Blue Fin Sushi Bar

I’ve been coming to Blue Fin since they opened. Not often at first, but gradually over time I’ve evolved to about twice a month, almost every month. The sushi is great. The sushi chefs are friendly, happy, excellent at being chefs. If you have a particular request, (e.g. no mayo, or make something special) they always comply. The waitresses are excellent. They are friendly and helpful. They do not avoid eye contact as servers sometimes do. They simile. They pay attention to you. I say all this because I’ve read some bad reviews about Blue Fin on Unilocal and I just can’t see how they are eating at the same place as me. The décor, the atmosphere is calming. The chairs, tables, sushi bar are well made, quality shines through. The music is good. They have a picture of Sam (the chef) with Mick Jagger on the wall. What more do you want? I highly recommend Blue Fin. Great food.

Simply the best in Encinitas, CA. Superior sushi and amazing service. I’ve been enjoying this place for years and highly recommend them. Prepare to be impressed!

Great food, the service could be a bit better, but its worth it.

My daughter went to eat here with her friend and the second she walked in she felt very uncomfortable. Despite their having a reservation in an otherwise empty restaurant, the hostess hesitated at seating them and a few minutes later rudely approached them asking for their phone number since she didn’t believe that was their reservation. After they were done eating and about to leave in their cars, the hostess ran after them accusing them of not paying (which they had). After going back and forth in the parking lot, someone else came out to tell the hostess that my daughter and her friend had indeed paid. Due to the disrespect and overall negative experience, I would not recommend this sushi place. The Sushi House down the street is much more accommodating.

Okay. So I walk in, literally not even in the restaurant for two seconds. Then, this bitch hostess wearing all black (she’s probably going toiletpapering after this, she’s not fooling anyone) looks my respectable colleague and me up and down like we’re ugly or something? She asks if we have a reservation– which we obviously do because we are mature, responsibly young adults. We tell her our name, then she reluctantly sits us in the back next to a trash can. After we sit down, she asks my colleague what her phone number is. No, she wasn’t asking her out, she actually had the nerve to question our integrity. As if we are immature children??? Food was great. I’m a sushi connocccosseaarrr, so it was pretty much the shit! But next time I see the hostess, I’m gonna «accidentally» spill soy sauce on her shirt (maybe it’ll be white next time).
OH MY GOODNESS. UPDATE: We left the restaurant, got in the car only to hear a woman’s voice, «Ladies! We didn’t receive payment.» We were utterly annoyed at this point– we of course paid and each gave a 20% tip to our nice waitress. She was chased after by another worker telling her that we did in fact pay. She apologized insincerely. I don’t know what we did to deserve this hatred. I feel extremely disrespected.

Really good, not quite 5 but good! We go all the time and the chefs can make anything you want. Highly recommend.

We are staying in Carlsbad for vacation and were in the mood for Sushi today. So we looked up local Sushi restaurant reviews and found Blue Fin had a 4+ star rating on Unilocal.
During our order it was literally like the Twilight Zone, our waitress didn’t seem to know anything about Sushi. She said that they had a special on California rolls, I said «don’t those have immigration crab, because I don’t like imitation crab» and she said I don’t think so but let me ask. Sure enough the «California roll» in California had immigration crab. Next we asked what the market price of Toro Tuna rolls was at, she said she thought it was $ 9.99 and then she came back and said it is $ 14.99 but after we went ahead and ordered it anyways, she later informed us they don’t serve Toro until dinner time and that she wasn’t aware of that. We also asked about a certain ingredient on one of their rolls «musago I believe» and we asked the waitress what it was. She said hmm maybe it’s on the board and looked up towards the chef’s board and then she said let me ask, it was like she didn’t have a clue about a single dish on their menu. I also asked if they have a Ginger based dressing on their salads, you know like many Sushi and Japanese restaurants tend to have and she said «What is in it», lol, I totally thought she was kidding but she wasn’t. I also asked if the Chef makes any specialty rolls, like something spicy and she said let me ask, then I heard him answer her «If they want something spicy they can go to the Mexican restaurant next door», she came back to me and said we have Sirracha spicy sauce if you would like it spicy. We should have probably left at that point but my son was starving and we had already ordered his gyoza so we stayed and dealt with the incompetent service.
I would NOT recommend this Sushi restaurant to anyone and am very surprised they have a 4+ star rating.

