Blue Ocean Japanese Restaurant

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Feb 15, 2008 by Dennis from Burke, VA
Overall Rating: 7
Food:[2] • Service:[7] • Atmosphere:[8]

• Pleasant restaurant.
• Bland food.

“A word of caution: while I didn't like this restaurant, it is pleasant, and the clientele, judging from appearances, seem to appreciate this restaurant quite a bit. This is a review after one visit to Blue Ocean, recommended by someone who said it was the best and most authentic sushi bar this side of Kyoto. It is a family-friendly restaurant. It's not at all romantic, not that either of these criteria were why we went. Also, the restaurant is not for the business traveler, unless for some strange reason they are stranded midway between DC and the high tech corridor near Dulles. But we went there because of the food. We ordered the soft shell crab tempura appetizer (spelled tempura on the menu). I expected something warmer than the rather tepid dish that arrived. We also ordered the vegetable tempura appetizer and large dry sake. The sake was pleasant-perhaps a bit too lukewarm when it first came to the table. It took a while for most of the courses to arrive. For the main courses we ordered udon noodles with a side of vegetable tempura (luckily we ordered the side tempura, because our vegetable tempura appetizer never came). We were charged for it, but the waitress politely and apologetically removed it from the bill. Midway through our meal, by the way, another waitress cleared our plates and asked us if we wanted anything else. We told her we hadn't received our other entree. We had also ordered the deluxe combination sushi dinner. The entrees came with a small salad of iceberg lettuce with, I guess, some kind of sesame ginger vinaigrette. It was forgettable. The miso soup was very nice. The broth was tasty, and the seaweed (I'm not sure what kind) gave a nice vegetable freshness to the soup. The sushi was extremely disappointing. The dish looked fabulous. Its presentation quite nice. The sushi were served on a long rectangular plate that had at one end six California rolls, then progressed down the length with 10 pieces of various fish and ended with three fish roe wraps. We (we shared all items) started at the California roll end, eating two and then started on the fish. It started off with a bland piece of fatty tuna, following by a bland piece of some sort of white fish (clearly I am not a sushi aficionado, although I've eaten it many times). This was succeeded by a bland piece of yellow fish. The line continued through other pieces of similarly bland fish until we came to a sliced shrimp which was not only visibly a shrimp, but tasted, should I say, seemed to taste like shrimp. It was finished off with what looked like a marinade piece of white fish. It too had only the slightest flavor. The fish roe rolls were the only things on the plate that had any flavor whatsoever. Perhaps "real" sushi, which is what I thought I was supposed to be getting-you know, the "authentic" stuff-is extremely subtle, and my taste buds are destroyed by years of pizza, habanera peppers, and the like. However, I found the dinner quite disappointing. Judging from the other diners, noticeably Japanese-which at first I thought was quite encouraging and a harbinger of something fantastic to come-everyone seemed to be quite pleased with their orders.”

0 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Aug 12, 2007 by Margaret
Overall Rating: 5
Food:[7] • Service:[2] • Atmosphere:[4]

• The decorations make the place festive; nice salad bar with lunch.
• Service is inconsistent, with more days of bad service than good.

“As a frequent customer of this restaurant, I have noticed a continuing decline in the service at this establishment. The service is often inattentive and slow, and sometimes unfriendly. Based on my latest experience, I never plan to return again. The food selection and quality are middle-tier decent, but they suffer from portion control at times. On my last visit, 2 people ordered the same thing and both got significantly different portions. Complaints about it resulted in only feeble apologies and excuses, followed by the waitress knocking a glass of ice water into my dining partner's lap.”

Apr 14, 2007 by David from Fairfax
Overall Rating: 8
Food:[8] • Service:[7] • Atmosphere:[8]

• Good value, good food.
• Service could be more attentive.

“Just plain good sushi for your money. No fancy decor, it reminds you of a small hometown sushi shop in Japan. I actually prefer this place over TatiaNA”

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