Emily J.
Yelp
Hmm... after dining at Blue Ocean Sushi & Grill twice, I definitely have some mixed feelings about this restaurant...
The first time I dined here, I came here with one of my friends who was visiting the San Diego area, and we both loved our experience + the food. We arrived for lunch around 12PM on a Saturday, and were promptly seated as the restaurant was relatively empty when we had arrived. I ordered the Chef Specialty Tempura Roll, and we had also ordered the Popcorn Shrimp to share. I'm typically not a huge roll-person (and generally prefer nigiri/sashimi), but was pleasantly surprised by the roll that I had ordered, as the tempura offered a nice crunch with each bite. The roll was also reasonably priced for its portion size, so I was happy to see that. Similarly, the Popcorn Shrimp was also tasty, and both my friend and I almost immediately devoured it while waiting for our rolls.
I loved my first experience here so much that I decided to come back with my boyfriend that following Tuesday, however, was disappointed by the difference in the quality of the food.
The second time around, my boyfriend and I ordered 3 different rolls to share between the two of us, in addition to the house salad. In hindsight, this was more than enough food for the two of us, but at the time, we couldn't decided what to order since everything on the menu seemed so appealing. Everything was... fine... nothing was too special but the one roll that did stand out to me was Albacore Delight, which unfortunately was anything but delightful.
Albacore Delight - this roll consists of an albacore/krab/miso mix, along with albacore, avocado, green onion, ponzu, and chili oil, and was sadly DRENCHED with chili oil. Overall, the roll felt almost soggy, and it wasn't the most pleasant experiencing chewing a mouthful of albacore/krab mix along with heavy amounts of chili oil. I'm not sure if the roll was designed to be like that, or if they just happened to have an off day, but my second dining experience here definitely tainted my overall perception of Blue Ocean :( will cut them some slack since it is their soft opening, however :')
Ambiance - The overall ambiance of the restaurant is nice. There's plenty of seating both indoors and outdoors, and can be a good choice to dine at with either a small or large group, as there are various size tables that cater to different group sizes. The restaurant is overall very clean, and feels very relaxed.