Blowfish

Having eaten and numerous of the best Japanese in NY and London I would say that for the hype and reviews here Blowfish falls short. For having the image of being Toronto’s best, upscale level sushi haunt I would say it is nothing more than average when it comes to food but with a bit of a chic ambiance. The sashimi was pretty decent (it had some sesame and jalapeño) and had its own unique touch but the sushi rolls were very average. The spicy tuna with rock shrimp was ok; the jalapeño hamachi was bland. Both the rolls were a bit mushy. A restaurant of this nature should make their sushi like art and every piece of it should stand out. The final dish was black cod, which perhaps was enjoyed most. No complaints there. Overall, the food was decent enough that we had a good meal but for the food I have had better at some of the cheaper restaurants I have tried elsewhere in the city. I love spending at upscale restaurants with amazing food but this isn’t mind blowing at all and I won’t plan on making a dedicated effort to go back!

Very very good sushi! This place was amazing from the décor to the service and the great tasting food and drinks! They even had one of the coolest bathrooms I’ve ever seen at a restaurant! Highly recommend checking this place out if you’re ever in Toronto!

To die for: beef, Hamachi, lobster and crab meat dumplings.
To kill for: everything else!

I have had the pleasure of coming to blowfish twice now for work functions.
The pluses: the service here is great (very friendly and knowledgeable.) and they have beautiful décor. The sushi here is amazing– the fish is fresh, the rolls are inventive and delicate and beautifully presented. In one case, we had a hand roll made of pink soy paper instead of nori, which was a delicious alternative.
The minuses: it is very loud here and tough to have a conversation. The entrances off Bay Street (and from the E&Y building) are really hard to find! And generally it is pretty expensive, so probably not a place the average person could come to often. Lastly, during my second visit one of the dishes we ordered — crab — tasted like it had not been completely defrosted.
Despite that, all in all, I would say that it’s probably the best place to get sushi in the financial district!

If it weren’t for the service this place would get five stars. The food, sake and ambiance were great but extremely poor service from our server who could care less and made us feel like we were a bother to her.

The service was second to none. The décor and set-​up was comfortable. Above all, I liked the food. Generally I’m not a fan of raw fish, or the usual run of the mill roll. I was pleasantly surprised, and will sure to return to sample the other menu items. Note, make sure you have plenty of room on your plastic; otherwise, you may leave with a partially filled tummy.

Friendly and quick service. The bartender was great and the atmosphere was cool and relaxed. I can’t comment on food, as I was only here to waste time before a reservation. Everything that came out of the kitchen looked amazing though!

Simple enough. Best sushi in Toronto. Yes it’s expensive but it’s just phenomenal. Had the shooter and asked to have tuna instead of shrimp. Amazing. Had the truffle tuna roll, the soft shell crab, and the scallops. All were absolutely fantastic.
Only qualm, they were utterly short staffed but the staff did their best to keep up.

Let’s just say I don’t understand japanese fusion food but this place is seriously overrated… Came here cuz of the four star review and I really dont get the hype

Went there for my birthday and it was definitely a good experience. We shared some rolls and appetizers and we are now still talking about the rocky roll and tuna taco. After dinner we stayed a little longer and tried couple of their cocktails, which are absolutely delicate. Thanks for giving us such a good time!

I would definitly come back for its food. its not the traditional Japanese cuisine but everything is very special and tasty. The environment is very relax and comfortable.
I recommend you to try tuna taco and and rbi shooter in the cold plate menu. very very yummy!!! I also tried salmon and tuna sashimi, very solid quality, extremely fresh! I don’t even want to go other place for sashimi anymore!
The price is a little bit high but the quality and tasty is definitely worth it.
Oh, they also have very intersting flavoured sake~ go and try it :)

After my first disappointing experience at Blowfish, I was invited back after management saw my disappointed review on Unilocal.My friend and I had a great meal here this time around and the service was attentive and personal. I also enjoyed the food here, especially the cod. It’s not very often we get restaurant management that cares enough to ask customers for a second chance; shows that they really care.

I specifically created a Unilocal account to write this review because I was blown away by my terrible experience. I was floored by how a 4 star restaurant on Unilocal was able to provide me with such a terrible product.
This was the worst «sushi bar» I’ve ever been to. It pains me to even say that this place «serves sushi».
Here is what I ordered:
1) Asparagus tempura
2) Rock shrimp tuna roll
3) Ebi Shooter
4) Truffle Albacore
5) Lobster and shrimp dumpling
The best tasting thing I had from this restaurant were the complimentary yam chips.
The ebi shooter was really bad. It’s a regular shrimp handroll, with added mango and avocado, replaced rice with tempura bits and seaweed with soy paper. Why is this so highly touted? You can even imagine for yourself how this would taste. Close your eyes. Imagine it. Yup, thats what it tastes like.
The lobster and shrimp dumplings were ridiculous. There’s two of them and it’s a har gow from your typical dim sum place except they added «lobster» to it. Let’s say the whole thing was lobster (it’s definitely not), how is this special or worth the eight dollars?
The biggest sin was the sushi rolls. For a «high end sushi bar», I’m expecting high quality sushi rice. NOW I understand why the ebi shooter didn’t have any rice. Take a look at the picture of the Truffle Albacore roll that I am attaching with this review. You can actually see how flat the rice is. It’s literally mushed together. Sushi in Japanese means «with rice». They failed at the literal meaning of the word sushi.
The only good thing from my experience with the restaurant was the service. The waiter was apologetic when we showed her the quality of the rice in the Truffle Albacore roll, and the manager was considerate enough to remove both rolls from our table. (Please note that we didn’t finish both rolls)
Honestly, we don’t mind paying for a high end sushi experience. It’s why we decided to go try it in the first place. But this place is simply disappointing and that is being very generous.
Go somewhere else. Please.

