Blue Ribbon Sushi at Columbus Circle

One of my nights in the Big Apple, I dine with my colleagues at the newest addition to the Blue Ribbon restaurant group - Blue Ribbon Sushi in the Thompson Hotel at Columbus Circle.  The restaurant is very subtle and minimal and reminds me of a sauna as the restaurant is a series of windowless rooms with pale wood everywhere you look.  However it's a big space, with about 115 seats divided up into 3 basic areas including the front bar, main room and sushi bar.  It’s the biggest of the five Blue Ribbon restaurants.  There is an extensive menu that serves cooked/grill as well as raw foods and I was very excited to try a mixture of both.

We had some unbelievable appetizers such as the Kanpachi (yellow tail) with yuzu pepper- it was fresh and melted in your mouth. The marinade and pickly pepper flavour mixed well and were great compliments to each other.

We tried the toro takaki (fatty tuna belly) served with a quail egg - this was delicious and so fresh and when you mixed the egg yolk - the dish came together.

Other notable dishes was the spicy tuna maki roll- it came with tempura flakes mashed inside and not the mayonaise spicy sauce drizzled on top but the tuna was actually marinated before and made spicy from the internal sauce.  These rolls went so fast that we needed to order another round of them!

The sashimi plate was very fresh and we enjoyed all the cuts of fish especially because there were a few offerings that were atypical like Spanish Mackerel.  

One other dish that made the entire table very happy was the miso marinated black cod- cooked to perfection where it was tender and sweet and flavourful with the miso paste.  

For dessert we ordered the ginger bread pudding (served warm with ginger ice cream and butterscotch) and it was outstanding!  We dug right into the gooziness and zing with the ginger integrated in there!



It was a great time for all to be had and good food but personally I may not be inclined to pay that much for a decent Japanese meal again.  One thing to note is they absolutely don't make their sushi with brown rice which was a request from our table that they couldn't accommodate.


*** 1/2 stars
Blue Ribbon Sushi - 6 Columbus (308 W 58th St) - Upper West Side
(between 8th Ave & 9th Ave)