Blue Fin Sushi

The half-full glass: Best pepper tuna in Houston. Very good miso.
The half-empty glass: The maki tasted good, but not great. Long drive from the center of Houston.

Blue Fin Sushi exists as the slightly less see-and-be-seen version of Uptown Sushi. I've heard that getting a weekend table at Uptown Sushi required more patience than a trip to the DMV. I loathe the DMV - the TVs they installed do little to ease the pain. Blue Fin, anyway, shares the same culinary DNA as Uptown. Good times.

The crew was six tonight, so after pulling into the strip Blue Fin calls home, we grabbed our table (reserved - not that we needed it). Once again, as much as I hoped, the green tea was not as good as Ra's. (Shatner moment: Raaaaaaa!) But the sake menu displayed good variety and offered surprisingly good prices. We went with a bottle of Sushi Crew standard - the Hakushika Junmai Ginjo. The scenery, while lovely, reminded me too much of my grandmother's taste in fancy white dining room decor. I fear the Crew falls short of Blue Fin's age target.

We went with a mix of sashimi and maki because the special roll selections looked quite intriguing and ya know... sashimi. Great fish! Outstanding pepper tuna. I'm the one who voted for the fresh belly salmon - oddly average tasting and the only downer. On the other hand, the yellowtail, flounder, and sea bass all delivered excellent flavor and freshness. Our second round of sashimi? All pepper tuna. Shocking, I know - but I haven't been to Zake in a while for their pepper tuna and Blue Fin's was in high demand among the crew. Saba guy lived up to his namesake and ordered saba. I guessed he liked it. Gross - I'd rather eat raw quail egg. And I do, thank-you very much. But not that night.

No worries, there was more to Blue Fin than a good selection of affordable sake and awesome pepper tuna. We finished with a round of miso: traditional, orzo, and avodaco. All sweet, full flavored and wonderfully textured. Highly recommended.

Oh yeah, the rolls. Presented beautifully but... sigh. Well, not everyone shared my lack of enthusiasm for Blue Fin's maki. Here's the rundown:

• 7 & 1/2 roll: Tuna, salmon, yellowtail, masago, and avocado rolled and tempura fried. Served with spicy pepper paste, eel sauce, and japanese mayo. The most popular among the crew (a second was ordered). I don't get all gooey over tempura fried rolls - I think it dampens the taste. Oh wait - it does. But I'll admit, this was one of the best tempura fried rolls I've eaten.
• Red Roll: Avocado, cucumber, fresh jalepeno, sprouts, and shrimp on the inside with thin slices of tuna and our spicy pepper paste on the outside. Oddly lacking in any sort of distinctive flavor. I wanted this to be so much better than it was - just vague mild rice-fish-pepper flavor.
• Millennium Roll: Spicy tuna toped with peppercorn seared tuna and avocado. Drizzled with ponzu and sesame oil. Pretty good - it has pepper tuna. So, duh. Very similar to a Zake roll for those of you who know what I'm talking about. And I think that you do. Or not.
  
• Scuba Diver Roll: Soft Shell crab topped with salmon, tuna, and avocado. Not as good as a simple spider roll from let's say... Nippon!
• Shrimp Tempura Roll. The lady ordered this one - apparently a bit bland. I'm sensing a "bit bland" theme with the maki.

And I felt the edamame was somewhat overcooked. Nobu spoiled me on this one.

The drive might be worth the pepper tuna and the miso. If you live out on the west side of Houston, I recommend making Blue Fin a regular stop.