Ichiban Japanese Cuisine
Ichiban has good reviews and a high rating on Urbanspoon, so I was expecting some decent sushi. Shortly after sitting down, I heard the staff conversing in Chinese and immediately knew the sushi would not be authentic. Still I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Complimentary miso soup was a good start.
From top to bottom in the picture below, we tried the eskimo maki ($8.25), the volcano maki ($8.95), and the sunrise maki ($9.95). The sushi was unimpressive with less-than-fresh ingredients and clumpy rice. If I had to choose, I would say the sunrise maki was the best of the bunch with salmon and tuna sashimi draped over a roll of shrimp tempura. The eskimo maki was rather bland as the filling was egg, avocado and cucumber — all ingredients with relatively mild tastes. And the thin slices of not-so-fresh smoked salmon on top did not help. I thought the volcano maki would be tastier since it was made with spicy tuna and unagi, but that was not the case at all. The sauce from the unagi made the rice fall apart but did not add to the flavour.
The veggie udon ($9.95) was even more disappointing than the sushi. The presentation was sloppy and unappealing with random chunks of veggies floating in the soup. Worst of all, most of those veggies were still raw. The carrot and cucumber were crunchy and seemed to be uncooked.
I'm not sure why the restaurant is so popular based on online reviews, but I wouldn't want to come back again. I'd much rather go to Sushi Wasabi or Mikado for some authentic Japanese food.
Complimentary miso soup was a good start.
From top to bottom in the picture below, we tried the eskimo maki ($8.25), the volcano maki ($8.95), and the sunrise maki ($9.95). The sushi was unimpressive with less-than-fresh ingredients and clumpy rice. If I had to choose, I would say the sunrise maki was the best of the bunch with salmon and tuna sashimi draped over a roll of shrimp tempura. The eskimo maki was rather bland as the filling was egg, avocado and cucumber — all ingredients with relatively mild tastes. And the thin slices of not-so-fresh smoked salmon on top did not help. I thought the volcano maki would be tastier since it was made with spicy tuna and unagi, but that was not the case at all. The sauce from the unagi made the rice fall apart but did not add to the flavour.
The veggie udon ($9.95) was even more disappointing than the sushi. The presentation was sloppy and unappealing with random chunks of veggies floating in the soup. Worst of all, most of those veggies were still raw. The carrot and cucumber were crunchy and seemed to be uncooked.
I'm not sure why the restaurant is so popular based on online reviews, but I wouldn't want to come back again. I'd much rather go to Sushi Wasabi or Mikado for some authentic Japanese food.
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