Tucson's Bluepoint is pricey but well worth it

And when those entrees cost at least $20, it's fair to have high expectations. We're happy to report that Bluepoint Kitchen & Bar is mostly spectacular.

One of four locations nationally, the Bluepoint at La Encantada shopping center opened in 2003. It's elegant but not stuffy, with lots of light woods and comfy half-moon booths that make it groovy for a date night or a dinner with friends.

Although the menu includes steaks and a grilled chicken breast, seafood is the point at Bluepoint.

What makes the Foothills restaurant great can be found in two deceptively simple dishes: the seafood mac and cheese ($24) and the sesame-crusted tuna ($25), both of which sound straightforward enough.

The seafood mac and cheese is described as coming with "mascarpone cream sauce, shrimp, scallops, lobster, Creole spices." But words can't do it justice. Yes, it costs $24, but it's enough for two meals, easy. It's one of those pasta dishes where you swear you've been eating for 20 minutes and it still looks like you haven't made a dent.

The sauce is light, with a tangy note from the mascarpone cheese, which is like a thick, super rich cream cheese with an extra bite (it's traditionally used in the Italian dessert tiramisu). The seafood is generous with shrimp, slices of scallops and bites of lobster tucked among the cavatappi "corkscrew" pasta. It's served with a crispy breadcrumb topping that balances the lusciousness of the cream sauce and seafood.

The sesame-crusted tuna is two generously cut steaks encased in white and black sesame seeds and served with sautéed spinach, mushrooms and white rice with a drizzle of ginger soy butter sauce.

The sesames created a nutty, crunchy layer around the sashimi-grade tuna, which is seared and rare inside. Fresh tuna is best served almost raw like this. It turns gray, kind of tough and really unappetizing when it's fully cooked, and this dish is too good to mess with.

Our only complaint was there wasn't enough of the silky ginger soy butter sauce to go around. We found ourselves rationing the sauce so it would last to the last bite.

The twin lobster tail dinner (offered at market price, which means the price fluctuates daily — we paid $45) comes with a side dish. Unfortunately, we chose the mixed vegetables — a lackluster combo of carrots and red onions. But some roasted asparagus spears that also came with the dinner partially made up for it.

Any side dish, however, would be overshadowed by those two enormous lobster tails. They were cooked perfectly, allowing the sweet lobster flavor to come through, and served with clarified butter for dipping.

The crab cakes we ordered as an appetizer ($13 as a starter, $19 as an entree) were rich with crab meat and crisp on the outside but moist on the inside. The slightly spicy remoulade sauce was the perfect partner. The Mississippi oysters ($11) were fresh, encased in a thin, crispy crust and fried.

There were a couple of dishes that didn't pass the better-than-at-home test. The best thing about the coconut shrimp appetizer ($11) was the sweet and sour sauce — the battered shrimp were fried so brown that it was hard to detect any coconut flavor, much less the shrimp.

The horseradish-crusted salmon ($20) was a big disappointment. The portion was generous, but the crust was more like a blob of wet breadcrumbs blooped onto the salmon fillet with nary a bite of horseradish. The crust was too buttery — it turned the dish oily and didn't pair well with the naturally oily salmon. We ordered our salmon done medium and were assured that all the fish was cooked to medium unless ordered otherwise — well, it wasn't. The salmon was moist, no doubt about it, but well-done.

Bluepoint offers several types of fish with a choice of sauces, such as the ginger soy butter sauce or a tequila lime sauce. Perhaps such a pairing with the salmon would have been a better choice.

The service was good, as you would expect in a pricey place, but not hovering. We had to wait awhile for someone to notice that we were in need of iced-tea refills — a minor complaint, but again, when you're paying the big bucks, you shouldn't have to wave someone down.

The desserts were hit-and-miss. We ordered the ice cream mud pie ($7.95) — described by our server as "gargantuan" and he wasn't lying. The glacier-size mound of coffee ice cream on a dense chocolate crust could have easily fed the table — advice we would have appreciated before everyone else ordered their own desserts. This, too, made it into a doggie bag and lasted another three servings.

The crème brûlée ($7.95) was smooth, silky and vanillalike but the layer of burnt sugar — the brûlée — was so thick it became like stained glass instead of a thin caramely crunch.

The key lime pie ($6.95), however, was a hit. The graham-cracker crust was moist but not oily, and the layers of lime-spiked creaminess were heavenly. It's served with a tart lime syrup that adds just the right tart note to cut through the smooth pie.

Bluepoint Kitchen & Bar is a splurge. But if you go in knowing you're going to spend some big bucks, and if you choose wisely, it's worth it.

Restaurant review

Tucson restaurant review: BLUEPOINT KITCHEN & BAR

2905 E. Skyline Drive, in La Encantada shopping center. 577-6000.

• Hours: 11a.m.-10 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays; 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays.

• Prices: Entrees range from $9 for a burger to mid-$20s for most fish dishes. Lobster and crab are market price, which varies day by day.

• Family call: Not really a kids kind of place. Better to get a sitter and treat it as a special night out.

• Vegetarian choices: The menu will make pescatarians (veg-lovers who eat fish) happy, but this isn't a place for real vegetarians.

• Reservations: Recommended, especially for Fridays and Saturdays.