Ichiban Fish House

Ichiban Fish House is a step above your run of the mill sushi places. It’s got the specialty fish that you would expect from some of the more higher end establishments but at a fraction of the price. Here you will still find your everyday selections but it is the specials that truly make it stand out. The price is a little more expensive as well say for example comparing platters to say GALS the platter is approx $ 10~ more expensive and less 8 pieces.
The service of the restaurant can be a little lacking as they always seem to be short on staff. At often times you find yourself waiting for utensils or even finding it hard to find someone to take your order due to the weird angle of the restaurant. If you dont really care about the service or lucky enough to have the server in your area do take the opportunity to wave them down and get your order in first. The only thing left to worry about is the wait for the bill.
I would give this place a try if you already haven’t despite its short comings and price tag it is still a heck of a long way from establishments like Zen and the like that can easily run you $ 200+ for two people.

Don’t order base on their picture menu cause you will be disappointed. Ordered the small sushi platter for dinner on Father Day, and it took them more than a hour to get 24 sushi on a plate. The sad part is what on the plate is nothing like the picture. Picture showed salmon belly sushi but what they gave was regular grade salmon that I could have had any buffet. When asked why the fish cut doesn’t match their picture and why only the cheap fish was given, their excuse was the picture menu is just for picture, and if it wasn’t busy she would ask the chef to change it. Lol.
My $ 27 is better spent at a buffet next time for the same quality.

Quite busy for a Saturday for take out. On the downside already a bad impression when entering the restaurant. We had to wait 15 minutes for a table when there were visibly empty seats in the back of the restaurant.
After we were seated the waiter was already trying to get our order. We just sat down. The menu was hard to navigate. It is a picture album menu.
Another down side to the menu is that it does not indicate whether it is a daily or weekend special. As customers beside us tried to order a combo but was denied.
Appetizer were standard miso soup and salad. Salad dressing on the salty and garlicky side for me.
We ordered the medium tray maki roll combo for $ 37.95 and the golden treasure roll for $ 14.95.
Sushi taste was good. Rice to fish ratio was good. Rice had right balance of vinegar.
The meal ended with complementary green tea ice cream.
Overall a good meal besides from poor first impression which is key to returning customers.

I came here with my sister and mom on a weekday night. There was a few tables occupied but still had lots of seatings available. We were seated immediately and was given the ‘menu’. The menu was a photobook which was different than other restaurants. I actually like how it is a photobook, each menu item having a picture to refer to.
We ordered the medium sushi/​sashimi boat and a uni crab roll. The sushi was fresh and the sushi/​sashimi boat had a good variety of sashimi. There was different cuts of tuna and salmon and you can taste the difference between each cut.
The uni crab roll had crab meat in it topped with their sauce and slightly torched uni. I wasn’t blown away with the roll but it was still good.
The meal comes with miso soup, salad and green tea ice cream.
The service was great, the waitress came back a few times to fill our water. The portion size offered is good as we left satisfied.

I gotta say, not sure if it’s part of all the other Ichiban franchises but this if they are, this is definitely one of the better places. I was quite surprised.
Blue Fin Tuna set ($ 35)
I actually came here just to try this. This is your real bang for the buck, where are you going to find 5 o-​toro sushi, 6 o-​toro sashimi, and 6 pieces of neigitoro sushi at that price?! In terms of quality I must say I’ve had better, but this definitely cures your toro fix. Only thing is when I originally saw pictures on instagram I saw a mix of cuts from the tuna, some looked like chu-​toro and not just all o-​toro — would have been nice to have a mix. Too much o-​toro did make it feel really fatty and was a little too much to have all at once.
Spicy Salmon Handrolls ($ 5.50 each)
These were really good. The salmon meat went all the way to the bottom. It was mixed with some tempura bits which added a nice crunch.
Unagi sushi and scallop sushi ($ 6.50 for each pair)
The fish were fresh — good quality. The scallops were decent size, not the thin ones some restaurants serve.
No Rice Roll ($ 15)
Saw this in the menu and just had to order i! Normally when I go to sushi restaurants I hate it when they stuff the rolls full of rice and I’m usually the type that would start picking the rice out. Totally enlightened me as I never had a roll without rice before! How brilliant. But anyways inside was salmon and shrimp tempura wrapped in thinly sliced avocados, and wrapped it the outer layer. I’m not 100% sure what the outer layer was to wrap the sushi — it seemed too thin to be rice paper. It actually doesn’t look too appealing but it was actually really tasty.
Service was good, really friendly — the food came fast, and my tea cup was always full which is a huge plus for me since I always drink a lot of tea. They also served complimentary soup and salad, and green tea icecream as well.

