We tried Itsu’s end of day sale to see how much sushi we could get for 15 quid

The new St James’ Quarter is finally starting to fill up with shops and has brought with it some new places to eat, shop, and be entertained.

As a Londoner, I was thrilled to hear that Itsu was opening its first ever Scottish spot – there’s one seemingly on every corner at home, serving up light and healthy food on-the-go. It’s like if Pret did sushi and noodle soup. They’re also famous for their end of day sale in their last half hour of opening where you can get 50 per cent off all of their cold food.

With some serious savings to be had, we decided to see how much food we could get in this sale for £15 – the equivalent of three Teviot plain nachos or four Tesco meal deals! But how did we do it?

Securing the (carrier) bag

After drafting in my co-editor to “help” with this challenge, we headed down on a Monday night, as they closed at 10pm meaning the sale started at 9:30pm. This is quite late to be eating lots of food so we decided to grab our sushi and salads as a lunch for the following day.

Getting there so close to closing, I was a bit worried that they’d have sold out of all the best bits. But they had a seemingly full selection on offer and so we basically ordered what we wanted.

We set ourselves a budget of £15 because £7.50 each is approximately what we would’ve spent had we gotten lunch to-go from somewhere near campus. For this, we got two Chicken Teriyaki boxes plus three boxes of sushi: a Salmon Crunch box, a Spicy Tuna Dragon Roll, and an absolutely gigantic Itsu classics box.

After clearing them out of house and home, we called it a night and decided to reconvene in Teviot the following lunchtime. It should be noted that when I got home and put the bag in my fridge, I did have to fend off some very jealous (and hungry) flatmates from stealing our sushi.

The proof is in the eating

After carrying around a massive Itsu carrier bag to my morning classes and being followed by the smell of soy sauce, we grabbed a table in Teviot Sports’ Bar to enjoy the treasure from our little Monday night adventure.

We also decided to draft in a friend to help us because we had no idea how we’d manage to eat it between just two of us.

Starting with the Chicken Teriyaki, it was super tasty. Its labelled as a salad which did concern me because I’m not the biggest lover of salads for lunch as they’re not particularly satisfying in the cold Edi winters. But there was lots of chicken and sticky rice that made it very filling. The veg was also super crunchy, and the soy/teriyaki dressing meant the rice wasn’t too dry.

As for the sushi boxes, the Salmon Crunch baby rolls were my favourite – the crunchy onions on top plus the sauce inside were very tasty. The Spicy Tuna Dragon Roll was also very unique! Finally, the Itsu Classic Box had lots of choice and felt like a good way to try lots of different sushi options to see what you liked and didn’t like. Within the Classic Box, I especially enjoyed the salmon and tuna nigiri as you could really taste the freshness and quality of the fish with no frills.

After well and truly stuffing our faces, the three of us didn’t quite manage to finish everything and we had to send our friend home with a goodie bag for her dinner.

The verdict

Managing to get four (very tasty) meals out of £15 was very impressive. This is especially true when you compare it to what else it will buy you for lunch – after all, it might be the same cost per meal as a supermarket meal deal but the quality and freshness seems much much higher.

I definitely could see myself having the Chicken Teriyaki as a Main Lib lunch – it would be ideal enjoyed in the sunshine on The Meadows when exam season bites hard and the Edinburgh summer finally arrives.

The main issue is that Itsu is quite out of the way in the St James’ Quarter for the average Edi student. Unless you’re a New Town yah, it is a bit of a trek. However, if I happened to be about and nearby, I definitely would pop in again for a discount lunch for the next day.

Recommended related articles by this writer:

• We tested out the Wagamama study benches to see what the deal is

• I ate Too Good To Go for a week and here’s what I found out

• A guide to the best Edi coffee shops to study in