Ottawa Foodies

4

Tried this place last Friday night. Overall, I really enjoyed it. The quality was higher than the other two near-by AYCE sushi places. It just seemed that the food was prepared with more care. Sashimi was definitely higher quality. The photo attached is the Samurai roll - made without seaweed. I thought it was very creative and looked pretty but I wouldn't order again just because the ratio of rice to toppings was way too high.

Tried a few of the item's that FF tried. I really enjoyed those vinegar shrimp, kind of addictive! But I thought the crystal shrimp were just boring and overcooked. It was nice to see taro tempura on the menu, but the tempura batter, like mentioned before, was a bit too thick and heavy.

The service was slow, which was surprising because the restaurant was only about 1/4 full. However, everything seemed to be prepared well so I didn't mind waiting. Very welcoming and pleasant waiting staff. Will go back there for my next AYCE sushi fix.

6

Tried this new place on Saturday evening. Service was super friendly and pleasant. The food was a mixed bag.

* Salads (Green, Avocado, Seafood) all had the same sickly sweet mango dressing instead of the nice ginger dressing we've had elsewhere.
* Sushi and sashimi were tasty and well-formed. Definitely above average!
* Fried dishes (i.e. tempura) were greasier than other places, with a heavier breading.
* Stir-fry dishes (we had Fried Udon Seafood), had nice wok flavour and were very good!
* Teriyaki BBQ Salmon Neck was huge and very good, although sweeter than usual. Awesome if you love fatty, crispy, salmon like I do.
* Crystal Shrimp were really nice. Worth trying if you are a shrimperor!
* Vinegar Shrimp (sashimi) were interesting -- tiny vinegar-marinated shrimp, with a fun chewiness and mild flavour. (See bottom left of the pic.)

The "Premium Rolls" (e.g. Green Dragon) all come with a too-sweet sauce drizzled on them (see pic). For me, it spoils the sushi experience.

So skip the salads and premium sushi rolls if you don't like your food very sweet. Skip the fried stuff. Go for the regular sushi, the stir fries, and the little gems you won't find elsewhere. Including the Coconut Ice Cream, which had actual pieces of coconut in it!

14

3

I have never written a review for a restourant before but because a friend of ours decided not to come to this restourant because of the two reviews I made it my goal to sign up and give an honest review. So here goes: the styling of this place is more like a nightclub then a restourant the booths are red / pinkish leather and there are huge chandeliers above, but there is normal booths along the windows aswell if you don't want to feel like your on the set of scarface. As for the food, we got everything we ordered within about 15 mins which is not bad given the amount of food we ordered. There is also a buffet with pre cooked stuff on the side so you have something to munch on while you wait on your order (all inclusive in one price). Everything that we ordered pre cooked tasted good. The uncooked meat for the table BBQ however is un-seasoned raw meat but they bring you different sauces to experiment with, so make sure you use lots of the sauce or else the meat will taste kind of plain. Overall the selection variety is very good, the food tasted great (if you prepare it right) and I would recommend this place to others, but not too often, because it is all you can eat and that might cause problems in the long run :p

3

2

None of the All u can eat Sushi places are authentic Japanese. They are usually owned and operated by Chinese folks capitalizing on the buffet market. For this reason, I general take a pass on a sushi buffet. The real reason I take a pass though is the incredibly crappy service at most places. I can't imagine anyone asking you to consume everything on your plate or else! This place tried to charge me for a horrible tasting sushi roll that I refused to eat. I told them flat out that I refuse to pay extra and if they pushed, I would flat out refuse to pay anything.

Don't stand for this terrible service at these all u can eat sushi joints. For the most part, the food is a rip off and the service is terrible. You can make your own sushi at home.

4

I've been here twice now (would've been 3 times but the line up was too long last time i tried).

The first time I ate there was just a few days after opening. The first thing that I noticed was the decor: wide open, very simple and clean and purple! The next thing I noticed were the huge picture menus which really help when deciding what to order, however some things that I ordered didn't really look like the picture. The food was very good, everything seemed very fresh. I tried some items that I had given up on at other sushi places, and it felt like I was eating them for the first time. The rolls were good, although I am not the biggest fan of the special rolls with all that heavy mayo, cream cheese and sauces. The BBQ mackerel was actually a whole mackerel pike, and it was delicious. Tempura was good, although kind of greasy. The free ice cream was a good finish. After my first trip, I thought the quality was better than other AYCE sushi places in the area.