I love the fact the all spoke to me before walking in and out of sushi bar. The place was clean and classy. My opinion not really family oriented they had no kid menu also it seems they get a little agitated when voices raise in volume. The only reason why we attend this location is because the location in La Jolla was closed down. So now that I’ve mentioned the pros here are the con’s they had a veryyyyy small variety of rolls, I wanted a spicy tuna in and out with crunch. Smh I had to custom the menu with most of the rolls have no details of what is in or on top of sushi roll and when asking the waitress she seemed to be bothered by me asking. The girl also charged us extra on both tabs. If my friend wasn’t paying attention they would have got almost $ 10. The hand roll was the best like a ice cream cone looking… Mmmm bathrooms were also clean. The food was delicious but alittle expensive.

Food is great
Read a review from some dolt. Restaurant is extremely clean. Bad service? Guess this dude never went to a bust sushi bar before.
I love the sushi chefs; all the employees are extremely helpful, and the food is delicious.
I usually meet very interesting and nice people.
I highly recommend.

Uhoh, is the master sushi chef Sam in trouble and has to cut corners? I have had the seaweed salad there for over 5 years and last night it consisted mostly of cucumber and just a few small pieces of seaweed. The green tea was … Well, Floor sweepings, and a disgrace to the Japanese tea culture. The sushi still very good and high quality, but sadly, not a TOTAL PACKAGE anymore:(

So happy I found this place! I’m not stoked they are closed on Mondays and other days between 3−5pm (hence one star down), but they have wonderful service and great sushi!

We showed up with no reservation at 6pm. It looked almost empty with only the sushi bar has people. As we walked in the hostess/​manager, said hi to us and asked how many, we said two. My boyfriend asked to see the sake menu before we decided to even eat here as it was our first time. She began to argue with someone from the staff in front of us about all of the tables are reserved. The hostess put her finger up and said, «shush!» to my boyfriend, and still began to argue with the waitress. We should’ve left, but I was starving. We were seated at the sushi bar, since everything was «reserved.» Our service was horrible and couldn’t help but feel like they were rushing us and ignoring us, making our experience horrible. I’m giving it 3 stars as the sushi we had was ok.

Expensive. Not only that… we were rushed out because it was almost closing time. And they made no effort to be courteous about it. Chawanmushi was the worst I’ve had. Flavorless. Empty. Cheap. House sake — not so great either. Tuna sashimi. Horrible. Not worth YOUR $

I came here last night because I wanted to try a new sushi place in the area and was impressed by the reviews. I was completely disappointed and will not be coming back. The sushi was expensive and a total let down. Completely bland, no one in my party enjoyed their meal. The waiter did not seem to have any idea what he was doing and seemed very out of it. Everyone working there seemed to make their priority chatting and arguing loudly with each other rather than serving their customers.

We’re to begin. I’ve never felt so welcomed into a restaurant. From the second I walked in the door I felt at home. This is the type of sushi restaurants that you should only sit at the bar. The chefs are very personable and attractive. Really good guys. The cuisine is truly authentic Japanese their specialty being snapper. I would suggest trying the equivalent of snapper toro, I with I remember the name. It was to die for! One of my favorite things to eat at sushi restaurants is the chirashi (see photo). Though not on the menu here I asked and they were excited to accommodate. The staff truly loves what they do and it shows in their work. I’ll take this place over ANY 5 star sushi joint solely on the staff, and how they take pride in what they do. Thanks for a great experience.

