Blowfish Sushi Santana Row

Excellent food, good service, friendly staff, very genuine Japanese dining experience, highly recommended

Great sushi and great company. Highly recommend the fried California rolls. The only thing I didn’t like was that it smelled like a bar in there… Because the place turns into a nightclub after hours. The bar smell was very prevalent.

Vanessa our server was EXTREMELY attentive and very menu educated. She gave recommendations, was very professional, and made our experience EXEMPLARY. 5 Star service, would absolutely go again.

It’s kinda funny seeing all these reviews where they’re rating it low for things they don’t know what they’re talking about.
To start, the food here is honestly great. I’m not going to say it’s the best sushi around, but it’s great for the price. It’s actual sushi, unlike some other places that use other crap to add ‘flavor.’ Take it from someone who actually spent time abroad and learned how to eat real sushi.
As for the service, I think this is what makes the place shin. No idea what people are talking about. The service here is quick. Of course there’s sometimes a slight delay when asking for something, but it’s at Santana Row. It’s a busy location with many guests so of course it might take time. Vanessa, our waitress. refilled my water without me even having to ask. She was very polite and took care of everything I needed.
Would definitely recommend if you’re looking for a nice sushi date or need a place to get some real sushi in.

The waitress is literally the only good thing here. By good, I mean she looks amazing. Skills? Maybe not so much.
A+ Sashimi

You need to be HIGH to enjoy this place.
Bad service old fish …
why still open?

I love sushi — if I’m in the mood for fresh authentic sushi, i wont go here. This place has cool fusiony type food and their happy hour is priced pretty fairly. This restaurant has more of a lounge vibe with all their candle lights where you just wanna have a few drinks and munch on bites while you hang out with your friends and enjoy the music. The staff was super attentive both times I stopped by during their happy hour despite being super busy.

I love sushi. My family loves sushi, so we came here for lunch while shopping. As far as taste goes, it’s subpar for me. I’ve had better sushi in SF.
I got some nigiri. Ankimo, anago, saba, and ikura. The ankimo tasted fine, but the last time I had it somewhere it was a slice of it on the rice, not chopped up. The anago I think was slightly overcooked. It was a little tough and again the last time I had anago at a different place it was melt in your mouth good. The saba was good. It tasted how I expected it to. The ikura was also good. I just happen to have higher standards for the ankimo and anago because I’ve had better of those. I tried some of the rolls my family ordered and they were fine. My mom got a bento box and it was pretty good. I tasted a little of it. I really liked the dressing on the salad.
Overall, it’s good, but not the best place I’ve eaten sushi.

Terrible experience. I was on a business lunch and as clear to the waiter about our time requirements. It took almost one hour to get our food and when we did get the rolls (appetizers)The sushi wasn’t fresh and quite fishy. We had to leave as the bento boxes were on the way to the table and never did get a chance to eat. Complete disaster business lunch. Stay away from this place. By the way the place as only about ¹⁄₃ full and no excuse for the wait.

We stopped by Blowfish recently to check out their happy hour. They have a club vibe here, it’s dark and the music was thumping, I am sure even more so late at night. They have a pretty good happy hour menu, plenty of things to choose from. I enjoyed the mango mojito off the happy hour menu. The food was decent, but nothing amazing. I’d probably come back for happy hour, but I am not sure I’d bother with a dinner visit.

I was here on Tuesday night with a reservation. Been here on many occasions for drinks at the bar but this is my update for dinner. The place never filled up and I thought we would get great service. Here’s my update…
The waitress didn’t get us water until way later but even then our glass were empty most the time. We went to the bar to start off with water as we wait for the sake and mixed drinks.
Started with the Ritsu roll and that was good. Then we ordered a platter of sashimi with tuna, hamachi, hamachi belly, and salmon. The salmon, hamachi, and hamachi belly slices were thin but fresh. The tuna was slimy so we sent it back. Partway through the platter, I asked if the uni was fresh and the waitress said yes they have an unopened box. I should have known not to order because she stated it was unopened box and not a very fresh new box… I asked for 2 and she brought out 4 pieces. I was irritated that she got the quantity wrong. I tried one and it tasted really bitter. At first I thought it could be the sake and uni not going well together (rare but possible?). So I tried the second and it was extremely bitter. We called the waitress and told her about the slimy tuna and the bitter uni. She took it back and the manager came to speak with us. Manager said her sushi chef (the kids in their 20s behind the sushi bar) said the tuna was fresh and some of the tuna have that texture. She said chef assured us it was fresh. And she said for the uni, there’s always a slight chance it’s bitter but it’s still fresh. I call bullsh*t on this. Fresh fish should not be slimy and I’ve have fresh uni cracked open and fresh boxes. Fresh uni is not bitter! Shame on the manager for saying everything is fresh — «to each their own, but I’ve taken the items off your bill». Yes, they did the right thing and took it off the bill… but really… trying to tell us that’s how fresh seafood is served.
On top of that, the waitress brought us someone else’s sake partway through our meal. We started drinking it and then she came back and asked if if we ordered it. Wow what bad server skills. Then she took the sake away. Seriously?
Very very dissapointed in food and service. So much for redemption. At least I received1000 OpenTable points.

