Bleu Sushi — Restaurant in Philadelphia

Nestled in a hub of center city Philadelphia, this gem of a restaurant brings its guests the feel of being part of the family. The atmosphere makes you feel like you will have an intimate dining experience--which is exactly what you will encounter.

Bleu Sushi's owner, Hendra Yong, and his staff greets guests who frequent his restaurant by name; for anyone who knows the television show "Cheers" I would associate the salutation to this...once you eat there, you are treated like a familiar family friend.

As for the food: There are ample options to choose from and all of the dishes that I tasted were prepared with care; no matter what you order from their menu, owner Hendra Yong makes sure that you would only eat something which he would feed himself or his family.

Mr. Yong explained to me that to him, "Quality is not something you can compromise on; you can taste the difference," and he elaborated further, "I wouldn't feed you something that I wouldn't eat myself, so what you eat is what I would eat."

What Mr. Yong was describing to me is that he would only eat meals prepared with the highest quality of ingredients that he could find. And he also explained that he does this despite the rising costs he incurs to ensure that his guests will always leave happy and satisfied that they ate a good meal and that it was affordable.

So when the dishes from his kitchen were presented to our table, we knew that each bite taken was carefully prepared to ensure satisfaction.

For example, I could literally hear and see the deliciousness of The Hot Stone Bowl that my friend and I ordered. The Gyudon bowl sizzled away as fragrant steam wafted into the air. I could smell the beef, mushrooms, and ginger before tasting it, and once I did I was so happy. Between the taste and variety of textures, I felt like this was a perfect dish to warm and fill you.

To accompany it, we also shared another dish off of their hot menu--the Kimchee Fries. As a new addition to their menu, it has become a popular dish (and I can see why!). First off, this side dish offers a nice portion that you can share. Secondly, and for those of you who shy away when you hear the word "kimchi"--fear not. Kimchi is prepared in a variety of ways, and the version that Bleu Sushi uses is n the sweeter and tangy side, and is a perfect introduction to anyone trying it for the first time. Then that sweeter version of kimchi is mixed with French fries, and topped off with a spicy sauce. Trust me, this was so good that I wanted to keep eating it even after I was stuffed.

We also shared several of the new items from their sushi menu, including the Walnut Theater roll and Madison roll which offered an interesting twist: they had torched Pepper Jack cheese and a dollop of pesto sauce on top of them. It may sound a little too different, but I assure you it is worth the palatable adventure--both of them are like a savory exploration into the world of sushi, and a highly enjoyable one at that.

We also tried their Main Street roll, which was equally delectable with every bite. Made with a large helping of spicy tuna, its wrapped inside of organic soy paper and then topped with torched shrimp and glazed with a Japanese sauce. Its flavor is exquisite, and the sauce is an elegant touch of savory with a light heat.

I know that my friend and I definitely plan on going back to Bleu Sushi, and we want to introduce this wonderful restaurant and dining experience with even more of our friends--and with you! Hands-down, I recommend checking this restaurant out for yourself. And if you need to watch your budget, this is still a perfect place for you because they offer very affordable lunch and dinner specials every day...

Let me first start with the fact that when we choose to try a new sushi spot, we do not mess around. The only thing that I am probably more serious about is soup. This is why we were extremely pleasantly surprised to find Bleu Sushi nestled away in Center City. They had no problem accommodating our larger party (7 people to be exact) for our 11-year-old daughter's birthday dinner, Even our family that was visiting from Florida was impressed and asked that we return next time they come to visit.

We started with the scallops and shiitakes, salmon oshinko, and a salmon skin salad (I have a slight obsession with salmon skin). The scallops were cooked perfectly and dredged in a beautiful savory sauce, but the mushrooms were even better. The consistency is what made them so amazing, not too firm and not too soft, and piping hot. They were easily my favorite thing we had all night, and if i could simply get pounds of these mushrooms cooked this way, I would come here every single day, just for them. The salmon oshinko was actually very interesting, not something we had tried anywhere before, but was recommended by our server, so we thought we'd try it. It had a very nice smoky salmon flavor, almost like nova lox, and went really well with the other vegetables that were wrapped up with it. Then there was the salmon skin... not anything spectacular or different, but it was a ton of salmon skin, which is exactly what I wanted, and it was presented in a nice semi-sweet glaze which made it hard to not eat all of it before anyone else had any.

Out of the seven of us ,only my youngest daughter does not eat sushi, so she had chicken teriyaki, while the rest of us ordered a large sushi boat, which blew the birthday girl away. Her teriyaki was perfect and was nice and tender with a good amount of sauce, with really nice sticky rice and seared veggies on the side. The boat was huge and a ton of care was put into the presentation, complete with some glowing cubes that really caught her attention. I don't remember every roll that we ordered for the boat, but the ones that really jumped out at me were the Temple, Villanova, Ten street, and Drexel rolls. There were a couple more, but I don't remember what they were. They were all fantastic, super fresh, and different. Each one was unique in its own way, with the Temple and Villanova being similar, but it was the Villanova that really blew me away. It seemed to be a nicely-sized spicy tuna roll, but is topped with salmon that is garnished with fresh cracked black pepper and then seared with a torch till it has wonderful crispy brown edges. Not only did it have a great smoky, crispy flavor and texture, but it filled the restaurant with this amazing scent of grilled fish; something neither I or Jen had seen done anywhere before. Honestly, it is worth visiting Bleu Sushi simply for this roll, or maybe two or three orders of this roll. Pair this with those mushrooms from the scallop dish, and I would be in heaven.

We were barely able to finish all the food we had ordered but the staff came out of left field and had a small cake for our older daughter and gave everyone else at the table assorted ice cream dishes as part of the birthday celebration. This was really nice and really made her night. Everything here was great and we will definitely be returning here in the future. If you are around the Jefferson hospital area and want a great Japanese meal, check out Bleu Sushi, you will definitely not be...

BAD EXPERIENCE. LIKE I TOLD THEM, I'LL NEVER GO BACK. The sushi is good but nothing extra special. For the price, the servings are smaller than most places I go. And I go to a LOT of sushi places. The tables are small, and it's dark in there. I've gone probably five times since they opened. It was always an OK experience. We went last night because we bought a Groupon. That is literally the only reason we went there instead of the many sushi places between here and there. The Groupon said that you had to have reservations to use it but I've had TONS of Groupons honored where the situation didn't meet all the criteria listed in the small print. Plus, there was no need for reservations. When we arrived, only one table had customers in it! When we left 40 minutes later, there were two other tables with customers. Still, when I showed the waitress the Groupon, she looked at it for a moment and said "Did you make a reservation?" I said "No. That's not usually a problem though." I probably should have pointed out that the place was empty. Now she could have just honored the Groupon without even bringing up the small print. Instead, she took the Groupon (in other words, she took my phone) into the kitchen and returned 35 seconds later saying "You can't use this because you didn't make a reservation." I said, "Really?" She said, "Yeah. I"m sorry." I said, "Well that's OK but I'll never come back here again." Her response: "Oh." Apparently they don't need the business (despite all the empty tables). Thing is: We don't need them either. There must be several HUNDRED places in Philadelphia to get sushi. Good sushi can be made quite crappy when served by a restaurant that doesn't care about the customer experience. So one star. I'll never go back. When the restaurant goes out of business, I'll contact Groupon and ask them to refund the price I paid for the deal. ...