One of the sleekest and most visually appealing rooms in the neighborhood, Blu Coral wants you to believe it’s something special. Behind the cobalt blue and cherry red dazzle a higher degree of quality is supposed to inhere. Yes, it’s eye candy but it’s all about substance. At least that’s what our waiter wanted us to believe when he explained that the maki portions were half of what they are at a typical sushi restaurant because the preparation is superior. Each, he implied, was to be a miniature work of art.
My skepticism was raised when I noticed that the menu not only wandered off the sushi map in search of broader appeal, it wandered off the Asian food map, incongruously offering New York strip steak, Chilean sea bass, chicken and bulgogi. Broader rarely equates with deeper and a restaurant so transparently striving to appease every taste suggests an establishment keener to pay down start up costs than one looking to make a particular cuisine extremely well. Add in Blu Coral’s obviously high start up costs (the décor is eye-poppingly sexy) and the fact that we were being forewarned about high priced small portions, and my bullshit antenna was quivering.
What we got, however, was not disappointing. The maki was certainly creative, and there was a lot of it to choose from, flamboyant elaborations aplenty in which the rolls acted as platforms on which to amplify the textures and flavors. Most of those embellishments seemed to be heaped on top of the rolls, like a woman’s Easter hat garnished with all manner of feathers and lace, forcing us to nibble around the edges and making it hard to appreciate the full chorus of flavors.
Maybe if we could pop the whole thing into our mouths all at once it would just sing, but when you dive into rolls like the Blu Coral Maki, there’s just too much to jam into your mouth. This one little ol' roll consists of lightly battered spicy tuna and cream cheese with avocado, asparagus, shrimp, wasabi tobiko and tempura crunch wrapped with soybean sheet and drizzled with creamy wasabi and unagi sauce.
I'm sure they have other rolls here that aren't so wildly embellished. Perhaps it was just the ones that we happened to choose that relied so heavily on exterior gloss, but looking at the décor, all icy blue glass, red plastic and flaring spangles of starry light, it was easy to believe that dazzle was the name of the game.
Still, superficiality can be done well, and Blu Coral does it as well as any place I’ve ever been. The maki is good, if not always sublime, and the ambiance is eye-popping without ever being cheap or tawdry. On the contrary, the surface appeal has real substance. If you like the icing, you can learn to love the cake.
When you go to Blu Coral prepare to be dazzled, even if you are not blown away.
Blu Coral
1265 N. Milwaukee
773-252-2020 / Reservations Accepted
Hours: M-Th 5pm-1am; F-Sa 5pm-2am; Su 5pm-10pm
Vibe: Lounge
Features: Late Kitchen, Carryout, Delivery
Avg price of a meal for two including drinks and tax $110
Website: www.blucoralchicago.com
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