Boston Market, Columbus

Fingers scroll across tabletop iPads, zooming in on photos of rolls, noodles, and the rest of Aoi Blue Bar's menu. Rolls brimming with scallops, tuna, and cucumbers slip past in the images, and udon noodles swirl around vegetables, tofu, and beef. Behind a nearby stone-topped sushi bar, decorative wooden fans sprawl over a parsley-hedged display case full of fillets, shrimp tails, and avocado halves awaiting sushi knives on a bed of ice. International influences infiltrate the primarily Japanese menu in the form of kimchi and handmade lamb meatballs. Aoi periodically invites DJs to fill the dining room with thrumming beats and lively lights, which turn diners to dancing after their meals and let visiting disco balls fit in.