I am Japanese, so I’m particular about Sushi.
I went there on Sunday, September 20 with my American boyfriend.
I moved from Clairmont to Encinitas and struggled to find a good sushi place here.
(You know, if you live in South San Diego, Sushi Ota in Bay Ho and Sushi Tadokoro in Oldtown, they are epic!!)
Blue Fin Sushi Bar, their Sushi was amazing. Sashimi grade is awesome (I could tell because my grandpa and grandma have small seafood shop in Japan and I helped them since I was a kid), perfect sushi rice, and sushi chef was very professional and friendly (He was also Japanese)
Actually, I was worried about their service because the review which post recently, it seemed like their service was so disappointing. But when we were there, it was ok, not fantastic but still it was fine. The price was not cheap but worth it! (Still cheaper than Sushi Kaito!)
Definitely come back soon!

One of my favorite places to eat sushi. Food it great and very authentic.
Tough day today. Tables received minimal service, no towel service, and the server lost part of the order. The entertainment was watching the hostess politely debate seating with the head sushi chief and arrange VIP seating while we tried to get refills on water.
Not what I’ve come to expect from this great resteraunt.

Very disappointed. After reading reviews we were hoping to have a good sushi dinner. Arrived at 7:40pm and the young lady said they couldn’t serve us because they were too busy. We looked around and there were several tables empty and half the sushi bar. We then asked to order food to go. She said they could not do any to go orders because they were too busy.
Horrible service! Think twice before you waste your time going to this restaurant.

For the price, I would give this place a 3.5 star review. (why does Unilocal not have 3.5 stars? I usually round it up to 4, to the benefit of the restaurant.) It’s not the best quality for this price range, but the food is decent, but would I come back? Probably not. This restaurant is in one of those gray areas where it is not just okay but decent enough to deserve 3.5 stars but it’s not great enough for me to come back and give it 4 stars as in «yay I’m a fan» cos I’m not. Here is why…
This restaurant looks legit. It’s not one of those American or Korean sushi restaurants, they do have Japanese sushi chefs and Japanese speaking staff. The menu looks legit too. With a wide selection of rolls and nigiri, you can easily pick something that you like out of the menu. So we chose to start a meal with some amberjack nigiri, followed by an appetizer of scallops and shiitake mushrooms, with the classic roll and the bluefin roll as our main course, and two pieces of uni nigiri to conclude our meal.
Kanpachi — not bad, but not the best I’ve had. This is definitely not a fine sushi restaurant so I wouldn’t be surprised that it doesn’t taste top-​notch. For the price I’m paying, this is good!
Scallop and shiitake appetizer — Great idea, bad execution. Scallops and the parsley sauce were good, but oh god, have the chefs not tasted the mushrooms at all? They didn’t use the fresh shiitake but the dried ones, and probably didn’t soak them in water long enough to soften them, or maybe the mushrooms were just old to begin with. The mushrooms were super chewy and I almost wanted to spit them out. Unacceptable.
This appetizer didn’t give me a good start of the meal, but I was just hoping the rolls would be good, and they were! The classic roll and the blue fin roll were fresh and delicious. I enjoyed them… but for the price, I would choose to go somewhere else if rolls were what I was after. It’s not worth paying the extra 4 bucks for each roll where you can get a similar quality for a lower price.
Uni — decent, not buttery and urchiny enough. Same feeling I had for the kanpachi. Decent but not top-​notch.
Bottom line: If you want American sushi rolls, there are many other places who do just as good of a job as this restaurant but for a lower price. If you want real Japanese sushi (sashimi, nigiri, omakase, etc.), there are other sushi places you can go that will serve you butt-​kicking seafood, for a higher price of course. If you want fresh seafood that won’t get you sick, this is a good restaurant, but it probably will not impress you with high quality seafood.
I personally don’t like restaurants that don’t deserve what they charge, and I think this is one of them. I’m just gonna stick with my neighborhood sushi roll restaurants… and once in a while splurge on Ota or Kaito or somewhere up in LA for real sushi…

I was so hungry that I did not pay attention to the décor.
Parking packed, thou because it’s the start of the holiday season. Otherwise, ample space.
Friendly wait staff
The sashimi esp. Hamachi melted like butter and the blue fin tuna was tasty,
Thou not at $ 45.00
Large space & friendly wait staff
Overall, delicious sashimi.