Kyoto Sushi House is surprisingly busy at 3pm on a weekday. I was expecting a private dining experience, but the place was 80% filled. Filled with small tables and several solo diners, many seem to be students filling up on the all-you-can-eat lunch ($21.99) that remains in effect until 5pm.

You’re not going to find amazing food but it’s not terrible either. My favourite item was their chicken udon, which arrives piping hot with chewy noodles, a flavourful broth, napa cabbage and slices of grilled teriyaki chicken. It’s better than having their single order of teriyaki chicken that’s a bit dry without the soup.

I’m glad their carbs come in personal sized bowls. With that said, I’d skip their way too oily fried rice and stick with sushi instead.

Having doubts about consuming budget raw fish, I focused on cooked items like the shrimp tempura and unakyu rolls. The former was fishy tasting, likely because the frying oil isn’t changed regularly, but the eel and cucumber roll was surprisingly good, the requisite combination of crunchy cucumber and meaty sweet seafood.

For the nigiri, I opted to try the tofu skin sushi. Interestingly they don’t stuff the rice into the sweet burn curd pocket, rather binds it on top of the rice. It was what you’d expect… cool, sweet, and juicy.

The only raw ingredient I tried was the crispy spicy salmon roll and the fishy tempera bits made me regret ordering it. In fact, all their fried items we tried - Japanese spring rolls, deep fried dumpling, yam tempura, and fried calamari – are too oily, cheap quality, and tasteless.

I wish the miso soup arrived with the fried platter to have something to wash the oiliness away.

At least I had plenty of room for dessert, ordering a scoop of the red bean and green tea ice creams. They’re like what you’ll find at buffets but satisfies the sweet tooth.