Bluefin Seafood Bistro

I’ve been to many seafood places far in Arizona but this is one of the best in Tucson. Superb service and my favorite was the cashew crusted Hawaiian fish — yum!

Always a pleasant night at Bluefin. The ambiance is always great. The restaurant is tucked back in a historic plaza with great lighting.
The oysters Rockefeller are a must. I always have a great entrée, whether it be a steak, lobster, crab, or almond crusted trout. Don’t forget to order the crème Brule or triple chocolate cake.
Bluefin has never let us down.

Second time here. It was very much, just ok. We ordered a bottle of wine, which they didn’t have. For a seafood restaurant they have no plain Rosé asam option?! Then we ordered oysters, they were out of the ones we ordered. We also ordered ceviche, which never came. The waiter was nowhere to be found so I had to drink my friends water since mine was not refilled. The food was ok, very bland and lacking flavor. Glad i tried it, but don’t think I’ll be back.

I went here for lunch with my mom for her birthday. There was no wait and the hostess was extremely friendly and the wait staff was prompt and polite. I order a Long Island Ice Tea and it was the best made drink I’ve had in a while. My mother and I both order the lobster roll and this is were I went from 5 stars to 4 stars. Being from Massachusetts, having a Lobster Roll served up on a cheap value pack hotdog roll is completely unacceptable. Though the lobster was awesome, the roll was disappointing. I will probably be back to try other items on their menu, also they are 5 mins from my house and have good drinks and good seafood.

Nice oysters.

Not impressed with the «Fat Tuesday» specials. After reading all the reviews from here, my expectations were high. The best part of our meal was the staff who brought out our meals.

I enjoyed the food very much. We had the sea bass which was cooked perfectly and it had a drizzle of mustard sauce that was superb. Also had the chicken thighs which were served in a bowl with a light broth and were very good. I was disappointed in the service. It was very busy but did not have enough wait staff. We regularly had to flag someone down.

Everyone that I was with really liked this place, I was not as big of a fan. We were hungry after our flight, and this place was pretty close to our hotel. The smoked fish appetizer was the highlight of the meal. I ordered the scallops-​they were okay. I think the best dish was the cashew crusted fish.

Our «Dining Trio» (mom, husband Gary and I) visited Bluefin for Gary’s birthday. We had reservations and, after a slight confusion with the reservation, we were seated in a pleasant booth in the bar. The manager made sure we were happy with our seating — good attention and professionalism. Normally, I don’t enjoy the bar atmosphere for eating dinner, but this one is upbeat and a fun, amiable ambiance. It also includes outdoor seating that connects directly to the bar. They also have an upstairs quieter dining area.
We loved our dining experience. Great service, yummy seafood options — all excellent. I asked our server what he recommended out of a few choices. So I went with — and very much enjoyed — the nut-​crusted escolar (fish from Hawaii). Birthday boy Gary had bouillabaisse. It’s got a hefty price tag, but with reason; he considered it one of the BEST he ever had. It was loaded with great seafood, and the broth (I copped a taste) was delicious! Mom had a grilled salmon that was also perfectly prepared. We enjoyed tasty bread and butter and salads as well. A birthday slice of dessert topped off a positively delightful meal — a good, 3-​fork dessert (as our Dining Trio likes to share!).
I hope to come back more often to Bluefin — for both the excellent service and the quality food!

Paying alot of money for horrible service with horrible food is a pretty bad combination.
First off. Our waitress was sarcastic, and borderline rude. I’m not sure how many times she has rolled her eyes at us. We spent good money to feel unwelcomed.
Off to the food. Butter and bread, nothing special. The lobster for the most part was overcooked. The kitchen did a good job at de-​shelling the lobsters, but that was the only positive thing all night, for only two more dollars! The chicken dish was slimy, and the fries were cold. The bouillabaisse was the worst I have ever had. The soup was luke warm, with no flavor. The stock was a complete disappointment. I can taste only the garlic. The scallop was undercooked, and reeked of an ammonia smell. The fish that was in it tasted old and looked mushy. It was simply disgusting. Terrible experience.

We looked forward to eating here with a couple of friends, having had good meals in the past. What a disappointment!
The men both ordered lobsters. One of them arrived with rotten, black slimy roe and was returned to the kitchen. How do you even bring that to the table to be served? The other was dry and overcooked, and tasted «old».
The one woman ordered trout almondine which she said was very tasty. My oysters Rockefeller were on the overcooked side.
In all a disappointing experience. Won’t spend our precious dining out money there again!