Initial thoughts: Another place that I wanted to try due to a friend’s referral. Seemed like a popular place as I heard several people walk by and mention it. The restaurant itself seemed quite modern. There’s a sushi bar in the corner, another bar by a DJ booth (Note: on certain nights, this place turns into a lounge-​type vibe and has a DJ).
Food: I ordered the tuna tartare salad, my sister and finance ordered shrimp tempura udon, and my brother-​in-​law ordered a few sushi rolls. In my opinion, the tartare was under seasoned and the salad was too oily. The broth for the udon was sweeter than I am use to. Honestly, I was unimpressed with the taste of the food, but everything was presented nicely.
Service: They forgot to put in our order for hamachi, but when asked an order was delivered to our table promptly. It seemed like there was only 1 waitress working when we visited which was around 1 pm in the afternoon. We were the only customers for a while and slowly other tables started to fill up. This meant that our service started out pretty quickly, however ended quite slowly. The waitress was nice enough to bring out a serving of green tea ice cream even though it wasn’t requested b. c it was my fiancé’s birthday. This was noted when we were paying the bill, so I do appreciate that attention to detail.
Overall: Seems like a popular spot that visitors like, but in my opinion not a spot that is a must-​try.

This is a great restaurant! My friend and I walked up and down Santa Row looking for something in between casual and upscale. This place is definitely upscale but my underdressed friend and I had a great experience.
Overall amazing food, good location, fair price and our server Marrissa was wonderful.

FOOD I’ve been here 3 times I think and the food is nothing absolutely memorable or mind blowing. It’s just ok for me. Last time I had a roll and it was so small and small portions of salmon on top. I was still hungry after I ate the whole thing. My friends at least were able to custom order a roll so that was nice at least. Pricey for the small amount you get. But you are in Santana Row so it’s expected for higher prices.
INSIDE is setup where there’s a bar area and standing around area. Then the other half is more restaurant sit down area. Dark ambiance. Modern décor. Loungey club feel inside. People come here at night for some beats and heeeeyyyy have you met my friend?
BATHROOMS are dark and have a club bathroom feel to it.
OVERALL just A OK for me. Food wasn’t anything omg and small portions and pricey. Inside is upscale modern feel at least. Dark though.
Parking is tough because you basically have to park in a parking garage structure or in the back outside parking lot and walk here. Parking can be hard to find especially on weekend nights because you are in Santana Row.

So I was REALLY surprised that on a Friday lunch time — they were NOT crowded at all! Worried me a bit — as it used to be hopping…
In the past I would get their lunch box — I love their ginger pork and sauté chicken. My daughter had the sauté beef and said my chicken was way better — with onions and mushrooms — the chicken had more flavor…
Service was great but the portions seemed to have gotten smaller? And unfortunately we ordered one of their rolls which now I can’t remember what it was but it was small — had too much sauce and wasn’t good at all. I think it was the first time we left food there…
For some reason I remember this place as being so much better. their ginger pork is still awesome as well as their sauté chicken but really not sure if it’s worth going for just that when you have all these other restaurants available to us…
Gave it an extra star because we had a great waitress…

The wait staff were so rude with absolutely no reason, some of the worst service I have ever received. From the moment we walked in (in a fairly large party) they were short and cranky, even when we tried to order more water they acted like that was the most inconvenient thing ever to happen. The gratuity is included but if it wasn’t they would be getting no tip at all.
Also a cucumber roll costs $ 8 and it’s literally a piece of cucumber, just save your money and go somewhere else!

i am currently siting waiting over twenty minutes for some one to say hello and take our order. extremely discriminative towards me and my party save your time and money this place is a joke as the employees prance around with nothing better to do!

