Ottawa Foodies

Kate I also picked up lunch at Sushi Go today - it looks like we just missed each other-;)

I have been frequenting this restaurant for about a year now and I find their combos consistently fresh and the service has always been friendly. However their combos do sell quickly so I always make a point of getting there just before noon. They did run out of shrimp makis (my favourite) on one of my visits and they offered to make one for me if I didn't mind waiting. However the young lady at the cash today definitely had a chip on her shoulder. When I went there today I arrived just before noon. I went straight to the refrigerator to pick up a maki and they didn't have any out. They had very little combos prepared actually but I noticed the chef hard at work and some prepared containers sitting on the counter behind him so I figured they were working on getting some combos out. I asked the cashier if they might have any makis made up yet and she tersly told me to go check the refrigerator and get one myself. I pointed out that I already checked and lo and behold they did have some makis on the counter waiting to go out. I am personally taking it with a grain of salt this time - I have been there before so maybe she was just having a bad day. I will however keep it in mind next visit and speak up. Hopefully you will give them a second chance.

If you want one of their lunch combos, make sure you show up early enough. I learned today that it's first come, first serve. Once they are gone, they're gone (despite the fact that they're supposed to be served until 2, according to their menu).

I asked the girl at cash if it was possible to make one up for me today (at 12:30). When she went to ask the chef, he followed her back to the cash and gave me some snarky attitude, brushing me off and telling me to "come earlier next time!".

There won't be a next time for me. I crossed the street and got some excellent sushi in the market mall.

Maybe he was having a bad day...regardless it didn't leave a good first impression. Too bad...the sushi looked good.

It appears the Clyde/Baseline location is now Sushi-gone. Big "For Lease" sign in the window.

I finally made my first visit to Sushi Go for lunch today.

The layout of the restaurant is visually appealing when first entering. Immediately to your left are some wall mounted shelves with some assorted asian style trail mixes, nuts, etc. There is a chest fridge (for lack of a better word) in the middle of the restaurant with some take out trays already made up, and the cash and prep station on the right. There are a few bar stools at the front and back of the restaurant for eating in.

The menu includes a wide variety of sushis which you can order à la carte or part of a combo as well as a few soups and a couple of salads. Today I decided to pick something à la carte so I chose the Shrimp Spring Maki and a wakame salad. The spring maki was quite large and was garnished with sesame seeds and served with a dipping sauce - I think it was spicy mayo. (My spring roll experience is limited to a couple of restaurants so the dipping sauce is new to me.) The wakame was garnished with a generous serving of sesame seeds.

The sushi ingredients are really fresh since the rolls are made to order and I really enjoyed the salad. My only complaint is that there are not enough chairs for dining in. I got there right at noon and I managed to grab the last chair. When I left around 12:30 there were half a dozen people waiting for seats to be vacated. Other than that I really enjoyed my lunch and I look forward to a return visit to try their combination trays.

Just noticed this evening that a location has opened up at Baseline/Clyde. Has anyone been yet?

I tried this sushi place last week with my husband for the first time. We wanted to try out their sushi and see if it was worth coming back when we just want take out meals. We waited much more than expected but the people there were really nice, they apologized for the delay and offered tea while waiting. We really liked the sushi, we thought the prices were good for such good quality. We got the "two salmon roll", the "spicy shrimp tartar" (in my opinion, those were the best we had!!) and another one with spicy salmon.
It's a good place to go for take out but I would advice to call in advance so you don't wait too long for your sushi. :-)

Alright... I'm going to have to be the one naysayer.

I thought the sushi was "fine", and I appreciate an easy takeout sushi option in Ottawa (when will we finally get free, 7-day-a-week sushi delivery?).

But -- this reminds me of fast food sushi in California. No artistry in the rolling, cheap prices, and "eh" fish. The fish is fine... nothing wrong with it... but on the whole, the "generous" rolls are pretty rice-y. And crabstick permeates the menu... pollock... ew.

