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Categories: Sushi Bars, Japanese [Edit]
Neighborhood: Downtown OaklandMon-Thu. 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Mon-Thu. 5:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
Fri. 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Fri. 5:30 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Sat. 5:30 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
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To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of rolls in general, but sometimes they're a neccessary evil considering I know trying to get full off of nigiri/sashimi alone means I'm either going to break my wallet or I'm leaving hungry.
With that being said, Ichiro strikes a great balance in regards to feeding my raw fish addiction and leaving full, all on a budget.
The Titanic roll... is well... titanic. Hands down, the largest roll I've ever encountered. Far from the best roll I've had, but like I mentioned earlier - I only order rolls to fill me up and this does the trick like no other.
Chirashi bowl is filled with a wide variety of fresh fish. Probably one of the best chirashi bowls I've had in terms of bang for your buck.
These two dishes alone will easily fill up a party of three. The sushi chef (owner?) is very friendly which is always nice.
The Titanic roll should win an academy award....or 11. I only wish I had an iceberg at my disposal to help defeat it -- each piece took at least two separate bites to finish. Consisting of shrimp and cucumber topped with tuna/salmon sashimi, scallions, sesame, spicy crab, and unagi sauce, you can see why.
The chirashi sushi bowl is similarly formidable, so make sure you bring a partner---or a bear--- to help you tackle this beast. For under $15, this can serve as a good meal for two -- its P/E ratio is low, low, low, low, low (lyrics c/o Flo Rida).
How do they keep their prices low? Clearly, its the "choice" real-estate and scant furnishings -- but upgrades in those categories are only necessary if you're dining with boring people.
I'll be back.
Food is ok. Generic..same ol same ol.
Service...not good. They aren't rude, but are not attentive. The place was half full, and they had 2 waitresses. We had to wait to place our orders, wait to ask for our bill, wait for them to come back with it, and wait for them to pick it up...wait wait wait.
For ten dollars I was(n't) able to consume all of: a charming salad to stimulate the appetite, a charming bowl of miso soup to warm the soul, an avocado roll and a giant, shirt-splattering bowl of udon. This is one of the best in the amount of food to dollar paid ratio scheme of things.
went back a couple of week after my last review, had a seaweed salad (that smelled like ammonia) and a spicy tuna roll that seemed a little suspect. 3 days in the bathroom later I committed to NEVER attempting to like this place again.
I'll save my sushi cravings for Samurai Sushi Boat or Coach Sushi on Grand Ave.
Decent sushi, but decent sushi isn't worth waiting 45 minutes for. They rarely answer their phone… Read more »
So my co-workers and I decided to be adventurous and venture out further than our usual lunch places. We ended up here after I mentioned that this place had a 4 star rating. And after Claudia O.'s bad sushi experience at Ichi Japon, we were in desperate need of a different, good Japanese restaurant.
The restaurant is nicely located in Downtown Oakland and the outside looks very inviting. Claudia O. got the Bento Box (Chicken Terikayi and Tempura), Yao Y. ordered the Funky Roll (salmon and veggies), while I ordered the Tempura Roll and Miso Soup. We then all shared a Tempura Ice Cream.
The miso soup tasted and smelled fishy. I can instantly smell it as the server were barely handing them to us. It smelled like a fish market. I don't know about everyone else, but I never had any miso soup taste and smell like fish. The Tempura Roll was pretty small but taste pretty good.
Yao said that her Funky Roll was just basically a fried salmon roll. She also said that it was very spicy due to the sauce - there was "like 4 kinds of sauce: hot sauce, creamy hot sauce, terikayi sauce and green mint sauce." She didn't like it very much... it was so funky, she had to use the bathroom afterwards.
Claudia's bento was huge. Even with the 2 of us helping her eat, we still had food leftover. Claudia did say that she enjoyed the Chicken Terikayi... "very good." The Tempura Ice Cream was really good. It had green tea ice cream and they used some time of pound cake around the ice cream so it's not just ice cream and tempura. Plus, one order came with 2 tempura ice cream... very yummy!
Lesson we learned - this place might be a hit or miss. We like some of the food, but we don't like their other dishes. However, I think we might be back unless we find a better Japanese restaurant around the area. If anything, at least we were able to venture out and found other places to eat (and Yelp about).
