Blowfish Far From Blows

On Thursday night, BC and I joined a director we had worked with before named JC at a restaurant called Blowfish. Although I was at first disappointed that they did not actually serve blowfish, it turned out to be a lovely evening. The restaurant is very hip and modern looking, and is quite popular (the place was so packed, it was impossible to get a seat at the sushi bar).

After standing at the bar for a little while sipping some japenese sake (smooth and dry, it was perfect) and eating edamame (their alternative to bread), we got a table an ordered some more sake and food. JC ordered a flask of unfiltered sake that looked like milk, but had a sweet taste to it that was just delicious. Then came the food...lots and lots of food. We started with the Blowfish Giant Ebi Shooter - a superb concoction of a tiger prawn, mango, avocado, tempura bits, kewpie and tobikko wrapped in soy paper and served in a shot glass. Our waiter (really nice and funny guy) suggested that we eat it from top to bottom so we can experience all the different flavors involved. He was right - at the top you tasted the excellent shrimp and tempura bits, while at the bottom you got the sweetness of the mango. Let's just say that this dish alone sold me on Blowfish.

Then came out the rest of our order - Crispy Chicken Kara-Age with a light curry and spicy miso dip, Mashed Wasabi Sweet Potatoes (holly crap this was good), Battered Tuna Roll (very light with a sweet korean chili drizzle), Red Hot Curry Salmon Roll (hot smoked salmon with a japanese chili, curry drizzle that knocked my socks off), Blue Snow Roll (basically a glorified rainbow roll...this one was my least favorite) and a Brown-Eyed Pea Roll (great roll for vegetarians and meaties alike...brown rice, snow peas, asparagus and spicy kewpie).

Well, we were stuffed after all these items...but our waiter really wanted us to try some dessert. He brought us out a sampling of banana tempura rolls (oh...my...god...) and flourless chocolate cake. If you are picking between these two, go with the banana...you'll be glad you did.

And all this good food was even made better by the company. Both BC and JC are great guys to eat with...we talked about food, places we should eat next, politics, poker... And Blowfish is definitely a place to go with friends you like to hang and eat with. They also have their own DJ, which plays way cool tunage. There is something about eating sushi and listening to White Lines play in the background that is quite perfect. Four Smacks!

- JB

Blowfish - 668 King St. W, Toronto, ON (416) 860-0606 Closed Sunday

What the heck is kewpie?