Oiso

This place was so good! We went on a Thursday night and were a little worried when there was no one in the restaurant. But the food was amazing and the service was even better! Our waiter was very helpful and kind, and even gave us a complimentary appetizer. We will definitely be going back.

My BF and I dined here late on a weeknight 30 minutes before closing and we were not treated any differently for arriving so late and we definitely stayed past their closing time. We were only 1 of 3 people in the restaurant so service was very prompt. Sam took care of us, he is so incredibly nice and friendly!
They had some cool lunch bento box specials that I’d love to try later, these boxes combined both sushi and Korean in case you want a bit of everything (like me)!
We ordered the Kalbi barbecue which comes out sizzling on the skillet with a bowl of rice and is 100% delicious and flavorful! It also comes with some ban-​chan or little side dishes. They don’t offer as much ban-​chan as some other Korean places but they were enough and tasty. I will say the kim chi could’ve used a lot more heat! Definitely not spicy enough but still good.
We also ordered the sushi special combo which lets you pick 2 rolls for a fixed rate ($ 18). We also added an eel roll on top of everything because I loovvvee some eel. Our rolls were the «screaming O» and the «love shell». The screaming O contains raw fish but was just okay. The love shell was truly yummy. Rolls are both decently sized and would suffice as its own entrée.
To drink we tried the Orion beer which is a Japanese beer. Light, a bit sweeter than American beers, easy to drink.
I will definitely come back here, probably for their Korean food!

I always get excited when I try a new sushi spot, so I was glad to see this place open only about 5 minutes from my house. I got take out, and I’ve got to say that it was the prettiest take out container for sushi that I’ve ever seen! The rolls were delicious. I ordered the Fire Station, and the Chef Kim’s. I am a fan of Waraji and Kai, and Oiso is definitely on par with them. I can’t wait to try them again tonight for my birthday!

Just got takeout from Oiso. We had heard good things and man we were NOT disappointed. While everything we had was delicious! We were most pleased and impressed with the simplest item! A spicy tuna roll! Every sushi restaurant that cuts corners loves to make their «spicy tuna roll» with tuna and spicy mayo resulting in a light pink goo inside their roll. So to me… A true test of any REAL sushi spot, they will make theirs with simply Siracha or a chili paste and tuna and it will be a lovely deep ruby color as plain tuna and spice should be. This my friends was just that!!! I can’t recommend it enough! Enjoy!!!

We are just home from a wonderful cozy delicious dinner at Oiso. The sushi is amazing and we tried several new Korean dishes. Everything is delicious. Our waiter, Sam was kind, informative and helpful to us in trying new things. The sushi chef is a master. We can’t wait to return.

I happened to be near OISO taking my kiddo to the optometrist (Cary Vision) so I popped in with the 10 year old in tow to try out the new Korean/​sushi joint. The shopping center is nothing to look at but I’ve learned from Unilocaling to NEVER judge an eatery by the center it’s built in. =) The restaurant is intimate and as soon as you walk in you know they are serious about the sushi because the sushi prep area takes up a third of the establishment. Both men spoke in Korean to each other and the waiter spoke perfect English with me. The other two tables had Korean patrons.
We started with the «calamari». It was more like Korean Ojinga Tikkim — but made with flakier panko like crumbs. They were rectangular squid pieces — tender, chewy and full of good squid flavor — not like the foamy white stuff you get at some places. So you need to like squid if you eat these! I would come back just to eat this again and maybe drink some soju or saki with it.
My daughter got the Bulgogi Bento box. I asked if they had kids’ meals and he said that the lunch portions are smaller so she should be okay. LOL Most people don’t want to pay $ 11.50 for a kids lunch so it’s a little steep but you do get a lot of food. She got a nice lunch portion of tender bulgogi and a good amount of steamed rice. The bulgogi had carrots, onions and mushrooms which neither of us like. We are purists. We like bulgogi to be just meat and marinade. The bento box came with a salad OR miso soup. She chose the soup but they mixed up the order so she ended up with both. The ginger salad also has seaweed salad on top and she did not care for that. That’s okay more for me to nibble! There was also a nice fresh california roll. The tempura portion included 1 shrimp, 1 disc of zucchini, 1 ring of onion and 1 broccoli flower.. .it was perfectly made (not as good as Genki) and tasty. They served it with the usual sweet dipping sauce that I ignore. AND the bento box had Korean fried egg discs.. .not sure how to describe this — it looked like Dongtaejeon but I did not taste any fish really. Either way, I loved it. So for $ 12 you get AMPLE food.
Since I knew she was going to have too much to eat. I just got one sushi roll — the spicy Sashimi — it was FABULOUS! It reminded me of a Mary roll from other places. It was a california roll with chunks of tuna and avocado and other yummy good ness with Korean seafood hot sauce (cho hang) and a bit of siracha. It’s not a roll everyone is going to like but for my Korean tastebuds it was perfect. Also, it was nice to taste a roll that did not swim in mayo or eel sauce.
We did not get any banchan.. .I guess with a Bento box you really don’t need any and certainly not with the sushi roll so it must only come if you get the bibimbap or another dish? Not sure.
I think it’s best to describe this restaurant as a terrific SUSHI spot that has some Korean food. I will come back and definitely eat more sushi here. The service was efficient and friendly. The place is very clean and quiet.