For satisfying, good quality, and affordable Japanese food, Ichiro Japanese Sushi Bar is the perfect restaurant to find it! Aside from sushi, this Japanese restaurant offers many other dishes such as vegetable tempura, beef teriyaki, and chicken katsu. As well, all the dishes listed on the menu are under $15 and serving portions are huge! Everything we ordered from the avocado maki rolls to the shrimp tempura was delicious and perfectly cooked. Ichiro also carries a great selection of sake and imported beer from Japan.
The ambiance at Ichiro is quite nice and good for table conversation - it has a bar, plenty of tables, pictures of patrons on the wall, and a very friendly staff. Overall, a great restaurant to enjoy good Japanese food at reasonable prices with awesome friends!
For my out-of-towner sushi fix, this place was great. Good price, and plump fresh tasting sushi. I ended up ordering way too much with this sashimi combo and the Titanic roll. Both were delicious, but just one would have done for my week's sushi intact. Also, they have the stew-y miso - where they put a whole bunch of other stuff like noodles and fish bits in it.
Others here have commented on (and sung the praises of) the chirashi sushi bowl here, and I concur that it's amazing. For $15 you get so much fish (of about eight varieties) that at first it's actually quite difficult to get to the rice underneath it (a wider bowl would probably be a good idea). It's easily enough for two healthy appetites, with perhaps a little extra sushi rice and a seaweed salad on the side.
One final possibly helpful note: I find that the saba (lightly pickled mackerel) is a little strong here, and that in the tightly packed chirashi bowl it contaminates the flavors of the other fish. In the future I'll be ordering this dish without it.
I visit Ichiro at least once a week. Number one reason is because it's a half block from my office. Number two reason is because they accept credit cards ($10 limit). Number three reason is that it's pretty good sushi!
I can't speak for the fish - I just stick to the veggie rolls. They don't have a lot of veggie rolls (minus 1 star for that!) but the Avocado Roll or the Super Veggie Roll usually do the trick. Seaweed salad is also pretty good.
This is one of those sushi restaurants where the chefs wave as you leave. I like that.
I have been craving for sushi for a few days so i tried this place out, dinner time.
Everything was good at first. The waitress was friendly. miso soup and salad was good, chicken katsu was pretty tasty, but when it came to the sushi itself..i was disappointed. I had pieces of shiso ika, saba nigiri, along with sashimi. Ginger on the side looked dry, sashimi didnt look the freshest, the titanic was freaking huge!! My sushi craving has not been satisfied though =[
Second trip here. Place gets pretty packed around lunch, so try to come early.
The rolls and sashimi are pretty fresh, and they're presented nicely. Decent prices as well. Only complaint is that service was a tad slow, but the restaurant was very busy.
A pretty decent sushi option for downtown Oakland, it barely beats out Kai's. It's just a tad too far to make it any more than a weekly visit.
I was craving some sushi today and figured I should go to Ichiro. One thing I figured out is that they no longer are closed at 9:30 on the weekdays any more. They close at 9:00 now. Luckily for me I arrived at 8:55 and was able to order something to go! I probably would have cried if I couldn't get my sushi fix! Okay, I wouldn't have cried. I would have Yelped a place that was open. LOL!
I browsed through the menu and I remembered how their titanic roll is one of their specialties. I ordered the roll and the name for it is fitting! That thing was bigger than a child's arm holding an apple! It was shrimp tempura and cucumber rolled up and topped tuna and salmon sashimi, spicy crab, scallions, sesame seeds and some unagi sauce. It was pretty darn good!
I am full and happy now! =)
Wow! As deceitful as the dollar rating is for this place, it really is the best deal in Japanese food that I've had in a long time. Note how I said "Japanese food," instead of, "sushi"? That's because of another longtime first: this Japanese restaurant does more than play lip service to the rest of items on the menu (don't worry, the quality of the sushi doesn't take a hit just because it isn't the sole focus).
Everything I've had here has been topnotch. The sukiyaki is paradoxically the cheapest and most delicious I've ever had at a restaurant, sparing no expense by being loaded with beef and little filler. The tempura was crisp, light, and so fresh off the stove that it burnt my tongue when first served - aka: perfect. They've recently taken it off the menu (undoubtedly due to low demand) but they once served some delicious and authentic Osaka-style okonomiyaki. The menu is loaded with so many options that there's beer imported from Okinawa!
