Reading the Fish Bones

Joe Rocco

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The Blue Fish

110 E. Atlantic Ave.
Delray Beach, FL 33444

Category: Restaurant > Asian Fusion

Region: Delray Beach

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The Blue Fish, 110 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach. Open daily 11 a.m. till 11 p.m. Call 561-330-3474.

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More About

• Dallas (Texas)
• Tyra Banks
• Delray Beach
• Seafood
• Japanese Food and Cooking

Unconventional is the operative way to go here. The carcass of our whole aji, picked clean of meat, was taken away, flash-fried, and returned to our table so we could snack on the salty, crunchy bones, head, and tail. Here was a new experience for me, made all the more surreal because we'd already finished dessert when the bones arrived. Our "wonton berry tower" ($9.50) had been wanton indeed — a chin-high pile of ice cream and sugared rice skins. Delicious, but not exactly the sort of amuse bouche ideal to proceed a flash-fried mackerel skeleton. Our service was sweet — but who'd think to bring fish bones to the table after the ice cream?

Blue Fish is not a perfect restaurant. It can be good if you order carefully and pay attention to the specials, or bad. A Mexican martini was yucky — some absolutely undrinkable mixture of tequila and, like, I don't know... powdered margarita mix? I told my waiter I hated it, and he brought me something much better, a Strawberry Geisha made with sake and crushed berries. But I still had to pay $12; the cocktails are not exactly a bargain. And I'd advise anybody who cares about fish to skip the specialty rolls entirely. Aren't we just bored to death with cream cheese, spicy mayo, avocado, endangered tuna, and crappy farmed salmon? My working hypothesis is that the worst scraps go into rolls in sushi bars: Anybody who wants salmon and cream cheese ought to get herself down to the Jewish deli and stay out of Japanese restaurants. There's something so mid-'90s about these concoctions of asparagus and crab stick, volcano rolls smothered in cream. Diners might help restaurants like this along by ordering only seafood that can be brought to the table without bulldozing coral reefs, poisoning South Asian villages, and loading our bodies full of toxins and heavy metals. Blue Fish should do itself, and its customers, a favor and swim bravely forward into the 21st Century. The fact is, fish that's good for the world just tastes better anyway.