Sushi Ichimasa

Not worth the money. Was appalled by the cost of the food given the mediocre quality. The fish dishes did not taste fresh and the rice was underwhelming.

Great services! Fair prices! and the food are awesome! the restaurant is very small but definitely is a hidden gem!

Great customer service and high quality fish.
I have been here at least 4 times and have never been disappointed. The price is fair, especially given the neighborhood and the sushi/​sashimi is always fresh– they order their uni (sea urchin) from California for the fresher, sweeter taste vs. Maine where it tends to be less flavorful and crisp. I’m a little surprised reading that someone found the lady who works there to be rude. She has always been friendly and makes great recommendations.

The place was empty when I came there and everyone was just sitting at the sushi bar. No one seemed to care they had a paying customer.
They were terribly rude and the food was disgusting

The taste is good, but required minimum $ 15 per person… I ordered $ 30+, they said, my friend need to order another $ 15+… :(

TLDR: Poor customer service. Waitress is rude, cold, and not professional. Yelled at us, so we left.
Took a stroll in Manhattan with my best friend and figured we were in the mood for sushi. Unilocaled this place and didn’t think much of the 3 star rating. We walked in and ask for a table, but was told by the rude waitress that it was being saved for someone else. Fine. Whatever. So we sit down at the bar waiting for a greeting or even some water. Nothing.
10 minutes go by, still waiting for water. We’re excited about the prospect of eating our spicy roll combinations. This is the point where another group of two waltzes in and the waitress gives them the table we wanted.
When we confronted her about it it she told us that the group that was holding it said they could give it to the new group. When we complained about that, she told us it was not her decision. The whole conversation, she does not look us in the eye or apologize for the misunderstanding or begin to even take our orders. She raised her voice and said «Well what do you want me to do about it?!» That’s when we stood up and left.

Walked in with my friend and asked to see a menu, which an employee grudgingly gave to us. Looked good, so we asked to be seated. The restaurant is super small and the owner/​waitress told us to sit right by the door. We asked to be seated in the corner but she said the table was reserved. Cool.
Until 10 minutes later when 2 guys came in and were immediately seated in the area we just asked to sit in. We asked her why and she said she had asked the reservation holder and he said it was fine that they sit there.
I said if that was the case, you should have given us the first rights to the seats. Not to mention, you haven’t acknowledged us or even asked if we wanted drinks.
The whole time I’m saying this, she’s looking away and being very rude. Then she says listen, the other table got here before you, I had to take their order. At that point we walked out because clearly at hey don’t understand the concept of customer service. Very rude lady and I will attach her pic as a reference. Never going back.

Boo, i literally only had 10 minutes waiting for my Über and asked for a simple steamed shrimp dumplings dish for $ 6.50 She told me Noooo $ 15 min Dinner order –_​– Its disgusting to turn customers away when they don’t spend enough right away The outside looks as cheesy as the customer service lack thereof they provide

This is our neighborhood go to for reasonably priced, to-​go sushi. All the rolls are fresh; owners are friendly. We always get take-​out though.

Don’t eat here unless you like to be treated like a child.
Ambiance is terrible and servers are extremely unpleasant.

This place is a hidden gem. I’ve eaten here four times with friends who have more discerning palates than mine and we were blown away by how good the sushi is – easily on par, if not better than places like Haru.
The owner and her employees do struggle with English, which can cause breakdowns in communication, but the service is always warm and gracious. (Hint: they also respond well to clients who are warm and gracious.)
The menu is extensive, but your best bet is to ask June (the owner) or the sushi chef what they have in fresh that day. These guys know their stuff and I have never regretted following their advice.
Best of all they have Idako Kara-​age which is fried baby octopus with delicious vinegary breading. I could easily eat two servings by myself!

My husband and I picked this place randomly after a work event for some sake and a small meal tonight. We got seated pretty quickly. When our waitress took our drink order, we decided to order a bottle of $ 29 10 oz. sake bottle. She came back with the sake and began to take our order.
This is when this ridiculous and soured our night. I order a $ 20 sushi combo thinking that since we ordered a $ 29 sake bottle, we met the $ 15 dinner minimum per person. The waitress tells us that it is the minimum is only for food. I told her that there were no fine prints on the minimum limiting to only food. She told us it must be food. To not sour the moment even more, my husband decided to order a $ 12 tuna tartar. She asked is we wanted miso or salad on top. We told her we didn’t and she mentioned that it didn’t add up to the $ 15 minimum and she will still charged us $ 15 for my husband. I told her that was crazy and count as the sake as my husband to count towards the $ 15 minimum. She apparently couldn’t do that. It was settled when she asked her boss if they can waive that policy for us. They probably doing that because I was making a scene to the couple of other patrons that walked on after us. It’s absurd! We still spent $ 80 on dinner together.
More cons to the experience:
1) I was experiencing better than mediocre sushi and it turned out horrible. The rice was hard and the sushi was not fresh at all.
2) you have to be escorted to the bathroom because it is locked. The waitress has to open the door for you.
You are better off spending your money elsewhere.

If you are looking for a quiet cozy simple casual place with authentic Japanese dishes and sushi, try this place! Shrimp potato is an excellent starter. Good sake collection as well. They offer some special dishes from Okinawa area that you can’t find in other Japanese restaurant. It is a go to place in Midtown.

Service was terrible. There is a minimum $ 15 for bad food. I got charged a service fee for more than 20%. Now I understand why it was the only restaurant that there was no wait. I was ordering and the woman taking the order was adding up the prices of what I wanted to make sure I made the $ 15. Very rude. Food was not good.