The food has care and love for the customer wrapped up in each and every dish, and nothing exemplifies this more than the chirashi sushi. I don't know how they can stay in business loading such copious amounts of diverse and fresh sashimi onto one giant bowl for less than $15 dollars. You likely won't see the rice underneath unless you employ a friend for help.
The quality, the relative affordability, the portions, and the variety are all merits that other "Japanese" restaurants would do well to take notes from.
Worst sushi I've tried anywhere (this includes sushi from Ohio as well as the numerous places in the Bay Area).
Ok, so some of the rolls we had were good (read: 2 1/2 stars, 3 if I'm feeling generous). Nothing was spectacular. The seaweed salad on the other hand tasted soapy and terrible. The california roll and rock n' roll were bland.
You know how after a particularly bad experience you can shun an entire cuisine for a long period of time just because of that one pretty bad experience? We've gone from having sushi once a week for two straight years to avoiding it all together after this place. Sure, we'll eventually get over it and have sushi again - but never at Ichiro.
To my surprise, this place has excellent reviews. Maybe we just got unlucky that one day. Still I can't recommend this place since I'd never go there again.
My absolute favorite Japanese place in Oakland. Ichi will set you up with his large Sake selection and Sashimi artistry. He will introduce you to new fish like Mutsu. Try the Chirashi. Great value, high quality, friendly staff, park in front at night. Superb all around.
To learn about the Ichiro/Ichi Japon/Ichi saga, read one of the earlier reviews.
Just wanted to add a 4-star review to the pile - this place isn't the freshest sushi I've ever had, but it's always pretty consistent in good-quality fish. And the chirashi-don is a killer deal, with one of almost every kind of fish they have (including hamachi, saba, and ika - ooh, yum!). Some of the other rolls are more in the mid to pricey range, but (a) Ichi, the namesake and head sushi-man (and owner), actually works there every day, and recognizes you - so you know there's a certain level of professionalism and quality that you can expect fromthe place, and (b) it's clean and has great, swift service.
Highly recommended, and if you're a corporate type in downtown Oakland, it's good for lunch meetings too (it was 2 blocks from my office and we'd go there for lunch pow-wows sometimes).
Of all the places I've been to for sushi so far in the East Bay, I'd say this is probably my second favorite place!
I had a combo box that came with miso, salad, rice, tempura and beef teriyaki. The combos have a ton of options too that I can't even remember them all. It was a TON of food and under 10 bucks.
The miso was delicious, and had noodles in it! I have never experience miso with a bit of noodles so I was surprised and it was pretty good. The salad and rice were standard. The tempura was pretty good and there was one item that I didn't even recognize! But it still tasted great, although I admit I was a bit sad not to see any broccoli since I love broccoli. The beef was pretty tender and tasty.
My boyfriend got the dragon rolls and the titanic rolls. The dragon rolls I picked at and enjoyed them. The titanic rolls I didn't bother with but those things are HUGE. I'm talking "WTF how do you even go about shoving those things in your mouth" huge. I think I once called the sushi roll at another place horse cock huge... this is twice the size of that. Seriously. He said it was good though.
The service was extremely friendly too. I like this place, and I'll be back to get a sushi fix when I'm close by.
Walked to Ichiro for lunch and it was pretty damned good for an out of the way sushi joint in downtown Oakland!
The fatty tuna roll was great and the spicy California roll really hit the spot.
I also had the spicy tuna handroll which was very nice and spicy!!
The best of the meal was the Okinawa!! Amberjack, avocado and eel on top!!!! Just wow!
I will definitely be stopping in again when I need a good and fast sushi fix for lunch. Working in downtown Oakland just got a bit more bearable!!
It's sushi...what do you want?
raw fish
seaweed
sticky rice
I don't eat weird shit so, I had the boring california roll.
Mmm, yes, just like Costco's. Nothing special but it wasn't disgusting.
On the plus side, they have really cool T-shirts.
I won't be coming back...
Shit, I didn't even want to go in the first place.
I had lunch with a couple of colleagues today and this place was across the street from their office. I didn't know what to expect, but I know I didn't expect it to be as good as it was. I ordered a lunch special - sashimi and tempura. Both items were excellent and the staff was friendly and re-filled our tea and water often.
