Blue Ocean Sushi (The Loop)

This week we visited Blue Ocean Sushi (6335 Delmar Blvd. in University City/the Loop), primarily because it received the top rating in Riverfront Times 2014 Sushi ranking.  While we had a reasonably good experience, we don’t understand RFT’s #1 ranking (especially given the fantastic meal we had last month at Fin).

There was certainly a lot to like about Blue Ocean.  The walls are decorated with larger-than-life Japanese comic characters, posters from classic films like Akira, and portraits of Godzilla (the original) and his cronies. 

Service was fast and courteous, and the menu was well organized with attractive photos of each item.

To start, we ordered our usual benchmarking items: hot green tea, edamame and miso soup. 

The tea was brewed properly and came in fun plastic bottom-pouring decanters.  We were pleased that the server replaced these as soon as they got low.

The edamame was average, but the miso soup stood out.  The broth was thicker than usual, and in addition to the usual seaweed, scallions and tofu, it contained carrots and chopped onions, giving it more the feel of a vegetable soup than typical miso.  Unusual but tasty.

Next we ordered three special rolls.

The dragon roll (right) included crab salad and avocado, topped with eel and crispy sweet potato shavings.  It had a pleasant crunchy texture, but the crab was not plentiful, and what was there was overwhelmed by a mayonnaise sauce. 

One of our standard orders is the rainbow roll (center).  Unfortunately, Blue Ocean’s did not live up to the offerings at several of its competitors.  The fish topping was sliced very thin and did not stand out.  The filling, allegedly crab, was barely detectable.  Worse still, the roll tended to fall apart, as the rice was not sufficiently sticky.

We were most looking forward to the fancifully-named Klingon roll (left), which was in keeping with the sci-fi/kitchy atmosphere of the place.  However, we are pretty sure that such a dish would never be served in a respectable eatery on Qo’noS.  We weren’t expecting our rolls to come out live and bleeding, but we at least expected something to sink our teeth into.  What we got, instead, were undercooked “tempura” sweet potatoes with insufficient batter and very little of the promised eel topping.  Not only did the Klingon roll not live up to its fearsome name, it was one of the least appetizing rolls that we have ever had.

RFT, what were you thinking???

Score:  7.0 (would have been lower, save for the ultra-fun décor).

[We should note that Blue Ocean offers an “all you can eat” sushi menu for both lunch and dinner.  It seemed reasonably priced, but as it did not include any of the special rolls, we did not opt for that route.]