Blue Fish
"Five flavor sashimi" is a popular menu item at Blue Fish, a new Japanese restaurant in Hicksville. (April 10, 2010) Credit: Bruce Gilbert
The sign outside the Days Inn advertises low weekly rates and, a few lines down, "restaurant." Blue Fish makes you want to check in.
This sparkling Japanese eatery succeeds a series of dismal dining rooms that took up space adjoining the motel. The remade rooms keep little more than the footprint. Open 10-foot doors and enter a red-dominated lounge sporting an illuminated, onyx bar. Enter the sushi salon, glittery in a cool-blue hue. Along this stretch of South Oyster Bay Road, it's like Vegas. And the food has flair to spare.
THE BEST
Order spicy tuna dumplings, wrapped in wonton skin and deep-fried, capped with a round of jalapeño pepper. It's your wake-up call. The artfully arranged rectangles of flavor dubbed a "tuna pizza" also have a peppery kick, plus cilantro, avocado and a snappy citrus glaze - fine foils for the velvety fish.
The "5-flavor sashimi" delivers a skyline of tuna, white tuna, yellowtail, salmon and king crab, each with a tasty crown, from mango salsa to wasabi-yuzu sauce. Seared salmon finished with sea salt and plum sauce is topped with black olives. And the white tuna "sandwich" is a playful winner.
Competition comes from colorful sushi rolls. They're harmonious, tasty choices, especially compared with over-orchestrated productions elsewhere. The "volcano," complete with a flaming oyster shell accompaniment, includes shrimp tempura, avocado, roe and tuna, wrapped in a union of soybean, seaweed and apple salsa.
Highlighting the cooked: tender steak teriyaki with bok choy, pan-fried pork dumplings, miso-glazed black cod.
THE REST
The familiar sushi and sashimi are fresh and good. Fried calamari goes international in a Thai-style sweet-hot sauce. Satisfactory shrimp-and-vegetable tempura, stir-fried udon noodles and miso soup; standard ice-cream desserts, better fried banana.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Surprise.