WHO are all these people giving this place 4 stars? This place is a sorry excuse for a sushi place. I came here for lunch with a coworker and we both had an bento lunch box.
First, their menus are literally just pictures and sticker labels with hand-​written prices in a photo album. No, actually. The ‘menu’ isn’t even categorized or has tabs that would show you that lunch bento boxes are in the back of the menu. HORRIBLE.
The food itself was OK. All of the bento boxes come with tempura. WHAT IF someone doesn’t like tempura? I guess they never thought about that…
Usually with bento boxes you get sides like japjae (which is Korean, but apparently tomato tomato), fried tofu, etc. I got seaweed salad (fine), a SHU MEI (wtf?) and a western-​style meatball (HUH??).
First, the shu mei that I got is from frozen because I used to buy them myself. They’re by this Chinese brand that has a stick figure in the logo. I can go to the store and pick it out for you. Also, I’m PRETTY sure that the meatball is PC brand. Yes, I am very well-​versed in frozen appetizers.
The rest of the bento box was fine. Nothing to write home about. But since I KNOW that their apps are from frozen, there’s no saying whether their fish is previously frozen as well so I’m VERY skeptical. I wouldn’t come back here.

Best quality at an affordable price. You can have uni, lobster and a large variety of fresh fish for $ 60. It’s says for 2 people but we never really can finish it all. It is super fresh!

Service was pretty good and fast. Wait staff was attentive and came over a few times during the meal to refill our tea. Their menu was a photo album, so it was a little hard to navigate.
What stood out was the quality of the fish. Super fresh and tasty. Sushi was great for its price.

Good value sushi. Fish tastes fresh and there is a big selection of combos to choose from.

I can here again and was really disappointed. The quality of my favourite chefs special really took a dive. You can tell just by looking at the fish that it wasn’t very fresh. This was the first time I came here that I couldn’t finish my food. I’m going to give this place another try and if it doesn’t improve, I think I have to find another go-​to jap place

Used to come here quite a bit over the years, but it seems to have gone downhill over the years. Ended up here when another restaurant was closed, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was quite full. Waited for a bit, but got seated rather quickly.
A very small interior space, but a good number of manageable tables. The menus are quite unique in that they are photo albums, featuring everything they have in photos. Just a little hard to navigate as they aren’t really sectioned off. The photo album also hasn’t changed over the years, so some of the photos are a bit outdated.
My friends and I decided to go for the boat to get as much food as we could. The fish was quite fresh, but some of the sashimi cuts were so large, it wasn’t that enjoyable. The sushi and rolls were amazing though.
I have been here a couple times before and found that some of the items weren’t that good. The gyoza especially were all soggy and flat. Not recommended.
The service was absolutely horrendous though. We weren’t given tea when we sat down, and had to ask for it! Our soup and salad came, but we didn’t have chopsticks of napkins either. I asked for chopsticks, thinking the server would give us both, but only came with chopsticks. I then had to ask again for napkins. Towards the end of our meal, I requested some more tea, which the same server from earlier forgot. I asked again, just to give her the benefit of the doubt, but she forgot again. She would listen to my request, but then immediately go to do something else! I could tell she was getting annoyed with me asking her multiple times, but if she decided to use her brain, none of this would have happened… Overall, the servers all seemed to hate that they were there and were not very friendly at all.
A good place for some a la carte Japanese food, but I would be careful what you order, and beware of the service. The sushi and rolls saved their star rating.

I’ve been here quite a few times and I think the quality and price for a sushi place in this area is not bad at all.
The combos and meal comes with miso soup, salad and green tea ice cream (yumm). I believe I ordered the combo #1 that comes with 6 pieces of maki, various sashimi and sushi. Along with that we ordered one of their special rolls with warm fish on top, this roll was quite delicious but tasted weird once it cooled down. The sauce may it feel very heavy as well.
Overall, good sushi for once in a while but definitely some better places out there.

I don’t usually come here to order the salmon sashimi or the california roll. If I did, I’d probably give a slightly above average rating of 3.5 stars as well because to be honest, it’s hard to make those things stand out. If you would like to try something truly unique, please tolerate the higher price point and order yourself one of the Chef Specials. They are an assortment of sashimi, all arranged beautifully at the chef’s discretion. Because it is up to the chef’s selection and creativity, every order is unique.
The first time my family ordered one of these Chef Specials, I had the fortune of trying an unidentified piece of thick white and pink sashimi that melted in my mouth like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. That was the first time I’ve tried O-Toro…or tuna belly, arguably the most expensive of all sashimi delicacies. Surrounding it were succulent pieces of fatty salmon belly, chewy conch meat (in its original shell), sweet scallop, and fresh sea urchin. I wasn’t familiar with a lot of the fish selections that were chosen and to be honest, I didn’t know what I was eating half the time. Doesn’t matter, it was ALL delicious.
The second and last time I’ve ordered the Chef Special, they had lobster tail and a whole fish. That’s right, a fish that was about the size of a small hand, with its meat carved out and the rest of the fish (head, bone, tail) decorating the edge of the plate. They later took the fish and deep fried it so that we could enjoy the rest of it in all its crispy delight.
It was these two one-​of-​a-​kind experiences that have really solidified Ichiban as a great sushi place in my mind that is well-​deserving of its slightly higher price point. I’ve tried their other dishes before, like their rolls and sushi/​sashimi platters and boats. As others have pointed out, they’re not bad. But if you are feeling a little adventurous, my suggestion is to save up a bit of money, come here on a special occasion, and order something that truly stands out.