I will def come back to try some of the sushi rolls mentioned in the other reviews.
We cruised Kai's the first time for sushi in oakland. after being severly underwhelmed yelp suggested Ichiro. Just did a full ordering of all the important things: gyoza, tea, maki, nigri, tempura and chiken teriyaki.
All of it was fantastic.
The fish cuts were bigger than I like, but the cuts were from skilled hands all the fish was fresh and great quality. I'm grateful to have found quality sushi finally in dowtown oakland.
It doesn't look like much on the outside, but the inside is clean and decorated and when we went at lunch there was a line.
I think I've only tried 3 things here (Dragon Roll, Spicy Tuna and Gyoza), but all were excellent and insanely cheap. If you want simple, classic sushi and Japanese fast food, this place will rock your socks. For the price, this has to be the best sushi and gyoza ever. It makes nearby places like Yoshi's seem silly. Finish it with a cold Kirin and you may have the best lunch ever.
p.s. Jason G., If you order lame ass things like Cali rolls and ANYTHING with cream cheese, you don't belong in a proper sushi restaurant...
Went for lunch one day... thanks to yelp. Yum! I will definitely be going back.
Anyways, my experience at Ichiro... A few weeks ago, I stumbled in for a quick lunch after perusing yelp for a nearby eatery. They let me sit at their bar since I was alone, which was just what I wanted. I had the spicy tuna and one of their huge rolls (I can't remember the name). The spicy tuna held up to my expectations. And the huge roll..... wow. Wow because it was huge and really tasty too.
Service was pleasant and timely. All around a great experience.
Not bad, not great. Sushi and seafood is pretty descent but the meats are horrible. I've had beef teriayki and a few other meat dishes where the meat is so tough I can hardly chew. The sushi rolls are good though and the sashimi is not bad.
This is a fairly decent Japanese restaurant in Downtown Oakland. Food was decent and the atmosphere was okay.
Funky Roll, good.
Sunrise Roll, not bad.
Chicken Karage, good.
Negi Toro Roll, eh... it was alright.
Now, the last roll we had was the Titanic Roll. Let me tell you, it's definitely earned the name it holds. I've had a few Titanic Rolls at other places and I've decided that it's not allowed to be called a Titanic Roll unless most of the people say "WHOA... That's huge!" when it comes out. And this roll was HUGE. I mean it literally dwarfed all the rest of the rolls that we had. It was at least twice the size of a normal roll. I just can't get over how huge it was.
I'd come back here to try some other stuff (probably the Japanese Curry that I saw on the menu), but I don't think I'll be having a craving for this place.
I liked the sushi here. Decently fresh sashimi for the price. I really loved the Funky Roll. A few of the other rolls were not far departures from a standard California roll to be perfectly honest.
Highlights are the extremely friendly staff, old school sushi chefs, affinity for baseball, and perfectly portioned rolls. I didn't deal with the crowd issues like the other reviewers, probably because I came here for dinner.
Not bad but not great sushi that is conveniently located near the webster tube (I'm convinced that Alameda has the worst sushi in the bay area). The spider roll was a standout for me; the thing has HUGE chunks of delicious soft shell crab. Their rice, however, tastes a little too much like the stuff you get at Safeway. Still, it's fresh sushi and the prices are great. What more do you want?
Also, the atmosphere is like a hospital cafeteria. Please gents, no first dates here, unless the chick is a lunch lady.
Good place! very generous for sushi.
i'm not a big fan of their Udons, but their Nigiri Delux is just so simple and good! get some Unis while at it, and you're all set!
There's a dear dear man in my life - other than a certain someone. He's my grandfather even though he's not really related to me. He just happens to be an older man who plays that role. Yes, I realize that my ginormous family is confusing enough without adding members who aren't related to it. Deal.
He's also visiting me for the next week, so get ready for another character in my reviews.
He also lived in Japan for 17 years and was married to a Japanese woman.
And he's a chef.
