All u can eat Sushi [General]

2007 Apr 10
So two new All u can eat sushi places have popped up in Ottawa... anyone been?

2007 Apr 10
My friend did. I think he went to the Sakura? one. But he got very violent vomittiing and this scares us off to try. I heard that the service was very bad as well. Also, they give you a maximum time of 2 hours to stay. You may want to wait for few weeks for the dust to settle.

Sometimes I wonder why we need to go to eat at buffet - emptying one dish after another without enjoying the food. That’s why I don’t like to go for buffet or AYCE. But for the growing teenagers, I think it is a great idea to have AYCE since they can eat a lot and get the money back!


2007 Apr 11
I read about 4 absolutely terrible reviews of Sakura on restaurantthing.com, however they all have since been erased as they "violate policy" - whatever that means. All complained of painfully slow service, to the point of ordering 4 dishes and only ever receiving 2, as well as rude and unhelpful staff. Not sure if those reviews are founded or not, but seeing as they have been erased I thought I'd flag it anyway since they are no longer on display. The reviews didn't strike me as "fake" or anything - they included specific details and seemed to be fairly objective, unlike people who review to "get at" rivals and make outrageous claims with no real detail.

2007 Apr 13
Ya I saw restaurant thing... but I find the postings a little shady. They all are written and punctuated the same way and then they are one time posters.

2007 Apr 20
My friend just phoned me to avoid Sushi Kan (he is a fan of Sushi Kanata). He told me that his wife told him "never bring her to Sushi Kan" again. They ordered scallops and never see any scallops. Their sushi wasn't good either. Each sushi cube was very loose and can't be picked up. Dishes arrived late and the whole family had to wait for many minutes before seeing other dishes. They ordered Green Tea Ice cream at the end for their daughters. He was told that green tea ice cream was sold out. My friend told me that they never had buffet experience like this and was very disappointed and angry. The waitress was good and she kept apologizing for kitchen back-up. I think they are not equipped to do AYCE yet. This is bad since customers will not return after one visit. From what I heard, they won't survive for long if they operate the busiiness like this. (But there were many customers there last night according to my friend.)

2007 Apr 23
I found the postings thoroughly shady, too, but got curious about the place and Googled and found a thread about it somewhere, and posted the link. THAT got deleted along with the "shady" comments. Hrm.

2007 Apr 23
Several workmates of mine went to Sushi Kan for lunch last Friday, and they had the same litany of complaints: the wait staff were overwhelmed, and many dishes that they ordered were never seen. Apparently this was offset by the fact that some dishes that they *didn't* order arrived at their table instead.

It doesn't look like they have a system in place to keep track of which tables order which items: something that could easily be remedied by, well, putting numbers on tables and writing the numbers on the little slips.

Nobody had any complaints about the quality but, for my money, I'll stick to MHK if I'm doing sushi for a work lunch.


2007 Apr 23
I won't add that restaurant to the database until someone has something nice to say! This way, if it goes out of business I won't have to delete it. ;-)

2007 Apr 23
Of course - there have been no first-hand experiences posted yet in this forum thread. "Believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see". Someone a lot more famous than me once said that. I don't put much faith in comments from "my brother's ex-boyfriend's cousin's former babysitter" - sounds like the beginnings of a good urban legend. No offense intended to folks above - that's just a general rule of mine.

2007 Apr 27
Benjamin Franklin

2007 Apr 27
Well I'm no Ben Franklin, but I did at least try Sakura (the AYCE at Merivale & Meadowlands) so I can attest to what I both saw and tasted. To keep it short and sweet: the service is slow and disorganized but friendly, the sushi and sashimi is good, and the "appetizers" (ie. non-sushi related food) are very hit or miss.

If you want a lot of decent quality fish for a good price and don't mind spending a lot of time tracking down waitresses, then this is a good place. If you want atmosphere or an a-la-carte level of service, look elsewhere.

For what it's worth (nothing according to old Ben), a friend from work tried both and has said that Sakura was far better than Sushi Kan.

2007 Apr 30
Man, the reviews of Sushi Kan on restauranthing.com just keep getting more and more entertaining. One of us is going to have to take one for the team and try it out soon, just to set the record strait; I'm scared to try it! C'mon Fresh Foodie!

2007 Apr 30
haha.. I must abstain, as I suffer from emetophobia. ;-)

I tend to avoid raw fish as much as possible, even when dining in reputable places! I'll probably add the restaurant to the site though, just so I have an easy link to the restaurantthing.com reviews! :)

2007 Apr 30
All right, I added it: Sushi Kan

Their website indicates an association with Sushi Kanata, which doesn't seem to be too bad of a place. Strange!

