Chris V.
Yelp
The name fits.
Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill in Green Valley Ranch is the latest project by the Bromberg brothers. I have not made it out to their restaurants somehow and only tried them by way of a food festival several years back, so this was long overdue. It is a convenient for Henderson folks like me since there's free parking in a garage (Paseo Verde side preferably) or parking lot. It's centrally located on the property, not far from where the former buffet was.
When my friend and I walked up, there was hardly anyone else in the spacious restaurant, so we had our pick of seating: table, alcohol bar, or sushi bar (no tatami, for those who are curious). We went for the sushi bar. After perusing the menu full of apps, carpaccio-esque preparations, sushi, and cooked entrees, we settled on mostly traditional/expected options.
I've heard that the fried chicken is good, so I had to try it. The entree is a half chicken, so we kept it modest with the Bucket O' Wings ($24). It comes with 3 flats and 3 drumettes, all of which are moderately sized. They're very crispy outside and juicy inside, but they could really have used a touch more salt. The wasabi honey and the chili sauces don't cover for the salt and are fairly subtly flavored too, although I did enjoy them enough. If your priority is getting the right textures with low sodium, then this is ideal for you.
I went with the Sushi Deluxe ($47) for simplicity's sake and because it seemed like a better value than a la carte nigiri. It was a wooden platter, branded with the Blue Ribbon Sushi logo, with 10 different pieces of nigiri. I didn't have the pieces identified since they were all served at once but the fatty white fish which I believe was the hirame (between the tuna and salmon in photo) was quite good, and the pieces that were likely somewhere in the squid realm were tender but still firm. The quality was at least good overall. My choice of roll, the tuna, was pretty nice also. Their proprietary house soy sauce was low in sodium and still flavorful.
I also tried a bit of my friend's Sashimi Deluxe ($49), which is 3 pieces each of 6 different fishies. The yellowtail sashimi was quite tasty, and the salmon was beautiful and distinctly more flavorful than my prior experiences with this fish in the sashimi realm. I would be willing to try this dish in full the next time I'm feeling splurgy.
The Ginger Bread Pudding ($15), not to be confused with the cookie, was a spectacular conclusion to the meal. The bread was very smooth and soft, but they actually managed to toast it up to a crisp on the edges. The ginger was mostly in the scoop of gelato, which was a fun temperature contrast to the warm bread. The caramel sauce added just enough guilt to the party.
Service was oddly attentive. I'm not sure whether it was the lack of other customers during most of our meal, but there was a whole lot of water refilling and minor waste removal. Music was an eclectic mix that notably included Rodrigo y Gabriela. Lightning was dim but not too dim for reasonable food photos. I showed up in casual attire and had no issues.
Blue Ribbon Sushi doesn't offer amazing chicken, but it's definitely a great raw fish restaurant that isn't priced all that much higher than comparable suburban spots, and the dessert was just soo good. I would be happy to return here for a special occasion or just if I get a big craving for a la carte sushi.