Ichi Ban Japanese

Looks like someone may have bought the place. Any idea what they will be turning it into? I would love a sushi place or brewery right by us lol.

sadly, they are now closed.

I love sushi! This place was great for the price they had a great deal for a guy just wanting to have a variety. Friendly staff also. Great conversation with the chef with family in the sf Bay Area.

Great service and pricing, sushi was pretty good too.

I specifically signed up to Unilocal to write a review for this place. That’s how bad our experience was. I was really excited to eat at this place, since I’ve passed by it several times. We went last Thursday evening around 6:00. There were only about 4 tables sat when we got there. We got seated, and that was the last we ever saw of anyone. We waited for about 15 minutes and no one even came to acknowledge us. The table right next to us got sat and had their drink and sushi orders taken right away. We spoke to the the waiter and the manager about the situation, and they appeared to be uninterested and didn’t even care. We ended up leaving. I’d like to think we weren’t being profiled, but who knows. The place wasn’t busy, and they chose to ignore us. Manager/​owner couldn’t care less. Don’t go to this restaurant unless you like bad service.

Was out and about on a Sunday night with a couple of girlfriends and one wanted to stop at Ichi Ban and since I have never been, I was up for the adventure. When we walked in their wasn’t that many people there, maybe a handful and I have to say service was fast & friendly, and that’s always a nice touch.
I ordered the tempura, teriyaki beef with 6 California rolls; I have to say the tempura was delish! It was light, crispy and very good, was sad when it was all gone. The teriyaki beet had good flavor, but I wasn’t impressed, the California rolls were fresh and tasted good.
We also ordered some rolls & nigir and have to say I wasn’t really that impressed with some of the rolls. I am glad I got to check it out, have heard friends talk about the place before, but I’m not sure if I will be coming back any time soon.

As a child, loved going to this place to see the chefs entertain you with their cooking. They create huge flames, toss cooked onions onto your plate with the flick of a wrist, and chop and slice things very fast. That said, not sure if those are enough to keep me entertained as an adult. And the food is good but not great. All in all, a fun night for young ones and probably a little underwhelming if you want to pay for great flavor not cooking antics.

Not the best food, terrible building, it has been everything from a barbecue to a steak house in it’s checkered past.
It is cheaper than most Japanese restaurants.
It is near my house and I get sushi to go. I keep going back since the sushi is good and they are fast.

It is a nice restaurant that is within a minute from our house. The staff has changed and the food is okay. Last nights experience just wasn’t up to my Teppan Grill standards. The prices aren’t to bad and I’ve never really liked their sushi here.

Very friendly sushi chef and very quick staff. They have a half price sushi menu if you order more than five pieces. My brother and I ordered at least ten, and it was excellent. They kept my beer full and the crowd there was obvious regulars.

Why is this place so hidden?! I totally dig this place. Order 5 or more sushi plates and its half off! Yeah you heard me right starting NOW NOW NOW!!! Go Go Go!!! Kampai!!! Besides the cheap price I thought the Sushi itself was pretty good; then again I’m no sushi snob a-​har a-​har a-har…(is Tsunami really a sushi roll?) :) Our service was pretty good — she was attentive and you know what, I really appreciate the traditional Kimono she was wearing. I love it! Moreover, the décor was awesome! Japanese art and traditional murals that give this place a homey feel. All that is left is to take off my shoes and put on some zori sandals. — Enjoy!

Only reason I gave this place three stars was because I have not tried the food yet BUT I will say this place is a good place to stop by and go to the bar for a few rounds of sake bombers. Ridiculously cheap, me and the boyfriend had four rounds and only spent about $ 23 bucks that was including the beer as well. The staff is awesome as well, very attentive and funny as hell. We had such a good experience just having drinks at the bar that we will def be back for a full experience with food. I’m not a huge sushi person but glancing over the menu. They have ALOT of sushi if that’s your thing. The appetizers really looked good, will be trying those next time fa sho :)

i pretty much love this place. yes, i understand that in order to get phenomenal sushi, i should probably go to some place on the west coast with instant access to the freshest seafood possible butttttttt since i live in arizona and really dont feel like hopping on a plane to LA every weekend, i’m going to make due with what i have which is Ichi Ban.
i love this place for many reasons:
1. ½ price on sushi rolls when you order 5 or more (dine in only)
2. super friendly sushi chefs that are extremely hilarious and will take pictures with you.
3. fun atmosphere with an easy access sushi bar
4. they serve alcohol (yes, i know you expect this from restaurants but i always like to point out the fact some place as liquor because, well, i’m a lush sometimes. yes, sometimes.)
5. variety of sushi and specialty rolls
6. you can have teppanyaki if you really want to.
i mean really, how could you go wrong? well, you could just inherently suck, but who’s judging? the past 4 times i’ve gone i’ve had a great experience with excellent service and tasty sushi goodness. so happy ichi ban is right around the corner :)

