Bleu Sushi

If you’re in the neighborhood you should definitely check out bleu! The sushi is always fresh and some of the most delicious I’ve had in Philadelphia. The Tempura is crispy, the fish melts in your mouth, and the sauces are just the right balance of sweet and savory. I’ve been for lunch and dinner (note: the lunch specials are surprisingly affordable!) and in my most recent visit the restaurant was even kind enough to bring us out free ice cream and the chef’s «specialty» appetizer for the day on the house. One of the true Philly BYOB gems.

I can’t recommend this place enough!!! I’ve been coming to Bleu Sushi since it first opened a couple years ago, and it’s always one of my favorite places to dine at! The owner, Hendra, and his staff are friendly and never fail to recognize and acknowledge regulars. Every time my friends and I go, his staff will serve us appetizers or ice cream on the house as a thank you for being regular patrons and always bringing new friends (who never fail to be wowed). The lunch specials definitely get you the most bang for your buck, but dinner prices are still very affordable. In addition, there is usually always a Groupon available for Bleu Sushi (40% off $ 30 worth of food!), which I have purchased several times.
The menu offers a variety of classic hand rolls, as well as some creative/​special rolls unique to Bleu — I’ve tried most of the menu and have never failed to be blown away! This is definitely my go-​to spot for sushi, and my favorite BYOB!

My go to sushi place for dine in or take out. Everything I’ve tried has been fresh, and their prices won’t break the bank. The staff is also very attentive and kind, on two occasions they’ve treated our whole table to ice cream. It is BYOB, so it is a little more on the casual side. But if you’re looking to satisfy your sushi cravings for a decent price, this is your place!

First time there last night, tried a Groupon. I am so happy to have a great sushi place within a few blocks of my new location and will happily go there without any Groupon.
From California so used to getting very fresh fish with imaginative sushi rolls… and here in Philly I’ve gotten great sushi but without as much variety /​imagination… but Bleu Sushi fixed that problem for me. Great mix of traditional and slightly edgy with good flavor combos and a reasonable price.
Highly recommend.

I really like Blue Sushi. I went in with the lovely Gia M. on a quiet and rainy Monday afternoon wanting a quick sushi bite. We decided to get the triple spicy combo, something like 16 dollars for spicy tuna, spicy salmon, and spicy yellowtail. The sushi was presented well, rolled decently, and quite fresh.
I really liked the ambiance as Blue Sushi is perfect for a date. Also our service was great. I never had to ask for a water refill, and they were also awesome and offered us some complementary icecream at the end of our meal.
When you get a chance give Blue Sushi a try.

We ordered delivery from Bleu Sushi on a Monday when we were feeling too spent from our respective days to actually cook dinner. I was quite impressed by the quality of the food and presentation. The rolls were on the large side and I enjoyed my California roll and tuna avocado roll. The portion of edamame was also generous. My husband really liked his fancy roll and though I didn’t try it myself, I thought the presentation was much nicer looking than some of the exotic rolls I’ve ordered from other spots.
I really liked that there were lots of soy sauce packets, and that the ginger and wasabi came in cups on the side. I would like more wasabi included, however — there definitely was not enough in my opinion. Nonetheless, solid delivery option and I’d likely order from them again.

Second trip to Bleu Sushi and was a better experience. I remembered my first visit, music was so loud I couldn’t hear across my table. Also, came with a groupon that made the prices reasonable.
We got their Signature combo, which included two signature rolls and soup or salad. For rolls, we ordered the tenth st, rittenhouse square, south st, and rainbow roll.
The rainbow roll was good, similar to other sushi joints. Fish was fresh. The south st and the rittenhouse square were also good. The tenth st was the only one I was questioning, since it was fried. There’s a good crunch to it, but did not taste as fresh as the other rolls. though probably my fault… not sure what I was expecting for a fried roll.
Service was fast and friendly. We were given complimentary ice cream with the check, which was pleasant. Wish I lived closer to this place, but it ranks fairly high on our list of philly sushi joints!

So happy to have this place in the neighborhood! They keep switching up the menu to keep things fresh. The menu has a good selection without being overwhelmingly vast. I’ll come here anytime for lunch or dinner and they even deliver now.
Careful with the age tofu — it comes out hot.
All of the stone rice bowls are awesome if you’re up for more comfort food than sushi.
I love all of the sushi, but my favorite is probably the Arch — which comes without rice.

I’ve been looking for a go-​to sushi place and I definitely found it. Got takeout and the fish (Alaskan roll, locust roll and chirashi) was fresh, the price was right and the miso soup was delicious. I’d pass on the gyoza– they were underwhelming. I really liked their specialty roll selection, they weren’t all overwhelmed with spicy mayo and cooked fish. I’ll definitely be going back.

