Ottawa Foodies

1000 Sushi Islands started out as a very phenomenal all-you-can-eat sushi buffet. However, over the past months after its grand opening, its service and food have started to become less than satisfying, to say the least.

First, let me just say that I went to this place a few days after it first opened. In fact, me and my party of 4 were the first one there at 11:30, so we were the only ones there. The service was great; the waitresses would attend to us every 5 or 10 minutes to check if we needed anything and to clear empty bowls off the table. The food was also fresh, came very quickly, and everything that was ordered appeared on our table. If you asked me, I would have said it was probably the best sushi restaurant ever.

Since then, I've visited 1000 Sushi Islands frequently with family and friends. But for a while now, it seems that the quality of their restaurant has gone way down. The staff takes at least 15 minutes to get to your table and take your order, the food tastes cold and on top of that it takes quite a while to arrive. On one occasion, we ordered 4 hand rolls as one of our first food items and it did not arrive at our table until we were done eating the rest of our food (after ordering thrice, and the waiting and eating was about 45 minutes) and about to pay the bill. On several occasions, some food items were completely either lost or forgotten about and never arrived at our table.

There was one visit when I went with my cousin, brother, and girlfriend, where we waited at least 40 minutes for our first order of food to arrive (two items from our list of 13 - a small plate of chicken teriyaki and a bowl of shrimp tempura), followed by another 20 minutes of waiting before a few more of our orders showed up. Mind you, as stated before, not all of it came. While we continued to wait, the manager himself came out to check on our table. Apparently, he thought we were just starting to loiter around since we stayed for a good hour and a half. When we told him we were still waiting for the rest of our food, he told us he would go check on it for us. Fifteen minutes later, he came back with the bill and just tossed it onto our table. We tried to ask him about the rest of our food but he just ignored us. That is not how to treat customers if you expect good business. You can't take my word for it, so I recommend you go dine out at this AYCE sushi restaurant for yourself. I can promise you a few things though; you will most likely either a) not get all the things you ordered, b) have to wait a ridiculous amount of time before any of your food arrives, c) have your food become cold when it arrives at your table, or d) have the manager personally come and indirectly force you to hurry up and leave.

stirfry and handrolls

soups

assorted

sushi pizza

sushi rolls

1000 sushi islands on carling @ cole is ottawa's 3rd all you-can-pump-down sushi and has just made a grand opening giving sushi kan and sakura some much needed competition. it is clear that there are similarities but each of these 3 have something different to offer. this new place boasts a more modern decor and more focused menu. the tempura shrimp and veggies were the best of them all with perfect explosive batter crispness and tender insides. can you say: ‘totally mouthwatering delishhhhh!’? the token sushi pizza was a delight as well. what was most striking was the sushi, rolls, and handrolls -- the rice and fish portions were perfectly proportioned, not rice filler-heavy like the other restaurants. the soups were LOADED with assortment of seafood and veggies with a delicious broth as well as their stirfry's and rice dishes were generous. the most disappointing offering was their spicy salmon. i like a kick in my sushi and these came looking like crispy pureed tickled pink whatevers with a taste that didn't exactly pop my horn. also the white tuna we ordered never materialized or maybe they pulled a david copperfield on us. prices were about a dollar or two less than the other two restaurants. if you're looking for a quick sushi fix and speedy service, go EARLY! this place fills up quick. definite return for trying other items on the menu but the spicy salmon letdown makes me think twice. post meal green tea ice cream was just right and we left satisfied with a HEALTHY feeling.

pros:
tempura
faster service (when you go early and sit at a table of two)
generous stir-frys and rice dishes
generous soups

cons:
aweful spicy salmon
still missing some items ordered

I had lunch here last week, and was quite happy. I had the tempura as well (which was decent) as well as tuna rolls, miso soup and miscellaneous other stuff. I found the rolls to be of lesser production quality than non AYCE places (such as Wasabi) in that the rolls were not tight, and were more likely to fall apart. The wait staff were inexperienced, and not very attentive (we had to wave to get attention once.. very embarrasing I think). The inexperience of the wait staff was not a deal breaker for me however as it was overall pretty good food, for a very good price (AYCE lunch for $13 ) I felt bad for the wait staff at one point, as another table nearby us was not very patient, and vocal about their problems (perceived or otherwise). I think that the main problem was that the wait staff acted like you might be there for a couple hours, as opposed to most people who have to be in and out in 1 hour, and can't wait 10 minutes for the server to appear. All in all.. thumbs up, if only marginally from me. I hope further visits will only produce improvements!

I had dinner at 1000 Sushi Islands tonight with my SO... we had tempura, spicy salmon handrolls, dumplings, spring rolls, miso soup, and a variety of maki. Everything was decent, except the dumplings and spring rolls were from frozen... meh... anyway, for $20 a person, it was pretty decent. Soft drinks were included in that price as well! No liquor licence yet, for those that drink. Also, a note on the quality of service... relative to other AYCE sushi establishments in Ottawa, the service here was phenomenal. THe waitresses were VERY attentive, the manager came by at one point to ensure our order had been taken and that everything was ok, I even saw him at the sushi bar helping his staff pump the food out. Pretty impressive!

My family and I are regulars at Sushi Kan and Sakura, so we thought we would try this new AYCE sushi place... BIG MISTAKE...

CONS:
- Discoloured seafood; the salmon and shrimp were really gross looking, like they were sick or rotten or something
- spicy salmon was disgusting
- the waiters refused to fill up our water glasses more than halfway for some odd reason we had to keep asking for more water
- my brother ordered an udon soup and couldn't recognize half of its contents. My mom couldn't finish her miso soup
- the shrimp tempura was a lot of tempura and very little shrimp
- there was loads of mayonnaise on the shrimp tempura sushi and rolls
- staff cannot speak english, and are hard to get a hold of... even when the restaurant is empty. They couldn't describe menu items and so we got some sushi types we didn't order, which we named 'lost in translation' sushi
- we never got many of the things we ordered

PROS
- the seaweed salad was a larger proportion than usual, and tasted rather good
- the restaurant is very nicely decorated and very comfortable