We wanted to try some Japanese food. A nameless coworker of mine suggested Ichi Ban, located on Alma School and Baseline Rd. Apparently he told us that he had drove by it and thought it would be worth a try. He must have drove by it drunk. The appearance of the building is simply a monstrosity in and of itself. The architects must have been on acid when they designed it because it is such an eye sore. I keep hearing in my head, «.don’t judge a book by its cover», yet my judgments usally end up being correct.
When we walked into the establishment that is Ichi Ban there was nobody in there. I mean it was totally dead. At that moment I felt that if we continued to sit down and eat we might just die. Ichi Ban had Kitchen Nightmare written all over it. I mean, if when you walk into a restaurant and nobody is there take that as a sign from God not to eat. So we sat down and ordered some food.
Everybody got soup. I guess it came with your meal. I didn’t try the soup myself, but I looked around and watched as others did. And the reaction on their faces told me that it probably tasted of dishwater. A while after we got our soup our main courses arrived. I had the Teriyaki Chicken. Let me say that the rice was mushy and the chicken was cold. I could hardly eat any of it. The chicken was served on top of a nasty piece of lettuce that just made me want to barf. Forgive me if I am being a little sensational here, I am trying to make up for the lack of sensation I had when eating the food. Two of my other coworkers had some noodle dish of which they complained that there wasn’t enough chicken in it.
As we were eating what we could I saw the cook at the sushi bar premaking some food. There was nobody in the restaurant and I wondered who he was making all of it for. Clearly the food isn’t prepared fresh and I could taste it in my own dish. I thought to myself, «.how long ago was this chicken cooked, because it is cold now.» I must say that Ichi Ban had one thing going for it, great tasting Coke.
After we finished, we got the bill and it ended up costing me $ 12! I normally don’t complain about prices. I’m not poor. But for what we got, it just wasn’t worth it. I was pissed. Perhaps I had been a bad boy and maybe that is why I got such horrible food. As we left we all decided not to come back, thank God. I wonder how long Ichi Ban will last before it goes under. It looked and tasted pretty grim.

If I have my way, last Saturday night will have been the last time I ever visited this Ichi Ban location. I was disappointed by something different each and every moment that passed.
The sushi was not impressive as we were told it would be, the teppan grill chef was not that engaging or interesting, the overpriced food (from the fried rice to the scallops) was drenched in butter and otherwise tasteless, and the service was mediocre.
I could on, but I’d eventually start to feel bad. I think you get the point. If you are looking for good sushi or teppan grilled food, there are far better choices nearby.