This is my first review and I’m only writing one because the food was so terrible I feel compelled to share my experience with everyone. Seriously we don’t understand how this restaurant has 4 stars.
We ordered the ebi shooter which everyone raved about, the rock shrimp tuna roll, lobster and shrimp dumplings and the albacore truffle roll. Ebi shooter did not live up to expectations. I don’t understand how it’s $ 14 when they simply put together a piece of shrimp, avocado, mango and tempura bits wrapped in soy paper. Nothing special.
The dumplings were a joke. Essentially 2 har gows for $ 8 dollars but worst part is that har gows are even tastier at a Shanghai 360 at the mall food court or a mediocre Chinese restaurant. Biggest rip off.
Now onto the rolls which was the ultimate failure and disappointment. This was probably one of the worst rolls I’ve ever eaten and I am a huge fan of maki rolls. The rice was COMPLETE mush. You can’t even see the separate grains of rice. The rock shrimp roll was slightly better only because the rock shrimp was bigger than the roll itself and its taste overpowered the pathetic tuna wrapped in my half rice porridge. But the albacore truffle was just a disaster. I swear the quality is worse than all you can eat maki rolls. Even Loblaws sushi is probably better. At least they can make some decent rice.
I’d like to stress that I am more than willing to spend money on food. Even if it is small portions, it is not of concern as long as the quality is up to par and can justify the price. In this case, it did not. Even the presentation was very amateur. The complimentary yam chips or whatever was probably the yummiest thing we had there.
Aside from that, service wasn’t an issue. They were very accommodating and apologetic when we made a complaint about the rolls. They remade it but the rice was still just as terrible. Just by looking at it, I didn’t even want to try it. Took one bite and got my confirmation. We asked them to take it back, manager came out and they were kind enough to take it off our bill which we did appreciate.
Bottom line is that this place needs to get a new chef, change the menu or reposition itself somehow. Looking trendy and posh isn’t going to cut it anymore when the sushi scene has become so big and competitive in Toronto. With players like Ki, Yuzu no Hana, JaBistro and Kasa Moto just to name a few, I can’t see Blowfish surviving for very long. One thing for sure is that I won’t be back. Ever.

Blowfish is a nice enough sushi spot but a tad overpriced.
Mr. H and I started out with Albacore Tuna nigiri and it was not good at all, I mentioned to the waitress and she apologized and it was taken off our bill. I really did appreciate the pro activeness regarding this, we also had three rolls. The truffle albacore was my favourite followed by red hot curry salmon and jalapeño hamachi.
What really impressed me about this place was the service, we had a really good waitress and he made sure we knew in detail regarding every dish we ordered. She made sure to tell us that the red curry salmon was not everyone’s favourite and that some people found the jalapeño hamachi a bit spicy. We had them anyway because spice does not bother us and also because they sounded the most interesting. We need the meal with coconut banana fritters and was a little disappointed when it came without it’s customary companion… vanilla ice-​cream.
The reason for a 3 star review is the presentation. For how expensive the rolls were, I was expecting to be wowed and I was not. Also, the quantity was a little less, the rolls looked like they were on a diet and I left feeling a little dissatisfied.
If I’m going to pay some much, I’d rather go to Yuzu-​No-​Hana.

Everything was great. The rolls had a perfect blend of savory and spice but were rich with toppings and texture. The spicy tuna with rock shrimp roll was something I’m going to be dreaming about for years to come. The truffle albacore roll with truffle oil drizzle was smokey and had a taste with a surprising amount of layers.
Finally, the Blowfish giant ebi shooter had within it the biggest shrimp EVER! The soy paper wrapping was pink — so that was fun.
Definitely a great place to go and worth the value.

Got rave reviews from friends so checked it out
Good menu and food
I can’t compare it to places in BC… they’ve got unlimited access to super fresh fish

The dinning experience was great. The ambiance with the trendy décor and music added a nice touch. Service was also on par. But the food was a bit under my expectation. Maybe due to the fact that I had higher expectation due to many positive reviews.
Other than that its a nice place to bring clients or co-​workers for a drink as its situated right in the financial district.

Having been to Blowfish before, i can really see a huge change– The new head chef takes it to a new level and the food really is impressive. The team are doing a phenomenal job in the kitchen.
Service is excellent and on point. Manager is extremely accommodating. If you would like something special done, talk to them before hand and they really will go out of their way to make it happen.
I’m glad Blowfish is at the calibre they are currently at. There aren’t many upscale japanese options downtown, and knowing that you can rely on Blowfish is a huge plus.

I really wanted to dislike this restaurant since everyone talks about it, its location on Bay Street and its trendy décor as a fusion Japanese restaurants makes me crazy. I was avoiding the restaurant until my colleague who is doing me a serious favor wanted to go for lunch here (his favorite spot). He described it as the «best sushi restaurant in Toronto».
We ordered 6 dishes to share and to my amazement they were delicious especially the shrimp in the cone, made with edible paper. Now, it’s not the best sushi in town by far, but to their defense they don’t pretend to be. It is a trending restaurant, the people eating here are Bay Street type (at least during the day) and likely expensing it, since our bill was $ 149 (all in and non alcoholic drinks).
So dress up nice and be prepared for a big bill when you go, but expect the food and service to be good.
In our world class city, we need these trendy restaurants to compliment the hole in the walls. It is what makes living in Toronto great…