The second time I already noticed things weren't as good as the first time. Perhaps the first visit is always better, or things just weren't as fresh a few weeks after the opening. The BBQ mackerel was now a mackerel steak, which was still good but not as good as the pike. The fish didn't taste as fresh as the first time, the tempura was still a bit greasy, but overall I thought it was now on par with other AYCE sushi places around.

All in all, 168 sushi is a good addition to the growing number of AYCE sushi restaurants in this area. I will definitely be going back, however I will also be going back to Sushi Kan and 1000 Sushi Islands once in a while because I like variation and they all have their unique athmosphere and menu items.

Oh yeah, and I love the big bowl of genuine Jelly Belly's at the check-out counter!

3

As much as I am irked by fake reviews, I can offer this information -

I have not been to 168 and I know nothing of the owners, but I live about a block away and have NEVER seen the parking lot so busy. At all hours that the restaurant is open. The place does look like it's always hopping, and my husband and I were thinking of trying it out.

3

2

The initial review was certainly over the top and appears to have been written by a young woman who has the hots for the manager. I talked with him on Saturday and he told me that the place has been so busy during its first month that the inexperienced staff has made some mistakes. I live in Brampton and am a friend of the owners, so I am obviously biased. I know their writing style in English and know they did not write that review. The place has been so busy (without any advertising) that they have to be doing something right So far, I have seen only 1 negative review and it was probably earned due to poor service received by a customer. Try the restaurant! You might just like it.

3

Wow... warmth AND elegance... refreshing AND visually delightful...

They could at least pretend to try to make the fake review look less fake.

17

PROBABILITY THAT YOU ARE THE MANAGER: 1.0

:-)

I keep coming back to 1000 Sushi Islands b/c I LOVE their Mango Shrimp Tempura and Dynamite Rolls, but in the last 2 months I've been sick twice immediately after eating there. Other people have expressed the same experience to me before, but I attributed it to them overeating rather than the freshness of the ingredients. Sadly, I find myself personally confirming this after my meal yesterday.

I've never been to Hockey Sushi so I'll give them a shot next time (understanding they are under the same ownership), again because I find 1000 Island's rolls to be some of the best I've had in Ottawa, but for me the Carling location is now a no-go.

Fried dumplings.
Hot and crispy!

1

I have gone here several times and enjoyed it each time. Nice quality sushi. All you can eat specials with tempura, soup and other treats included. Try the little meat and onion rolls!
Reasonably good and fast service. Parking can be tricky though. One annoyance is they ONLY take credit cards or cash.
Be careful when you order as some items are single piece and others are 6 per order... which can have you wind up eating a LOT of the same items if you don't read carefully.

Nice little place with a few interesting rolls you will only find here.

while not completely on par with other sushi restaurants AYCE it is still very decent and very good.

Service can be a tad bit slow.

I understand that they have a full line up of drafts. When you went they were still waiting on deliveries from their beer suppliers as they had a new liquor license.

That's weird.
I went on Aug21st, and they didn't have anything on tap. well they had one, I can't remember, but it definately wasn't Saporo or Magners, since I am a big fan of both. I also have not seen Magners on tap anywhere so I also wanted to try it, but they didn't have it...

Were they lying to me? :(

4

Having tried many of the popular ayce sushi places around the city, I can unreservedly say this is the best I've seen. The restaurant is clean and comfortable, the staff are attentive and eager to please, and--most importantly--the food was consistently executed very well. The selection is above average compared with other ayce places, but the freshness and taste is on par with even the finer traditional/'proper' sushi restaurants around. In fact, the salmon sashimi--a benchmark we use among all sushi restaurants--was the best we've tasted this side of the Rockies. Furthermore, the fried items--another benchmark we use to compare ayce establishments in particular--were properly cooked: the tempura was perfectly light and crunchy without a hint of excess oil, and the sushi pizza sported a crunchy crust with unspoiled rice inside. (Any restaurant can deep-fry something, but it takes skill and discipline to use good, clean oil at the right temperature--it shows at Sawa.)
Another pleasant surprise was the bar. In addition to the usual beers, on draught included Sapporo, Hop City, and Magners cider. (The Magners got me particularly excited because it's hard to find it on draught around here.) After supper, the owner, Jack, invited us to sample some of the beers we hadn't tried before. He had a good chat with us, and he seems like an earnest guy who's working hard to deliver a quality product.
In its early days, Sawa already has the marks of top-quality. If it can maintain this momentum, it will arguably be one of the top dining destinations in Orleans. If you have a taste for sushi, and even swear by another restaurant, it's worth your time to try this place out.

