Blowfish Sushi To Die For, San Francisco

...but I wouldn't. That would just be silly, although I'm sure some folks would beg to differ. 

But the name Blowfish Sushi To Die For was intriguing for us to make a super early reservation, like at 5:30PM, to avoid the rush. One thing I learned about SF is that people LOVE to line up here. There's always a line somewhere for something. In trendy neighborhoods like the Mission where Blowfish Sushi is located, as we drove around past 5:00PM to look for a parking space, where were already lines wrapping around block for hip clubs and restaurants. Argh!

And if you're wondering, no, we didn't have fugu. The restaurant does serve fugu, but you would have to make a special reservation way ahead of time. It's a fixed menu of 5 fugu courses for 2 for something like $280, and it's not on the menu. Those who signed up will enjoy their fugu dishes in a private room. 

I do like the decor of the place. It was clean and airy with some very lovely artworks on display when we were there last fall. Unfortunately, this artsiness didn't translate to their website and each page's banner has a headshot of a female hentai character. How do I know? Because some of those shots are really obvious. I know sex sells, but I find this distasteful, if not downright vulgar and crude, especially when eating sushi is... well, consult the urban dictionary yourself. Perhaps they hired a 15 year-old to design their website, because I can almost hear him snickering.

I guess the place is trying too hard to be trendy and my humble opinion is that they should focus more on their food instead. The food there wasn't disgusting, but it left much to be desired. My favorite thing out of the entire meal was this Plume Wine Cosmos below, which was fantastic! Otherwise, everything else was ho-hum. Ordered a kani nigiri and the crab was stringy and dry.

Ordered this Crunchy Pork and it was alright. Basically black pork lightly floured and dry fried on each side to a crisp, then drizzled with a miso based sauce with simmered daikon.

I was really excited about this Lost in the Forest, which was sauteed scallops with asparagus and pistachio pesto. Sounds delicious, right? Only the scallops were rank. I could smell them when the waitress was 5 feet away and was practically choking by the time she set it down onto the table. Even hubby who is usually not sensitive to smell thought they reeked. And the pesto didn't help the smell at all - it actually made it worse! I could barely take one bite and that was it. How could they even serve that? Were their noses stuffed or something?!?

Even the Ultimate Spicy Tuna roll was meh. I love anything spicy, and spicy tuna topped with jalapenos cannot do any wrong, but somehow this was bland and tasteless. And it wasn't even spicy.

The To Die For roll was lobster maki topped with braised filet mignon and sauteed mushrooms and wasabi mascarpone. Another delicious sounding one, but the filet mignon was over cooked to a rubbery texture and over seasoned and salty. And of course they topped it right over the lobster fillings so I could taste the lobster at all :( Adding insult to the injury was the fact that they grilled the maki, which on principle was a nice idea, but they over grilled it also and the roll was dry and hard. It's not like I've never had yaki onigiri before, which should be crunchy on the outside but soft and moist inside like the onigiri it is. Damn I miss Japan.

At this point hubby and I were both underwhelmed with the meal. I was done with this place but he was still hungry, so we ordered the Sashimi Combination for him. The presentation was nice, may be a bit over the top because it came out on this huge bowl of shaved ice. Again hubby only thought it was only okay. I guess I'm not the only who's spoiled LOL! So yeah, we won't go back here after all.