Great sushi. Didn’t try any Korean dishes this go around. Had the avocado tuna salad. Could be spicy for some. Also shared the spicy tuna roll along with the salmon crunch roll. Very very yummy! I love sushi and this area is lacking so I was happy to see a new place open! We went I a Tuesday evening so it wasn’t too busy. Nice décor and our server was attentive and very pleasant. Going back to try some more dishes!

Taken it’s the grand opening, they are still trying to make it perfect, I’m trying to provide a few suggestions that would make this place better:
Food: if the food is good at a reasonable price, I’d come back, even if service is lacking. And I gave it three stars.
4 stars for sushi, so not much to talk about, everything is decent.
But 2 stars for seafood udon. Don’t mistake the cuisines here for Japanese, although it comes from the Japanese root (Japanese restaurant), but the kitchen is definitely playing a Korean note on the food here. The seafood udon is on a Korean seaweed based soup, instead of shrimp tempura, frozen small pieces seafood mix is what you would find in the soup along with fish cakes and imitation crab. I would use the same seafood mix to make spicy Korean tofu stew (the key point is the spicy flavor and tofu, not seafood), and they are not well balanced with a light Japanese udon soup. I’ll post a picture of the tiny shrimp I found in my soup. It’s a pity to use subpar ingredients like this, when they can easily play safe and have shrimp tempura, or even make it great by adding flavor In the soup and cook the udon to perfection; it just doesn’t worth the price.
The service is 2 stars. Although I’d pump it up to 3 because I can see the waiter was trying to make it welcoming and doing his best, but one waiter running the whole store front is just not enough. We waited a long time for our food, water, menu and utensils. My udon didn’t arrive until after all of my friends finished eating their rice dish/​sushi. I shared sushi with my husband so I wasn’t starving, but it could be worse.
This new place has a lot of potential, if they bring it up the game by making the food right and hire more wait staff while Keep the service quality.

This place is amazing. So glad that I have a place to go to for delicious sushi and Korean. Will definitely be back.

Absolutely terrific dishes — clearly a top chef experience. They are very busy — need to get systems and service worked out. Love it — will be back.
second visit — food amazing. Not as busy — focus in providing better service/​trading someone.

This is my new lunch spot. Having a good time going through the menu they really do have a wide variety of dishes that are all… so far… very tasty.

Delicious Korean BBQ and sushi! After seeing some glowing reviews I needed to stop by when my sushi craving was strong this weekend.
Small space right next door to The Corner Tavern in Cary. Nice booths line the walls or they have tables in the middle they can bunch together for larger parties. Everyone in here seemed to be enjoying their meals. Our waiter was fantastic and told us all about the menu. I loved being able to share the dishes between my friends. I’m not that familiar with Korean BBQ but enjoyed the beef BBQ I ordered and it came with some delicious additions on the side, you got miso soup, crab pancake, pickled cucumbers, seaweed, and kimichi which was so good. The sushi rolls were large portions and very fresh. I will say be prepared to wait a bit on the sushi it seems like it comes out a little slower then the other dishes.
The menu also consisted of bibimap, and bento boxes I look forward to coming back for a yummy lunch. The have sake, and beer if you want some alcohol. The waiter gave us a free appetizer of edamame and a free dessert of mango mochi. Loved all the staff and the food was great. I’ll be back.

