Ottawa Foodies

I tend to find Sushi Kan as rather variable in quality. On some occasions, their food is pretty good and a steal considering the price. On other occasions, the food is damn near unsafe and certainly untasty. While I'm not the biggest fan of the wait staff, I tend to be willing to eat here although it is not my favourite resto for ayce sushi.

The first time I went was when they had just opened recently, and it was pretty good for the price. I have gone three or four times in the years following, and they have become progressively worse visits. After my visit today, I don't think I will be going back. The food just left a bad taste in my mouth and a sick feeling in my stomach. IMO, there's similar places to go that are much better.

Went to the Innis and Blair location..used to be a Denny's which makes for an interesting decor. There is a lot to look at...the christmas garland was our favourite little design trick :) The sushi was really good! The service was quick and friendly. Another plus was my glass of red wine was filled right to the top of the glass!

Went on a Thursday some time back to the Baseline and Merivale location. It was my first visit, since I had heard so many horror stories from before.

But it was actually pretty good! (That's what low expectations gets you.)

We were a table of six, and had made reservations.

We stuck to various rolls and nigiri for our orders. The food was pretty good. Not perfect, but fine for the price you're paying[1].

As mentioned so many times before, service was a bit lacking, but it wasn't terrible. Only one missed order, actually, which we made up for by just ordering the same thing again on the next round. A bit slow: I think our meal lasted 90 minutes or so for three rounds of orders.

Will definitely be back. Will also be trying out some of the other AYCE places just so I have some context.

[1]. Really, I refer to the price you're paying for Ottawa all-you-can-eat sushi. Toronto all-you-can-eat joints are often cheaper, and just as tasty or better. Keep that in mind.

Ordered take out for a party I had. Got the small party tray which had 40 pieces for only 22$, a shrimp tempura roll and a yummy yummy roll. Everyone at the party LOVED it. The tray came with salmon, surf clam, crab meat, egg, mackerel, and tuna sushi (if i remember correctly)and some spicy/crispy, California and other rolls. Alot of people I know say that because this is an AYCE place, don't expect the food to be high quality but I had no problems with it. It was all very fresh and delicious. I will definitely eat here again because you just can't beat the price. Next time I will have to go in for dinner so i can judge the service for myself.

*UPDATE* I just went here last night and I have to say that the service was excellent, the sushi was good, I liked the dining room and the price was right! It's my new favorite place for sushi and I will continue to go here frequently! :)

Just a heads up - Sushi Kan has opened a second location at Innes at Blair, where the Denny's used to be.

Also, they recently changed their menu. Some items were removed and new things added (shrimp nigiri under weekend dinner special). The servers were still confused about it a few weeks back, because the numbers on the items changed. It caused a bit of confusion, but we sorted it out in the end.

They also charge for ice cream ($1 for 2 scoops) and the pop is no longer by the can, it's fountain drinks.

The food: Good. Or at least, so-so. Pay for what you get. Standard sushi restaurant fare.

The service: Blech. We came here a few months back with about 12 friends on a quiet Thursday night for dinner to celebrate a baby (hurray fish!) and a birthday. It took them fifteen minutes to seat us. Even though they were empty. What the heck!?

They continuously mixed up which table ordered what.

They insisted that a three year old pay full price for child (I think their child rate starts at age 5), even though she didn't really eat that much (sadly, she had left with the rest of her family and so, we were stuck arguing with the waiter/manager). They also wanted to charge for the newborns (under six months) together as one child...because you know, two 6 month old kids can eat the same as one three year old...right.

Anyway, there are a tonne of wonderful sushi places in Ottawa which don't have the awful service. Sure, they may not be fine dining, and that is not what I expect (New User 1140), especially not at $25 a head. What I do expect, is that the wait staff be courteous, know what is going on, apologize for mistakes, and don't charge me for people in my party who do not eat anything that doesn't come from their mothers' breasts.

Oh, also, this is not one of those "try it, if you don't like it restaurants": As defoo said, if you don't like it, you have to pay full price for the order. What is more, is if you don't order a lot at once, you're stuck waiting for twenty minutes per order. If you order too much, you're forced to eat it, or to hide it in your teapot, purse, bathroom.

What they are doing "right", is swindling their customers out of money by overcharging children/youth, and by not telling them the rules of the road. I really how that the third SushiKan fails, and that this restaurant falls flat on its behind.

I must say, looking at all these reveiws of a resturaunt that I frequent often is blowing my mind. These are people are the type of people that go to an all inclusive vacation on last minute rates expecting 5 star accomadations and Lobster and Steak for dinner, and 15 year old scotch! When they don't get that they struggle to say alot about good things. However stand back if they can be a critic! Here comes the bad.

Lastly if you want a dinning experiance, go to Hy's and bring a couple of Brown Notes! If you want lightning servie go to McDonald's or Pizza Pizza.