My second trip to Bleu Sushi returned much more positive results (maybe they remembered me from last time or read my review).
The Korean Chicken Wings are definitely awesome and my favorite thing on this menu. The sushi is also better than I remember. This turned into a solid 4.
We also ordered the Kimchee Fries out of curiosity. What an interesting combination, I thought. I read another review that said the flavors didn’t mesh. I’d have to wholeheartedly agree. Most of all, the Kimchee wasn’t spicy but sweet (probably from the sesame sauce). Soggy and a poor mix of flavors. This and the fact that the sushi was good but didn’t taste completely fresh knocked it down to 4 stars.
The service, however, was awesome. Top notch. Not nearly as busy as last time but everything you could ask for. They also gave us complimentary red bean ice cream. Service gets 5 stars, hands down. Great night out!

I’m all about Groupons (especially when they’re a gift — shout out to my Mom), but sometimes Groupon does me dirty. In the case of Bleu Sushi, Groupon did me dirty. I wanted to use the Groupon before the expiration date, and now I kind of wish I hadn’t used it at all (and for me to say that is a big deal).
I came here for a middle of the week dinner with a friend, both of us stoked for sushi — I love sushi but rarely eat it, so using this Groupon was a nice excuse to chow down on some sush. We were seated at a small table amid the crowded restaurant (boy, do they pack people in there) and proceeded to browse the menu (holding the menu, I accidentally elbowed the woman at the table next to me — that’s how tightly we were packed). We started with the kimchee fries (based on numerous Unilocal reviews), and as a lover of both kimchi and french fries I cannot understand why these are so highly recommended — the flavors do not mesh and it looks like a pile of sloppy mess. For the entrees we split the Sushi Bleu and the Yaki Soba noodles — neither dish was appetizing, and we actually ended up leaving three pieces of sushi and nearly half off the noodles behind because they were, in a word, terrible (noodles were too salty and the sushi had a rubbery texture that made me wonder how this would affect my GI tract). I must also note that at one point both of us ran out of water, and it took nearly 8 min (yes, I kept track) to get our glasses refilled. When we had ‘finished’ our food, the owner cleared our plates and didn’t bother to ask how the food was or if we would like dessert. All around us (I counted five tables), the owner came over after the entrees were cleared and dropped off dessert on the house (which I had also read about on Unilocal), but as soon as he saw my Groupon he shifted his eyes and brought us the bill (literally making us the only table around without dessert). After another wait to pay (can you sense I was pining to get out of there?), we were brought our change with nary a thank you from the owner.
I swear by Unilocal,and have read great reviews for this place (even for people using Groupon), but I must say that this was the worst dining experience I have ever had in Philadelphia, and I would certainly not recommend purchasing a Groupon or coming to dine here (but seriously, if you are going to eat here, at least buy the Groupon so that you are not paying full price).

A fantastic place for weekday lunch break. I’ve been here several times just for their lunch special (11am-​3pm) which is fantastic! You get two rolls, miso soup, salad, and if the weather is warm, even ice cream for only $ 8.95. Definitely enough food to fill you up, and it’s pretty good too. After visiting this place on numerous occasions, I have several lunch roll favorites:
1. Pennsylvania Roll: Who knew that sweet potato tempura, unagi sauce, and rice would go so well together? All of my friends LOVE this roll too — it’s a perfect balance of sweet, crispy, and savory.
2. Pittsburg Roll: Also unique to Bleu Sushi is a roll with fried oyster and cucumber. Sounds like a strange combination, but trust me, it’s great.
3. Jefferson Roll: The classic shrimp tempera roll — you can never go wrong here.
I’ve tried to the sushi a la carte here also, and while it’s not the best, it’s still decent. That being said, the a la carte sushi is a little overpriced ($ 4.50 for 2 pieces), and the lunch special with the rolls is so much better.
Basically, come here for the awesome lunch special and try some of their specialty rolls, but don’t get sushi a la carte.

