Eatery — Union of sushi, seafood

Read the original article at the Daily Breeze.

It's one of the great oddities of the culinary pecking order that sushi bars are not perceived as seafood restaurants - and it's the rare seafood restaurant that offers a sushi bar.

In the Zagat Restaurant Survey (of which I'm the longtime L.A. Editor), seafood is found under one listing and sushi under another.

Apparently, when fish is served raw, it falls into an alternative universe, a different world of taste and texture and meaning within the culinary sphere. Or maybe, it's just a matter of people who go out for sushi wanting sushi, without a hunk of salmon roasted on a cedar plank being consumed a few seats away.

So, it's an act of serious courage for the folks at Bluewater Grill in Redondo Beach to fly in the face of what seems to be conventional wisdom. Bluewater now offers a sushi bar, where fish is sliced at dinnertime, Wednesday through Sunday.

And to do sushi (and sashimi, and sushi rolls, and various small dishes), the establishment brought in sushi veteran Akihiko Noro, who's unsheathed his knives in the past at Japanese hot spots such as Sushi Gen in Little Tokyo, Onyx at the Four Seasons Hotel Westlake Village and, most recently, at Sashi in Manhattan Beach.

He's clearly a man who knows his tuna. And at the sushi bar at Bluewater, he puts on a calm, even soothing demonstration; this is not a sushi chef who tosses soy beans through the air.

I would be remiss if I didn't note that this may be the most view-intensive sushi bar in town. Only the sushi bar at The Hump, at Santa Monica Airport, comes close (though the view there - of corporate Lears and Gulfstreams taking off and landing - is hardly meditative.)

By contrast, the view from the sushi bar at Bluewater is of sailboats rocking gently in the breeze, and of deep blue water beyond. With a nice cold sake in hand, it's easy to get lost in the ebb and flow of the tide and the ships. It's easy to sit there long after you've consumed your very last grain of rice.

And speaking of sake, the selection is on display at the sushi bar, in a sort of ice trough where you can admire frigid bottles of sakes with poetic names such as "Beautiful Lily," "10,000 Ways," "Living Jewel," "Well of Wisdom" and "Snow Maiden." They're served in white wine glasses (not thimbles), and they go down ever so easily. (Beware, for they also sneak up on you.)

There's also draft Kirin "Ichiban" should you want to take a break from the understated elegance of sake. I find a sake first and a beer second is the perfect combination. As long as there's some food in there as well.

In the case of the sushi menu at Bluewater, you have a choice of going simple and classic, or exotic and a bit wild-eyed.

If you want the basics, chef Noro will slash and slice fine orders of ahi, albacore, salmon, eel, yellowtail, shrimp and more for you. He does an impressively elegant sashimi combination of ahi, salmon and yellowtail.

If you want to move it up a notch, try the lightly marinated albacore with a topping of crispy onions, the ahi poke, or the yellowtail ceviche with jalapenos.

And if you want to really see what Noro can do, go for the rolls, both regulation - California roll made with Atlantic red crab, spicy tuna roll and spicy albacore roll - and house quirky. My favorite quirky is probably the Stealth Roll, so named because (as the menu notes) it "sneaks up on you" - a complex combo of ahi, cilantro and jalapeno in the middle, with shrimp and avocado as a wrapper. It's a large construct, and it's hard not to finish every bite.

There's also a Bluewater Roll, made of seared ahi flavored with Cajun spices, wrapped around tempura shrimp, crab and avocado; a Rainbow Roll, a California Roll turned kaleidoscopic with ahi, salmon and albacore as a wrapper; and a Spider Roll of tempura softshell crab and cucumber.

All tasty stuff, either as the meal itself, or as a warm-up for a meal cobbled together from the regular menu - which remains as appealing as ever.

It's tough to go to Bluewater without ordering the hot crab and artichoke dip, one of those dishes you intend to just take a bite of and wind up blindly finishing every last morsel. The steamed Manila clams in white wine, garlic and butter are always a hit, as are the Thai black mussels (in coconut milk and green Thai curry sauce).

There's happiness as well to be found in the Seafood Platter (referred to as "Fruits de Mer," an unexpected Gallicism on what's a very downhome menu) - half a dozen raw oysters, four Cherrystones, four sea scallops topped with citrusy ponzu sauce, four wild prawns and a half-pound of Alaskan king crab legs. It costs $39.95, and it's worth it.

There's a sashimi threesome as well - ahi tuna, ahi poke (chopped and marinated in the Hawaiian style) and those ponzu scallops topped with wasabi-flavored aioli.

There's also an appetizer of fish, smoked over alder and oak wood. I don't know what it is about smoked fish that makes me go weak in the knees. But put a plate of smoked fish in front of me and I lose all sense of time and place.

I'm rather nuts for oyster shooters, as well, especially those made with a shot of Absolut Peppar Vodka, the style at Bluewater - a real wake-me-up on several levels. There are oysters Rockefeller, too, prepared in this case with creamed spinach (rather than watercress, a worthy change, for watercress has a minimal flavor, though it is a pretty color).

There's a wide selection of fresh fish, all of which can be blackened or bronzed, made cajun-style or with teriyaki sauce. King salmon is roasted on a cedar plank.

There's even a cheeseburger, though just to make sure the roots of the restaurant aren't forgotten, there's also fish 'n chips; an old-style Fisherman's Platter of shrimp, scallops and fish; and much-loved (and sought-after) Ipswich clam bellies. And no, they're not served on rice at the sushi bar.

 

Merrill Shindler is a freelance restaurant critic. His show, "Feed Your Face," can be heard from 7 to 8 p.m. Sundays on KABC (790 AM).