The Blue Fish

I took my parents to the Blue Fish a couple weeks ago. Actually that's not very accurate, my parents took me to the Blue Fish, I don't want you to think I don't like sushi but as sophisticated as I get is Kroger brand over HEB. I'm just saying one time I wanted to do a blog on a sushi restaurant so I had to type "sushi restaurants in Houston" into Google and then I just went to Calliope's Po-Boy instead. It's not that I don't love Japanese food it's just I don't get any cooler than Pei Wei.

Anyway The Blue Fish is downtown, located at 550 Texas Street, across from Wortham theater, and according to their website thebluefishsushi.com, they have a free iPhone app available. I didn't download it, but it's still +9 points for being cool and trendy. Rather than download it or put any more effort into it, I'll just come up with my own ideas of what's on it: a different picture of a blue fish every day, instructions on how to make your own sushi, definitions of Japanese words like "sashimi" and "chopsticks". I've digressed, but I'd wanted to say something here about how, unlike being hipster and trendy like most of the restaurants I go to, it's an urban professional and trendy restaurant. +7 to myself for moving slowly up in the world. Soon I'll trade my Tom's for wing-tipped shoes or whatever it is that people who have real jobs wear on their feet when they go to work. I'm just kidding I don't have Tom's I obviously think it's tacky to care about third world children.

So the Blue Fish has the second bar I've been to since turning 21 a couple weeks ago. We arrived during happy hour, which is from 4:30 to 7, and for the first time I realized that that's not JUST the one free hour you have between your nine o'clock class and your eleven o'clock class. It's an actual time in the world in which drinks and food items are priced lower than normal! I had my first apple-tini (+19 for classiness though -3 for forgetting to order it shaken not stirred) and I'm just waiting for summer break to try out for my position on Sex in the City. However while we were waiting outside for our table there was an 8 year old sipping from his mother's wine glass and I'm sorry to inform you guys that the Blue Fish is home to a young lush, it's sad to watch them tromp down the path of alcoholism at such a young age.

My fingers are getting pretty cold so in a moment we're going to start just hitting the high points, but before we get that far I'd like to tough it out and get into the really hard hitting stuff, the seating in this bar slash restaurant. Outside they had some wicker furniture for patrons to sit in while waiting for the establishment to open (the restaurant is open Monday through Friday for lunch, 11-2, and then again for dinner at 5. The front door didn't have a closing time and neither does their website so I assume they never do). Normally when I think of wicker furniture I think of Cracker Barrel, and I rarely sit in anything comfortable there. This wicker furniture, however, had surprisingly soft cushions in them and while I'm singing praise I'll throw out to you that said cushions were a very attractive blue shade. +9 and +7 respectively. Inside the restaurant, my family and I chose to sit in the bar area to enjoy our apple-tinis and California rolls. Imagine this: instead of actual seats, they have armchairs! I know! In a restaurant! Imagine if I'd dropped some soy sauce on mine, it certainly would have stained! But at the Blue Fish, they don't give a gosh darn! They just want you to be as comfortable as possible! +98 for their excellent awareness of exactly what I want in a restaurant: the same disregard for my eating habits as I have in my own home.

As promised to my poor tired cold fingers, here are the high points: Behind the bar, they have a really cool backsplash that's of a bunch of blue fish swimming. In my apartment, we have a really cool backsplash with speckles of all the food we've prepared this year. (I'm totally joking my roommates are way neater than that) +8. Their wasabi, in addition to being very flavorful, was shaped in tiny ice cream scoops which made me wonder how it was prepared and their ginger was white! Have you ever seen white ginger? Me either! +11! Outside the front of the building they did have some palm trees blowing around in the Houston wind. I wasn't really a fan of this, I'm not afraid of confessing to you, my interested readers. I mean, this is Houston, guys. Not Florida. Not California. Not even that house a couple blocks from the one I used to live in! The backsplash I could handle, the underwater themed lighting I could handle, the app that provides you (once again I assume) with a different picture of a blue fish every day I could handle, the sensation of swimming instead of walking that everybody feels after one apple-tini too many I could handle, but palm trees? Trying way too hard. -25.

All and all, though, it was a delicious restaurant, and if you're looking for sushi in Houston and Kroger's closed, definitely try the Blue Fish before Google searching "sushi in Houston" and then going to Calliope's Po-Boys instead, the Blue Fish is way better. Actually don't bother, like I said I don't know when the Blue Fish closes but if Kroger's closed the world has ended so you might as well curl up in your basement with your hurricane rations and wait it out. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at arbitrarycriticism@live.com.