The Sushi Itch

There’s nothing I love more then being satisfied in less then 30 minutes… and Ichiban Japanese Cuisine was able to do that for me. Finding places to eat in the west end of Edmonton is really weird for me. There’s all these secret gems everywhere.. all these random strip malls  and you really just never know.. I mean with the location of Ichiban I would have never looked twice if I hadn’t heard anything about it before. The outside is almost grubby looking, like when you see generic chinese restaurants boasting 9 item combos with over 30 items to choose from grubby. The surrounding area really does not help it’s outside vibe either, but once you enter you’re greeted by warm colors and a cute little restaurant. We went there around 8:30pm (yes I am one of those dreaded late night diners, please don’t spit in my food) and there were only 3 other tables in the restaurant. We ordered some green tea to start once we were seated and when he brought our tea he asked if we were ready to place our order, I found this pretty hasty, which didn’t improve through out the night but I do appreciate the quick service if I was ready.

After looking over the menu for a few minutes we decided on Spicy Tuna Rolls, Lava Lava Roll (BBQ eeq & avocado), Dynamite Rolls and my favorite *drum roll* Toro sushi. Toro (tuna belly) is almost a deal breaker at any restaurant for me, if it’s not good, I’m really discouraged to go back because it’s my favorite kind to get and if I can’t have it I’m not happy. Now here’s the semi embarrassing part, shortly after we ordered I went to the bathroom, now the flags hanging at the back have the men and ladies right beside each other so when I got to the back the side with the ladies flag on it was actually an emergency exit, so I just assumed was just a flag saying “here are the 1 person co-ed bathrooms”. Nope. And it still didn’t click as I used the bathroom with the urinal beside the toilet. When I was done I ran into one of the employees whom was taking out garbage right as I was coming out and there was surely a smirk. Turning to go down the hallway I feel my ears get hot as I walk by the ladies bathroom on my left…the first door.. which I should have seen.

Anyways, once back in the restaurant area my food is just coming to my table and I have already forgotten that little mishap. I apologize ahead of time, we were really hungry and jumped the gun so 2 of the spicy tuna and lava lava rolls are missing before I took the picture..haha….Anyways, as you see here starting from top to bottom you have spicy tuna, dynamite then lava lava.

The dynamite rolls were pretty sub par, they tasted a little bit old, like maybe someone canceled their order or.. a popular menu item that wasn’t so popular that night was made… regardless it didn’t have too much flavor, I have definitely had better and there wasn’t too much of a crunch to the tempura that was inside. The spicy tuna rolls were like butter in your mouth. Spicy, fishy butter. Packed with flavor and cheap ($3.50 I believe) I could have ate a million of these.  The only thing I didn’t care for was that the seaweed was a bit tough in comparison to the buttery texture of everything else. The lava lava rolls were a flavor explosion. As in this roll just took the flavor bus to flavor country, it exploded and this is what became of it. The crispiness of the eel contrasted with the softness of the avocado was amazing. A crunch in one bite, smooth in the next. The sauce that was drizzled all over perfected this roll and I would definitely get it again. I would probably get many of them. And last but definitely not least, the toro. One of the pieces was cut kind of funny so presentation was already -1 for me.. but they redeemed themselves with not having a skimpy cut ! I took my first bite. Expectations met. Satisfied. Melted like butter in my mouth like it was supposed to. The flavors wrapped themselves around my tongue and rainbows danced with unicorns. But even after all this, we still weren’t full (this could be because of the illicit substance inhaled before) so we ordered one more roll to share. The Mexican. And in less then five minutes this showed up at our table:

Which again, forgetting to take a picture, we both ate one first. Tightly and neatly rolled. I can be so bold as to say that these are the best mexican rolls I have ever had. The crunch from the tempura was addicting. The salmon was spiced perfectly so neither of us had awkward sweat drops or were needing a glass of milk. Now I forgot to mention that in between the time of finishing our first order, I had just put the last piece of sushi in my mouth and our waiter was already at our table and asked if we wanted to order more. This really did not impress me one bit, but I just asked for some time to sit and digest. Regardless, food was quick, service was hasty but good and the price was right, $38 for everything that including tip.  This sushi itch was cured with Ichiban Restaurant and if I’m ever itchy again I’ll be sure to return!

Ichiban Restaurant Japanese Cuisine
8750 149 Street