Good sushi near Algonquin college? [General]

2009 Aug 1
I'm moving to Ottawa to Algonquin college in September (I am living in dorms) and i am the biggest sushi fan ever.

So i was wondering if there was any place near by, perhaps walk to, that i can get sushi for take out. Also if you know any place that would deliver on campus that would be awesome!

2009 Aug 1
well, there's Loblaw -- a short walk from AC. There's also the AYCE Sushi Kan not too far away on Baseline.

i don't think many sushi places deliver, sadly.

My advice: make friends w/ people in the culinary school. :-)

2009 Aug 1
Hehe! Funny you mention this!

My friend is going into Chef training and I my self, am taking baking and pastry arts! I know how to make sushi, it just never turns out like they make it in restaurants...(even though i have tried many, many times ^.^;;)

I hear that loblaw's sushi is not all that great, and i'm wondering if its true.

2009 Aug 2
in addition to Sushi Kan there's also Sakura (AYCE - Merivale/Meadowlands) and MHK Sushi (Clyde/Merivale). while you can certainly find better sushi in the downtown core, all 3 are a step above the california rolls at Loblaws.

2009 Aug 2
Nova Devara - Welcome to Ottawa Foodies, and to the City of Ottawa in general... I certainly hope you drop by here from time-to-time and not only ask for recommendations, but also share with us life at Algonquin and your Baking & Pastry classes... it would be good to have a "student" perspective.

Ok now for the sushi... I don't live in the area, so I don't have any recommendations but what I do have is some "life saving" advice... LOL

Stay away from Loblaws - Sushi, it has made more than one OF Member quite ill... see ottawafoodies.com as all of us who have learned this lesson the hard way say "NEVER AGAIN".

It wasn't clear here if you have made your own sushi, but if not, or if you want to improve your technique you might want to check out Chocoholic's posts for the Chinese Cooking Studio www.chinesecookingstudio.com there is an ongoing list of classes they offer at this link www.ottawafoodies.com (it is updated regularly).


2009 Aug 2
to be fair, people have reported feeling sick or upset @ other sushi places, as well:

ottawafoodies.com
ottawafoodies.com
ottawafoodies.com/vendor/1701

but, i agree: Loblaw's ain't that great (or anywhere close). For starters, here's the ingredients in the seasoned rice the Lowblaw serves: "rice, high fructose corn syrup, distilled vinegar, rice vinegar, salt and brown sugar".

HFCS in sushi rice? Distilled vinegar > rice vinegar? hmmm...

Or so declares the ingredients listing from the take-away i'm eating now. suffice to say, my standards are wavering at best. :-)

2009 Aug 2
Itchy - Absolutely true.

Ok now my personal pet peeve... Blind Links

Could you please make a note in the future to add the info of what a link is... then someone can decide if they or will not click on it... for example your entries could read:

Sushi Kan - Sushi Kan
Seoul House - Seoul House
Yummy Sushi - Yummy Sushi

Thanks.

2009 Aug 2
And could Fresh Foodie please give me some NUMBERS on how much faster it is to have "vendor 1301" show up instead of "Sushi Kan"?

I'm just not buying the whole "performance" thing he gave me a long time back. I bet it is no more than 10% slower - number pulled out of me arse, but money on the table over here just the same (twoonie!). Besides, the bottleneck on the site seems to me to be his DSL link during busy times.

2009 Aug 2
Zym - ok that is a whole other technical discussion, lol.

In the above case, Itchy didn't use the shortcut method [[v-number]] which is what you are referring to... (and what I used) but rather just posted a link. ALL Blind Links drive me nuts cause they never tell the reader "where" they are going... which for some folks can be an issue, for example when they are browsing at work, or for others who don't necessarily want to connect to every given thing just to find out what exactly it is... I'd like to know ahead of time.

All too often there are posts here in the Forums that just provide a link, and no other info... they typically look like this one below. I think it is just good manners to give us an idea of where we are going to.

==============================================================================

Check this out xyz.com

2009 Aug 2
If "me" is the "you" in the "could you please", the short, somewhat polemic, answer is "i might, but its likely i'll forget again and again". Sorry, its not my pet peeve!

besides, there's a total of three links and its pretty obvious from the context, imo, that they're likely links to other sushi vendors / discussions.

And, if knowing the vendor name was that important before clicking, there'd be a programmatic solution, as zym points out.