I came here with my roommate and had a Groupon. I had high expectations for this place based on the Unilocal reviews, but for me the experience was only okay.
My friend and I ordered 4 specialty rolls (Temple, South St, Washington, and UPenn), and kimchi fries. The most memorable of the rolls was the Temple, which had seared white tuna with a burnt/​smokey flavor. I would definitely recommend you order that roll. The rest of the rolls were just average, nothing special. One of the rolls had unagi (eel) in it but the pieces were not large enough for me to taste the fish. The sushi rice was a little too hard and a bit bland (could use more vinegar). The kimchi and gochujang on the kimchi fries were creative and refreshing but the fries themselves were just the zig-​zag cut fries that you can get from the freezer aisle of the supermarket. They could really use fancier ingredients. In general, Bleu Sushi’s menu was missing some of my sushi-​restaurant-​go-​to items. No octopus/​squid salad. No mackerel. Nothing with mango in it! At the end of the meal, we got «complimentary» ice cream but it was a joke really – a scoop of approximately 1.5 tablespoons, freezer burned, and not even an exotic flavor like red bean or matcha.
Lastly, my least favorite part about the experience was the atmosphere. The restaurant itself was way smaller than expected and stupidly cramped. The waiters could barely maneuver without having to step aside or push in a chair. I could hear people’s conversations next to me. While leaving, I got caught in an awkward umbrella battle – it was raining outside – with people who had entered the small foyer area before I was able to get out and had to sandwich myself behind the door and the glass wall so I could let them in. The whole experience made me feel uptight and I just wanted to get the hell out of there. Even though the interior of the restaurant had nice wall paper, dimmed blue lights, and nice décor, I would not recommend this place if you are going for a private, romantic, and non-​awkward date.
I probably would not return. There are much better sushi places in town with more extensive menus, better sushi, or better atmosphere. Try Vic’s (cramped but REALLY good sushi) or Fat Salmon (good sushi/​non-​sushi entrees and nice trendy atmosphere) or even Makiman (extensive menu and good food).
No troubles using the Groupon and the service was average.

Came here because of a Groupon deal. We ordered a few specialty rolls and some Maki. The speciality rolls were gross. I should have double checked my order but over half the speciality list is cooked food. The food had varying levels of temperature which is not the mouth feel you want to experience while eating sushi. Stay clear of these and just order the simple nigri and Maki.

Came here on a Sunday night at 6pm with a Groupon and the restaurant was not super crowded. It took an unusually long time for any server to take our order, and we had clearly decided (we had closed our menus). I had to flag one down and ask him to take our order… in the amount of time it took for another server to clear dishes, get dessert, and take the check of a party at the table directly next to us. It felt like we were being pretty ignored (and this was before I even mentioned a groupon). After this, the server we had was great.
As for the food, we ordered 3 rolls: Bleu, Rittenhouse, and Drexel. They were very delicious. And we ordered a Gyudon entrée which was extremely flavorful and we loved it. My only complaint was that it seemed too oily, although yes oil is necessary for the hot stone pot. The free chocolate ice cream was a nice touch but because of the early poor service, I’m glad I had a groupon.

(⁸⁄₁₀₀)
I came here for a daddy/​daughter date and I really enjoyed myself.
Bleu Sushi is a really cute neighborhood spot. Parking wasn’t an issue. This was a busy street but I was able to snag a parking spot right in front. It wasn’t crowded when we arrived (noon) but the restaurant isn’t very spacious. My dad, sister, and I grabbed the first table as you walked in.
We ordered:
— Miso Soup
— Salad with ginger dressing
— Steamed pork gyoza
— Fried oysters
— Pennsylvania roll
— Bleu roll
— Temple roll
— Drexel roll
— Rittenhouse roll
— Mochi ice cream
We started off with some miso soup. It was absolutely delicious! They bowls that they use are so cute! I want to buy those bowls for my house. The gyoza was very tasty as well. The salad was crisp and fresh. I enjoyed the dressing they used. It tasted fresh. I could have just gotten two bowls of miso soup and gyoza and I would have been good to go.
Everyone was really happy with their sushi selection except for me. I had the Drexel roll and it was disgusting. I couldn’t even bring myself to finish it so I ended up ordering the Pennsylvania roll which was a safe bet but it was tasty.
This was my first time having mochi ice cream and I really enjoyed it! We got the red bean and the green tea. They were both good but the red bean was definitely my favorite.
I bought a Groupon for Bleu Sushi. You paid $ 18 for $ 30 worth of food so I’ll definitely be back.

Although one of my friends had a poor experience at Bleu Sushi, I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt, mostly due to the overwhelming amount of other positive reviews. Bad move.
My date and I arrived shortly after 8 PM and decided to share edamame and some rolls. As soon as we sat down we were chatting and didn’t look at the menu for a few minutes. The server came over to us at least three times before we were ready to place the order, so I felt a little bit rushed to make our selections. We accidentally ended up with several cooked rolls, which aren’t usually my thing. Sidebar: I am not sure why they have so many cooked specialty rolls on the menu in the first place???
We were only about half way through our edamame when our rolls arrived. The server had to shuffle the extra plates and accessories around on the tiny table to make room for the sushi plate… Awkward.
We had the Bleu, Walnut, Ten Street and Temple Rolls. Bleu and Walnut were OK but nothing to write home about. Ten Street was gross, over cooked and dry. The Temple Roll was described on the menu as «Spicy yellowtail, tempura flakes wrapped in black peppered seared white tuna, glazed with Yuzu sauce». The tuna was not seared it was cooked all the way through.
We were talking throughout our meal and obviously taking longer than our server would have liked. As we neared the end of our meal, he approached us several times to take the plates away before we were finished. By 9:30 we were the last table in the restaurant; we noticed that our server was blowing out candles and shutting everything down. My date asked him what time they closed and he told us 10 PM; at that point we were still eating and had some wine to finish. By the time we were given our check our server had turned the chairs up at every other table in the restaurant. HOW AWKWARD AND RUDE. That was the last straw for me, I won’t be returning to Bleu Sushi.

