Ichiban Sushi

Ichiban Sushi
750 King St W

Well, the response from the article on Blogto.com is overwhelming to say the least. I’ve taken a lot down on things to improve. But first and foremost, this is a *blog* … I’ve never made myself out to be some sort of expert, heck I’ve gone out of my way to say on a few occasions that I’m not! But I thank everyone who sent me in suggestions on places to visit, I have a long road ahead of me!

Most of the time though, the selection of a restaurant is completely random or “environmental”. I used to try looking for other reviews to get ideas, but I quickly realized that what was one persons utopia was anothers plate full of, well,  raw fish. When I say environmental I mean I have to go somewhere and when I get there, lo a sushi restaurant is nearby. Isn’t that nice and scientific? I’m taking a short photography course right now, just a quick 4 lesson thing on how to properly use a camera. Near the photographers studio is Ichiban Sushi. Since we were going to be wandering the neighborhood practicing I decided to fuel up beforehand.

Now I didn’t have a heck of a lot of time, so I limited myself to a single roll. After reading a few comments I was tempted to order a Spicy Tuna roll just to irritate a few people. Or to really get the “sushi purists” to burst a blood vessel maybe a California Roll? Well, there is such a thing as taking a joke a bit too far, and it’s been a while since I got any soft shelled crab into me, so I went with a Spider Roll ($11.95) and some Edamame ($4.95) as I’m pretty sure that my intake of green vegetables has been somewhat lacking over the past few weeks.

The restaurant itself was nice and tastefully decorated, understated in fact, and it was kinda sad that it was stuck in a lousy strip mall. People will probably walk by and think “hole in the wall” when in fact it’s comfortable and somewhat “homey” inside. The waitress was really quite nice too, answering a question I had about what exactly a “crazy roll” was. (It was a fried California roll.) The service was quick and attentive, and the food came just about as quickly as it takes to fry a crab.

The food itself was quite good, though I was a little disappointed to see crab stick in the mix. Some of the spider rolls I’ve had have been packed solid with soft shelled crab, some have not. Oh well, this time not. Still, it was really quite tasty with not too much sauce dumped all over it. Just enough vegetation too, gives it a nice crunch and texture with the cucumber and avocado. For some reason I’ve always liked the fact that there’s lettuce inside them as well. You can barely taste it, but it’s there. Another “for the win” was the restrained use of Tobiko. Sometimes you get a metric tonne, but with something already as salty as the crab, a little bit for flavour was all that was needed.

The pricing was pretty reasonable too, though I didn’t have a chance to really study the menu. A nice touch was the separate menu for the “special rolls” complete with good sized photos. For the novice the visual aid is pretty helpful.

Fast, friendly service and good food? Yeah, I liked this place.