My wife and I ordered one Kalbi (Korean BBQ) and one sushi bento. Both were awesome. The BBQ was accompanied with four nice side dishes and they also tasted great. The bento was large (actually it is hard to finish them all). The fish was fresh.

I tried many sushi places in RTP area and I have to say it is one of the best! If you like An and Waraji, you should definitely try this place.
The rice cooked in perfection and ingredients were very fresh and top quality. I tried at least 8 different rolls with my friends and none of them disappointed me.
I particularly liked Chef Kim’s and Fire Station and Oiso rolls. It is a must try!

Tried this new Korean/​Japanese restaurant in Cary the other night. I had Dolsot Bulgogi Bibimpap which was very tasty. The dinner entrée came with the miso soup & banchan (4 Korean side dishes) — all were good. Good service from nice servers. Will be back to try their sushi !

I am so excited that this new Korean restaurant just opened. Try it out people. Cute décor, friendly staff, and best of all– top notch food! I got the bibimbap which was served in a hot stone bowl with a fried egg. So delicious! Fiancé ordered their lunch special bento box, from which I snatched a number of items to try. Probably the best bento box I’ve had in a long time. The California roll was super fresh, and the box had Korean seafood pancake! Didn’t have real seafood other than imitation crab but it was still super tasty. All the other little app dishes were great too– wasn’t sure what I was eating every time but they were certainly yummy.

This place is amazing! We got there right at closing and they still serves us with smiling faces! We even received a free spicy roll, compliments of the chef! The beer is yummy and the atmosphere was wonderful! The waiter and chef were delightful and educational. We had a wonderful experience and plan on coming back again.

They were packed on Friday night! Service was a little slow, but we were enjoying it. The owner brought out additional appetizers for us because of the wait. Everything we ate was absolutely delicious. Piano roll and surf and turf roll! They recently opened so I’m sure they will work the service kinks out, and we will go back for sure!

This shop location has had so many iterations of food styles, I can’t keep up. This one might be one of my favorites so far (that’s not as ominous as it sounds).
Oiso labels itself as Sushi and Korean and that pretty much sums it up. It’s small, and thankfully they haven’t crammed it full of tables and booths. I like that the aisles are wide enough for two people to walk. With seating for about 40 or so, it’s a calm atmosphere. The colors are muted with the only strong color in the orange lights flanking the chef’s spot.
I didn’t ask for recommendations. I just ordered what looked good and that ended up being the bulgogi bibimbap and shrimp tempura. They obviously had nothing to do with each other when it comes to flavors, but I really couldn’t make up my mind. It probably wasn’t a good idea except that I now have enough leftovers for the next day.
The tempura arrived first at the suggestion of the waiter (thanks for that) and with six pieces, would have been enough on its own. It tasted good, both fresh and with subtle flavors. It was good enough that I look forward to trying some of the other sushi and sashimi options.
The bibimbap was a wow for me. It arrived still steaming in the stone bowl. The rice at the bottom and sides had that crispy crunch. I don’t know if it should have been that way, but it worked for me. It added a nice texture. The bulgogi was sliced small enough where when I stirred it with the rice and vegetables, there was some of it in every bite.
Along with the entrée, a bowl of steaming miso soup and some sides magically ended up my table. All were a hit or miss to me. The kimchi and peppers were very good. The daikon was almost too soft and didn’t have much flavor. The miso had a stronger flavor than the miso from some restaurants. It was good, but maybe because I was already full, it didn’t wow me. I’d eat it if it came with the meal, like here, but maybe wouldn’t order it on its own, especially with all the other choices on the menu.
There’s a lot of food options in this part of Cary, and it’s nice to have another choice.

This restaurant probably has the best kimchi you will find in the triangle area. And the LA kalbi is delicious as well.
They have a variety of AMAZING sushi dishes made fresh everyday.
Aside from the sushi, the Korean food tastes homey, like grandmas cooking. The chef is the kindest man in the world and he makes his food with love. Definitely worth checking out!