Ye's Sushi

70 Sportsworld Drive
Kitchener, ON

519-653-3888

In her opinion:
I love sushi and sometimes I actually crave it (my normal cravings are usually for sweets or comfort food). This was one of those times. I really enjoy Ye's Sushi. It was my original all you could eat sushi experience. After trying a lot of the all you can eat sushi competition in the area, I actually think it's my favourite. Sorry if that offends anyone but there is no accounting for personal taste.

Ye's has three locations in Kitchener-Waterloo. The Waterloo location, the downtown Kitchener location and the Kitchener/Cambridge border location. The Kitchener/Cambridge border location is the newest of the three and the location of this visit.

I am a sushi expert (in my mind at least) and know exactly what I like. So I basically go for the same things...Spicy Crispy Salmon Hand Roll, Tempura Shrimp Hand Roll, Spicy Salmon Sushi, Spicy Dragon Roll, Rainbow Roll and Green Dragon Roll. I also go for Shrimp Tempura, Mango Salad, Spring Rolls and Ye's Fried Seafood Udon.

Everything tasted great. It was all super fresh and delicious. I don't think I have ever been disappointed in Ye's and this time was definitely no different. It was a great meal with fabulous food.

In his opinion:

Ye's is the original all-you-can-eat sushi in our area. This place is somewhat of a pioneer for not only allowing us to have insane amounts of sushi for a moderate price, but also bringing us pretty good sushi for over 7 years now. Let's face it, back in 2006, 50% of the current Ye's clients had never heard of sushi, let alone tried it, so they deserve the credit that is due. For 7 years now they helped me forget about crappy sushi like SushiQ type of the ol' days.

Nowadays it's a free for all as there seems to be a new all-you-can-eat sushi place in every corner of our town, and that is as much of a bad thing as it is a good thing. More selection is always good but it also means that anyone that has vacationed in Osaka, or bought a "Sushi Making Kit" at the Pottery Barn, thinks they can make sushi or worse, can open a sushi restaurant.

Ye's is what it is. Good sushi for an equally good price. I can't say that I have not had a bad experience at Ye's because I actually have. Those bad experiences mostly came from times where the food took too long or arrived quicker than I could fill my tiny dish of soya sauce. Most of the experiences have been good however. This time was an actual good experience, so I will focus on that...

I find it funny that after so many times eating at all of Ye's locations I find myself zoning in on my favourites only. There are still a few things I have not tried on their menu but I find myself starting off with the pieces that I crave. One piece sushi is a great way to start the dinner. White tuna, Ichiban, BBQ Eel and Spicy Salmon are my preferences. I would like to add that Ye's Spicy Salmon one piece sushi is probably my favourite thing on the menu. (Top left corner on the picture below.)

Then, you can never go wrong with some tempura, really tempura everything. Preference goes to tempura shrimp, eel and yam. How on earth did the Portuguese invent tempura and don't have it prominently in their cuisine? Odd fact!

Chicken Teriyaki skewer (Yakitori) and beef fried rice are also very good. For makis, I tend to stick to Ye's rolls, spicy crispy white tuna roll, Tokyo roll or anything that has avocado in it, and the selection is generous. Tempura shrimp hand roll (1 pc), spicy crispy salmon roll (1 pc) and any spicy dragon rolls (8 pc, green preferred but all good) are my favourites rolls.

If you are not ready to literally roll out of the restaurant at this point from eating so much, you may want to try some of their desserts or ice creams. Mango mousse and green tea or mango ice creams are a great treat.


The Good: Great value for your money, Ye's continues to deliver decent sushi, quickly, effectively and to pretty good standards for an all-you-can-eat.
The Bad: Some days food can be inconsistent, sometimes the rice and fish tastes fresher than others.
The Verdict: Sushi is good in most of these all you can eats, it is certainly not great. Granted it's a lot closer to real Japanese Sushi that the Mandarin is to Chinese food but still not exactly the same. Sushi chefs take years just to learn how to prepare sushi rice properly and minimum 8-10 years to be able to consider themselves a real sushi chef. So, the sushi we have at these restaurants is great for the price but not necessarily great sushi. 
Most people will probably never experience Masa or Soto in New York or even Sukyabashi Giro in Japan so maybe amazing sushi talk is a bit irrelevant.

Nevertheless, Ye's is definitely good enough to kill the sushi craving and more...

I give it 3 out of 5 Olives as rating