So yeah, introducing him to my sushi restaurant was almost as nerve racking as introducing Mama Marie to a Certain Someone (almost). What if he didn't like it? What did that say about my gastronomical upbringing if I (gasp) liked a bad sushi restaurant. I was even more nervous when he sat down and said, "they're cheap compared to Indiana"
Well, never fear. How could I possibly doubt Ichiro? He loved it. Well, love is a strong word, but Ichiro passed the test. As has been the case for the 2 years that I've been going to Ichiro - the fish was yummy, fresh and cut into large-ish, but perfect for savoring the flavor pieces. Granddad's only comment was that the ocha (tea) was weak. But apparently all ocha in the US is weak. He was thrilled to see that they had uni. His first piece was a little bitter, but the second was great. He was happy with everything else he ordered, and I, of course, was happy with my usual order. We left, bellies full, and ready for East Bay wine tasting.
So there you have it. The Chef has spoken. Ichiro is goo-oood
I will never ever ever ever ever question anything that yelpers say - especially when it comes to… Read more »
Going to Ichiro somewhat reminds me of my childhood. In Ichiro, I find a no-frills Japanese restaurant that serves no-frills sushi. When I was a kid, before sushi became cool, I think almost all of the Japanese restaurants were like this. Back then, we go in and all we'd eat would be teriyaki, sukiyaki, udon and tempura. The thought of raw fish would make me go ewww.
Well, the sushi didn't make me go ewww, it was quite good. their menu was pretty much nothing but sushi, I think they only devoted a half page to donburi as their non-sushi menu items.
The sushi was no-frills, no super duper special rolls slathered in sauce, just the basics. But those basics were done well and it was cheap. A filling dinner for two ended up being around $30.
Try the Oakland Roll, I never knew the combo of Unagi and cream cheese would taste so good.
I love this place--I go once a week for lunch with a friend since we both work in downtown Oakland. The sushi is always so good, the service is great and I love the amount of choices on the menu. The Creamy Albacore handroll is by far my favorite, but they also make great sushi combinations and bento boxes. I love being a "regular" at sweet little restaurant like this one--and when the food is this good, there's nothing to complain about.
When it comes to sushi, I am more Roger Ebert (the "yes" man) than Gene Siskel. In other words, I'm easy. I also have an iron stomach. I have never had food poisoning and I have eaten plenty of street foods in third world countries without so much as a bout of gas so I can't help those with wimpy digestive systems either.
Having said that, I like it here. Duh. I think it's Japanese owned, if that means anything to anyone. They seem to carry a rather large selection of sake, if you're into that.
My favorite part of their menu is the ability to select the fish you want on the sashimi dinner because as much as I love raw fish, there are some fish I prefer not to eat raw, like mackerel. We shared an order with yellowtail, salmon, smoked salmon and albacore and they were all good, especially the smoked salmon. And the sashimi pieces were huge.
The combination bentos are enormous and feature a tray with about 5 pounds of food. I ordered mine with salmon teriyaki and tempura. The vegetable tempura pieces were crispy with just the right amount of batter and delicious! My salmon teriyaki was a big disappointment. The thin piece of fish was overcooked and this gooey teriyaki glaze overpowered it. I didn't care for it at all and didn't eat much of it.
Chad ordered his bento with California roll (10 pieces) and tonkatsu. The rolls were tasty but the tonkatsu was just okay.
Overall, I think this may please most sushi lovers. If you're Japanese and/or really particular, you'll have to ask nobu k. to review it.
Pretty much the silliest thing I could do after nearly a month in Japan is to return to California and promptly go to a sushi bar. However, that is just what I did, accompanied by my fiance, her sister, and her mom.
As I mentioned, I had spent nearly a month in Japan, in the city of Hakodate no less, which is renowned for the freshness of its seafood. Ichiro would have a lot to live up at this point, especially since the last meal I had before I left was at a sushi bar.
Happily, Ichiro exceeded my expectations. The chef, who is familiar with my fiance's sister, since she works down the street from here, greeted us warmly and treated us to some special salmon with a spicy sauce. I'm not always a fan of cooked salmon, but this was tasty, even though I managed to drop it on my lap a couple times.
For sushi, I eschewed most of the fancier rolls and went with tradition (aside from a spicy tuna hand roll, which is a must for me at American sushi bars). I had hamachi, negi toro, and sake as my sushi; all were fresh and delicious. I also ordered agedashi tofu, another favorite of mine, but was a bit underwhelmed by it. My fiance had tonkatsu, which I think she liked, and her mom had chirashi, which for the price is a steal, considering the amount of fresh sashimi piled on it. I also ordered ama ebi, my favorite sushi, and it was good, but nowhere near the quality I had savored a few nights before. The roe on top was flavored with wasabi, which caught me totally off guard and made me sniffle.
