Yan W.
Yelp
We were craving sushi tonight, so we tried Ishi Sushi at the Pearl Plaza in Rowland Heights, which is close to the 60 Freeway (cross street: Nogales). We arrived at around 7 p.m. on Friday and, upon entering, it was quiet and almost empty inside. (I think that people always forget about this plaza because the location is a bit tucked in.)
We were greeted by the lady, and we saw the chef there. The ambiance was very welcoming, nice, and comfortable. The chair had a thick cushion for sitting on. :) The menu has Chinese and English but without Japanese, and they played soft Chinese music there. It was a bit weird because they had beautiful Japanese decor there.
For all the sushi rolls, they now have a buy one, get the 2nd one 50% off promotion. By the way, I found out that the chef worked at Nobu Hotel in Las Vegas before.
We ordered the following items:
hot tea x 2 $5.20
fried oyster for appetizer $17
Macho roll $19
Rainbow roll $18 (-$9) for 2nd sushi roll
Salmon Sashimi with Tempura Bento box $18.99
Chirashi bowl $26
The service was good and the lady was friendly, and she helped us to refill our tea a few times. The roasted green tea (Genmaicha) was good.
Fried Oyster- it had a total of 8 pieces and they were delicious, fresh & crunchy outside, and we liked the dipping sauce.
Rainbow roll- California roll with 5 kinds of fish on the top. They were very fresh, and they looked pretty attractive.
Macho roll- California roll with cooked salmon outside (ponzu on top)
The cooked salmon was perfectly matched with the California roll, and they were delicious.
My Salmon Sashimi with Tempura Bento Box- it is served with salad, miso soup, Japanese rice, and 4 pcs California roll. The portion was big, and the salmon sashimi was very fresh, and the tempura tasted great. Miso soup was not that flavorful, but it had less sodium.
The rice and the California roll were authentic, soft, and tasted good.
Edamame was okay. I finished my whole tray except the rice because I didn't want to have too many carbs (but their rice was super good).
Lastly, the chirashi bowl - it had 2 pieces of tuna, 2 pieces of salmon, 1 shrimp, 1 white fish, 1 yellow tail, 1 albacore, 1 Uni, 1 smelt egg, 1 Tamago, and salmon egg. The presentation was very beautiful, and the quality was very fresh and delicious.
Overall, they deserve a 4-star rating. We will go back there again and may try their Omakase or Chirashi again.
Tips: I'm surprised that their default tip guide starts from 20% to 25% on their iPad; if you want to pay less than the default tips, such as 18%, you can select "custom" and choose the tip amount yourself.