Blowfish Sushi

This place can get fairly busy on the weekend. There’s a reason: it’s innovative quality food. The must try appetizers: sweet and sour shrimp on toast and the ahi tuna pyramid. The pyramid is mixed with teriyaki and consists of salmon tuna and guacamole or avocado.
I don’t remember the names of the rolls we had but there was no complaints. The martinis are stiff but I had beer and sake. Felt pretty good leaving in the taxi after.

I oredered a bento box to go. When i got home, I open up the box and see the grilled salmon. I was so shocked, that’s over grilled salmon!!! And i can smell that! So bad! This one star is for the rice and salad. Thank you for fooling around.

I like this place. It’s got a good vibe. They have Interesting rolls. I would recommend people going to this place at least once, mainly for the vibe.
Given that it’s San Francisco and we have so many amazing sushi places, it’s hard to give them 5 stars because the prices do not fit the quality of food.
Still not a bad place.

Two beers were not in stock that we had tried to order, the Sapporo happy hour pour wasn’t working since the lines were messed up. Anahi was also out, so we got a Kirin instead.
Happy hand rolls were terrible, tasted bland, minimal fish, small portion of rice and at $ 5 per hand roll could’ve bought an awesome burger down the street for the $ 15 we spent or tacos for $ 5 each. Overall, the music was good but not worth a second trip and wish we would’ve been informed of the lack of beer choice before ordering a sake. Bummer. Skip this spot and head for tacos in the mission if in the neighborhood.

Only come here out of convenience
Hostess are always awful, waiters good, bartenders don’t remember your order because they are too busy.
Booked reservation, table not available during reservation time (even though we were waiting, were told our table was getting cleaned) but hostess came back and told us we have to wait due to «table ordering dessert» but in a really rude way.
Fuckin annoying no communication.
Food is really good that’s the two stars

After an inexcusably long absence, we finally got around to sampling the «new» menu tonight and it’s superb. Blowfish shouldn’t be missed.

Great wait staff, trendy atmosphere with the dim lighting + loud music + art on the walls + fantastic restaurant lay-​out, but the food here is just not that good.
Date and I ordered The Punch as an appetizer (filet mignon on a bed of spinach with sauteed onions). Presentation of this and the two sushi rolls we ordered was just beautiful. While the plating and names of the dishes were creative, the food lacked flavor. I might as wel have stayed home and eaten my boiled vegetables. All I remember about the two rolls were that they were fried and that killed any flavor profile that could have been there, and there no sauces to make up for it. One roll supposedly had squid ink infused rice – the frying killed that.
The chicken karaage we ordered was spot on though, and I would come back here for that and the sweet honey aioli that comes with it. Helps that it’s a few blocks away from home too.
I really should just stick to Basa Seafood Market for my sushi fix though. I’ll go there tomorrow!

I come here all the time for lunch, since my work is nearby. It used to be what I considered a solid sushi place, but I haven’t really had a consistent lunch experience recently. Some days are bad, some days are good, and it all depends on the staff.
They recently changed their menu and consolidated what they offer. Bento boxes went up from $ 13 to $ 14.50, the Gocyamaze Combo changed to «Omakase Combo» from $ 13 to $ 19, and they got rid of a lot of maki rolls and nigiri. The omakase combo was good the one time I tried it, but some nigiri is hit and miss depending on who’s the chef. For example, I used to rave about their age nasu (eggplant) nigiri, but the last 4 times I’ve ordered that, it was prepared so many different ways (varying levels of ginger, miso, and soy sauce). I used to think their vegetarian/​vegan options were better than other sushi places, but now it’s kind of fallen off that record.
Staff here is mediocre. They don’t do substitutions, and they’re not very helpful for dietary needs. Last time I went, I ordered a bento box and wanted something from the sushi bar, but she informed me that bento boxes are pre-​made in the kitchen and cannot be mixed with anything made at the sushi bar. The staff also changes the volume of music like every 20 minutes, so sometimes the music is super loud and sometimes there’s nothing playing. Mildly awkward.
All in all, I like them OK, and while it’s no longer a deal to go for lunch, I would probably continue to sometimes go back, just with lowered expectations.

