I work at the Bay-Adelaide Centre and a colleague and I decided to head to Blowfish for lunch. I'd never been but had been wanting to check it out for a while. We walked through an unmarked wood-paneled door in the BAC lobby and lo and behold, found ourselves in Blowfish. We had made a reservation for 12pm and got there around 11:55 but were seated immediately.
The space was a little smaller than I had expected but with all the one-way glass, regular glass and natural lighting, gave the illusion of being much larger. I was a little disappointed that the menus were on paper - mine looked like it had been handled quite a few times before me. However, I was a big fan of the Pyrex tubes chandelier and the huge gold 10-seat private booth in one corner (now if only we'd had a group of 10 ..)
The menu suggests you order a variety of dishes from the Sushi, Salads and Hot & Cold plates to share. We aren't the biggest veggie eaters so decided to skip on the salads. We ended up ordering: the shrimp, scallop and crab spring rolls (this is one dish! comes with 3 spring rolls), the spicy tuna on crispy sushi rice (6 pieces), the coconut shrimp tempura roll (6 pieces) and the crab roll (6 pieces). I also decided to try the melon thyme drink - my lunch companion spoke highly of it. The waiter was attentive without being overbearing and graciously asked if it was alright if two of the sushi rolls were brought out before the spring rolls and the last roll. At this point, I hadn't paid too much attention to the prices as my colleague and I were lucky enough to be lunching here on the corporate dime.
The crab sushi was quite good - the pieces were rolled well and there wasn't a grotesque amount of rice. However, they weren't very different from rolls you could expect at an AYCE joint. I really liked the coconut shrimp tempura roll - instead of a layer of seaweed, there was a thin dusting of shredded coconut on the outside. I love coconut and the hint of flavour was a nice touch. The spring rolls were like large pixie sticks (I guess that was the "fusion" element of Asian fusion...) - unfortunately, they were served in a deep bowl with a thick layer of sauce at the bottom which meant that one end was all soggy. They were also a little too hot and had some strange sweet potato-like filling - I could taste the shrimp in them but nothing else. My favourite was definitely the spicy tuna on crispy sushi rice. The spicy tuna was heaped on little flat pieces of fried sushi rice - yum :) The melon thyme drink was definitely a little different - it was sweet but I liked the little kick of thyme. However, at $6, I don't know if it was entirely worth it.
All in all, the food and decor were quite nice but for the price paid, I'm glad this wasn't being paid for out of my own pocket. Each dish was about $12-$15, which I think is quite over-priced for the quality of the food - hence the 3 stars. I think there is better sushi to be had elsewhere in Toronto at a much better price. I also feel like there is probably better decor to be had in Toronto with much better food.