BlueSea

My boyfriend and I came here and ordered the Tom Yum soup hot pot to share. The soup base was not bad, it was pretty good. However, the portion size was very small for the price ($ 34). They give one small clay pot that was not big enough for everything. I wish the broth was a little more sour and spicy. It tasted more to the sweet and salty side.
The service was actually what bothered me more than anything. Everything just took way too long to come out. I felt as if I had to ask for every single thing. We had a side order of shrimp that took so long to come out, we just cancelled it. Very slow service, let alone it took about 15 minutes to just get that portable stove out and everything after felt like it slowly slipped in. When you are eating hot pot, everything should come out all at once. I wanted to order more things, but I had to hold myself back because of how slow things were moving. I am unsure if I would come back to this place or recommend it others.

I came here with my BF and we ordered 2 poke bowls and a beef carpaccio to share. The poke bowl was pretty good, IMO. They have a menu where you circle the items that you want in your poke. There are less flavor options than I’m used to – just varying levels of mayo basically. My BF had broken pieces of avocado skin in his bowl. The portion size was perfect for me!
The beef carpaccio threw me off. It was like really thinly sliced pieces of meat, basically shabu shabu meat, eaten raw. It tasted good but was very unappetizing due to the plating. It looked like someone was playing with their raw meat and just swirled it around on a plate, leaving behind blood trails and broken off slivers of meat.
This place also had a really strange environment. The décor looks really nice and trendy, but it was very dirty. A lot of tables weren’t picked up after the customers had already left. The sofa chairs had food and trash on them. And there were soooo many flies!!! Flies of all sizes! I’m not that comfortable eating raw food when there are so many flies! (Ironically, the raw food may have been why the flies were there in the first place.)
Overall, food was not bad but ambiance disturbed me. I would be OK to come back, but it definitely wouldn’t be my first choice.

Was pleasantly greeted by the beautiful, clean interior of the restaurant. I ordered a salmon and tuna poke with all the toppings, salad and spicy mayo. it was so delicious. With a nice setting and yummy food, I say this place is definitely worth trying.
Only four stars because:
–sashimi could have been better
–spicy mayo not very spicy

Love this place! It offers a wide variety of Asian inspired cuisine starting from a hot pot and ending with fresh poki combinations.
Great price! Great spacious venue with awesome music playing.

Excellent place to grab a quick bite for some poke, try the pokey ball with the coconut mail it blends nice with the fresh fish and a cucumber.

Ordered a poke bowl and it was pretty good. The rice was well cooked. The spicy mayo isn’t very spicy and the fish was okay. But still the over all bowl was good.
Service was quick and fast. I came around 4 when they have happy hours with dollar oysters.

Poke’s usually more of a food truck/​fast food type of service rather than a dine-​in, so I was immediately intrigued when I saw photos online and decided to give this place a try.
The first thing I noticed when I stepped foot inside was the atmosphere – the store’s design was modern and sleek, and there were plenty of seats at both the tables and the bar booths. The lights were relatively dim and there was a very calm and relaxing feel to space, so it’s definitely a great place to stick around at and just chill with your friends. Waitresses were also very welcoming and kind; they checked up on us a few times throughout our meal to make sure everything was going fine.
Now, if it weren’t for the aesthetic and vibes, I don’t think I would be giving them this high of a rating. My friend and I both ordered from the «Build Your Own Poke Bowl» menu, and they only allowed for us to select two kinds of fish – almost all Poke places I’ve been to let you choose at least 3 for a regular sized bowl. Guessing that it wouldn’t be enough, we decided to pay the extra $ 2.50 for extra scoops of fish each only to discover that it wasn’t even included in our plate halfway through our meal. We called over the waitress and told her what’s up and she brought back out a small bowl with tiny, tiny pieces of hamachi and tuna for the both of us.
Honestly for something that way too overpriced, we weren’t getting much at ALL. The pieces of fish were sliced in tiny ass cubes and we barely got any of it as is, but to make matters worse, they placed everything on a HUGE plate to create the illusion that we were getting bigger portions when we weren’t. We paid like $ 14 bucks for small ass portions and an extra scoop of fish when I could get all of that stuff AND more at Poki Bowl or something. Furthermore, the spicy mayonnaise sauce was way too overwhelming; I could barely get through the dish without feeling sick.
Maybe I’d come back to give their other menu options a second chance but definitely no more poke for me! The aspect of being served was awesome but I think I’d rather settle for something a little more middle class and reasonably priced.