Another great takeout meal. They estimated 45 minutes for preparation on a Monday but it only took 20 minutes!
I do want to mention that we ate our Lost in Forest scallop appetizer and found a dead fruit fly at the bottom of the take out container. It was under some of the greens so I still ate the last scallop, which didn’t seem to have touched it, since this dish was so tasty.
About a week later, I went to the restaurant to mention this and brought my receipt. They were super apologetic and discounted the entire dish for me. I have zero misgivings about what happened and, especially since I live half a block away, can’t wait to go back and have a proper sit-​down meal!
COST: $ 55.58 total for a light dinner for three (before they refunded our Lost in Forest). 10% off neighborhood discount included!
MUST-​HAVES: Lost in Forest scallop appetizer! Despite the fruit fly. I really think it’s the best scallop dish I’ve ever had. See my pics for more details.
* Tempura Medley ($ 11) — 4 stars
Nicely done, and a good mix of veggies (including lotus root!). The batter was really light and subtle.
* Ritsu Roll ($ 13) — 4 stars
The fish was amazing. Very silky, very intense (no rice) and came together nicely with the rest of the roll.
* Lost in Forest (scallop appetizer. $ 14) — 4.5 stars
Really great — I’ve never been much impressed by scallops but I think this may be the best scallop dish I’ve ever had!
* Spider Roll ($ 13) — 3.5 stars
This is one of my go-​to staples, but at Blowfish I found this to be meh. There wasn’t much intense crunch to the tempura crab — the textures and the flavors were quite flat on this one.

I come here very often and figured I should finally give some love back. My boyfriend and I live down the street and find ourselves here every few weeks or so. Anytime we are in the mood to eat out, this is an immediate go-​to. The ambiance is great, the interior is great, with art from Android Jones all over the wall (we have several prints and were super excited to see them!). The music is great, they tend to play house music and sometimes have a DJ. We have been here a dozen times and have never had a back experience.
Here are key highlights to the food:
–The pyramid of tar tar is amazing. We get this every time and it’s always fantastic. Get this!
–The oysters are always good and reasonable @ a dozen for $ 30.
–Greedy Girl roll is one of our favorite rolls– try it! Otherwise most of their specialty rolls are delicious, you can’t really go wrong.
–I get the Basil gimlet. It is fantastic. Sadly I have not tried any of their other craft cocktails since this one is pretty perfect for me.
–Some awesome garlic edamame, probably some of our favorite.
The service is fantastic. Every server we’ve had has always been incredibly friendly, informative and pleasant to talk to. They make an effort to make sure you’re having a good experience.

I’ve never tired anything here except the sushi and the cocktails. Both are excellent. The ambiance is young, hip, and exciting. It’s a little bit loud when they’re busy, and service can be slow on the busy nights. But the sushi is fresh and delicious and the staff is very friendly.

I love it here. Every time I’ve been I’ve had top quality food and fun. Last week I brought a party of 10, including my two cousins from the Midwest that were sushi virgins. The chef, Dino, was so awesome (and cute) and our waiter, Grant rocked.
Everyone had a great time and people with different dietary needs (kosher /​vegan /​gluten free /​vegetarian) all found something tasty.

Fresh sushi in a great hip environment. The artworks are beautiful, and the ambiance is heightened with EDM playing in the background. The sashimi was fresh, with a lot of different fishes, served beautifully.

I’ve been meaning to write this review but I think my experience was so bad that my mind was trying to forget it. But luckily I remembered!
I came here with 6 friends to celebrate one of my friend’s birthdays on December 20. He had been here before and loved the restaurant so he chose the place for his birthday. I was fairly excited to try it considering all the good things I had heard.
But let me tell you, it was a disappointment. My friend and I ordered 2 appetizers, I ordered the Hawaiian brochettes for myself. I can’t tell you how they tasted because they never came to the table. After maybe 30 minutes and after we received our sushi, I was over them and told the waitress I wanted to cancel my appetizer and my friend wanted to do the same. The server had the nerve to ask us what we had ordered — mind you she was the one that took the order. And came back 15 min later to tell the kitchen she had canceled them. Good thing we told her because at the rate they were being made they wouldn’t have been ready till closing.
Oh but guess what? Our friends who ordered the tuna tar tar 15min AFTER us, successfully received their appetizer at an appropriate time.
Each of us ordered some rolls individually, yet we received everything family style. It made everything very hard to eat for a large table, especially since we had some vegetarians in the group. We had to have her explain which roll was which like 3 times because she kept saying something different each time.
The rolls were actually pretty good but I wasn’t satisfied after eating my two rolls. Maybe I would have been full if I had gotten my appetizer…
Everything took so long, and she would disappear and come back clueless as to what stage in the dinner we were at. Funny considering the restaurant was only half full on a rainy Sunday night.
At one point we were waiting for a glass of wine and when she came to ask if we needed any more drinks, we told her about it. She said she was just waiting on the bartender. We looked back to the bar imagining to see a flustered bartender with a full bar and tickets piling up by the second. But no, there was 1 person at the bar who the bartender was causally chatting with. Again, she probably forgot to order that too.
At the end of our game of Guess Who: The Sushi Edition, we stared at our check and we couldn’t swallow the included gratuity (because we were a large group). And it wasn’t because it was too much but this server really just didn’t deserve it. After so many mistakes, we never received an apology from her or felt like she was even sorry.
So I took it to talk to the manager, despite my friend just wanting to leave and keep going with the night. After asking for the host for the manager. PLOT TWIST: the «busy» bartender was the manager. I explained to her everything that had happened, very kindly and patiently, but I don’t think she understood how horrible the experience was. She explained they usually bring everything family style unless guests ask not to, but considering we were ordering veggie rolls, it wouldn’t have been a bad idea to inform us about this policy. She then asked what was on the bill that we hadn’t gotten. And I told her the only reason we were complaining was because we didn’t want to give her the gratuity she hadn’t worked for. Whatever, she took it off and went back to her bar. You should have seen how fast the server ran to the bar to see what I had said. It was actually the fastest she had moved all night.
But anyway we paid, gave her about 10% gratuity and left. We didn’t even want to look at the desserts because we were just trying to get out of there. Needless to say the experience ruined the birthday.
Maybe this place isn’t the best for large parties, but I don’t think I’ll ever be coming back. Seriously.

