ottawa foodies

Cheap and busy. Popular with students, the weekday office set and the all-you-can-eat crowd. The sushi was edible but I will say that their tea was the most horrible stuff I've ever had at any Asian restaurant ever.

One thing I haven't noticed anyone mention - I went here last year and couldn't stand how so many rolls were slathered in their (admittedly tasty) japanese mayo.

Apart from that, standard AYCE experience. Worth the money, didn't nail us for leaving a few peices behind, forgot a couple of rolls but we were a large group and were glad for the respite as we'd overordered.

Service was quick though, surprisingly so!

Tried to go to the Barrhaven location on a Saturday night. This was to be our first venture into the AYCE sushi experience, despite the fact that we had no plans to eat any sushi (I was craving shrimp tempura) We walked into the door to a handful of people waiting to be seated. Hubby tried to check in with the ladies at the podium, but was ignored and not given any instructions to sit. We asked some other patrons how long they had been waiting, and how the check in process worked. They had no idea either.

After waiting for 10 minutes with no acknowledgement, we decided to leave and try 168 Sushi Buffet instead (where we were immediately greeted and seated and eating within 10 minutes)

We'll try this place again some other time, since it's close to home. I just hope it was an off night for them, and not the norm.

AYCE grilled salmon neck @ 1000SI. enrich yourself with all the omega-3's you can handle in comfortable moderation. part of that fountain of youth and anti-aging diet. trust me, 40 is the new 20.

AYCE seafood fried rice @ 1000SI. tasty but mainly a lot of pollock crab and slived fishballs etc... but not as good as that served at sushi kan which was made of a medley of baby seafood. still good nonetheless!

shrimp, zucchini, eggplant, broccoli, sweet potato, banana, calamari, fake crab, mushroom, taro root tempuras @ 1000SI. a purdy basket that needs reordering as sharing is caring.

unagi roll @ 1000SI. i love me some bbq eel which are electrifying delish cooked as well as alive.

beef rolls @ 1000SI. choice of enoki shroom filling or green onion. avail lunch & dindin here; whereas at sushi kan, only dinner.

pickled shroom roll @ 1000SI. if you dig the humble mushroom, i recommend it.

Mushroom tempura.
Hot and fresh!

Very fresh, crisp, and hot.
There was more batter than shrimp, but it was still really nice.

For people who like to know what they're actually eating this might be helpful.

Make sure you know your surf clam from your squid, because they generally don't. I've ordered surf clam several times to get squid on my plate, and vice versa. I've been here several times over the years and this hasn't changed. Surf clam pieces have one red, pointed end and the other end is white. Squid is white and squishy with ridges.

The crab is, of course, not real crab but surimi. Every restaurant does this, and I like surimi but I wish they would label things as they are.

Watch out for that white tuna, because it's not tuna. Going by the taste it's probably escolar, which has a way of giving some people the runs. It sure is delicious though.

Quality and size of the cuts varies with the day. I've had good stuff here and absolutely awful stuff here. Then again that's pretty much the same for every AYCE place I've been in Ottawa.

I have tried to like 1000 Island Sushi, but it is a no go! Sorry, not even a little bit good.If you want AYCE go to Sushi Kan.

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!

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.

Salmon sushi pizza.
A bit greasy due to the mayonnaise, but still good.

Spicy crispy crab hand roll.
Really good!

White tuna sushi.
Very nice. The fish was very fresh and delicious.

Salmon sushi.

Salmon roll.

White tuna roll, pickled mushroom roll, pickled radish roll.

Rainbow roll, spicy crispy crab roll, shrimp tempura roll.
All very delicious!

I strongly believe that sushi should be in large pieces, not chopped up into tiny itty bitty pieces - this shows me that the fish is not good quality, so you're trying to hide it.

and the fried bits in the rolls?

Gross.

Not bad. The food came promptly and the tempura was quite yummy. I really liked their 1000 sushi islands specialty roll. It was pretty busy when I went there on a Wednesday night, but overall the service was okay. I would not recommend the white snapper sashimi, ours came out warm! =(
However, the seaweed salad was great...but the flying fish salad had a little too much mayo for my taste...

The best in Ottawa but abit far from downtown where I live, but totally worth the trip!

The nigiri was good for an AYCE. Nothing to complain about. We also ordered a seaweed nigiri and it was good as well. The spicy tuna nigiri wasn't that great. It was just mayonnaise, sriracha and a bunch of tempura flakes. I hardly noticed any presence of fish.

What isn't in the photograph was the sushi pizza. It was satisfactory (I love my sushi pizza.)

We had also ordered ice cream for dessert. I loved my green tea ice cream, and my friends loved their mango and red bean.

Overall, good experience, bang for your buck on lunch time. For AYCE sushi places, I recommend bringing a party of friends so you can sample different dishes.