Poke bowl was great not as filling as I hoped but first time having poke and yum!!! No wonder the sushi place near by is closed this place is a tad pricy for the amount I got. The servers don’t seem like they want to have a connection with you asking how it was maybe need to work out the customer service aspect but I guess need to try another poke place to have comparison .
Otherwise love love love

MY GO-​TO PLACE FOR ALL SPORTS GAMES!!! The food is amazing here & during Warriors game they blast the volume so it makes the experience really lively.
I’m a huge hot-​pot fanatic so I had to try their Japanese spicy miso & Thai Tom yum. GO FOR THE MEAT SAMPLERS IF YOU ARE SHARING, so worth. The Thai tom yum is my favorite because it really reminds me of the tom yum soup you can order at Thai restaurants, love love love! The meat doesn’t taste like the cheap cuts of
meat you someone’s get at Shabu Shabu places, def worth your money.
I’ve also tried their poke bowl here & it’s seriously worth your money! I love Poki Bowl at the plant but BlueSea does it really well with their fresh fish and unlimited toppings you can choose from (tempura flakes OMG).
Great atmosphere that can be great for a night to drink & eat with your friends or if you are looking to eat with your family!!!
¹⁰⁄₁₀ Food
¹⁰⁄₁₀ Service
¹⁰⁄₁₀ Location (tons of parking!!!)

We found this place through Unilocal.I am very surprised by the review on here, this place is so overrated.
Overall the service is good, very noisy in the restaurant.
We ordered the live uni — not fresh at all, very disappointed.
Lobster salmon poke bowl — taste okay but the portion is so little compare to the price. I only got 4 pieces of 2 cm cube salmon in my bowl…
Scallop appetizer (forgot the name of it) — taste so bad, not fresh with bitter taste… My stomach didn’t feel well that night and the next day. No next time.

Disappointed with my filet mignon… Over cooked! I wasn’t even asked how I like it. But by the time I got it, it was well.
The overall dish was good and almost filling. Good quality ingredients and tasted really good. But it’s sacrilegious to over cook a filet mignon. It came with veggies and garlic noodles. My noodles were cold and under salted. Portion size could definitely be bigger.
Service was not quite par. Water was not refilled and were not checked on. We had a group of 10… food came out in sections. Some people didn’t get their food til others were done. My dish came 15 mins before my wife’s dish. One order was even wrong.
The kitchen needs to keep up. There shouldn’t be that big a gap for the same table. If there is, they need to let us know.
Definitely not their best performance. Being that I’m from Los Angeles… This will not be on my list of places to come back.

When I crave shabu, I must have it. I wanted to try another place that could possibly be as good as Shabu House and One Pot… but BlueSea was not the one.
The restaurant is colorful, modern, hip, clean, and new.
I wasn’t satisfied with their hot pot, but my boyfriend liked it. I think it would be better to go here during HH because their prices are a little on the higher end. If you check in on Unilocal,they give free sake– good for 1.5 shots for two people.
My boyfriend said it’s Vietnamese-​owned so I shouldn’t have expected Japanese shabu.
We ordered XO soft shell crab, Japanese miso broth with the meat lovers combo. We ordered one more dish, I think. I can’t remember because this was a few months back. I usually like to have some sort of dipping sauce for my meat with shabu. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any for me so I was disappointed. I probably won’t come back, unless it’s for HH.

First time I visited BlueSea, everything was so delicious and service was quick.
Now that I’ve been here a handful of times, service is a hit and miss and some of food doesn’t taste as good as the first time…
I recently dined at BlueSea on 5÷3÷16, our server was a young lady with very long hair. She was not very attentive at all. She kept forgetting things: didn’t give us a pencil when we asked for the poke menu, we had to grab it ourselves. We asked for an extra bowl, she went off to do something else and we asked another guy for the bowl. She doesn’t refill any of our drinks. And I’m sorry, if you have long hair pass your waist, please tie that shit. I don’t want to see you constantly fixing your hair nor the possibility of hair getting in my food! I know you’re trying to look cute but NO.
I ordered the phở oxtail and was very disappointed how much fat was on the oxtail. Yes the meat was tender but when you have the fat to meat ratio being 2:3. Gross.
Poke was bomb as always, I’ll probably stick to that if I return. And hopefully have a guy as my server. They’re usually more attentive.