I’ve been here before and loved it! But last night, I was a part of a 9 person table and had one of the worst experiences at a restaurant. The food was wonderful but service was HORRIBLE! The server was a bit rude and very unattentive. When I asked if we could order, she took one person’s order and tried to leave the table without taking the rest. If she needed some time she should of said something.
We didn’t get all of our rolls. We had to ask more than once for two rolls that we ordered and we ended up getting only one (after waiting another 30 minutes). Some server or buser spilled drinks on our table and didn’t clean it up. My brother in law had to clean it up! When we got our check, we had to ask the server to take off some items because we either didn’t get them or didn’t order them. While we were waiting for her to close our tab out, I noticed her at a table next to ours taking a shot of sake. I’m pretty sure that is against ABC rules! The server also left 3 of our credit cards near the cashier. Someone could have easily stolen them.
To top it all off, as we were leaving, I noticed a DIRTY RAG sitting on our table near one of my guests. Apparently, it was there for awhile. Needless to say, I’m never coming back. Service is crucial and there are many other good sushi spots with good service in San Francisco.

Good sushi, ridiculously slow service! It took 30 min to be seen by server, we didn’t eat until 2 hours after seating time. Our server and another both gave sake to make up for it, but everything took forever! Nice people but we will go somewhere else next time.

Horrendous!!!
Terrible service: we were ignored, our food took forever to come out (1 hour plus), charged for things we never got, kept having to ask for water, waitress (Rachel) left our cards unattended.
The waitress also kept taking shots and was incredibly rude to her co-​workers. Speaking in a demeaning manor. Better believe I will tell anyone and everyone not to go here!!!

My fiancé and I just moved the neighborhood and this is our favorite spot! The vibe is perfect for a fun date night or a casual night with friends. Drinks are delicious and food is delicious.
Highly recommend their «Japanese guacamole» as an appetizer– they’re famous for it.
Great location, service and food.

Good service. They were running a little late on our takeout order but kept me updated on the last item they were waiting on. They asked if I needed anything while waiting at the bar and got me a hot water.
They did forget one roll in our order, which we didn’t even realize until we got home. Not a huge deal.
* Simple Sunomono — 2.5 stars.
Not amazing, it’s pretty soggy at the bottom, and flavor pairings were a tad odd.
We got the following:
Cucumber, Spicy Tuna, Shrimp Tempura, Spider roll, Salmon nigiri.
I liked the Spicy Tuna the most, and the others weren’t too impressive. Even though I usually love spider rolls, this one lacked crunch (as did the Shrimp Tempura).

I am a black man who loves sushi. I frequent Blowfish because of their green tea cheese cake, and the black ink roll… honestly. To me, the sashimi is just ok. I wish they added more new items.
The vibe is nostalgia. I love it.
Staff is nice.
I will keep supporting them even though the food is a bit Americanized-​Japanese.
I’m happy. why not?

You know when you walk into a sushi restaurant, sit down and have that first bite of sushi and think to yourself «temp is way off along w/​the flavor, but maybe it will get better…» And then it only gets worse. That’s this place.
Some of the worst sushi I’ve had in a long time. Good service kept this from being one star

I think the menu hasn’t changed in at least 15 years. Dishes feel dated. Overpriced for the quality. King Raffi was best roll we had.
Sports playing on TVs = sports bar sushi.

Normally I don’t review places too harshly, but this experience was very odd.
The waiters where all exceptionally nice, however the service was unbearably slow and disorganized. They kept bring items to the table we didn’t order and the items we did order took forever (at least 45 minutes for appetizers) to get to us. One of my friends waited OVER AN HOUR for a hand roll.
I also paid $ 14 for 4 pieces of sushi. So, pretty over priced in my opinion.
On top of that the bill was incorrect and had several items we didn’t order. The server quickly corrected the bill when we brought it to our attention.
I was hoping to be having a quick dinner, but this whole experience lasted 2 hours. The place wasn’t even busy, so we had no idea what was taking so long.
Won’t be coming here again.