I have to say they do it right at Bluefin! Excellent service Great live Maine Lobster.
I took my parents who split a lobster. No split plate charge. They even have sides on the two plates. One more important item. They check ID’s on credit cards that say check ID’s on the back. Love the place!

Neighborhood joint. We love it. Tonight we had the mussels, and clam chowder (New England). My wife swears by the mussels. I do not order them with any regularity but she says they are the best in town. And on the happy hour menu for $ 7.50 just makes them even better.
I had the chowder and as usual it was excellent.
Wife topped mussels off with a wedge salad, pretty standard. I had the trout. Very nice.
Had the special upside down plum tart with cardamom. Marianne Banes can do no wrong in my eyes.

Really great bar atmosphere. A few things I love about blue fin
1. Bar team is awesome really friendly and knows their wine
2. Chowder is the best. And I am from boston
3. Beautiful local!

I won’t be able to write as detailed a review as I normally would, on account of we started with a bottle of wine, and I have, as Shakespeare wrote, «poor unhappy brains for drinking.» The wine was definitely a 5-​star bottle of wine.
Our server was great, super-​friendly and helpful. I was a little confused when we came in exactly at the time for which we had made reservations, and the hostess said we’d have to wait for them to prepare the table. But then the owner (I think) came and just gave us one. So that was weird. But the waiter was great.
The bread they brought out was unworthy. It was just straight up empty white bread, and it wasn’t warm, even though it was billed that way. It was sad, because I usually don’t eat wheat, and it was a waste for me.
For appetizers, I had blue crab cakes and hubby had oysters Rockefeller. We had a hilarious moment when he dug in, believing the white stuff on the plate was onion (we were sitting outside, with little light besides candles). The server politely explained that cold oysters are always served on ice and hot oysters on rock salt. Hubby politely explained that he grew up on a Kansas dairy farm and had never eaten an oyster before. I don’t think he had ever eaten rock salt before either. The oysters were not bad, although they didn’t blow me away. Same for the crab cake. It was tasty. I was surprised to enjoy the sauce… typically I don’t care for tartar sauce (I think that’s what it was?). Ditto the slaw. Both spruced up the dish.
Husband had the surf and turf, and I had a steak. I know, I know, it’s a seafood restaurant. But that’s what looked good. And it was pretty good. My first bite had me wondering why they didn’t season the steak, but then I saw that the seasoning was all in the 3 peppercorn sauce, which just hadn’t gotten on the end. It was a big cut of meat. Potatoes were good; spinach kind of standard. I had a couple bites of hubby’s plate but was not wowed. At some point we finished the wine and got some glasses of some other wine that was not as good: «Like test driving a Corvette after you’ve owned a Bugati,» said hubby.
We also had dessert: ginger pear cake and flourless chocolate cake. Both were insanely rich. The chocolate cake was just too much after that meal.
Overall, I would say this was a pretty good meal, but nothing really blew me away, even though there were some very nice and careful touches and the portions were big. The service was great, considering this was Valentine’s Day and, come to think of it, the food is probably even better when it’s not a date-​night holiday.

I have visited several times, but tonight’s experience will likely force me to never go again. Consistently, the food has been delicious. I ordered the New England Clam Chowder (which is fantastic) and the Fish and Chips. The batter was delightful. Flaky, light and flavorful. Unfortunately, our main server was horrendous. Her communication with us was very short and abrupt. She was unaware of which dishes were unavailable from the menu. She failed to include a to-​go order that we placed with our dinner. She seemed to ignore us throughout the evening. We had to flag her down for takeout boxes and for our check. Overall, we felt disrespected and we felt like unvalued customers.
I let the host know of our experience and he let me know that when we visited again, we would definitely not have her as our server. That is not an incentive for us to spend our money there again.
In the times that we have visited, we have always had consistent food and inconsistent service.

