It's late Thursday night and the room is packed at Blowfish, the nearly-unmarked King West restaurant that has set the tone for the area's self-conscious commercialism. Cruising club cougars sip $9.50 Nishibi Martinis while a downtown crowd in the dining room, their faces aglow in the active lighting, picks over portions of seared octopus and architectural towers of Albacore tuna.

The Blowfish Restaurant, the latest entry to open in Toronto's booming King West area, suits the neighbourhood nicely. Flashy on the inside, painfully nondescript on the outside - an out-of-towner could walk down trendy King West and be completely unaware of anything remotely hip going down within those buildings.

Sushi restaurants are more popular than ever right now. This has been great for the bottom line at all of the best local sushi and sashimi spots, but it has led to a new sort of problem: all too often, these restaurants are greeting their crowds with slapdash creations that are more about clearing the sushi chef's ticket window than creating art. Blowfish, however, remains utterly dedicated to creativity and artfulness, as expressed through fish (yep).

The menu features gourmet tapas style dishes like Beef Tataki (in a spicy ponzu sauce) and black cod (in miso marinade). We started with an appetizer of Caprese-style Tofu Salad ($7), garnished with slices of tangy tomatoes, onion, and black olive. The crab spring roll ($10) features tender, snow crab and summer vegetables all wrapped up in a tidy rice paper.

Entrées range from the most delicate sashimi to heartier comfort food. In the latter category is a luscious Peking duck breast, so tender the meat pulls free at the fork's first suggestion. In the former group is a vast array listed on a menu of its own: Hamachi (yellowtail), Sake (salmon) and Ebi (Tiger Shrimp).