs. Check out Toyama or Osaka when you have the chance.  I'm always open to other sushi restaurants so please share!


Toyama
2802 S Shepherd Dr
Houston, TX 77098

Osaka

515 Westheimer Rd
Houston, TX 77006

Restaurant Review: Kata Robata - Omakasa

First off, take note of the smiling faces and hidden full bellies in this picture.  Four very happy folks. And behind us, the venerable Chef Horiuchi Manabu with an equally big smile.  We give good company on a Tuesday night!  We went for the "omakase" experience at Kata Robata, which means "it's up to you" in Japanese.  This means it's up to Chef Hori on what you will be eating for dinner.  He'll ask what you like, don't like, want to try, etc and then creates dishes for you until you throw your hands up, going "stop, too full!" His dishes will be from on and off the menu or if he has some fresh fish, he may try to put something together for you!  When I think about his signature dish - I DIE. I DIE HAPPY.  So good.

Omakase costs around $60-80 per person and he focuses most of his time on you.  You sit at the sushi bar, chat with him and watch what he makes.  We went middle of the road and set a budget with the waiter and chef prior to starting.  Additionally, they also have a sake pairing for each dish and this can bump up the cost to over $100 per person.  We had 10 dishes and they were all very tasty.  Don't fret by the size of the dishes when they come out (yes, I know we live in Texas) but you'll be surprised by how full you are afterwards.  :)  You need to call in advance when you make reservations to ensure Hori-San is available.  They typically only do omakase during the week as the weekends get a little too busy. 

A little about Chef Hori (as we called him during our meal).  He's one of the few Japanese sushi chefs in Houston.  He studied for five years in Japan, .has been a sushi chef for 14 years, came to the US nine years ago and is now the executive chef at Kata Robata.  When I asked why he become a sushi chef, he answer was a simple "because I love sushi!" followed with a chuckle. Good answer! Super nice and friendly, explained everything that we ate and overall, just gave us a wonderful first omakase experience.  MMMM-kay, let's get on to the many delicious dishes!

Monkfish pate with jellyfish and noodles sits on top of a few slices of japanese cucumber slices and pool of ponzu sauce.  I was a little perplexed when I heard monkfish pate but it was very good!  Creamy texture and even better when you take a bit with some of the jellyfish and cucumber.  The fishiness is quite strong but not overwhelming. 

This is a japanese red snapper carpaccio/sashimi with grapefruit, pecans, microgreens which he sprinkled with a mixture of freshly ground pink peppercorn and sea salt. This was incredibly light, had a fresh sweet flavor and actually, one of my three favorite dishes of the night. 

Sashimi platter of (starting on the left going clockwise) fatty tuna, Japanese jack, New Zealand salmon and yellowtail. These were so fresh and it was also my first time to try the fatty tuna, jack (for everyone) and new zealand salmon.  My favorite hands-down?  Jack fish!  It was firm and a little buttery without being too fishy.  This is seasonal and they just received so yum, yum!  The Jack was my second favorite dish of the night.

You'll notice we have a combination of cooked fish and sushi/sashimi.  Chef Jean-Philippe Gaston handles the cooked food while Chef Hori is the sushi master.  This fried scallop sits on a bed of spinach puree was a nice break to the fresh fish. There HAS to be some type of cheese or cream in that spinach because man, it was smooth, silky and delicious!

Lobster ceviche with mango reduction and geoduck clam. This was a light, fresh dish after the heavier fried scalllp. The geoduck is interesting in that it's somewhat like firm jelly if that makes any sense. I've seen it before in Asian markets. It's a big clam with this long, windy arm comign from it. By itself, I was not a fan but with the lobster, red onion, avocado and a scoop of that yummy mango sauce, hrm, it's a brillant burst of fresh, creamy, fruity combination in your mouth.

Red snapper cheek and filet on a bed of mushrooms. My god, the mushrooms. I think this was so good we barely paid any attention to the fish. Ha, poor snapper!  I kid the fish was good but not fantastic.  Unfortunately, the filet was a tad overcooks so it was a little dry. The cheek, however, was what Hori referred to as the Japanese chicken wing!  There is that one thumb size piece embedded in the little nook of bone - ahhh, the prize!  It's soft and tender and that one piece makes that cheek so good that you wish you could have the other cheek just to have another bite.

Blue fin tuna tartar with golden roe. I'm not a huge fan of tuna but man, after tonights fatty tuna and then this blue fin goodness, yeps, I'm a fan now.  Don't be mistaken by those chips on the side - you probably thought they were taro chips right? Nope! They are burdock root and lotus root chips! 

So, you may be deceived by this picture. Unagi you may think? Ha! Fooled! This is Chef Hori's signature dish, which by the way, I think I asked if every other dish was his signature until he finally said, it's coming, be patient! =) It's FOIE GRAS (yes, I said foie gras) on seared scallop with a tiny bit of rice.  Then the one one in the back is foie gras on seared yellowtail.  Okay, how do I explain this. I first took a bite of the yellowtail, and I literally said, omg, wow, this is amazing.  But wait....then I ate the foie gras with scallop and I DIED. Seriously, I DIE.  It was this buttery combination of goodness, a slight saltiness combined with the smooth creamy flavor of the scallop. Wow, really, just wow.  Obviously, this was my favorite dish of the night. I want more!

Okay, I'll be honest. I was pretty full at this moment and he somehow knew to ask if we were full.  However, my friend had to ask if we could try their famous pork belly. Yum! 

So, I think I will pass on dessert the next time I go. They were not so spectacular that after such an amazing meal, I was a tad disappointed in the dessert. Mind not, I was still able to finish every bite. Waste not right? So, when I took a bite of the strawberry and red bean panna cotta topped with a strawberry and cilantro mix, I laughed out loud and asked Ross to hurry and take a bite and tell me what he thought it tasted like. I kid you not, this tasted exactly like Strawberry Hi-Chew! Texture was a little grainy and off to me but the  cilantro topping made up for it.  The other dessert in the back some type of chocolate cake with orange fluff and dressing. 

Overall, this was downright freakin fantastic. Service was great, they were there to clear our plates, fill our drinks and Chef Hori was informative, very humble, had a great chuckle and personality!  If you've never experienced an omakase dinner, this is the place to do it with a true Japanese sushi chef, who couldn't be nicer or more fun with some amazing food. Also, thanks to Fefo for taking these pictures for me!