Now for my review.

As for value and food! Both are of very good at Sushi Kan. Some things are awsome some things are not. (I can say this about every resturaunt) Like I say to my 8 year old. Try it if you don't like it, you don't need to eat it. In this enviorment it is a perfect enviorment to do just that. You want to experiance Sushi, go do it. The people who run it are very much encouraging for you to do just that. Be sure to tell them if it is your first time there or not. They will share all kinds of information with you.

The drink prices are very reasonable. Lg size soda or Ice tea just a $1.00.

The shrimp tempra, california rolls, calamari, salmon, tuna, flying fish eggs, are amongst my favorite things.

A suggestion to improve your service time and get quicker service. What I do seeing how I frequent there often. I have my initial order pretty much preplanned and the moment I sit down I write it down and get it in. Giving me more time to mull over more possible selections.

In final speaking with the staff, appearently they open Sushi Kanata 2 years ago, All you can Sushi Kan 1 year ago, and now their third location is on Innes is Opening Shortly. They must be doing something right.

Go in with lower expectations and let your self be amazaed with all the Sushi Kan experiance.

P.S Bring one Red Note and expect to get change! For a party of two. Good Deal! Thanks Sushi Kan, see you again and often.

My family visited the restaurant when it first started in business, the raw fish that they served were not fresh at all (some even started to turn gray!)

Today (June 19 2008), my uncle and I went to try out Sushi Kan again by an recommendation of a friend who claimed that the restaurant had improved a lot. When we arrived, I was impressed by the high volume of people that were eating there.

After we set down, the waitress then spent around 5 seconds to explain to me how the item quantity in each sections on the menu differed. For example, each order of shrimp tempura had 2 tempuras, each order Roll sushi contained 6 pieces, each order of nigiri sushi contains 1-piece, and so on. I was quickly confused and wasn't paying much attention to the waitress because of the noisy background. At first I thought all of that "ordering instruction" would be on the menu anyway, because, really, which restaurant would expect a customer to remember all that information in a 5 sec explanation given by the server. After the waitress left, I took a good look at the menu and stunted by the fact that I could not find anything she said in there.

Anyways, we started ordering food by writing them down on a piece of paper. We started with an order of the shrimp tempura, few pieces of nigiri sushi. The sushi rice was hard, and the shrimp tempura was obviously not freshly made and was not even warm when served. After 30 - 40 minutes, we asked for the bill. At the moment, we were greeted with 18-pieces of spicy white tuna sushis. At first we thought it was a mistake because we only made 3 order of the spicy white tuna sushi (which from my understanding, each order should contain 1 piece only). Then the waitress rudely explained that each order actually had 6-pieces. At first, I tried to cancel half of the 18 pieces by reasoning with her that I made an honest mistake. She then went on telling us that we had to either finish all 18 pieces or pay for everything that we cannot finish and, in our case, it would be 9 dollars ($1 for 2 pieces). Paying an extra $9 for a $13 lunch was clearly not worth it, so we were pretty much forced to finish all the pieces that we didn't mean to order. After we struggled to finish everything, we paid (even left tips despite the rudeness we received from the waitress) and left the restaurant. As we walked out to the door, we could hear a few servers laughing behind our back.

Really, I don't believe the restaurant should rely on the servers to pass us the information by the word of mouth. They should either print the information on the menu. If they can't fit that into the menu for some ridiculous reason, they should at the very least put a sign on table. I don't think we were the first group who were troubled by the confusing ordering information. Or perhaps the restaurant purposely left that important piece of info out of the menu in the hope that customer would fall for it and end up paying more.

Kate, that's totally it with Sushi Kan. You can only figure out what's good if you order it. It's totally hit and miss. Thanks for the feedback on the sushi pizza as I've been wanting to try it. Guess I won't now!

On my last visit I ordered the Dragon roll (white and red) and quite liked the change to the baked roll. I also recommend the spicy crispy salmon and the Yummy Yummy roll.

Thought this place was great! It may not be the real Japanese Sushi, but it'll do for the price they ask for. Have been back here maybe 4 times in the last month. Thought lunches are better than dinner.

I find mackerel hard to stomach at the best of times. But the last time we were there (after Christmas) people in our group ordered it and didn't finish it.

The salmon sashimi is amazing here. The white tuna is good. But you must avoid the mackerel at all costs. Most disgusting thing i've ever put in my mouth. In contrast the salmon is so delicious and melts in your mouth.

Also avoid the salmon teriyaki at all cost. Disgusting.

Last time I was here (at Christmastime) I decided to order a bunch of different items to see how they were. We had a huge group, so I figured someone would eat it.

The calamari was wonderful. Not too rubbery, not overfried. The calamari was deep-fried. Easily some of the best I've had. It was a pleasant surprise.