Ichiban Japanese Steak House & Sushi Bar

Came here after my Engineering License test with my wife to relax and get some food. It turned out to be a great spot. We did the hibachi, the food was really good and great service too. If you’re like us staying at the millenium hotel it’s on the same block, go check it out!

Way over priced and food was horrible! Server and hibachi chef were the only positive of this restaurant. What a disappointment!!! Don’t go here if you have other options!

Horrible. Had an 8 pm reservation and they told us they were running a bit late and it would be 10 – 15 minutes. No problem.
Half the stations were empty and only two cooks/​chefs were present at all times.
When I went back at 8:25 to ask when we would be seated, they told us it would be another 10 minutes. The manager/​host did not apologize nor did he seem to care.
We were finally seated at 9 pm roughly. We were served drinks and the waiter was great. However, we were served really bad soup and a bowl of pickled cucumbers (everyone at the table complained).
We sat for nearly an HOUR before our cook came. He spilled food constantly off the stove, and did not seem to be on his game but the effort was there. No problem.
We finally left at roughly 10:45, after being there for nearly 3 hours.
By the way, we did ask the others at the table when there reservations were for, and theirs were for 8:30. They were extremely upset and we had been waiting a half hour longer.
No apologies were made, not once. I expected them to buy us a drink or something. NOTHING.
This place is 10 notches below Benihana’s. I will never go back. Horrible service, management, food, and the décor is embarrassingly outdated.
Complete joke.

Left before we even got ice cream after a THREE HOUR & a half hour meal in which our drinks were refilled once. Chef was very nice & could tell was trying his best but food was piss poor & waitress just did not care. Waitress gave us the bill & had asked if we wanted ice cream. We asked for some & she came back 15 minutes later for bill with no sign of ice cream. Stood up absolutely discusted and left. This place is a JOKE. Only reason they have stayed open is due to the large # of hotels & the appearance /​location of building. Quality of food & service as I said earlier was piss poor.
DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY AT THIS RESTAURANT.

Hibachi is always a fun experience. Food was great, and there was soo much of it! Awesome customer service– from literally everyone– granted we went right as they opened.
I will say, the décor, furniture, restrooms– everything is super dated. It makes the whole dining experience feel a little odd. When you think about how much is spent on a single meal you go in expecting a somewhat fine dining setting but it’s anything but.

Ok I was blown away with the price of this place… 2adults 4kids all under 13 = $ 408 with tip? ouch!
I really did not feel like we ate $ 365 worth of food and there was nothing exceptional about the taste of the food. This place also needs major upgrade from wallpaper to fabric.
In my opinion this place is not worth it!

Do not get the all you can eat sushi. Quality is horrendous. When the sushi rice is ice cold you know that it’s been sitting out for a while. I prefer Kyoto sushi AYCE over this place any day, plus it’s cheaper than this place.

We had the all you can eat sushi and it didn’t take me long to lose my appetite entirely. The sushi is not good. It is poorly assembled with cuts of fish that are not sashimi grade. They are trying to be creative while using what I can only assume is leftover food for their rolls. I had several pieces of sushi that I did not want to finish.
You would expect some class at a place like Ichiban but you would be disappointed. The concept of sushi boats is cool and a lot could be done to make it fun. But the décor is dated and you end up sitting at a bar with fingerprinted glass and bad lighting. If they updating things a bit and worked on their presentation, I wouldn’t have noticed how horrible the sushi was (eh, I would have still noticed but I could have overlooked it just a little).
The service was alright. They were trying. But this really is run like a cheap Chinese buffet. Maybe the hibachi grill is better but I would not have the sushi again.
I hate giving bad reviews but I just have to in this case. Don’t waste your money here.

Went there for valentines dinner. The chef was great and the waitress that picked up plates and everything was great. The only reason I won’t give it 4 stars is the way we had to wait until exactly 4:30 p.m. to get into the place. We arrived early not knowing how long it would take us to get from the Mpls convension center to the restaurant. We arrived there by 4:00 p.m. and to our disappointment the doors were still locked. Why can’t a person check in early and maybe have a small drink or something at the bar? It was a very chilly day on Feb. 14, 2016 and there isn’t too many places to wait until they open up. So we did the best we could and hung out at the hotel just to stay out of the cold. Wouldn’t you want to have the business? That is the only disappointment I have.

Great food, great entertainment, awesome service (so friendly and efficient). Two thumbs up.

