Blue Ocean Robata & Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Carlsbad

Bincho’s love Robata.

The outside signage reminds of Jurassic Park’s font and the bamboo entrance way has a tropical island feel, but the white paint is stark, like pastel colors in a New Mexico desert landscape (drought friendly rocks outside to boot). At night the signage lights up like a Miami beach motel. Inside décor reminds me more of places in LA than SD. Bathrooms are a little lacking in the décor. It can be loud in both day and night so you lose a bit of the intimacy people associate with higher end dining.

This is not completely traditional Japanese dinning though I appreciate the yakitori offerings of various meats besides chicken. I was looking forward to a jidori chicken butt(did not note jidori as the specific breed), but was let down. Black Cod was a little fragile and I was not impressed with the scallop with bacon. I was not a fan of the wagyu meatball which lacked the buttery texture you get from wagyu steaks. I preferred the lamb chop and kurobuta sausage (not made in house). The meatball lacked herbal notes you get from traditional Vietnamese and Italian versions.

Lunch is super adventurous adding bibimbap (Korean) and pita pocket bread(greek). The pocket bread has daikon, taro chips and chipotle adobo. All bold flavors that strangely work together, but it’s a Frankenstein of influences on that one. They should have use the yakitori chicken for at least some semblance of Japanese food. Bibimbap lacks some flavor nuances of real Korean version, but is a nice filling item. Love the hibiscus sweet & sour sauce for the potsitckers, which are bland without it. Sesame soy needs yuzu. Blue Ocean bowl is actually a good deal, like they put 2.5 rainbow rolls ingredients in a bowl. They don’t’ MP the Bluefin, yet jack up the price of other items like Uni and Geoduck. Amebi is a good deal considering how fresh and seasonal they are, again no MP. Carmelized egg plant is excellent, but the one thing it needs is roasted cauliflower and some citrus to cut the sweetness of the cashews and sauce. Maybe some heat too would really round it out. Scallop is love and priced that way. No other version is available. I’m not going to warn anyone on the Escolar or Walu, I’ll let you google that one, but it’s something that doesn’t affect everyone. I’m immune to it, but the fact that they offer it scares me.

I dig the rainbow spider roll combining 2 favorites, crispy crab and fish varieties. I liked the padres as it combines tempura shrimp and softshell crab. I like the hot mustard with the tempura. Your beginning to see how good and well thought out their sauces are. Bao bao buns are all the rage, but again simple, easy and overpriced, the slaw is unnecessary. Love the kama’s utilizing an inexpensive and flavorful piece of the fish, green papay makes for a near perfect appetizer. Love the HH and oyster specials, but wish the variety was better. 5 Spice duck taco’s are some of the best taco’s around, savory, sweet, crunchy, spicy, another great starter. Overall I think their rolls are overpriced. The skill of the chef’s is top notch, but lacks authenticity in style. Fish tower and blue ocean crunch are tasty variety offerings for those that might be carb watching, but want variety.

Japanese Whiskey (nikka 21 and miyo 12) are 2 of the best you can find in all of north county. They do tons of infusions and classic cocktails, but the detail is a little lacking.Plenty of high priced sake, I prefer the flight, save you money on the pairing. Plenty of wine varieties.

Service is lackluster when busy, but amazing when not. Lunch time weekdays is the best time to try them until you want to brave the full experience of weekend dinner. Price overall is good though there is inconsistency in items, high on some and low on others. Non MP on a few normally MP at other places items can be hidden gems if they are a must.

Don’t feel bad if you didn’t get my opening line. My Japanese food game...

I recently made the mistake of ordering takeout from Blue Ocean Robata & Sushi Bar, and it was a complete disaster. From the moment I tried to picked up my order, it was clear that this restaurant had no regard for customer satisfaction.

Firstly, we ordered directly from their website and got a confirmation email and texts on the order and prepayment via CC and when to pick up food. I was surprised how long the initial time to pick up was (just under an hour) given it was quite early (5pm), then when I went to pick up the order is when it all went south! As I was pulling in I received another text saying the order would be available for pick up yet another 15 minutes later - so we are now at 1 hour 15 minutes for a small order at a sushi restaurant?

So I then went in to see if I could get some status on the order. At first they were confused on whether if it was a Doordash order or a pickup and finally said it was "in the process" of being packaged up, so I waited outside for a while. A Doordash driver showed up and then they motioned me in to see if that was my order, it was not. At that point I was very specious about what was going on with my order and started to ask a lot of questions, they put me off and said they would check on it. The manager proceeded to help several other customers and ignored me. After that he started to search for the order and said they had no record of it. I showed them the texts I had received that even had a link to display the order from their website, but he still insisted they had no record of it and then started to place the blame on me that I did something wrong while ordering? Saying that all the orders go to Door-dash (trying to blame them) and then saying maybe I ordered from a different location (I showed him the correct address from the text & link I had). I asked for a refund immediately, he refused saying he couldn't and offered to make the order and have me wait another 45 minutes, REALLY? At this point my dinner and evening were ruined, but the manager showed absolutely no empathy, caring or any remorse.

Lastly, the customer service was non-existent. When I called to express my dissatisfaction with the order, I was met with indifference and a complete lack of empathy, they called me "non-compliant" - I didn't know a customer was to be Compliant!. It was clear that they had no interest in rectifying the situation or making things right for their customers. It was a clear display of their disregard for customer satisfaction.

In conclusion, I strongly advise against ordering takeout from Blue Ocean Robata & Sushi Bar. The lack of customer service make it a complete waste of time and money. Save yourself the disappointment and find a different restaurant that actually values their customers and takes pride in the quality...

Honestly, this place should get 4.5 stars based on the food but I was extremely disappointed in the service yesterday evening which is why I give it a 2. My first time here was back in March 2022 for a family member’s birthday dinner; the staff was super attentive and the food was great! We ordered the calamari and it was to die for! Based on our first experience, I took my boyfriend here last night for his birthday dinner and ended up being extremely disappointed.

Here’s a quick summary of our night and what we ordered: We arrived around 5 (the start of dinner hour) since we knew we couldn’t get a reservation and there is usually a wait because it’s so good here. Our server (who I think was a manager) said it was an awkward time period because the staff is transitioning shifts (understandable). We ordered drinks, potstickers & calamari 2x (which the first time around the calamari quantity was terrible and it didn’t taste as fresh as our potstickers we ordered but we ended up ordering a second round because we love calamari so much and surprisingly it tasted a lot different and was fresh and warm- this should have been a red flag for the night.) It took awhile to get our sushi rolls but that is understandable but while waiting no one came by to ask if we wanted another drink. The place started to become more busy and we ended up being stuck in between 2 families and their children who literally dressed like they came from the beach. The waiters were noticeably more attentive to these couples than us and were asking if they wanted another drink. I was deeply offended as you could tell my boyfriend and I were well dressed and out on a date night. We weren’t even carded when we ordered are drinks which should tell you we look old enough to afford to tip and dine here. Once our food came, no one came up to check on us or ask us how our food was. Again, no one asked us for another drink.

I truly felt judged by my appearance and age of what kind of service I should be getting. I don’t think I’ll be coming back here again for service that makes their guests not feel equally important.

Closer to 6 the...