Oishii

Hm. I am usually pretty confident that Unilocalers wont let me down, but the high rating for this place didnt really jive with my experience. First time at Oishii and came in for a quick bite at lunch.
PROS: Friendly service, good New Town location, cute little shop
CONS:
1) I am one of those people who isnt a big fan of overhearing the loud, bitching staff conversations and scratchy kitchen radio in the background.
2) My ramen was good, but not great. Would have liked the broth to be a bit more flavorful and some more interesting veg (there were LOTS of bean sprouts).
3) My rainbow maki roll had so much rice on it that I had trouble getting it into my mouth. It was huge. Way too much rice. With all the rice you couldnt even taste what was inside.
4) My salmon sashimi was still frozen. I was so embarrassed by this I couldnt even say anything. I was biting through ice. I eventually let it just sit there while I finished my other items, and it just ended up in a wet puddle as the ice melted. Just bad.
In the end I only ate about half of my meal. It just wasnt up to par. Perhaps things are better at night? I feel bad because the staff seemed nice, but there are much better ramen/​sushi options around.

Being from Seattle I am a bit of a sushi snob I will admit it, but having tried numerous shops in Edinburgh I will say this is the best one. Food was a bit pricy but this city isn’t known for its sushi so I was ok with paying the prices. Staff was friendly though and the sushi chef was a kind old man. He expertly served the sushi and sashimi like a samurai. I will have to come back and try this place again. If you want sushi quickly though don’t go here as this establishment is a relaxing environment and to enjoy your food properly, one should take their time.

Ate here last night and thoughly enjoyed our night out. Armed with a groupon voucher we headed off to grab some sushi. I had not been here before but was open minded on arrival after reading the Unilocal reviews. We were greeted by a very friendly waitor on arrival who gave us a choice of seats. First impressions of the décor were good its a very well presented place and they have made the most of the space they have.
They have a couple of nice Japanese lagers on the menu that were very resonably priced. I didnt check the Saki selection, but many people around us were sampling this and seemed to be enjoying it.
We went for an array of veg sushi as my dinner companion was vegan. The fish sushi selection looked very nice, as did the dishes going out. The food was great and presentation was just right for me. Throughout the meal the waitor was very attentive and helpful even though the place was full. The chef even popped out a couple of times for a natter with customers which I though was really quite cool.
When we got the bill we relised just how inexpensive the place is even before the discount. I will definately be back great service/​food, nice atmosphere for a date/​chat and inexpensive.

Good Japanese food I think. Service-​not too sure yet. Will need to try again.
Definitely going back once main tourist season is over again.

Expensive and not a good value for the price. I was craving sushi, was already in New Town, so chose Oishii as it was closest and looked nice. It was quite nice and the service was good, but the food lleft something to be desired.
Don’t get me wrong. The fish was fresh and tasty, and the menu had decent options. We went with the rainbow roll, a spicy salmon roll and the chef’s selection of nigiri, and they were all quite good. However, the nigiri cuts were tiny and the amount of fish in the rolls was miniscule. We paid over £20 for the food and tea, and left hungry.

Not bad at all although my expectations bar is quite high as I’ve been spoilt by great Japanese food in London!
My unagi eel rice was well cooked, with a very interesting and tasty sauce. Unfortunately, the rice used was not sticky enough, and actually, sushi rice would have been good, especially since the dish cost £12 pricey for what you get.
The agedashi tofu was better though, lightly fried and very smooth inside. One of the best I’ve had in a while.
The London Insider

Saturday afternoon, coming to the end of the lunchtime rush. I was pointed to a window seat as I was on my own and given a menu. Then I waited. And waited. And waited.
I dallied with the idea that if I turned round to face the sushi chef, that I would have more of a chance of my order being taken, but given that that would be rather rude, I turned back again to face the window, but in a perky and expectant way. Don’t ask me to repeat this, as it was hard enough the first time.
Finally my order was taken. I went for the set lunch menu of nigiri, maki and miso with a green tea. I was craving miso on such a wintery day and figured that the rest of the meal would work, even if it did involve cucumber rolls, which to me is always a copout in sushi (it’s a personal thing — it just doesn’t have any flavour to me). I did throw in some spicy tuna rolls as well as I was hungry and figured on skipping the cucumber rolls.
For the first time in any Japanese restaurant, I was given one cup of tea, no pot. Given that I never saw the waitress again til I got the bill, I ended up being rather thirsty (note this is a tiny restaurant).
First up was the spicy tuna rolls. It smelled rather strongly but tasted ok. Spicy, but not a huge amount of flavour. I did like the texture of the rice though. Next up was the chef’s selection of nigiri which involved two pieces of squid — I’ll put my hands up right now and say I didn’t eat it. Tried it once, nearly choked, never again. I’m a safe sushi eater (tuna, salmon, eel and fish roe), and I am ok with that. Saying that, I thought it was a nice touch to include all varieties of fish in the selection so that the more adventurous get something with more bite. There was also some less than fresh looking tuna (I get it, it isn’t native to here so going to be defrosted, but it looked really sad to me), salmon and egg. The cucumber rolls were overpoweringly doused in wasabi. The salmon rolls were ok, but not a lot of flavour.
You might wonder where my miso description went to, but it goes in last as that is when it turned up — after I reminded the waitress. Definitely, US miso is more salty as I experienced the same watery miso I had in other restaurants in town. I’ll take that as noted.
Finally, when I did get the bill, the waitress wasted no time in trying to take it away from me — even while I was still trying to get the cash out. Tip? Hell no. Would I be back, most likely not — there are better sushi joints in town. Prices are cheap, but you definitely get what you pay for and with raw fish, I would rather pay higher and make sure the fish doesn’t try to return to the sea anytime soon.

Most of what I ate at Oishii was OK, however one dish ruined everything. The soup.
I LOVE pepper. I used to think it was the Grandfather of all condiments. I still think that, but I used to think it too. The soup I ate at Oishii was just too damn much though. The pepper dominated everything that day. So I’ve decided pepper will dominate my review today.
‘We peppered into the pepper on a peppery pepper day. It was pretty pepper inside so it wasn’t hard to get a pepper. Unfortunately, we were peppered right next to some peppered peppers peppering pepperedly. Pepper!
I peppered the pepper and Sally peppered the pepper pepper. All I could pepper was pepper! The peppers were pepper but could totally have peppered some pepper. If this was pepper, how do you pepper the pepper! I peppered it down with some Dr. Pepper, a pepper pepper considering my choice of pepper.
I will definitely give pepper another pepper, but not until my pepper buds have peppered back to their pepper pepper. I really want to pepper this pepper!’