2007 May 2
This reminds me of Sanjaya Malakar from American Idol this season. My younger son keeps telling me "I hate to see this guy singing". Finally he was voted off. However, he is very popular now. He was on Jay Leno's show, The Ellen degeneres Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Late Show with David Letterman, etc.

My point: A person can be famous by being very good or very bad (not between). This will also apply to a restaurant. Every one is talking about these two Japanese restaurants. They have been discussed by many websites. In particular, the Chinese website (www.comefromchina.com) has discussed how bad Sushi Kan is (about 6331 hits). It was also very interesting to receive emails being forwarded at work about these two Japanese restaurants. (Many of my colleagues love sushi!) It seems that Sakura garners more positive review than Sushi Kan.

I notice that there were many new accounts created at www.RestaurantThing.com, just to submit bad comments about Sushi Kan. Most of them are one-time postings. There were also few good comments submitted, but also one-time postings.

FOOD is HOT! Please go try out the food and share your review here. Would like to hear your findings. Be our detective and martyr! LOL!

2007 May 15
Hi foodie friends.

ok well I did it.
I ventured into the fray and tried one for the team.
on the docket: Sakura Sushi on Merivale Road
(around the corner and a stones throw away from Sushi-Kan)

*Warning multiple picture posts*

2007 May 15
Sakura sushi is like most AYCE places, a cookie cutter version of the ideal true dish. You go there for quantity, and quality usually comes second.
To keep this review on the shorter side:
The service was a bit spotty but altogether very pleasant.
Water was always kept full.
Some of our food orders were being lost in the shuffle I believe, but we (myself and 5 of my very hungry guy friends) ordered so much that it almost didn't matter.
Hot foods were surprisingly delicious, Cubed Beef Tenderloin with slivers of garlic and Steak Teriyaki were plain but done nicely and were very tender.

now on to the pictures

Their maki rolls weren't really packed tightly but they were decent. In the picture is the Shrimp Tempura roll.

2007 May 15
Tempura Shrimp & Veggies: crispy, crunchy, a tad tad bit greasy...but an expected amount coming from a fried food. They do it well here.

2007 May 15
Next up:

Gunkan sushi: Tobiko - love how these pop in your teeth! They use good flying fish roe....good meaning not the micromini eggs, but the ones you can feel pop.

Crab stick & Salmon Nigiri: Basic and done decently. nuff said.

You can also see a few pieces of White Tuna Sashimi. I usually love white tuna despite it's lower status to Maguro but Sakura's came frozen (which I know most places do it that way) but it had yet to be fully thawed for consumption. My soy sauce couldn't penetrate through the ice crystals. :/

2007 May 15
More gunkan sushi: Spicy Salmon. They make their SS salad with strips of salmon instead of chunks. Their spicy sauce is the usual suspects: mayo, siracha sauce. Good enough though.

Also Salmon Sashimi: cut a bit thin, but good otherwise.

Their rice is seasoned well. I've had better but it's fine.

2007 May 15
Hand rolls: Tempura shrimp & Spicy Salmon. Good. The nori stayed nice and crispy.

2007 May 15
Desserts are the usual suspects: Green Tea and Red Bean. Even Black sesame.


Overall, it was a positive experience. Go in with a bit lowered expecations.
It hit the AYCE spot for me. So bring patience, time and an appetite.

Cheers all.. hope you like the posts.

2007 May 16
Thanks sweet_li16 - though you should probably put this all into the "Buzz" section rather than here in the forums

2007 May 16
hmmm sorry...freshfoodie...is there anyway you can make the mass move or do i have to re-do?

2007 May 16
I'll do it when I get a chance... (i.e. not right now) :-)

2007 May 16
sakura japanese restaurant on merivale for all-u-can-pump-down sushi. good sushi is still hard to find; however, compared to sushi kan the service that i experienced was friendlier, faster and the food is a little tastier and slightly better in quality. here is their sushi pizza.

2007 May 16
assorted sashimi that can be gobbled down in 2.2 seconds.

2007 May 16
spicy salmon, seaweed and flying fish egg sushi.

2007 May 16
assorted

2007 May 16
assorted 2

2007 May 16
Gee, Pej Daddy, I'm going to have to move all of yours too! Sakura

2007 May 16
assorted 3

2007 May 24
Okay no problem... I just cloned Pej Daddy's and sweet_li16's great photos over to the Sakura vendor page Sakura .

If you're wondering, I added some capability to make this really easy for me to do in the future.