I’ve been here before on multiple occasions and always enjoyed myself, so I was really looking forward to writing this review. Until I went again. It’s been a couple years, and things have either changed, or I was on crack a couple years ago… and I wasn’t.
When one walks into a restaurant and it is 114 degrees outside, one looks forward to the cool rush of air conditioning to make one comfortable before dinner. One does not find that here. There seemed to be a central air conditioning system in place, but it was either broken or unused. I’m guessing unused, because they have wall air conditioners spaced five feet apart all along the walls of the place, and of the ten or twelve of these, one was on, vaguely near us. It didn’t help. It’s rather a big building. This is like trying to heat your whole house with a match. In Siberia. At night.
But the food, right? We ordered two appetizers that any competent restaurant should have no problem with: fried calamari and crab puffs. The fried calamari looked like big fat onion rings. No subtlety here, these calamari were obviously steroid-​fed giants that required a sawzall to disassemble. They had the consistency of big giant rubber bands. The crab puffs were uninspiring. But at least they came with two different varieties of watery, salt-​flavored sauce!
We went for the Teppan, because what else would you go to a Teppan place for? Before the floor show started, the first course was a delicious bowl of saltwater soup. What’s that dear? It was supposed to be chicken broth? The wife says it was chicken broth. I had no idea. I thought it was saltwater soup, so I was holding it to a lower standard. As saltwater soup goes, it was delicious, I’m fairly certain there were three or four slices of green onion in it! As chicken broth goes, though, it was pure ass-​ery.
And now for the Teppan. The floor show! I love Teppan floor shows! I paid thirty bucks for this! Bring it on!
An amiable young man approaches our table. He is not wearing a Teppan chef uniform. Hmm… well, he certainly knows how to click his spatulas together and make noises! This should be great! Yeah, no, not so much. In between dropping everything, slinging sauces all over everybody and generally screwing up all his «moves» he was about as impressive as that dude on the Food Network who took up flair bartending for a week and entered the world series of flair bartending only to look like a gigantic douche.
But the food, right? Let me tell you about the steak. It was cooked perfectly. When you take your first bite, that wonderful, overwhelming flavor of delicious margarine hits you like a brick to the face. It is followed up by that oh-​so-​subtle flood of salt and a hint of sugar. A TOUR DE FORCE (of suck). The fried rice and shrimp fared similarly.
At least when he did that thing where he lights a giant column of fire in front of us, we could take comfort in the fact that even though we were sweating our balls off, the fire was very impressive. We asked him not to do it again though. BECAUSE IT WAS HOT.
Seriously you geniuses (genii?). Turn your air conditioning on. I know the place was empty on a Tuesday night or whatever, but DID YOU EVER STOP TO WONDER WHY? Oh and if you’re going to have an amateur running the Teppan table serving up your six-​shrimp and 3oz steak portions for dinner with absolutely zero pizazz, that’s cool, but how about making it half price like the sushi? It’s hardly worth that. Seriously, no wonder the employees skulk around like zombies in need of potent doses of prozac. They probably all figure they’re going to be in the unemployment line soon.

My boyfriend and I have been going to IchiBan constantly for sushi for the past two years. We love it. They know us and always greet us with complimentary edamame and sometimes even soup. At the end they even bring us fruit!
Ever since half price sushi, there’s just no reason for us to ever go anywhere else for sushi. We love it.
As far as the cooking tables, I’m not a fan. I like cooking tables at other places but IchiBan is a much better sushi restaurant. The cooks are friendly and creative and entertaining but the food itself is just sub-​par and the prices are a little high.
All in all an AMAZING sushi place but I wouldn’t suggest going for the hibachi tables.

Just had dinner (sushi) and was not impressed.
Every roll lacked in size, flavor and presentation. (And it cost the same as those fancy sushi places) I was excited for the «Rattlesnake» but it came to us «doughy» and had absolutely no flavor.
My sons karate kid plate was delicious. however $ 9 for a childs portion seems outrageous to me.
The family at the teptable was having a great time. so the courses might be awesome, but I would not reccomend the sushi.

Went here the other day for lunch — sushi rolls are larger than other places I’ve been to, and they taste pretty good, too. Bento box lunches are great, too — the gyoza and chicken and beef teriyaki choices are my favorite.
In response to «Doug W.» who reviewed this place last year… um, the employees there are actually KOREAN. They’ve been under the same management for years… and I don’t think you can go from being Japanese to Korean overnight. The only people who are Japanese there are the sushi chefs.

It seems like (judging by the previous reviews), Ichi Ban may have changed their staff out recently.
Jamie and I have been frequenting this gem since early January 2009, and we’re in love with it.
we’ve never sat at the hibachi tables – only at the sushi bar, where Johnny (san) has been endlessly friendly to us.
I always order the ‘Cucumber Special’ – sliced cucumber rolled around spiced tuna (maguro) with pickled, sliced radish, sliced crab, and wasabi. Jamie has tried nearly everything on their menu, but his favorite has been the roll filled with grilled freshwater eel, cucumber, deep-​fried crab, etc… all deep-​fried.
for dessert, Johnny-​san would always slice up some oranges, mangoes, etc (all free). also – pre meal, you get a complimentary bowl of perfectly-​seasoned miso soup, and sometimes, complimentary edamame pods – salted and wonderful: D
honestly, we were frequenting Ichi-​Ban weekly, but we haven’t had the time to go there recently. so my upcoming review will be much more detailed… sorry :(bottom line is, the service is spectacular, the food is phenomenal, and we love the place. this is what REAL sushi is about.