Came here twice and I regret doing so!
The 1^st time I came to BlueSea I did a TO-​GO order from them. My friend and I ordered their Jumbo Prawns with Garlic Noodles and some other dish. What really disappointed me was that they overcharged us. Their price was totally different from what they had displayed on their menus. They later told us that their menus were old and that those were the wrong prices…(so why did you not change them?) Besides that, our orders took forever to come out when we noticed that the restaurant wasn’t busy at all. The Jumbo Prawns with Garlic Noodles wasn’t too bad, but for the amount of food they give you for about $ 13 is definitely not worth my wallet.
Fast forward to about a year later… I came here a few days ago with my bf and his family. It was Good Friday and we didn’t have many options to eat out at so we decided to go to BlueSea (being that it’s super close to his home).
His mom order their Poki Bowl which ended up to be about $ 11 for a tiny a$$ bowl of poki and other ingredients over a load of rice. I thought it wasn’t worth the price but she enjoyed the bowl. My bf, his brother, and I each got a side of their $ 5 Garlic Noodles (I could finish it in like 3 bites…), and shared their $ 12 Soft Shell Crab & $ 8 Calamari. I think the only dish I liked was their Soft Shell Crab though it was a bit salty for my liking. All the other dishes lacked flavor and I was still disappointed on the amount they give you.
Not only was the food kinda disappointing, but their service here really sucks. It wasn’t even that busy and we still had to wait long for our food and water. One of the managers (I think) came up to us and apologized for the wait and their service and offered us a free hot sake. Yeah… we never got that hot sake LOL. Oh well. We did manage to get a free hot sake because of our Unilocal Check-​In offer, so don’t forget to check in and show them! :) Because originally a small Sake costs $ 8…I can get 8 large hot sake during HH at another sushi joint (just sayin’).
TLDR; Expensive food, small portions, bad service, check into Unilocal for a free hot/​cold sake!

Somehow, the Bun Bo Hue and Carpaccio grew on me and always kept us coming back to satisfy our cravings. This last visit though made us decide that we probably are going to take a break from this place for awhile…
1. They had NO bun bo hue that Sunday afternoon =(and we came specifically for that.
2. Our server was not only rude and unprofessional, but she lacked any knowledge of what was going on in the restaurant as far as menu and specials were. We ordered their $ 1 happy hour oysters and we ended up canceling them because they took FOREVER to come out. We only ordered 4 pieces too! All of our food came out already and we were already getting full from being half way done with our phở. Our server tried to justify her sh*tty service by saying, «WELL…we’re understaffed this morning…» WELL, you should never admit something like that to the customers and don’t start off with WELL and give us attitude. It’s not our fault you’re understaffed!
This place has always been pretty empty each time we’ve come in, whether it was lunch or dinner. They recently just added Poke to their menu and some macaroon ice cream too. I can see this place is hurting for business, but it’s such a shame that their service went so downhill.

Lobster! Yes! Lobster everything. Lobster poke, lobster phở, lobster sashimi, lobster shabu.
The poke bowls are bomb, the service is awesome. I’m so bummed my phone died before getting a few pictures, but I’ll be back!!!

What a very different experience this time from our last visit!
We were seated and given menus which were so faded we could barely make out the hot pot side. My menu said «Happy Birthday Minnie» odd… Because it was actually my birthday but my name’s not Minnie. Also, both of our menus were different– his had additional items. We noticed that there were items on Unilocal that weren’t on their menus so we asked and the waitress brought out a «chef’s special» menu. Hmm wtheck?
We decided on the x.o. soft shell crab, Thai spicy wings, x.o. fried rice & lobster garlic noodles. Last time I thought the soft shell crab was amazing. This time it had a weird smell and wasn’t appetizing. The wings were meh, not spicy like the description said and the meat was pretty dry. The fried rice was such a let down! It was REALLY bland and all of the seafood bits were tiny. The lobster garlic noodles were just okay. I make better garlic noodles … The lobster was 1.8 pounds and hardly any meat. At $ 39 and their «special» it was disappointing.
There was hype about their poke bowls but maybe it’s just for lunch cause we weren’t given any menus about them. Service sucked at first and then it was okay since we were checked on more frequently. However I don’t think we’ll ever be back. It left a bad taste in our mouths.

BlueSea has a variety of different types of Vietnamese cuisine. From hotpot to lobster phở to poke to happy hour specials, you won’t find all of these selections of food in other restaurants.
Today is my second time coming here and I was just as impressed the first time. I noticed they have a special menu with lobster dishes such as lobster poke, lobster phở, and lobster hotpot. I didn’t order it this time since I didn’t need a big meal for lunch, but I will for sure give it a try next time. I also noticed they have happy hour specials M-​F for $ 1 oysters. Besides that, if you are not feeling either of this, go ahead and try the hotpot. If you are feeling poke, you can create your own poke-​bowl for less than $ 10! You simply mark what you want on a piece of paper they give you.
*Food: I ordered the Phở combination and my boyfriend ordered phở kobe with a side of filet mignon. It even comes with pickled onions and extra lime that we didn’t ask for. We appreciated that very much since extra sides are always great.
Phở combination — The broth is very flavorful and comes with the typical phở combo meats such as tripe, tendon, filet, flank, etc.
*Service: Service here is excellent. A few minutes after our food was served, our waiter politely came by to check if we needed anything else. He came back a little while later and asked if we needed a side bowl of soup so we can cook our side of filet minon since our soup probably won’t be hot enough to cook it anymore.
*Ambiance: The décor here is beautiful. It is very modern with blue and white interior. it is very comfortable and you can dress up or down. it could be a place to come for a casual night out but this could also be a nice place to have a celebration.
Overall, I am impressed with BlueSea. Next time when I come here, I will give the lobster dishes a try.

