Blue Fin Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Middleton

I hate to have to write this review but no matter how good the product is it just takes one person, one policy, one silly managerial decision to ruin the customer experience. That is the story here and it's a tragic one.

Let me start by saying that Blue Fin has the best sushi on the north shore in my opinion. It's super fresh, they have talented and friendly sushi chef's. The cocktails are good. My girlfriend and I go here all the time and regularly bring our friends. We even stop at the ATM before going to make sure we have cash to tip the chef's. We've never had a bad meal here but sadly I will not be going back.

On Friday evening I took my kids there to have dinner. We were greeted warmly by the staff who all know me well. My son and I ordered the chef's choice sushi and sashimi dinner and my daughter ordered the Chicken Katsu children's dinner (her favorite). The waitress asked me how old my daughter was. I told her she was 12. The waitress told me that she couldn't have her favorite meal because it was only for 11 year olds or under. When I asked her if there was an exception to be made here given that was the meal my daughter wanted she told me they would not. When I asked her for a suggestion she pointed to the adult meal that didn't come with the same things as the children's meal. I explained that my daughter wanted what came with this meal and asked what could be done. She said nothing could be done.

So we packed up our stuff and left. Sadly we will not be returning because of this completely avoidable incident. The item is on the menu yet could not be provided to my daughter because she aged out of it? Does it somehow cost them more to give this item to her now than it did just a few months ago? When she ordered the sushi platter a while back no one stopped her and said she was too young.... Makes no sense..... just an arbitrary rule.... Just poor customer service.

I highly recommend this place if you are 11 or under since you'll have no problem. You can order whatever you want...

We went there between lunch and dinner on a weekend.

The entrance could use a little paint but once you get inside the place is nice, clean and bright. The menu is a bit overwhelming, they have many “combos” you can order which may be OK for some since could make it easy to order if you are not familiar with the sushi. We were just looking for the standard sushi order sheet (which was also on the table) and a side dish of noodles so the kids could eat.

Our waitress was very nice, helpful and attentive. She was genuinely nice to our children and when she brought over plates and silverware, she actually brought over one small and one smaller fork for our two young children!!! That was very nice and has never happened to us before, even at “family” restaurants.

We ordered Sushi and a plate of noodles. The sushi was good, it was fresh. It wasn’t great, but it was good. I don’t mean that as a negative, just I had lots of sushi. I thought the noodles were a bit salty and had a bit too much black pepper, but I didn’t order the noodles so they could have been supposed to be salty.

We’ll go back again and try a few more things and a few other sushi dishes. They have an all you can eat sushi special Tuesday nights? That I’d...

Delicious, Authentic, and Allergy-Friendly (Celiac!)

I lived in Tokyo for a time, and Blue Fin has the most authentic and delicious Japanese food I've ever found in the US--even on the west coast. Most places are "sushi bars", "ramen houses", or "steak houses". Not Blue Fin. While the sushi is delicious, they also have mainstays like yakisoba, curry, takoyaki, donburi, karaage, tempura, udon, and of course ramen. I believe they also have okonomiyaki, but not on the take-out menu. I've honestly liked everything I've ever ordered from here.

If that weren't enough, they're celiac friendly (gluten/wheat intolerance). We have a family member with celiacs, and there's about 8 restaurants within a 40-minute drive that are safe for them to eat at. (Only 3 of which do take-out).

This isn't to say they have a full celiac-friendly menu, they don't, but options are clearly marked. When we ordered take-out, the allergy items were in their own separate bag, and the kitchen specially labeled a container of gluten-free soy sauce for the sushi.

Blue Fin...