This place has the best sushi I have eaten. their garlic edamame is nice and their ultimate spicy tuna is awesome .nice music and ambience too. def visit if you are in Santana row. service could have been a little faster

AVOID at all costs!!!
I’ve never left a Unilocal review before. I made an account just so I could share my experience and spare other people the trouble of wasting time and money at this place.
Literally the worst Japanese place I’ve ever eaten at. Where should I begin?
The food here was atrocious. We got a dinner entrée and a «speciality» roll. The entrée was a $ 25 plate of literally just 5 slices of chicken, some mashed potatoes, and mushroom with a few onions. It was not filling at all. It looked like someone had taken one of those Lean Cuisines microwaveable dinners, heated it up, and dumped them into a small bowl. As for the «speciality» roll, it was just 5 pieces of sushi for $ 18. That’s more than $ 3 per piece for something that just looked like and was the same size as a spicy tuna roll at any other place. There’s nothing special about this roll other than the special kind of ripping off that this place gets away with. We weren’t even that hungry when we entered, and yet, we somehow left way more hungrier than before. We ended up having to go to another place for food because this place was not filling at all.
The drinks here taste terrible too. The «cocktail» drinks here either have too much alcohol or are too watered down. It tastes like you’re either drinking cheap vodka straight from the bottle or sipping on cucumber water, which they already serve you for free…
When we wanted to speak to a manager about our food, a tall blonde lady came over and didn’t even bother to look concerned. She said our sushi was supposed to have 6 pieces, but then later came back and claimed that because it was a «speciality» roll, they only served 5 pieces. At literally any other sushi place, a speciality roll would have at least 6 – 8 pieces. She offered us a 10% discount on the food (which was only like $ 4) and some sort of local loyalty card that we could use «on your next trip back.» As if I’d ever step foot in this place again. By far, the worst customer service I’ve ever experienced — when the manager doesn’t even care or bother to help.
For 2 people, the total ended up being over $ 90 for the smallest meal and worst drinks I’ve ever had at a Japanese restaurant. A complete ripoff and embarrassment to sushi places.
The best part is that later that night, I ended up waking up in the middle of the night and feeling queasy. Yep, that’s right, on top of this whole ordeal, I ended up with food poisoning. No wonder the seafood in the sushi didn’t taste fresh.
To sum it all up, AVOID! …Unless you like getting ripped off, not getting full, and having food poisoning!

Overpriced, overhyped. I’ve had two experiences here. The first time I came with my girlfriends. The food was mediocre and overpriced. We came mostly because of the location but considering Santana row has so many options, this place gets a skip in my book. The second time I came with my parents. It was a weeknight and my mom had made reservations on open table. The host claimed he couldn’t find any reservation. Even when my mother showed him the confirmation he said there were no available tables and the wait would be over an hour. It wasn’t that busy. It felt like discrimination… I hope Santana Row boots them and replaces them with something more worthy of the the Santana hype.

You are wasting your money for nothing. I went with my sister we ordered one of their signature plates with bottled water and edamame and in total was $ 40. Overly priced and the flavored in the sushi didn’t pop out.

The worst sushi at the highest prices in the area. I only eat nigiri, and the fish was pretty bad.
Oyster shooter without alcohol? REALLY???
Sure it looks fancy. But trust me: you can have much, MUCH better sushi for half the price — there are a couple of REALLY nice sushi places close to the Blowfish.

Alyssa, the host, and Sami, the bartender, were awesome last night! They were so friendly and welcoming. We stopped in for my friends birthday and had the best time. It was pretty empty but we appreciated the excellent client service. The food was delicious, the drinks were perfect, and the music on point. Sometimes it’s hard to find great service on Santana row and I was quite impressed last night.

