Ichiban Japanese Restaurant

Doesn't Recommend

PurdueGirl

Joined 3 years ago

Plenty of other options in Milwaukee.... I ate there this evening after reading a mixture of reviews about this food on Google and CitySearch. I'm not sure how this won a Best Of award...

We thought we would try this out for our "date night" and while the atmosphere was decent, and our server was friendly and attentive, the food was not impressive and the prices were fairly expensive.

We ordered the Flounder Tempura appetizer. It came with five small pieces of flounder, a piece of sweet potato, a mushroom (which was old tasting) and a cucumber. It was $7.95, and for the amount of food you actually get, it was pretty steep.

We also ordered sushi. There were five rolls in total. The special roll, which was the Kugetsu roll, had brown salmon on it (salmon should be an orange fleshy color). The flavors were also overpowered by the chili sauce inside. We also ordered the Donna Roll, the Spider Roll, the Unagi Roll, and the Ichiban crunchy.

In all honesty, the rolls were quite bland and the fish was not fresh.

Our server was really nice and very attentive, but the food was not as good as it should been for the cost of the bill ($51 tip not included).

I recommend trying somewhere else.

Doesn't Recommend

killer crossover

Joined 4 years ago

don't waste your money or your time. I do not write the following to slander or calumniate, simply to discourage you from going there as I wish I had been discourage before I patronized it:

Truly the worst sushi that I've eaten anywhere. In Milwaukee I have dined at Izumi, Fujiyama, Nana Kusa and Kiku. The rolls and the tempura at Ichiban were chintzy, overpriced and poorly prepared and presented. The product with which they worked was mediocre to put it nicely. The sashimi was horrible. The salmon (what they called toro sake) appeared almost as if it had been shredded. Perhaps if the price was cut in half and it was served in a deli in midtown Manhattan for lunch this would have been acceptable. It left us feeling ripped off and dissatisfied. I've never been so disappointed by a trip to a sushi restaurant anytime or anywhere.

Doesn't Recommend

kotwal

Joined 5 years ago

Waste of money. Did not like the food.

The fish was not fresh.

I luv sushi and this was the worst sushi I had in USA

Doesn't Recommend

trewjm

Joined 6 years ago

There's better Japanese food closeby. I've lived in Japan for many years, and although I'm not a Japanese food snob I do have standards. This place does not meet them. The staff must be new because they screwed up at least two other tables' orders while I was there. The head staff woman must also be new because she was also confused (and they tried to solve their various problems in front of the customers near the bar instead of going in the back....). The sushi chef's didn't seem like they knew what they were doing (none of them Japanese either...you should have at least one) and kept looking at the directions written on the wall next to them....the food was only soso...maybe this place is under new management or something. Visit Izumi's nearby on North Prospect.

Recommends

ttjjames

Joined 6 years ago

Top 3 sushi in Milwaukee. This place is in the top 3 best sushi restaurants in Milwaukee. The place is pretty small (main seating area seats ~ 30 total, I think they have a party room in back, not sure). The servers are average, but the food is great and the sushi chefs are very friendly and fun. The quality of food is high and the prices are reasonable for traditional sushi.