Blue Fin

FoxyLady informed me it was our good friend BermudaBabe's birthday. We hadn't seen her in a long time and decided it was a perfect excuse to get together and catch up on the latest in all our lives. The original intention was to just get drinks, but if you keep reading you'll see where those "drinks" took us...

I had it in my head that I wanted to go to a rooftop bar (by now you know the drill) so we started at Pinnacle at the Hilton on 42nd. I know you're thinking, "What's the deal with Mona and midtown?" It's where I work and it's convenient. I know there are so many more exciting places to try, but on a school night it's easier for me to get home to the upper upper west side from midtown than it is from downtown.

The way Pinnacle Bar was described on a website (that I can't re-find) was completely off. It sounded like one of the coolest rooftop bars in the city. When we got there I kept thinking, this is it? I guess after 230 Fifth I'm spoiled. The bar is located in the lobby of the Times Square Hilton, about 20 floors up, and it's right off an enormous window that looks out over midtown. I guess I had an open-air rooftop bar in mind and it wasn't really fitting the bill. I gave a small sigh of disappointment, but my girls were good sports and decided to stay and drink up. The server brought us the wine list and moments later a bottle of what we thought was extremely reasonable wine. A bottle of white for 18 bucks? Bring it on! You can't go wrong with that -roof bar or not! Sadly, our dreams were shattered when it came to the table as a half-bottle. What a tease. Did our waitress think three young professional women were going to have a sufficiency with a half-bottle?

Several plastic canisters of their salty mix and two full bottles of wine later, we decided to migrate. We were bored with the lobby scene of big families checking in in the bus-loads. We needed some excitement.

We took the elevator downstairs and braved it through the hordes of Times Square, with a little help from a small wine buzz. After some very hazy decision-making, we walked into the W Hotel's Blue Fin. I've seen it several times but it never dawned on me to actually eat there. (And I can't even play the snobby card. I admit I've eaten at the Olive Garden in Times Square with my girl Fashionista. She had a gift certificate so we went for their soup and salad combo one day.)

Blue Fin is yet another B.R. Guest success story. The Executive Chef of Blue Fin is Eric Woods and the designer of the restaurant is Yabu Pushelberg. I hadn't heard of either until now. The interior of Blue Fin felt similar to that of Morimoto. They both feel like odes to water. Everything from the chairs to the lights, to the plates to the staircases had soft edges like it had been worn down like rocks in the sand. And the paneling on the walls was layered like the ridges of sea shells and layers in the sand. We sat down and the three of us were in awe of this newly discovered gem smack dab in the middle of Times Square.

We glanced at the menu after ordering another bottle of wine and picked the following: spicy tuna with a sweet Thai chili sauce, sesame shrimp in a curry sauce, BBQ freshwater eel and dragon roll, sake seared salmon and cucumber roll, fresh crabmeat California roll, and last but not least the big eye tuna with mustard miso.

Here's the generous platter fit for three kings (or in this case queens), courtesy of FoxyLady's fabulous camera.


The sushi was surprisingly crisp and fresh and brought us to smiles with each bite. The fish was tender in each roll and each different roll complimented each other. We were proud with our selections. My favorite part was each had its own distinct dipping sauce. I love sauces so that was a treat for me. The sweet Thai chili sauce was the highlight. I think I was mixing and matching everything with that towards the end.

Server who notices three girls getting drunk at table 52: "Would you like another bottle of wine?"

After some shrugging, doubtful eye-popping looks at each other, we blurted in unison: "Yah!! What the heck?! Bring us another Mister!"

Server to his friends: "Bring 'em another bottle boys. Pretty soon they'll be dancing for sushi."

In comes fourth bottle of wine and out goes most rational thought.

Before things really get ugly, here's dessert - S'mores cake, or chocolate cake layered with chocolate mousse, a marshmallow icing, and graham cracker ice cream. It was ridiculous after four bottles of wine, imagine what it tasted like sober.


I know you're on the edge of your seats to hear what happened the rest of the night. Let's just say we ended up at a bar we frequent after work, we were the party, and we probably should have called it a night after dinner. But, we only live once, and BermudaBabe only turns 27 once. I just told FoxyLady, it's time for another Blue Fin night.

1567 Broadway
at 47th St.
212-918-1400