Good sushi, great appetizers, and moody blue lighting — Bleu Sushi is an excellent sushi option in east Philly.
Gotta love groupons — there are always some superb deals in restaurants you otherwise would never visit. This was the case in Bleu Sushi, a hidden gem a couple minute walk south of Jefferson Station. They certainly live up to the «Bleu» with an intimate atmosphere and lots of blue lighting.
My girlfriend and I ordered the Kimchi Fries (Korean– style French fries with kimchee, sesame sauce, wiz and scallion), the Ten Street Roll (Deep fried tuna, salmon, yellowtail and white fish, finished with unagi sauce, massgo, scallion and spicy mayo), and the Locust Roll (Spicy crab meat, cucumber wrapped in salmon and wasabi tobiko). The presentation for the rolls were beautiful with flavor to match, especially the Locust Roll and that spicy crab meat juxtaposed with the wasabi tobiko. The Ten Street Roll highlight was the spicy mayo, but I found the deep fried roll underwhelming in flavor. The highlight was, surprisingly, the Kimchi Fries. I don’t know if it was the Kimichi or the cheese whiz, but something is working in that dish, and I would say it’s a must-​order.
Overall, Bleu Sushi is worth a visit even without a groupon. They make a variety of delicious sushi and one of the best appetizers with those Kimchi Fries.

So, this place is cute. It’s tiny, somewhat trendy with an average menu. The reason why this place has three stars is because I felt that the customer service was extremely lacking.
After coming in, the hostess attempted to sit us in a really tiny side seat and we requested a different spot. The hostess then informs us that this isn’t a place where you can just sit anywhere. With at least 6 other open paired tables, I just don’t see why not. They finally allowed us to switch. Then came the point where I was asked by 3 different employees my name and if I made a reservation. I mean, I’m not sure why this was such a big deal. There were 3 other groups of 2 – 3 people (1 group leaving) so it was not crowded by any means. Since I sat closer towards the door, I noticed how pushy they were with making sure you had reservations. Is that to say that you turn away walk-​ins? Either way, I didn’t care for the attitudes of the staff especially because in the 1.5 hrs I spent there all of the people that came in would not even filled half the restaurant. It seemed like a very minor detail to pay that much attention to.
As far as the food goes, it’s sushi. Their specialty rolls aren’t as intricate as a lot of places I’ve been to and I noticed that in very common rolls they exchanged avocado got lettuce or nothing at all. Very strange. The rolls I ordered were fresh, but seemed very dry. One nice thing I can say is that the kimchee fries were really awesome. I wasn’t sure I wanted to try them, but they were the only thing I felt was really special enough to return.
All in all, it was a groupon deal so I never really expect much. As it turns out the place is BYOB (which is a plus) but we did not see it listed anywhere on the website/​groupon to know beforehand. Still, I wasn’t pleased with the general service and menu options. Conclusion being that any restaurant that is only surviving by offering groupon deals likely isn’t worth going to. If they were good, they probably wouldn’t have to continuously offer themselves on groupon. If I didn’t have a discount, I would not be willing to pay full price here.

I found this place through a Groupon deal, and I’m so glad to have stumbled upon it!
When we came here for dinner on a weekday, we were immediately welcomed by the friendly host and manager. As we were promptly seated, I admired the décor around me; the interior is modern, somewhat sleek (with blue hues in the dim lighting), clean, and stylish.
We ordered the Sushi Sashimi Bleu (comes with chef choice of an assortment of sushi, sashimi, and a roll) and the Chestnut Signature Roll. Everything was wonderfully delicious and fresh, even the ginger tasted more crisp and flavorful than other comparable sushi places I’ve been to around the city! Cost-​wise, it’s not too steep either, and especially as I checked out their lunch menu, I made a mental note to come back again for those deals. In fact, not to sound too creepy or anything, but I noticed that the table next to us had apparently ordered the shrimp and scallop teriyaki on a sizzling plate that looked/​smelled so mouthwatering that I want to come back to try that too.
I was actually really full at the end of our meal, but we still chose to order the green tea fried ice cream (because I have an insatiable sweet tooth). It was seriously so good that it was totally worth subjecting my stomach to pain (from fullness).
Also, the servers were really attentive and cordial throughout the whole meal. All in all, it was a great experience!