Ottawa Foodies

I can take it or leave it. We went last night and got a bit confused with the ordering system. After we got out first batch of food we noticed it was sans the sweet potato roll I had ordered (this was about 40 minutes later) so I added it on the next order form. When the waitress came to pick it up she also brought the aforementioned sweet potato roll. I told her to nevermind the one I had put on the second order form since we only wanted one of them, and I guess she misunderstood because then we ended up with another sweet potato roll and nothing else that we had ordered. At this point we had spent about almost 1.5 hours at the restaurant and didn't really consume that much food - the wait times were incredible. We had somewhere else to be so we just bailed and didn't bother ordering anything more.
The food was okay. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't memorable. I really like the Mango roll, but some of the other rolls were quite sloppy and fell apart easily. Overall, pretty decent value, but don't expect to be in & out quickly.

I give this place a THUMBS UP. But with an added caveat.

I've been to both the Carling and the new Barrhaven location. Both are really good. Very nice service, very good food.

My only recent complaint though, is that at the Carling location on 2 different occasions they brought out a couple of our orders really really late. Literally, we figured they weren't bringing it and they brought us the bill. Then the food arrived! Twice this happened. It was like a couple of our orders got lost in a sushi void.

Otherwise, it has great food and service for the most part. Which is why I still give it a thumbs up. Dinner time is always busy.

Simply excellent. I went to the carling location yesterday with a couple of gal pals and I do believe I have re-discovered sushi. The sushi was top-notch quality with warm rice and fresh ingredients. My favorites were the sweet potato maki, the shrimp and mango, and the crispy salmon. TO DIE FOR! My mouth waters just thinking about how good it was...

I had the spicy beef udon noodle soup which was perfect, but after the miso soup, I had to stuff most of the soup down lol. You can't leave any leftovers behind or you'll be charged, which is fine by me - I hate food wasters! Tempura was pretty good but I wasn't a fan of the vegetable spring rolls. They had a slight aftertaste that I didn't like and it was mostly just cabbage filling and nothing else. I wish they would have had shrimp spring rolls.

I really loved the atmosphere of this restaurant too. Around the time that we went it was just starting to get busy and around 6 pm all the tables were full and there was a waiting line. However, it wasn't too loud and I didn't feel overly crowded - but there was just this great buzz. This is a great place for friends to hang out or to celebrate someone's birthday or anniversary. It was only $19 + tax for AYCE which is a great deal considering the quality and choices offered here. Can't wait to go back!

also tried the new Barrhaven location...guess I lucked out on the sashimi and sushi dishes - they were actually prepared perfectly, even the white tuna. The seaweed salad was as good as any, if yer into that kinda thing.

Given the time I'd head downtown, but if stuck in Barrhaven looking for sushi, this is the best option.

Pleasantly surprised. Stay clear of the rolls (accurately described below), and it's a decent in and out experience...though likely hit or miss based on the previous post.

Went to try the new 1000 Sushi Islands location in Barrhaven. To start off the place is brand new with nice leather booths, and tables. We started off our meal with some assorted sushi and rolls. The sushi was on par with other AYCE sushi restaurants, however the rolls were horrendeous. They used way too many tempura bits (which where really oily btw) and lots of mayo. Some rolls like the BC Roll and Spicy Cripsy Salmon had only traces of fish in it. Needless to say, the rolls were very disappointing. The salmon sashimi was good and fresh, the white tuna sashimi was still not fully thawed and wet. Simply disgusting. In any case, I shared my opinions with the manager (who didn't seem to care) and I will not be visiting them again.

lo and behold folks, another AYCE sushi joint has just opened up. 1000 sushi islands has their 2nd location in barrhaven... step right up to the buffet now serving YOU! quite a large dining room with posh finishes and modern dark mahogany-type furnishing. recessionistas of quality japanese nutrition at insanely unbeatable prices. for $14.99 lunch or $20.99 dinner, there is definite value here. if you're expecting the best sushi in the world, get off your high horse, stop complaining and just simply enjoy. or you can go to rotten mcdonald's across the parking lot...

sushi & lotsa mackerel sushi @ 1000 sushi islands barrhaven. i heart mackerel for the uber high omega-3's and its strong rich taste.

assorted seafood udon noodle soup, bbq eel don, salmon teriyaki @ 1000 sushi islands barrhaven. AYCE sushi & japanese. take NO prisoners!!!!

assorted tempura @ 1000 sushi islands barrhaven. extra crispy and explosive batter. very nice.

sushi @ 1000 sushi islands barrhaven. just opened oct 2009. don't complain of the amazing value for the serving and selection. clean presentation, good service, nice new place. let's hope they keep consistent. you can't do this at home for that low price!

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.

Was good AYCE sushi, especially at lunch. The rolls were very good packed compared to other AYCE sushi restaurants who try to stuff you with rice.

This photograph has the unagi, mango and rainbow roll. Mango roll is a new addition onto the menu, apparently. I highly recommend this one as it's sweet, sour and has a nice crunch to it due to the presence of tempura flakes. The unagi roll tasted like any unagi roll anywhere else, but loaded with more cucumbers than usual. The rainbow roll was okay, you really can't expect a very high quality one at a AYCE restaurant.

My family and I are regulars at Sushi Kan and Sakura, so we thought we would try this new AYCE sushi place... BIG MISTAKE...

CONS:
- Discoloured seafood; the salmon and shrimp were really gross looking, like they were sick or rotten or something
- spicy salmon was disgusting
- the waiters refused to fill up our water glasses more than halfway for some odd reason we had to keep asking for more water
- my brother ordered an udon soup and couldn't recognize half of its contents. My mom couldn't finish her miso soup
- the shrimp tempura was a lot of tempura and very little shrimp
- there was loads of mayonnaise on the shrimp tempura sushi and rolls
- staff cannot speak english, and are hard to get a hold of... even when the restaurant is empty. They couldn't describe menu items and so we got some sushi types we didn't order, which we named 'lost in translation' sushi
- we never got many of the things we ordered

PROS
- the seaweed salad was a larger proportion than usual, and tasted rather good
- the restaurant is very nicely decorated and very comfortable

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.

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.