Whenever I am on the road and feel like eating a big heap of scrumptious sushi, I come to the Friedrichstraße to visit Ishin. This big super sushi restaurant does what I like to call ‘fast food sushi’. It is a decent enough place to go with friends, for a lunch or a sushi dinner. However, it is not a beautiful, atmospheric or special location. The restaurant is large, the staff is always in a hurry and you will not feel particularly relaxed.

Nevertheless, they offer great sushi here for even ‘greater’ prices. The food is simply cheap and you get a free mug of green thee to calm your nerves while you wait. It is the perfect place to go when you’re on your own, on a lunch break or when you just want to eat sushi. For little money.

I used to come here in my days of job and house hunting, when I needed a good and healthy (and inexpensive) meal. I would sit at one of the tables in the corner, work on my laptop and eat nice sushi. Due to its location on the Friedrichstraße, many working people come here during breaks or after work. It has a nice clean vibe to it, that makes you focus on the food and less on the surroundings.

Kanpyo, tamago and shinko maki at Ishin. Plus freebies.

The best sushi restaurant in town?

When eating here, you are likely to run into many Asian families eating their meals here. Ishin has been said to be one of Berlin’s best sushi restaurants, but I would have to disagree here. Even though it is great food, I do miss special rolls and inside-outs here. For an adventurous sushi eater or someone who is a bit scared of eating raw fish, Ishin might not be the best location. It is, however, a real authentic sushi restaurant that does sushi ‘the Asian way’. Maybe my problem is simply that have been raised eating sushi in a Western society.

But back to the food. Ishin offers a large menu of different nigiri’s and the possibility to combine them into a nice menu. Or, of course, you can order a ready-made menu that sets you free of making difficult choices. The maki rolls at Ishin vary from original vegetarian combinations to classical maki with spicy octopus, california maki or the big futo maki rolls. All very nicely priced.
But there is a lot more than just sushi on Ishin’s menu. They have authentic Don plates (bowls of rice with raw fish or fried meat on top) and Cey-Ro. The latter consists of rice, steamed in a little box made out of bambu, which toppings of your choice. You can get steamed mussels, salmon, eal, crab of a basic vegatarian variety with mushrooms, lotus and egg. All these dishes are very affordably priced, starting at 2 euros up til nine euros for extra luxerious fish-filled bowls.

I always say I can fill myself up with sushi at Ishin for under ten euros, which is absolutely true. And the most fabulous thing is: whenever you order sushi, they will add two or three complimentary pieces of a different sushi roll! Isn’t that just fabulous?

What makes this restaurant fabulous:

• The food, which is great, authentic and comes from real fresh ingredients.
• The prices, considering you can order sushi rolls for only a couple of the euros.
• The little extras: the free green tea and the extra rolls on your plate always make me happy.

What makes this restaurant less fabulous:

• You cannot pay with a card here, so do not forget to always bring enough cash.
• The staff is mostly in a hurry and they are not too attentive.
• The sushi does not always look as beautiful as you expect it too. They work quickly here.

Ishin is a chain, actually, and has three other locations apart from the Friedrichstraße restaurant.

Where to go?

Ishin Friedrichstraße
Mittelstraße 24
10117 Berlin
030 – 20 67 48 29

• The kitchen closes at 21.30

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