There are loads of places just like this around Montreal, and I notice the owners seem to be Montreallers (based on accent, not on hard data, so I could be wrong here). Anyhow, its wildly successful here but I think they'd have a hard time with the same offering in a larger city which already has many such places.

I've been thrice. And I'll go again for a quick, cheap fix. But is this anything to crow about, other than its different from what native Ottawans are used to? No. Phoning 15 minutes ahead to Genji for a takeout order and paying an extra $10, in my opinion, is a far better option.

Last week when it was so horribly hot out about half the staff from the French Baker were living on takeout sushi from this place. I enjoy how fresh everything is, and the prices, but I think they don't give enough ginger and wasabi in the takeout packages. They also have a "sushi lovers" card you can get stamped everytime you spend more than $10.

Thanks to all your comments, I decided to try this new sushi shop last night. I went in around eight thirty, and it was pretty quiet, although people came in pretty consistently while I was there. I was looking at the prepackaged stuff, when one of the employees mentioned that I could order anything from the menu and they would package it for me to go. I wasn't aware this was an option, so that was great. In any case, I got the Salmon Kamikaze roll and the Spicy Tuna roll. Whomever mentioned that the rolls are huge was spot on. However, they are SO tasty. The ingredients were fresh, the rolls were perfectly spicy, and they used fresh tuna as opposed to the canned/flaked stuff you find in cheaper places. Very, very good. Try it!

I was delighted to see a new sushi place open up in the market, where I happen to eat a lot of lunches. I went with a coworker yesterday and ordered off the menu rather than choosing one of the pre-made boxes. We shared a spicy tuna hosomaki and one of the regular maki (I think it was called "Sunshine") which had smoked salmon, crabstick, avocado, mayo, tobiko, and other good stuff I don't remember. And we each had two pieces of nigiri--salmon and tuna for my friend, white tuna and "spicy scallop tempura" for me.

Everything was good; the spicy scallop tempura nigiri was fantastic. It was made in the style of uni or fish roe nigiri, but with a big scoop of fresh scallop dressed in spicy, kind of citrusy tasting mayo, with crunchy little tempura bits mixed in. The white tuna was nice and fresh, and quite a generous slab. The spicy tuna hosomaki was excellent; it's the smallest size of maki on the menu, but this and the nigiri would have made a light but satisfying lunch. The regular maki are very substantial, impossible to eat in one bite, but very tasty.

The two of us ate our fill for $21, which is pretty impressive for this kind of quality. And we waited probably less than ten minutes for sushi to arrive. I think I'll be filling up my frequent-eater card rather quickly. And as foodlover says, the decor is great--it reminded me of the kind of hip Asian eateries you'd find in London (UK, not Ontario!).

Just finished eating, bought the new 50pc platter for 30$ on baseline/clyde. The girl who was taking my order was nice enough to let me substitute some of the rolls(the 50 pc's are pre chosen), the platter consist of (10 futomaki lrg, 24 maki med, 16 hosomaki small. Everything was super fresh and made really nice, all the fillings were well portioned, even the hosomakis which had big pieces of tamago(egg) and the kappa(cucumber) had a lot. For a student who likes to get his monies worth I definitely feel I got it and even more.

I think this was a California Classik, and it was very enjoyable. Interesting because it was not made "inside out" like most California rolls.

The sushi here isn't the world's best but it's pretty darn great and very convenient. I'll pop in again for sure!

The Pacific maki (salmon, smoked salmon, avocado, tempura, masago, mayonnaise) was super tasty and tender. Yum! You'd better like lox though -- the taste is quite strong. Highly recommended as a snack or light meal.

I had the Go Chef's 11 piece box to go. It included 5 futomakis (Boston, California classik, Spicy Salmon) and 6 hosomakis (Chef's favorite). Very fresh and reasonably priced at $5.75 + tax which came to $6.00. The Spicy Salmon piece wasn't remotely spicy which I find in most sushi I eat where they claim to be a spicy roll :(