Itsu

I love this place: awesome and fresh sushi, nice staff and overall a great experience. Oh did I mention it’s super cheap too? :)

Returning home from another long day at work with stomach grumbling… what to eat? Itsu will provide you with a quick, low-​fat, high protein meal in a modern atmosphere.
I stepped in and jostled my way around the various cardboard trays, locating the sushi box to satiate me… for now. They offer basic sushi: salmon, tuna, prawn; sashimi of the same; and some small mixed salads at reasonable prices. Yes this is fast food sushi, if you want top quality go elsewhere. If you want a pleasant enough place to grab food and relax or have a chat, this is it.

Went to meet a friend for a quick lunch at «Itsu at Liverpool Street Station». Of course there are four of the bloody things, so it took me a while to get here! Once here it was great — we sat upstairs at the smallest table in the world, ate very fresh sashimi and salad and I left feeling very virtuous.

Sushi time! I mean, what is better than slices of raw fish accompanied by raw fish wrapped in seaweed and rice? Honestly, I can’t think of much healthier than that provided the fish is fresh (I fear this was not the case at my last Yo Sushi! outing).
Itsu consistently delivers quality food and fairly affordable prices. My favourite is the Health & Happiness box which is exactly what it says on the tin… uh plastic cover. For £7.99 you get 8 pieces of maki roll (4 pieces salmon roll, 4 pieces crab roll), 2 pieces of salmon sashimi, 3 pieces of salmon nigiri, 2 pieces of tuna nigiri, and a sort of seaweed salad. All in all, plenty of food to stuff you for lunch.
As a little educational lesson, let’s go over some definition of what we generically term sushi.
Nigiri = an oval ball of sushi rice over which is draped a slice of sashimi, often secured with a dab of wasabi paste
Sashimi = A slice of raw fish usually plain but can be marinated in soy and coated with sesame seeds depending on the style and fish. On the rare occasion, it can be cured or seared but the majority is uncooked.
Maki = This is the roll that most people associate with sushi. It involves rice, seaweed, and often sesame seeds.
Yes, it’s expensive for a lunch but you have to pay for quality. I get a lot more enjoyment out of an Itsu sushi box than I do out of a BLT from Sainsburys.
At this particular Itsu, I find the service is quick and only occasionally condescending. The food is ultra fresh and you need to be careful at lunch timings as they tend to run out of the most popular items (my favourite box being one of them) if you try to go after 1/1.30 pm. The good news is that they make more on site so if you are craving it for dinner they will have replenished their stocks.

My favourite place for mid-​week tea and everyday lunch!
Love all the sushi boxes, their miso and the hot stuff is brilliant too!

good fresh japanese food for a quick bite. good variety of everything and very clean. Good variety and much better than Samurai Bento which I wont even rate since they are not even close.

Itsu is a really great place to eat some noodles in style. The food is really delicious!
You can get a huge portion of spicy dumpling noodle soup which i always find hard to finish, so it’s good to come with a friend!
Sushi boxes range from 4 – 10 pounds!
They do really nice passion fruit mouse shots which are really yummy too!
The décor of the palce is really fresh, lots of white plastic, neon pink, blues and yellows and nice patterns on the walls!

I love Itsu for lunch. They have salad boxes with choices of salmon, tuna, steak or chicken for approx £6 or sushi boxes of varying sizes between £3.25 — £9.95. Their soups are yum & I think well priced for the sizes. Also offer snacks & frozen yoghurts. Has seating on ground floor & above on a mezzanine level which looks nice enough. Does get very busy in the office hours lunch rush, but the queues move fairly quickly. Could do with updating their menus a bit more regularly — as in introducing new choices — especially in the soup options now that it’s coming into winter — as most people who purchase from here are regular customers who work in surrounding offices. There’s a larger branch near moorgate that I prefer (but it’s that bit too far away to be bothered walking to!).

This place is awesome, it sits halfway between some kind of Pret and a proper sushi restaurant. The sushi is good quality and the selection is pretty good but it all comes packaged like it would in Pret — but not Bento boxes, more like an organic food place cardboard box.
I always have the sashimi box which has loads of salmon and tuna sashimi with grated carrot and edamame which is a tenner and then some fresh carrot juice which is £2.50 — it makes a pricey lunch but then cheaper than if you had sashimi in a restaurant.
nicenice

This two level branch of Itsu always seems busy and with good reason. There a quite a few sushi and sashimi pre-​prepared selection boxes on offer as well as miso soup, refreshing drinks, noodle soups and the weirdly more-​ish wasabi peanuts.
The décor, layout and lighting is somewhat sterile but the food is consistently good, the service is fast (even with long queues) and you can usually find a seat at lunchtime due to the quick turnover.