Yumm! We had such a fun time tonight! Blowfish has a great vibe, music, really interesting dishes with fog from dry ice flowing around. We had appetizers, a variety of rolls, dessert and wonderfully creative sake cocktails.
Our server was fantastic, she was really friendly, and explained everything –ask for Nimra.
Highly recommended!

Drink 5 Sake cocktails are good but I prefer their spirit cocktails!
Food 5 Best A5 wagyu nigiri!
Ambience 4 I can’t tell they are sushi restaurant from their appearance
Service 5 always friendly and attentive
Price 5

I’m a big fan of 2×2 tables, and when it comes to sushi spots, you really need to know which kind you’re talking about before you review one:
EVERYDAY HIGH END

TRADITIONAL hole-​in-​the-​wall places classic sushi restaurants
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INNOVATIVE hipster sushi pubs trendy sushi joints
Blowfish is solidly in the high-​end, innovative category. It’s very good quality sushi, and offers a range of beautifully presented, unusual rolls and dishes. And unlike some innovative places, where funkiness gets into the realm of weird-​but-​not-​good, everything was delicious, like the pyramid of tartare and the Ritsu roll. The Blazing Salmon («sushi nachos», as someone at our table described it) *was* weirder than it was good (I blame us for thinking melted cheese on sushi might be good). The Guilty Pleasures roll was phenomenally good.
Where Blowfish falls down is on price. We’re a little spoiled by the abundance of awesome sushi in Vancouver, but Blowfish was twice as expensive as the very best sushi place here. (The sister restaurants Minami and Miku, if you’re ever in Vancouver!) Dinner for four (two adults, two kids), including two rounds of drinks, was $ 200. Wow!
If you want a guaranteed delicious, innovative sushi dinner — and you don’t mind paying for it – this is a great choice.

It makes me a bit hesitant to write this review. But, considering my dining experience here, the constructive criticism would probably help this place out.
I went in, expecting a cool, hip, trendy place with decent quality food. Instead, I got a cool, hip, trendy place with subpar food. The ambience was great, there was a DJ spinning top 40’s/remixes/other upbeat music which can make for a sultry and exciting atmosphere. The service was decent, but the lack of wait & reservations should have been a great foreshadowing of the meal to come.
The famous pyramid of tartar (ahi, salmon, and avocado) tasted just like guac when everything was mixed together. The chips that came with it was extremely burnt. Yes, the burnt taste is quite unpleasant. The refill round of chips definitely tasted better, and not burnt. bleh.
The sashimi that I ordered came with sweet shrimp – that upon my first bite, made the left side of my lips itch, burn, and even develop a slight swelling sensation. I’ve never been allergic to seafood before (and I’ve definitely had sweet shrimp), but on a side note, ever since I was young, my mom would occasionally have allergic reactions whenever she ate seafood that wasn’t of good quality and/​or cleaned properly. The best part was that the sashimi was served on top of a bowl of dry ice.
My friend also ordered quite a few different items and I sampled some of what she ordered. Our consensus was that everything was mediocre and in her words, «I’ve definitely had better elsewhere.»
Overall, the presentation was great, the plating was spectacular. Gordon Ramsey would probably be proud! I hadn’t expected the plating to be as nice as it was.
I think all of the other reviewers were right, perhaps this place was once thriving – but Blowfish Sushi is definitely not operating at its peak right now. The waitress and hostess were both very nice and friendly, but I don’t think I would come here again.

I LOVE this place. Not only everything is fresh and tasty, their presentation and food has a lot of SWAG. My boss is a regular customer here and tell me I must go try it. I came here for dinner with a friend and we had their Sashimi Platter, hand rolls/​sushi, Pyramid of Tartare, and takoyaki balls. The sashimi platter is definitely worth it, everything was very fresh and décor and presentation is amazing! I would highly recommend the Pyramid of Tartare, it’s one of their popular dishes and must try!
I would definitely come here again whenever I am in the Mission!

Don’t come here for REAL sushi. Come for the experience: décor, ambience and small details. Sushi seems overpriced for what you get. Been here once before and again last night. Last night reminded me why I don’t come here. The only satisfying dish was an avocado, tuna and salmon tartare pyramid. Order that.
The loud atmosphere, dark lighting and bumping music make this place attractive. Especially if you’re kicking it at the bar trying to hook up. But if you’re looking for a serious meal this is not it.

Came here with a group of 7. We had a reservation, but still waited about half an hour for our table. We ordered a bunch of rolls and all shared. It was good, a few of us really liked the King Nami roll.
Drinks were good. Yes, that IS a large sake and NO, it’s not very large at all.
Overall kinda overpriced. Glad to experience it, but wouldn’t make this my go-​to sushi spot unless I was in a higher tax bracket.