Last night was ASSAULTED by staff after they RIPPED ME OFF.
So at like 1:25am, before last call was announced I ordered a beer and a cocktail, we put them down at the table we were at the whole time — in the far back corner.
Went out for a smoke, came back 10 mins later and they’re gone. Two FULL drinks, gone.
No problem, it happens. I just let the nice lady that served me know and she’ll replace them. She was just about to do it but then hesitated and asked the bartender. What an ass that dude was.
«First time at a bar?! You just put your drink down and walked away? We’re not going to give you anything. SORRY! (Sarcastically).
Anyway I argue some more, so the night manager comes. Argues with me, again they all condescendingly tell me I’m an idiot for expecting two FULL drinks to survive for a 5 minute smoke break.
They wouldn’t give me my money back, so I said fine I’ll just get it back from my credit card company. That pissed him off so he took out 9 dollars from his pocket and gave it to me.
Uhh that covers the beer… But what about the other $ 12 for cocktail? But whatever, I took the $ 9 and left.
After a few minutes they FOLLOWED ME OUTSIDE, surrounded me and started again abusing me telling me I’m a $&@$ing this and that’s and threatening me to «never do this shit again».
We start walking away (I’m with girl) and this tall black lanky fool starts pushing me! His security buddies pulled him off me.
Then confusingly he said he doesn’t even work for them??? Then wtf are you coming out with them and arguing about drinks for?
First you STEAL FROM ME and then you ASSAULT ME?
I will be speaking to the owner, and I will be pressing charges. You fucked with the wrong person. I’ll be there every day until you’re fired (night manager) and you’re arrested (tall lanky non-​employee).

I’d expect more from a restaurant at SoDoSoPa. Way too pricey for the quality… it’s sub par generic American sushi. The sushi rice is fair, roll variety is the same as you’d get anywhere else, sashimi quality is inconsistent, and the waitstaff are friendly enough.
If you want sushi and you can’t make your way to nearby Kenji or Mizu, Blowfish will suit your needs.

Sushi was great and all, but took awhile to get the food. A bit pricey in my opinion, but still good.

Dinner for 2.
— Ambiance (²⁄₅)
Not a fan of the blaring music and the harsh, «modernistic» atmosphere. It’s clearly a nightclub that also serves food, not a restaurant that transforms into a nightclub.
— Service (²⁄₅)
Although the waitress was speedy, she didn’t know much about the menu, having to go back to the kitchen to ask questions several times. Also, at least Blowfish admits that they add unnecessary words to menu items to make them sound more «exotic» — for instance, yuburi sake is just regular salmon.
— Blowfish Maki Roll, $ 13 (²⁄₅)
Decent flavor to the roll, though it was very clunky. Very clear the chef spent very little time making it. Cuts were also way too thick, yielding unwieldy pieces to eat.
— Assorted Nigiri (²⁄₅)
I need to qualify this rating by saying that the fish pieces were actually decent. I had salmon, hamachi belly, otoro, and albacore. However, the sushi rice (if it was really sushi rice) did not taste good, had very strange goopy texture, and was disproportionately large to the cuts of fish. Sashimi might be a better bet here.
— Miso Black Cod Risotto, $ 29 (¹⁄₅)
The worst miso black cod I have ever had. Clearly not marinated long enough, the black cod had almost no trace of miso flavor. The cod also smelled a bit fishy (and I had a tummy ache later that evening). The risotto was also undercooked, likely using cold chicken stock or just simply not stirred enough. Grains were falling apart instead of sticking together, and the grains themselves were not soft. All the flavors were there to make this successful, but in the end, it was just an unmitigated disaster.
— Value (³⁄₅)
Surprisingly reasonable sushi prices.
— Final Word
Blowfish sushi rice sucks. Sashimi might be ok here. Don’t order anything else. Seriously. Yoku nai desu.

Very disappointing sushi and rolls.
Too expensive for the quality.
Not worth the price.

I came into blowfish on a Friday night and was quickly seated. It has a high vibe energetic ambience too it. Very classy and hip. Our server Amy was extremely knowledgeable and competent she recommended a few fishes and an excellent appetizer. We ended up getting the Toro nigiri to try. It was amazzzinggg, but a little on the pricy side (5/​5, 19 $), a special dragon roll (4/​5, $ 18) soo good has a kick of spice, the king NamI (4/​5, $ 15) the to die for (wasn’t really my thing 2/​5, $ 18) and the bonbon bengiets (4/​5, $ 9?) for dessert we had a alotttt of beers and sake to go with it (hey it was Friday night) we also had a round of oysters shots, probably the highlight of the meal for my girlfriend. Our bill came to around $ 120 which I don’t consider bad for a Santana Row restaurant with food and drinks the service was excellent the food was amazing I will definitely be back to try the happy hour (4−7pm everyday if I remember correctly). We left extremely full and had a good buzz.
I don’t know why everyone is complaining about the prices and portions. Other comparable resteraunts on the row are similarly priced and portioned. (Sinos, straits, left bank. Etc) Even off the row I’ve spent about the same amount at sushi resteraunts. Give it a shot u won’t be disappointed.