Hello there,

To keep it simple, this is the worst AYCE sushi I've tried in Ottawa. We mostly go to Sushi Kan, Banc Sushi, 1000 Island sushi and the food is excellent. But this one is really the worst.

We only had 1 sheet (half of the sheet) before we couldn't eat anymore.

• Volcano Sushi was greasy as hell

• Sushi rice taste rice vinegar too much, REALLY

• The nori was all soft on the 1 piece sushi (like if was been there for too long and the nori absorbed the rice vinegar)

• Crab meat sushi, where's the crab meat?

• Eel sushi pizza, didn't taste the eel because there was way to much sauce and ... GREEN PEPPERS!

• Deluxe sushi pizza, does deluxe mean mixing everything that's left? And again, GREEN PEPPERS again!

• Tempura sauce didn't taste anything. It was like brown water.

And on and on and on ...

Only thing that was great was the free refill on soft drinks.

Don't even try this place, doesn't worth it.

I suppose I'm in the minority as well! And my bias with sushi is in Hong Kong...

Was there about 6:30pm, Wednesday night. Restaurant was at least 1/3 full (to over 1/2) during the whole time I was there (3 hrs).

Service was efficient and polite, although the younger girl messed up our order a few times (missing half of the tempera order... nearly giving our sashimi to the table beside us... trying to give us unordered spring rolls... confusing our ice cream flavours). it seems worse now that i type it out, but at the time it really didn't seem so bad as our conversation was more interesting to overlook these things, plus with AYCE, it's just a matter of ordering it again. except for the ice cream mess-up, but that i can live with.

OVERALL the food is decent for what it is (AYCE); the sushi didn't have too much rice; the maki rolls had a really good ratio of filling:rice; tempura was crispy and hot with plump (not wilted/dying) filling, dipping sauce not overpowering; sashimi was T&T quality (not amazing melt-in-your-mouth, but decent), although the salmon was alot better than the other selections.

tamago: denser than what i'm used to, but wasn't too sweet.
salmon sashimi: preferred choice out of the selection; fresh and sweet, not chewy.
white tuna sashimi: i did not expect this... i've only had toro. pretty innocuous though.
mackeral sashimi: didn't seem so good; less buttery and oily than what i'm used to.
squid sushi: just a sliver of squid; didn't get to try it.
tobiko sushi: fish roe; can't complain, is it possible to screw this up?
unagi sushi: eel; this -wasn't- laden in sauce. hurray!
octopus sushi: more than a sliver; good chew.
red/green dragon roll: the difference is the top layer as salmon/avocado. filling includes tempera shrimp PLUS panko crumbs, so that could be a problem for you. i like tasting the difference, so i didn't mind.
spider roll: i don't remember. or because it was so similar to the dragon roll, without the top outer layer.
salmon skin roll: this was the only one i was disappointed with, because i was expecting it to be crispy skin. otherwise, it's fine.
spicy salmon roll: yum! if only it was this flavour + crispy skin... (you see, spicy salmon skin is my favourite)
flying fish egg salad: shredded iceberg mixed with mayo, roe and crab meat; it wasn't bad, but i ordered it not knowing what it was. i don't like to eat things like this.
scallop: deep-fried with a blob of mayo on top. just a touch overdone, but still well-cooked (the residual heat fryer-to-table probably wasn't considered)
salmon neck: caloric-nightmare. lightly battered and fried, but not too oily. nice peppered sauce. it would've been a really nice meal to just have this and plain rice.
straw mushroom and beef rolls: these have shrunk, so i hear. i didn't get to try it. i can say they are twice as big as a thumb.
chicken kidney yakitori: tiny 3 pieces on a stick; did not try.

i have no huge qualms with this place, so i would go back.

*1 dislike: the disposable chopsticks + ice cream spoons, just brings the eating experience down a notch.
*2 dislike: the 'named' items (spider/halifax/yummy roll) isn't described on the menu.

I'm from Vancouver, so somewhat biased about good sushi. Overall I liked it. One of the comments on this page speaks to people expecting too much of all you can eat. I quite agree. If you want EXCELLENT sushi in Ottawa, go to Wasabi in the market, spend $50/each and stop whining. This is just good sushi.

Service was excellent, fast and friendly. Sushi was decent. Did not like the octopus and found a bit too many rolls had tempura batter in them, which seems to be an eastern canadian phenomenon.

Not licensed unfortunately...I like some nice COLD sake with my raw fish.

Oh, my girlfriend wants you to know that the yam tempura was too big :)

Super-full and aside from the pain of cramming too much food in my stomach, feelin' just fine thanks...we got what we went for and will most definitely go back. In a month.