Kyoto sushi — Restaurant in Ottawa

I ordered combo box A with beef teriyaki and sashimi. The rice it came with was not Japanese rice, tasted nothing like teriyaki (with overcooked pieces of broccoli and carrot mixed in as filler), and the sashimi was a poorly cut slice of salmon, one shrimp cut butterfly style that had definitely gone off and tasted like actual dirt/mould, and two measly pieces of imitation crab. The tempura was soft by the time it arrived to my table, while the vegetables were not cooked. Tempura is supposed to be light and crispy, not soft minutes after it comes out of the fryer. The dipping sauce had no flavour, I had to bombard it with soy sauce for any taste. The deep fried gyoza was okay (definitely packaged), the seaweed salad was what you would expect from something mass-produced (I did not eat it), when it had said green salad on the menu which I would have actually eaten even if it was cheap. I went here once or twice as a pre-teen and remember it being alright but thats because it was the only Japanese food available. I know the point of a business is profit but there is absolutely no passion in what they do and they are churning out actual trash. Do...

Popped in for lunch around 12:45 PM and the place was almost full—always a good sign, right?

My colleague went for the Miso soup and Tuna Bowl combo, while I opted for the Chicken Bento Box. The food? Delicious! Flavorful, well-prepared, and the portions were generous enough to leave us both happily full.

Now, onto the less tasty parts of the experience...

The vibe inside was kind of... absent. Think library quiet, but without the charm or the books. The bathroom was another story—if you go, prepare yourself for a smell that could knock out a sumo wrestler. Also, the bathroom door shuts with a dramatic BANG loud enough to startle the entire room. Not exactly ambient.

The real kicker? The wait. There seemed to be only two people running the whole place, and while they were clearly doing their best, we ended up waiting nearly 50 minutes for our food. The miso soup made its entrance five minutes before the mains, so calling it an appetizer felt like a stretch.

Bottom line: If you're not in a rush and you’re okay with a minimalist vibe (and a side quest to the underworld if you need the bathroom), the food’s worth trying. Just maybe don’t...

DO NOT EAT HERE IF YOU ENJOY JAPANESE FOOD. My friend and I decided to try out this restaurant, big mistake. For one, the decor and state of the restaurant is abysmal. The lighting was super dark, the carpet was peeling up from the floor, and the single bathroom was disgusting. We also had to constantly swat away flies from our food. My friend ordered a chicken donburi and gyoza, while I ordered the salmon sushi roll. When the food arrived, we were not happy. The rice for the chicken donburi looked as if it was haphazardly dumped onto the plate, and instead of silky soft eggs cooked with chicken, it was hard scrambled eggs beside chicken. The gyoza were TASTELESS. The beef filling had no seasoning, and the gyoza dipping sauce was unbelievably bland. The sauce tasted like water with a pinch of salt. And my salmon sushi roll? The rice was NOT seasoned! It was plain white rice with salmon wrapped up in seaweed. How can a sushi place NOT SEASON their rice?! It completely defeats the purpose of opening a sushi restaurant!!...