We went to Ichimasa at 6:30 pm on a weekday for what we wanted to be a very quick bite. Despite it not being prime dine time and several tables being empty, we were forced to spend a minimum of $ 15 per person. The food was not that good, and when the bill came, the gratuity was included… on a bill for 2 people. Even the trendiest of restaurants only add the tip for parties of 6 or more. The kicker? It was over 22%. Stay away, plenty of better sushi worth your tips in Manhattan.

Good food and there is a real Japanese menu here. The owner is Japanese and the price seam reasonable. It is a small place but clean. I highly recommended.

Regardless what the other Unilocal viewer says, my experience here is good. I had salmon teriyaki with miso soup here and deluxe sushi combo take home. The salmon teriyaki is the best I have ever had in this price（which is not expensive style） in New York! Very traditional Japanese style taste. I recommend it. The owner is friendly and we had a nice and interesting conversation which remind me the atmosphere where this kind of small restaurant should run in Japan. To me, I like it.

THIS IS INDEED HELLS KITCHEN.
DO NOT EAT HERE. Terrible ambiance, mean waitstaff, impossible menu.
And for the sake of honesty, I will point that this review is NOT about the food. Actually, I didn’t even end up eating here and I’ll tell you why.
So on the front doors, it makes clear that there is a $ 15 per person minimum and a $ 20 minimum for credit cards. My partner and I walked into the EMPTY restaurant on a weeknight at dinner time and ordered 3 standard rolls (all around $ 6 each) and an order of dumplings. At this point, we had a combined total of $ 28 worth of food. We also ordered two green teas, thinking that this would put us over the top of the $ 30 total we needed.
The waitress (clearly also the owner/​sushi chef’s wife) promptly came back with our green teas to inform us that we had to spend at least $ 15 EACH, regardless of the total bill amount. We said, OK, we’ll also take an additional roll of sushi. This now put us at 4 rolls, an order of dumplings, and 2 green teas, well over $ 40 at this point. At this point, the woman pointed out that each person needed to eat 3 rolls of sushi– that 2 rolls was not a meal and not $ 15 on it’s own. We pointed out that we had also ordered an appetizer but she told us that the dumplings «did not count».
We pleaded with her, saying that with the 2 teas and the dumplings, we had more than spent $ 15 a person and that their signage says nothing about how large portions need to be or even that the $ 15 must be spent on sushi alone and cannot include drinks/​apps.
At this point, we had spent 15 minutes in the empty restaurant with the sushi chefs staring us down and the giant matron baring our way, endlessly «calculating» how to make us spend more money in the establishment. I was so sick of this experience and my stomach hurt just from arguing with her. She was non apologetic, even when we tried to cancel the entire order and leave with just the hot teas.
Finally, we just left, pushing past her as she attempted to stand in our way and not allow us out the door.
This experience was IMPOSSIBLE. Their $ 15 minimum per person is not even that– if you can eat 3 rolls of sushi on your own than certainly stop by and hang out with these obnoxious, rude people. But otherwise, skip what looked like mediocre food for horrendously high prices (seriously, $ 6 for a california roll?) and go to any number of the better restaurants in the neighborhood.

Met up with 2 friends visiting from out of town. I didn’t want to eat anything, but they had already ordered and I felt obliged to join them. Was going to order 2 rolls ($ 12), but the server very rudely told me that there was a $ 15 minimum. I asked what drinks they have and she told me drinks are not included in the minimum. Honestly, the place was empty (it was 8PM) so I did not appreciate her attitude. I changed my order to come out to $ 14.95 and she was still upset, so I just told her to charge me $ 15. I give it 2 stars because the sashimi was pretty good, but I will never eat here again. They need an attitude readjustment — getting glared at while I eat my food is very unpleasant.

Sushi with a warm and cozy feeling.
Food: 3.5 Stars
The sushi here is standard and rather basic. Many rolls revolve around the standard tuna/​salmon with avocado.
I have gone here many times for their lunch specials typically ordering the sushi lunch. They always switch up what types of fish in the lunchbox. They always include salmon and tuna, but all the other pieces are always different. One week they give me crab/​shrimp/​eel and the next week they give me yellow-​tail/​red snapper/​eel.
Their fish is always fresh which is a necessity at any Japanese restaurant.
Drinks: N/​A
Since I have only eaten at this restaurant once for lunch, I do not know what they provide for drinks other than green tea.
Service: 5 Stars
The warm and cozy feeling comes from matron of the restaurant (whose name I do not currently recall) who greets you in a typical Japanese fashion, but instead of the forced greeting you sometimes feel from other places, this one feels genuine.
Every time I come in Sushi Ichimasa to order take-​out she is always there to greet me happily and offer me a seat in the tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny restaurant.
After I place my order she is always there with a hot green tea and occasionally a small plate of finger food. One time I ate there she sliced some apples and gave myself and another patron waiting for their food a few slices (which is seems to have mainly been for the customers eating in the restaurant).
When I actually ate in the restaurant I didn’t receive as much attention, but she was running all over the place trying to please everyone, so I couldn’t blame her for that.
Ambiance: 3.5 Stars
This restaurant is remarkably small and a bit clutter with pictures and a large sushi station.
The restaurant from the outside is completely misleading since it has a few neon signs and rather misleading in terms of the entrance. The way the signs are placed it looks like the entrance is in the subway, but its actually further down the street covered with signs and papers.
Overall: 3.75 Stars
The service and atmosphere is what always draws me back to Sushi Ichimasa. There are better sushi restaurants in the area in regards to quality and price, but the warm and cozy feeling makes you feel like you are home being serves Thanksgiving dinner by your mother (maybe an extreme comparison, but I need to get my point across).
I recommend trying this place at least once especially you are are going there for lunch (dinner is pricey).