Serious kudos to a place that offers Lobster Phở on a regular basis!
Completely blindsided by Blue Sea. I had never heard of it, and when I look it up, I find it’s 7 minutes away from my hood. They’re in the strip mall right off of the Capitol exit off of 680, in the same parking lot as Lucky, and Saiko Sushi. Saiko Sushi is another that has been under the radar for me. As we walked by though, not too many people inside so maybe no good? I’ll have to look that one up.
I totally agree with famed Unilocaler Kim N who says «this place has potential». It does, and you get that impression right from the moment you walk in. They tried hard with the décor, trying to make it something special, and they almost succeeded but I feel like they got lost somewhere along the way (décor-​wise). It’s almost like they were shooting to make it feel a little more high-​end, with fancy cocktails etc, and they ended up settling for a more casual. So, you’re getting a high-​end, fancy vibe, and an approachable, low-​end, casual vibe both at the same time. Tangent! Sorry.
We ordered:
LOBSTER PHO (⁴⁄₅) I’m impressed with any restaurant that is ballsy enough to put this on their menu. Because the entire lobster sits in the bowl, they have to use a wide, shallow bowl. Trivial point, but I didn’t care for that. I like to sip my phở from the bowl (uncouth maybe, but I spent too much time in Japan where that is the norm, and is never considered rude). With this bowl, you can’t do that. That is picky point #1. The broth was a bit weak for me. I think you need a stronger than usual broth to pair with the richness of the lobster. I will need to sample the broth from their regular phở to see for sure if I can give a thumbs up on the broth. As it stands now, the broth didn’t cut it.
The lobster meat however was good. I’m sure it wasn’t a Maine lobster, but even still, it was slightly sweet and I enjoyed it. And I would order this again, if I knew somehow that the broth was going to be better.
XO SOFT SHELL CRAB APPETIZER (⁵⁄₅) This dish is way talked-​up on Unilocal and it’s the first thing out of waiter’s mouth in the way of recommendations. It was good. Def order again. Sauce is tantalizing and you’ll be scraping the bowl to get every last bit.
JUMBO SHRIMP W/​GARLIC NOODLES (⁵⁄₅) Also a Unilocal favorite. Vietnamese have a way with shrimp. I find I always like the shrimp when we go Vietnamese. (MID-​REVIEW TIP: Vung Tau is a great place to order shrimp.) The shrimp are actually pretty jumbo as they say, and there are 4 of them that come with the garlic noodles. The garlic noodles are nothing fancy, but trust me, they’ll be gone at the end of the meal. They’re the unsauced, dry kind, seasoned I think with just dry spice like garlic powder. But for me, though not fancy, I kinda liked the plain, white-​trash appeal of these. :) Would order again.
So as you can see, food-​wise, they did pretty well. And service was pretty good too. I ordered a beer and it was on the table almost instantly. Many check-​backs from the friendly waiter, …can I get you anything else…
After the meal, I drove away full and happy. Happy that I found a place 7 minutes from my house that I’m excited about coming back to.
And that’s how the story ends.
The End :)

This is a go-​to spot now.
My original review had me complaining about the service. Service is no longer an issue. The servers are attentive, and if you’re lucky, the owner might even come out to chop it up and perhaps offer you a drink. He got my group a bottle of soju on the house. How ’bout that?
Aside from your standard hot pot and rice plate choices, they’re also being a little more adventurous and creative with the menu. I went here twice over the last week and first had the Lobster Phở — that’s right, Lobster Phở. At $ 29, they give you a huge bowl of phở with a full lobster in there for your liking. The tail is already sliced in half so it’s easier to eat… but yes, your hands will be messy if you really know how to eat a lobster. $ 29 is pricey, but if it was $ 15, would you buy it? Maybe you would, but the lobster would suck. This one doesn’t.
They also now have poke bowls on the menu. You choose one of two kinds of fish — tuna, salmon, yellowtail, and shrimp, and then you can have your choice of other additives and have to decide on the sauce. The serving itself is quite generous and filled me up, which is something I never say about poke bowls.
I wish this place all the success it can get, especially with the upward trajectory the Hostetter area will be on with the completion of BART and overall appreciation of real estate in the area.