It's not the best Japanese restaurant ever, but has always been fairly dependable and the Wudaokou branch is never empty thanks to its popularity with locals, Koreans, Japanese and just about every other student in the area. They offer particularly good deals on sushi roll sets, and individual orders start from six cucumber rolls for around RMB 10 as I remember. The deep-fried, breadcrumbed cheese and pork sounds disgusting, but every Westerner in the place is eating it. Just about anyway.
There's better sushi in Chaoyang, but Isshin's is fine and very affordable. One big complaint is that sometimes they overdo it with the wasabi stuffed into the rolls - I've seen friends almost hospitalised due to a sushi roll being garnished in the kitchen with a surprisingly hefty hunk of wasabi. Just watch out, or tell the staff you don't want too much wasabi.
You can sit at a table or at the bar, where you can watch the sushi chefs do their bit. Value for money is Isshin's strongest card. You can easily spend more money eating in one of those basic conveyor belt sushi restaurants, and given that Isshin is about ten times nicer than those, it still gets a big thumbs up from me after five years in Beijing.
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