I can’t attest for the food, but rather for the lively club after 11pm on Fridays and Saturdays.
The music is usually on point — lots of pop, hip hop, R&B classics that are dancing-​friendly; the sake cocktails are quite good (although that might be because they are probably made of just mango juice with mint. I like mango juice and mint.).
The reason I rate this place 4 stars is because of the eccentrically diverse crowd. In the total of the three times I’ve been here, I’ve witnessed the following:
— a guy who wears a bowler hat and tuxedo and dances alone in the middle of the dance floor
— a group of senior citizen ladies who wear church dresses and rap their hearts out to 50 Cent and Nelly
— a guy who wears pants three sizes too large and rocks them while doing the stanky leg
— guys who tell you that they work for Visa and can hook you up with free credit cards. Isn’t any credit card free as long as you don’t use it? I don’t know.
All in all, nice place to catch up with friends and have a good time!

Went here for the first time today and it was really good! I’m kind of surprised the ratings are so low, but we went here for lunch and not the evening bar/​dinner scene, so maybe things change up a bit when the sun goes down. Regardless, lunch seems to be the best time to come here. It wasn’t very crowded, even for a Friday afternoon. I liked the heavy baseline pop music and the dark mood lighting, although I’m sure some people won’t. This is the type of place where, after leaving, you blink a little and say, «Oh, is it still daylight?»
Food-​wise, I was quite pleased. The miso was very savory, and not too watery or salty. I really liked the miso a lot. I had the avocado roll which was also very good, although small. Small works for me – in fact, it’s preferred because I don’t eat much – but for someone looking for bigger portions that could be a problem. Someone else in our party ordered the deep-​fried yam roll, which was on the same vegetarian roll list, so I assumed they would be the same size, but it was quite a bit larger! Significantly so. That was odd. It made me wish that the menu had pictures so you could get an idea of presentation and portion size.
The bento here are HUGE. Easily the biggest, most generously sized bento I have ever seen. This was not a bento BOX. This was a bento STORAGE UNIT. It came with salad, the two bento items, orange roll, pickled daikon, rice with sesame seeds, and some kind of potato mash. (I didn’t order the bento, but this is what I remember there being on it.)
Service here was pretty good. They seemed like they were in a hurry, but they weren’t rude at all (as some reviews have said) and revisited the table several times to refill water glasses and make sure everything was okay. I’m surprised by how many places on Santana Row get dinged for poor service, to be honest. Most of the places I’ve been to so far have been friendly and accommodating, or at least acceptably civil.
In short, Blowfish Sushi is pretty good. I was pleased with the food and the ambiance, and would happily come here again for lunch. :)

This place used to be a cool place to hang out. I’ve literally spent many thousands of dollars here both at the bar and by buying bottle service. Lately the management/​owner there has been really discriminatory to almost being anti-​Asian. I advise all not to go there anymore to show them that this type of treatment is UNACCEPTABLE !
Heard from many others the same thing. Things I over heard such as «there too many Asians in here» from staff. Newsflash: Silicon Valley is a huge Asian population and we have $$$$ and will take our business elsewhere!

Although there is no one here we still get shitty service. How is it that the restaurant is almost empty but it still takes us over 20 mins to get our drinks. On top of that our drinks are water downed to the point where it feels like I’m drinking a water

This is a review just for the bar itself.
This place turns into a bar/​nightclub vibe after 10:30pm. They have a DJ station set up, bottle service and bouncers. The whole bar area is extremely small so this place is for lounging around. We ordered a few drinks that included peach and the bartender said they were out of peach for the night. It was only 9:30pm! It’s a good place to start drinking if you plan to bar hop, but I wouldn’t end my night there.

This place was such a big disappointment. We ordered Ronin and Baked Alaska Roll. The waiter was nice and the service was ok. The Ronin roll was quite tasty, but the Baked Alaska Roll was horrible. It seems to me that either fish or sauce was spoiled. We had to return the dish. When the waiter brought us our bill, he tried to trick us and put higher price for dish than it was. That might be a mistake and I hate being tricked!
My verdict: don’t go to this place unless you want to get poisoned or tricked at the same time.

Seems like most rolls have sriracha on it.
My daughter wondered if the waitresses are cold in their outfits.
Lots of dry ice.
Interesting presentation, nice wasabi flavored fish roe that comes with the oysters.
The music is loud. We had to ask a waiter to turn off the speaker in our room — that helped a lot.
If you’re looking for good sashimi, there are better choices. If you’re trying to recapture your youth and want to drop some bass or whatever it is young people call it nowadays, check this place out.