I feel like the all you can eat isn’t really worth $ 32. You don’t get much varieties since it is a sushi boat. Sometimes you wait for a while before you can get a decent piece. You only get 1 hour to eat. Service is a bit slow but the staff were really friendly.
The place seems a little out dated though.

Amazing hibachi! Alex is the man, one of the best cooks in the restaurant! Anita was our server and she was great and very quick with service! WE WILL BE COMING BACK!

This was hands down the best Hibachi experience I’ve ever had. The food was delicious… The show was GREAT… And the staff was friendly. Our Chef was the BEST… looking forward to the next time I go to Minneapolis. Don’t forget to ask for ALEX!!!

Cool space for a destination dining spot. All you can eat sushi is a great deal and the sushi chefs are really creative. This isn’t the snotty high end place that some people think it should be, but rather a good atmosphere with better than average food.

A novelty experience that falls short on delivery.
Time: Dinner.
Ambiance: 1980’s fake-​Japanese.
Crowd: White families dipping their toes into an unfamiliar cuisine in a safe setting.
Hibachi menu: A Westerized mixed-​meat experience.
Service: Rigid and archaic. They refuse to seat you unless your entire party has arrived, even with half the restaurant empty. Orders were taken, and reconfirmed five minutes later. A clear mistake with a drink took two employees and a conversation to correct. The manager liked to come around and have conversations about logistics with the staff, which was also strange. The «show» involved just plain insulting pidgin-​Japanese in a manner that would have been considered dated 30 years ago. However, I do respect the showmanship of the chef.
Food Ordered: A mixed drink, calamari appetizer instead of the default chicken liver, and a superior dinner which included a vegetable soup, salad, plain rice, mixed vegetables, and ice cream dessert.
Food Quality: Variable, and unbalanced. My drink was revolting. It looked bright yellow, and tasted like cough syrup, just not as good. The calamari was unevenly balanced, with the sauce overpowering the flavor of the meat. The soup was nice, but served in a minuscule portion. The salad was also decent, but also served in a tiny portion. The vegetables received little taste from the preparation. The superior was quite varied. The beef was tasty, though cooked beyond the medium rare that I requested. The scallops were also cooked and seasoned appropriately (not teriyaki, thank goodness). The chicken was nothing special, and the lobster was tasteless. The portions of the meat were tiny. The highlight was the orange sherbet, which I’m sure can be purchased at any local grocery store.
Value: Poor. The premium for the entertainment was not worth the product delivered, which did not make up for the inconsistent food.

A friend and I were walking around downtown with no reservations and no real agenda, other than catching up. We had a drink at Brit’s Pub and were reviewing other restaurants, when we both decided Japanese would taste good, so headed to Ichibans. Convenient, since we were staying at Hyatt. We got seated within 10 minutes as one of the tables had 2 spots open, lucky, as the place was packed. We had a fun «chef», but from the looks of it, all of them were equally talented. Our food was delicious, I had scallops and filet mignon. It was done to perfection and because it was my birthday, a complimentary ice cream Sunday was served. We were pleasantly surprised with everything!

This was a cute birthday dinner. Magic Mike was our cook. He was super upbeat and entertaining. Best hibachi cook and the food was good. You get a ton of food even when you split an entrée. The sushi was awesome too.

I don’t know why the hell ANY moron would give this place a bad review! It has the best damn steak and chicken anywhere! I am one hell of a fussy eater and if I like this place you should too! If you don’t, there must be something wrong with you! Don’t just take my word for it, go to this restaurant and try the food yourself! You will have a howling good time!

Meh. Smelled, dirty, dark, old seats, not going back. Bartender was cool and $ was good. That’s about it.

