TOW #12- Blue Fin Restaurant Review

Arguably one of the best Sushi restaurants in the suburban area, Blue Fin is the topic of Craig LaBan’s review.  LaBan, a restaurant critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer, has ventured to many restaurants and gained much experience by doing so.  In order to communicate what he found to be a surprisingly decent restaurant, LaBan compared Blue Fin to other restaurants and described his personal experiences.

            LaBan begins with review by describing his visual first impression as he entered the restaurant. Noting the bland appearance on both the outside and inside, the audience gets the feeling of a bland unimpressed mood. Describing the constant social scene as a surprise, a sense of confusion is gathered. By describing his first impressions, LaBan foreshadows the fact that although this restaurant may seem unimpressive, the reality may be much different. Transitioning into the food itself, LaBan describes his own opinion of each dish on the menu in order to give his audience a sense of the variety of both quality and type of food available. For example, LaBan describes the Marlee role as, “named for two customers, is a superb combination of tobiko-topped tuna around a core of spicy yellowtail and crunchy tempura flakes.” Here, he describes the quality and origin in one dish to an audience that will be somewhat knowledgeable about sushi so that they are amply able to understand all of the descriptions of dishes.

            The audience will have likely visited a multitude of Sushi restaurants. Taking this into account, LaBan draws comparisons to other popular and high-quality sushi restaurants to give readers a sense of where Blue Fin stands. He acknowledges the slight similarities to one of the most well renowned Sushi restaurants in Philadelphia as he says, “If Morimoto ever does come to mind (and Zagat's blurb invokes the connection), that's probably because many of Bluefin's best items were inspired almost directly, Kim says, by cookbook recipes from Nobu, where Morimoto once worked.” By using this comparison, LaBan points out that while Blue Fin is better then expected, it does not deserve elite status.

            Through his review, LaBan successfully conveys his surprisingly favorable opinion of the suburban Blue Fin, yet does acknowledge the lower then elite position in comparison to other restaurants. 

Original Blue Fin Review

Blue Fin Restaurant
http://articles.philly.com/2012-03-08/food/31136025_1_chef-craft-beers-le-bec-fin