The sleek Sushi-OO at Mercury Ville has sustained its opening buzz by offering something different from the usual raw fish places across town: Osaka-inspired double sushi featuring two pieces of sashimi.

The place is always packed during lunch and dinner, so while the service is fast, it’s not always the most attentive. The kitchen, on the other hand, deals relatively well with the crowds, rolling out consistently tasty dishes.

An appetizer like the Ootaizer (raw octopus and salmon in mayonnaise wasabi, B148) provides a very Japanese welcome thanks to the freshness of the ingredients, plus the very well-balanced mayo. Just be warned the wasabi is really powerful, here. The shoyu salmon head (B128) is our favorite, though, as the head is boiled to perfection so that the meat is still fresh and has absorbed all the salty flavor of the shoyu.

As for their signature, the double sushi, we love that the premium offerings still come at affordable prices, such as the otoro (fatty tuna, B380), uni (urchin roe, B380) and foie gras (B250), while the cheaper cuts like squid sushi are just B30. You can also opt for the chirashi rice topped with three choices of sashimi or any topping you like, everything from sweet omelet (B60) to otoro (B780). Though we enjoy their big tasty chunks of sushi, our main complaint would be that the rice was a little too soggy on our last visit.

The cheap and mostly satisfying food does come with another negative, though, as the tiny place is absolutely crammed with tables. This means that come meal time, the atmosphere is cacophonous, like a food court, while it can be a little unnerving to have your neighbors ogling your order at such close quarters.

For drinks, they have a wide range of Asahi beers and sake, from fruit beer (B118 per glass) to sparkling sake (B378 per bottle).

If you can deal with the food-court vibe and crowds (and it seems you are not alone), then Sushi-OO’s dishes represent pretty good value for money.