Welcome to the disaster of Japanese experience…
The place is divided into 3 sections: 1) hibachi 2) all you can eat sushi 3) a la carte sushi & bar. As a Vegetarian I picked the a la carte: the hibachi I mostly meet, fish and loooots of grease and the all you can eat serves mostly fish sushi.
The place itself looks really dated. Old, run down… So what that is has been in the business for gazillion years if it hasn’t kept itself up to date. Here’s the best part: I hurt myself by sitting down on the bench at the table. Yes, Im serious! There is no cushion left in the bench. It’s just hard wood. I sat down thinking its soft and it isn’t. My insides and my back hurts, that’s how hard I hit the bench with my butt!!!
The a la carte menu has truly only 1 vegetable roll and the waitress said she’s not allowed to make request to the chef for anything outside the menu, because the chef has worked here for gazillions years and he/​she doesn’t like to be told what to do. Omg… So what do I eat here? The discussion took for ever to see if there’s even anything they could do for us. We asked of the chef could make something up for us, whatever they feel like it. And with the gazillions years of experience they should whip up something amazing, right? Aaaaand they didn’t LOL they brought 2 cucumber rolls and 1 roll we had to beg for which was the simplest cucumber + avocado + cream cheese. The waitress said she tried to ask what vegetable the chef used to make the sushi rolls of her choice but bc of the language barrier she didn’t understand… It was cucumber! Plain sushi with just cucumber!!! Oh my fucking God… Oh yeah, when I asked for the low sodium soy sauce she brought out the single plastic packets you get at cheap to go place LMAO
Words cannot describe how bad the waitress was. And how badly groomed she was. She couldn’t help with anything. She also couldn’t promise how’s the food gonna come out. R u serious? That should make me feel comfortable eating here???
I seriously could keep writing, that’s how many things went wrong in here. I think if you read it you get a gist that it is NOT at all worth your time or money to come here.

If I was rating just the sushi chefs, it would be 4 stars because the continually checked on me, took roll requests, and even made me a few custom rolls as part of all you can eat.
I went before 6 so I was told the only happy hour special was $ 28 all you can eat sushi. This includes miso, tempura chicken/​veggies/​shrimp, potstickers (all that you order from your server if you can flag her down), sushi revolving around the bar, and a scoop of ice cream. If the food was better (and there are all you can eats that are), the price for a weekday dinner may have not been bad.
But oh no. For starters, all tempura apps I ordered, while freshly fried, had NO taste. Like texture wise I knew it was chicken or shrimp but otherwise seemingly no seasonings (salt?!), unless you count oil. Only potstickers available had pork and they weren’t bad, but you’ll find better options a block down the street.
Sushi– first few rolls weren’t tragic, a plain avocado, some sort of tuna, a tempura shrimp. Not my favorite place but honestly? I haven’t experienced a bad meal since moving here & figured I was due. Id try to eat a bit more, pay the check, and move on.
Then I was presented with a shrimp roll: shrimp was still thawing from freezer. The next tuna roll they made for me? Weird texture (almost like ice crystals) and could not chew the nori/​seaweed wrap. Another roll, I had to pull it out. What gives?
Anyways nice people, poor sushi.
Wouldn’t ever recommend going.

Love it! Wish my wife and I could afford to come here more and try more things. As it is, the food we ordered was great. I could do without the standard chicken liver appetizer, but you can substitute another appetizer for ½ off the price of the substitute. We really like their potstickers. I could have had two or three bowls of the soup and nothing else and I would have left happy. I really like the cucumber-​crab salad, and the sauce that goes with it is fantastic. The teriyaki chicken was cooked to perfection. I asked for the steak cooked medium rare, and it came out perfectly. Don’t have enough money to pay for sushi to eat with the meal, but they do all-​you-​can-​eat sushi at certain times, so I may have to return at some point for that.
The chef put on a real show, and he was funny (compared to the young white guy who was the chef a couple tables down… sounded like he was trying to imitate a Japanese guy’s accent, only slightly annoying)

The food is as offensive as the fat white hibachi chef faking a Japanese accent. The food is overpriced for it being mediocre at best. If you want better Japanese food go to Obento-​Ya, Sushi Tango, Masu, Origami, Fugi Ya. Anywhere else but this place. I would rather dig for food in a dumpster than eat here again.

One of the best restaurants in Minneapolis, We love this place, the food is fantastic, it is kid appropriate, and the entertainment is solid every time.
I LOVE SUSHI, so this place is for me.

Yes! A 4 stars I did enjoy my time at Ichiban. Everything was on point it felt like I was in Japan, the décor of the restaurant was amazing from hibachi grill to the sushi bar even the servers had kimonos on. But what really got me was the sushi bar, oh lord I think this is the only place in Minnesota that have an AYCE sushi that are on a little chained boats that goes around to sushi bar. It was an awesome experience other than that the AYCE sushi is $ 32 it comes with AYCE appetizers and desserts. Also you can request for any sushi rolls from the chef.

I’ve been here a few times, always for bigger celebrations.
My review is based on their hibachi grill dinners.
The chef comes out and puts on a nice show. They’re usually personable and have personality.
The food you get is tasty, but won’t blow your socks off.
I especially enjoy the liver.
I would have given this place 4 stars, but the value isn’t there.
It’s like having Indian food. You never quite get what you paid for.
Try it once, but chances are you probably won’t come back after the first time.