Tucked away next to the cinema in Royal Plaza, you’d almost miss the entrance to Oishi Sushi. But once past the painted screen, it’s a good sized restaurant complete with sushi conveyer belt and open teppanaki grill. Catering to both mall-rushed crowds and groups bent on lingering, we eagerly take a seat next to the conveyer belt and peruse the menu. Massive, it spans every kind of Japanese cuisine imaginable, from soups and noodles to main courses, tempura, and of course sushi. For those more than a little overwhelmed by it all, there’s neat sushi and sashimi platters or bento boxes.

What doesn’t make ordering easier, however, is the oddly absent waiters. We turned up on a Thursday night, and the restaurant was busy, but not so busy that our waiter had a reason to depart our table mid-order: we had to flag her down to get the final items in. But, although it may have been haphazard, she was accommodating: the night we went, there was no crabstick, a basic ingredient in several of the rolls, and she dutifully came up with alternatives for us.

Although my dining companion and I share a love of all things Japanese, this time around we decided not to mess around and stick with sushi. We start with the ebi (shrimp) tempura to hold us over until our rolls arrive, and keep us from just snatching passing platters off the conveyer as it rolls past.

Each different- coloured plate comes with a different price tag, and it’s all too easy to gobble them down before your meal even arrives. When it does, the tempura is light and crisply fried, not too battered or greasy. We then switch to sushi and the shake skin tamaki, cones of seaweed stuffed with spicy salmon skin, tempura maki rolled with bits of tempura inside, spicy salmon rolls, and the Doha roll, a locally-inspired (we’re still not sure how) item involving various fish and cream cheese.

The tamaki cones are fantastic – not too full that they spill out when we bite them, they’re a great handroll snack stuffed with tangy salmon skin. Too often salmon skin rolls just taste burnt, but these are crispy perfect. The rolls too don’t disappoint: decent size, neither too small or too big, they have less rice than many other options in the city, but just as much flavour.

The spicy salmon rolls have a lovely back-of-the-nose burn, and the tempura maki has a nice crunch, although we wish they’d added something else into it to really bring out the textures. The Doha roll however is the real table favourite, even if it lacked the usual crabstick it comes stuffed with. With several different kinds of fish and cool cream cheese, it’s a westernised version of sushi that’s just delightful.

When we finally manage to corral our waiter once again, we go for dessert: with the usual ‘Japanese’ dessert items like green tea and tempura ice cream, the menu also splashes out on mochi, sweat bean desserts. We go for the chocolate one and wait in mild trepidation. When it arrives, it’s weirdly delightful – dark and fudgy, it’s almost like the best brownie I’ve ever eaten. Almost. The centre is oozing and good, if the texture is a little different than my western palate is used to.

All in all, Oishi Sushi is a big step above the usual mall sushi offerings, and can give stand-alone and higher-end sushi restaurants a run for their raw fish money.

The bill (for two)
1x Pellegrino QR22
1x Aqua Panna QR14
1x Ebi tempura QR53
1x Shake skin temaki QR17
1x Tempura maki QR53
1x Doha roll QR50
1x Spicy shake maki QR27
Total QR263