Christchurch: Bluefish Restaurant

Bluefish Restaurant

Address: 111 Worcester Street,
Christchurch
REGION: Canterbury
PHONE: 03-377 2404

OPENING HOURS:

Monday to Saturday – noon til late (ideally before 8pm to get good dishes)
Sunday closed

Seeing the sushi train through the window, it tempted me to try this place out. Never really a big fan of Christchurch Japanese food (good Japanese food is hard to come by!), and wanting to introduce “Sushi Train” to my partner, who’s never experienced it before, I thought then was a good time.

The place is cosy, very long (sharp triangular shaped) and the “train” worked well in the environment. We were greeted immediately at the door, and were taken to our seats. Once seated, we could practically start eating! That’s the beauty of sushi train, no waiting to be served, just sit down, see what you like and grab it.

There really were at least 30 varieties on the belt at one time, everything’s different, and not many repeats. It’s a great place for anyone who loves sashimi (raw fish), as their sashimi is very fresh and sweet. There’s also dessert, which can be the traditional coffee tiramisu, or if you are a little more adventurous, the green tea tiramisu. What I notice about their food, apart from the freshness, is that when you see a hot dish (such as fried dishes), you can actually pick them off the belt, put it in your mouth and it’s still warm! I hate it when you see fried dishes, and when you pick it up it’s already cold. The presentation is beautiful, and carefully covered with a transparent cover to prevent dust etc. from getting onto the dishes.

The dishes are colour-coded, starting from the cheapest $2.80 (yellow), to $6.40 (blue)- do watch what you get, the yellow ones really are quite boring and a stack of blue dishes can pile up to a pretty heavty bill!

They have several menus, one for the sushi train (so you know what you’ve just taken off the belt is actually blackfish eggs, and not some unknown black pebbles), which you can also use to order – the chef is happy to make the dishes for you, and they do make it quite promptly.

The second menu is A la carte, and the prices range from $9 to $25-ish, which has the typical Tonkatsu (fried pork on rice), Udon (Japanese noodles, in soup or stir-fried), popular Teriyaki Chicken (or other meat) and sushi sets, just to name a few.

The third menu is the drink menu, and you can always choose from European wine, kiwi-style beer, or Japanese style sake, shoju and plum wine (great choice for the ladies – do let me know if you prefer the Japanese plum wine or the Korean plum wine, as they offer both!). Of course, there are non-alcoholic drinks too, at typical restaurant prices.

I highly recommend their teriyaki salmon (pictured, left) and um..this extravagant Salmon sushi thingy (also pictured, right).

For people who are not very keen on sashimi, they also have calamari, fried chicken nibbles (lovely flavour!), tempura prawn (battered fried prawn), and lots of other fried dishes to tempt you!

By far the best sushi train I’ve had in Christchurch, and even having dined at several places in Wellington, Bluefish is still the best in my opinion!
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