Have been visiting this restaurant from time to time for a quick lunch since years ago. I think the quality has gone down from before.
Fish quality is similar to some average AYCE. To be honest, good AYCE places like Matsuda has surpassing sushi quality, flavour, freshness than the fish at this restaurant.
The tempura batter is soaked in oil, as if it’s been deep fried more than once. I tasted more oil than the shrimp or yam. I only ate 2 of the tempura pieces out of like 8 pieces.
The price is quite reasonable for the portions, especially for their bentos. Around $ 14 after taxes and tips.

Very nice little place inside 富食街. Amazing quality sushi and sashimi. Their menu is a photo album so it’s very self explanatory. They usually have combos or specials andare pretty decently priced platters. They also serve Japanese beer, sake and soju.
It’s a pretty small place and seats very little people so keep that in mind. Seats under 60 people.
You always get mixed green salad, miso soup and green tea ice cream with your order.
Cash order take outs are either 10% off or tax free depends on what they say at the time. So they do get a lot of orders. Call to make your orders.
Service is pretty good. They speak Japanese, English and Mandarin.
I often come here for special celebrations or milestones because it’s not overly priced and you get great quality food. They are not all you can eat.
They serve seasonal greatness like oysters, hamachi, lobster sashimi, toro, uni, scallop sashimi, ebi sweet shrimp sashimi, fish liver etc.

The average Unilocal rating is 3.5 stars, and I wholeheartedly agree with the consensus.
This Ichiban has been in business for as long as I remember the Richlane Mall is opened. I have patronized here numerous times over the years. I believe the one undeniable strength of this restaurant is consistency. The raw fish in sushi and sashimi has been reliably fresh. The fish quality is similar to a good AYCE or slightly better than an average AYCE. The rice has always been supple. The portion is never large or small, just reasonable for an average person. If you are a big eater, prepare to order an appetizer or a roll on top of a sashimi or sushi order. The services is not super fast or attentive. When they do wait on you, the wait staffs are courteous. The waitress is often sensitive and patient with the needs of the children who dine with me, such as warm water not cold, nothing raw, nothing spicy, take forever to go through picture menus, etc…
3.5 stars for food, services and decoration. 0.5 stars for consistency.

Been here a few times and for some reason every time we go, we never know what to order. This is probably just me but I prefer a list for a menu, as suppose to flipping through the photo album one by one per item. It just makes it difficult to order when we order multiple things. Pictures are great tho!
The wait staff speak Chinese; as it is located in a Chinese mall. Personally, I thought they could’ve been more helpful in helping us decide as we had no idea what to order. We had somebody sitting at our table who was vegetarian as well. We asked if there was anything vegetarian, but she didn’t say anything. Instead they got us plain udon (with no vegetables) as all the udon had some sort of meat in it. After flipping through the menu, we did find an avocado and cucumber roll — so at least that was something!
Other then that, the food was A-​OK. This including the sashimi, sushi, gyoza and tempuras we’ve had in the past.

I came here and has there donkatsu don with a spicy salmon roll and salmon sashimi on the side. This place satisfies my sushi cravings for a la carte. When you walk in there’s not much seating area. But the employees are very friendly throughout the whole time you are there. I didn’t really like the way they made their donkatsu but overall the spicy salmon roll and sashimi were fresh and tasted right. I’m usually not a huge fan of ice cream but their complimentary green tea ice cream is amazing and I even asked for seconds. They have amazing customer service and I wouldn’t necessarily say that their food is to die for but I would definitely come back again.

Best place in Richmond hill for sushi.
Very unique and fresh items.
Service is wonderful.
The restaurant is kinda small so I suggest making reservations.

Small and cozy Japanese restaurant.
Got the Ichiban special B which came with 24 pieces of sashimi, 14 pieces of sushi and 14 pieces of sushi roll all for $ 60.95. It was presented in a wooden boat which is like the new standard now a days. The sashimi was fresh and cuts were a good size. I liked the variety of sashimi offered (shrimps, shrimp heads, uni, scallops, tuna, salmon and one other fish which I am not familiar with). There was even some special cuts of salmon which are more fatty and can be easily identified with its white fatty markings. I especially enjoyed the scallop, uni and shrimp sashimi. They were all really fresh and tasted so good.
With a total of 52 pieces we didn’t think it would fill the four of us so we ended up getting some fried dumplings (gyoza) too for $ 7.95 which came with 9 pieces. Tasted okay but it was really only ordered to fill our hunger as the sushi boat is a bit small for 4 people. Its really recommended for 2 – 3 people in my opinion since I eat the amount for 2 people with my appetite.
Meal came with salad, miso soup for appetizer and green tea ice cream for dessert.
Service was fast. Prices are pretty high but the quality of the sashimi made up for it. You get what you pay for.