related items
It was late, my husband and I were hungry, and we happened to pass by Blue Ocean Japanese Cuisine, which didn't look like much from the outside but had a lot of cars in the parking lot (usually a good sign).
The mood
This feels like a place that's been around a while but has seen some upgrades. Spacious, with booths around the perimeter of the restaurant and tables in the middle, brown and orange walls, earthy tile flooring, red and black paper lanterns, mismatched tinsel garland, calming Asian music, and a sit-down sushi bar.
The food
Once we ordered, the food didn't take long. (We did wait 10 minutes for our server to take our order because she was busy with a large table, but she apologized immediately and was very responsive the rest of our stay. And we had a small bowl of complimentary fried noodles and duck sauce to tide us over.)
I had the Spider Roll ($8.95), made with sticky rice, soft-shell crab, cucumber, avocado, lettuce and crispy fish roe. The six sushi pieces were arranged in a straight line, over a drizzling of brown sauce on an artsy ceramic plate; two of the pieces were accented with tempura-coated crab legs, which regrettably had much more batter than seafood. I enjoyed my meal overall — though remained hungry afterward — but I still can't understand why there's a Facebook fan page devoted to the dish.
Patrick let me have one of his Spicy Scallop sushi pieces (he'd ordered two for $3.95), which became my top pick for its clumps of well-seasoned, mashed scallops sitting high atop tight bundles of rice. He paired these with the Philadelphia Roll ($4.95) — eight sushi pieces stuffed with smoked salmon and a mild cream cheese, with sides of ginger and wasabi. (Patrick's tip: Order extra ginger, particularly given the wasabi's mild tang.)
Having never tasted salmon with cream cheese, Patrick said he liked the match and would order the combination again, but in a smaller quantity with something else for a better variety of flavors.
Our check came with fortune cookies and a gigantic, juicy orange.
Lunch specials run $5.95 to $11.95; bento boxes are $8.95. Also on the menu: appetizers, soups, salads, sashimi, noodles and hibachi dinners. Desserts include tempura ice cream, banana tempura and tempura cheesecake (all $3.95).
The drinks
Pepsi products are $1.75, beer starts at $3.50, and wine is $2.75 to $3.50 per single-serving bottle.
The damage: $23.28
Next time ... I'd get the Volcano Roll ($12.95), a crab, avocado and cucumber roll with baked scallops, shrimp, tobiko and spicy mayo on top.