I’m giving this place 2 stars because of past experience otherwise 2 is too much
Went for brunch on Sunday not so good. Had lobster benidict and blue berry pancakes. The pancakes were brought to the table burnt black, really? When servers bring food like that you gotta wonder. Bathroom was not clean, another indication of trouble. I liked this place in the past what happened? Last two visits disappoint

How can you lose with a lobster dinner for $ 20.13? At Bluefin, it’s easy. It took them more than an hour and a half to serve our table (at which point people at other tables who’d arrived after us had finished eating and were long gone). When the lobster finally came, it was undercooked – slimy actually.
We complained to the manager more than once, but he didn’t do a thing about it; he didn’t even say he was sorry for what we were going through. If I were in his position, I would have apologized profusely and comped the entire meal, but he didn’t even offer us a free dessert, or a drink while we were waiting. Not only were we charged the full amount but he actually added an 18% tip to our separate checks!
I guess they consider what we went through normal, all part of the Bluefin experience. So if that’s how you like to be treated, Bluefin is the place for you.

I’ve been here a few times after hearing great reviews… unfortunately, I have not been super impressed. I keep going back though trying to get a really good meal– I still have hope!
We went for brunch and the menu was fine, limited compared to the full menu, which is to be expected. I ordered the BLUE CRAB CAKES, spicy green tartar sauce, mesclun green salad. 15 which were super tasty, but extremely small. I usually take home half my meals anyways, but this wasn’t even enough to fill me up! Very nice flavor though. We also had the CASHEW CRUSTED HAWAIIAN FISH, ginger butter, Texmati rice, sautéed spinach, sweet potato chips. 15. which to be honest, was just alright. I was hoping that a seafood place would have something more exciting than Mahi mahi on its menu. Both of these options were on the brunch menu, but for some reason we were told that they were not available for brunch… in the end the server brought them to us with no explanation…
Our table also had the MAINE LOBSTER ROLL, caper mayonnaise, red pepper, celery, scallion, coleslaw, handcut fries. 16, which looked good, but the person eating it didn’t comment. They also ordered TRADITIONAL EGGS BENEDICT, English muffin, Canadian bacon, poached eggs, béarnaise. 9.5.which they didn’t like (I thought it looked good.)
We tried both the FRESH PACIFIC NORTHWEST OYSTERS and the GULF OF MEXICO OYSTERS. I enjoyed them quite a lot. I had a cocktail, but the server had never made it before and she seemed very confused about putting it together, and was even more surprised when I told her that it was actually very good!
After we finished our meal, we were all so hungry that we each ordered a dessert (we usually do not eat desserts).when they came, we were shocked! they were massive! We had to box them up to take home and ended up sharing only one between the 4 of us. I thought this a bit strange considering the portion sizes of the mains to be so small. the deserts were all excellent-​I had some bread pudding/​run concoction– amazing.
The next time we came was for Happy Hour (Daily 4:30 — 6:30). We entered the restaurant and the host looked at us like we were someplace we shouldn’t have been and asked what we wanted!!! um… We want to sit down and eat???
We ordered the STEAMED BLACK MUSSELS (7), as did most everyone else around us, but we were really, really surprised to see that they arrived with the cling film still on them, and the bowl really hot– this obviously came out of the microwave! The clams and muscles (we got a mix portion) were all overcooked and rubbery! What a disappointment. The oysters, which were great on our previous visit, were all shucked incorrectly! Each and every oyster had bits of shell in. We attempted to get the attention of the bar staff, but there were so busy that it was impossible. We couldn’t even get bread from bar staff/​or servers… in the end we had to grab a bus boy who ended up serving us. To be fair, they were really busy on this day, but I felt really let down by the quality of the food.
I did enjoy the Happy Hour vibe– there were tons of people there… and the patio is a great place to sit.
I will give this place one more try… I am determined to like it… I hope they impress us a bit more the next time.

Came here while visiting my Grandma in Tucson and had a wonderful meal. The restaurant is two levels and we sat upstairs which has a very warm ambiance. It was quiet and cozy, perfect for a dinner date where you want to be able to hear each other. We had planned to split a couple salads until we realized we all had our eye on different ones! I had the Fatoosh and loved it. A more complex Greek salad complete with toasted pita and a delicious garlic vinaigrette, this was a great starter. Grandma and Sunny H. both enjoyed their Caesar and mesclun, respectively.
For dinner, I ordered cashew crusted mahi-​mahi and was not disappointed in the least. The fish was perfectly cooked and the vegetables/​rice it came with were very flavorful. My dining companions both enjoyed their salmon and scallops as well. Overall, I can’t wait to visit Tucson again and go back to Bluefin! It’s a little pricey, but a lovely dinner with a fantastic menu.