2009 Aug 2
Itchy - Ok, so I tried to ask politely ("could you please") and I do understand that sometimes people forget... but I mean if one is going to post a link they researched, then obviously they know what it is... just tell the rest of us. LOL

You are right, in this case it obviously directs to somewhere on the OF Website (but one can't tell right off if it a Vendor Page or Forum Topic or something else). Zym is right there might be a "technical" solution (but I'm guessing it might not apply if one didn't use the "shortcuts"... [[v-numbers]] - [[f-numbers]] - [[u-numbers]] as the linkage).

The issue really is much more of a pain though when it links up to something offsite (which for the record you didn't do).

It's those total Blind Links, as per my example above, that don't give the reader a clue as to what it is about.

2009 Aug 2
F&T: for the record, i thought your question was politely phrased, if somewhat off-topic, just as i thought my reply was also polite and honest. We're both adults, but we share a different perspective is all.

2009 Aug 2
Yes, the "technical solution" would only apply if the proper codes were used. Though it would also be pretty easy to write a parser that detects links back to the site and could convert self-referencing links back to codes. This could be done at "submit time" so alleviate any performance concerns on FF's part :-)

Honestly, I think everyone who has been around here a while should know the codes. They are not that difficult.

2009 Aug 2
agreed, the codes aren't that difficult (i assume), but honestly, i keep forgetting the syntax, and when posting, am often too lazy to look 'em up. Forgetfulness and laziness are two of the best arguments in favor of a programmatic approach, imo.

2009 Aug 2
OK, then the onus is back on FF :-)

He is already parsing the input when you hit "Post reply" - obvious by the fact that URLs get converted to hotlinks. Further parsing to detect self-referencing URLs and then converting them to code should be pretty easy. I'll even do it for him if he wants :-)

2009 Aug 2
oh, and welcome to Ottawa Foodies, Nova Devara! :-)

2009 Aug 2
Hey, what are you doing putting it back on topic!? I thought this was the INTERNETS!

Yeah, what itchy said - welcome to Ottawa Foodies :-)

2009 Aug 2
Good sushi within walking distance of Algonquin is problematic, but if you have wheels or can cajole someone who does, the closest good sushi would be at Taste of Japan in Bells Corners. On the other hand, if you're restricted to using public transportation, it would be easier to hop on a bus and head downtown, where there are several good options.

Welcome to OF!

2009 Aug 3
Itchy & Zym - All good points...

Itchy - There is now the "Text Formatting Help" Button that appears at the top of the message input boxes throughout OF... they were put there in a recent upgrade by Fresh Foodie because so many posters said they couldn't remember the coding... you'll find info on how to Bold, italics and link [[f=number]], [[v=number]] and [[u=number]].

And yes I think we both have undertook this conversation civilly, and obviously I'm learning a lot from Zym here on the technical aspects.

But then again Itchy you aren't one of those who posts those totally Blind Linkage "check this out" topics that I was referring to which really are the main focus of my peeve... I may not be so civil to them. LOL

;-)

2009 Aug 4
To claw this thread back on topic, momentarily, one further possible option is Go For Sushi on Merivale (warning: external link):

goforsushi.ca/

have no idea whether they fall into the "good" category, though. Otherwise, BDM's (& Monty's) advice is best.

F&T, i'm not actually unrepentant: i've read the Help files (etc.), and in past posts, i'm sure i've embedded links "properly" (to your standard).

But, a further point i didn't bother mentioning above (i was posting between runs to the beer store and other errands) is that the first 2 links in my list above are actually "deep" pointers: they should bring the user's browser to the specific entry within the page. (compare the URLs w/ your own.)

Is this (deep linking) possible following the steps you prescribe?

2009 Aug 4
forgot about Go For Sushi. never been there or their location downtown before so i can't really comment.

there's also Sushi Go Express in a strip mall at the corner of Clyde/Baseline. very weird spot for takeout sushi. take note it seems to always be empty (not a good sign when you're trying to move raw fish!).

in short, there's quite an abundance of sushi in this corridor of the city. choose wisely, young grasshopper.


2009 Aug 4
I've been to the Go For Sushi outlet on Merivale (happened across it one day, quite by accident) - it's certainly very decent for fast food sushi, but it's not in the same league as Taste of Japan, or the better downtown places.