All in all, very good, and I'd come back again to try more of their menu.
It's a serviceable sushi place in downtown Oakland. I've had better elsewhere, but I guess I've had worse, too.
Service has generally been good, considering how busy they usually are.
The miso is good.
I had one bad experience with one piece of sashimi there. On subsequent visits, I took a friend's advice to order the chirashi bowl, and that has been a good value and reliably good every time.
The first time I went there, the rolls were okay. California rolls, standard sushi filler, were middling. The Oakland roll was okay, but the unagi sauce completely overwhelmed the cream cheese.
Last time I was there my tablemate devoured the Rock and Roll, so it must have been pretty good.
Executive summary: Not terrible. If I could give 2 1/2 stars, I would.
The service was a bit slow,…
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So all in all...i'm gonna say this was a pretty good japanese meal in downtown Oakland. I wouldn't compare it to Yoshi's like some reviewers, but it was fresh and yummy for a workday lunch. The food was presented nicely and came out fast.
The service was so-so...the lady came and took my order hella fast, delivered the food at a good speed, but took forever coming back to see if I needed anything or give me my check. I had to flag her down twice, but in her defense I will say she seemed pretty busy with the lunch crowd. I'd recommend getting there about 10-15 minutes before the lunch crowd to get a good seat (or even get a seat! without waiting) and put in your order.
Ichiro Suzuki bobbleheads line a shelf above the sushi bar. Photos of regular customers are displayed on a back wall, all smiles and peace signs. Continuous, catchy J-pop provides a mood that is less ceremonial than traditional sushi establishments, yet infers a certain degree of authenticity.
Working in Oakland, Ichiro is less than a block away. I used to dedicate my lunchtime to exploring everything the area had to offer: Oakland City Center is just down Broadway, and Chinatown within walking distance. However, after I had a meal at Ichiro, I stopped looking.
I don't consider myself a sushi aficionado. I order from the menu by the numbers. I primarily enjoy sake after it is hastily dropped into a mug full of beer. Perhaps I could do a little research and educate myself on all that is sushi, taking note of the intricacies of Japanese culture and etiquette, and then scour the globe for the perfect experience.
However, I believe there comes a time in a man's life when he grows tired of searching for perfection, and all he needs to find is something consistent, something he can be himself with, something that makes him happy. Maybe I'm confusing libido with appetite, but every time I go to Ichiro for lunch, I always leave satisfied.
The quality and reasonable prices are a great value. The fish is very fresh and the staff are very good. Ichi is the best! If you get a chance to chat with him at dinner time, when it is less crazy (lunch is packed with patrons), he is a happy person who puts a lot of love in his food!
When he has the time, ask him to create something for you "a la Iron Chef". He has a creative genius with sushi that is fasntastic. It also will cost $$$, but is well worth it.
i love ichiro!!!! he's my favorite restaurant owner of all time- always so full of genki cheerfulness, smiles, and genuine friendliness.
the first time i came to his restaurant, he insisted on learning my name and wrote it on a piece of paper that he kept as a cheat sheet of his customers' names in a painstaking effort to remember them. the second time i came in, he busted out the piece of paper and greeted me by name! too cute.
the funky and sunset rolls are my favorites, but mostly everything we order is really good. i've asked ichiro to surprise me with rolls not on the menu and he always manages to come up with different rolls that we love.
it has a pretty sparse interior, extensive sake collection, great prices, and loads of photos of happy customers plastered on the walls, including me :)
ichiro-san, you're the best!!
I've always been a "quality over quantity" gal. The only thing I would want in large quantities where the quality suffers is beer.
That being said, my attitude towards sushi follows that principle, and after having been exposed to some of the best sushi recently, the bar has been set very high.
Quick synopsis: Ichiro is geared towards the quantity crowd. The fish isn't unfresh per se, it just wasn't all that flavorful nor was it sliced/presented well. They seem to draw the "big roll" crowd. My man and I are not maki people. we are nigiri and sashimi people.
Ichiro is in an area saved for mostly daylight business, on the edges of Downtown Oakland. The atmostphere felt welcoming enough, with the sushi chef greeting us immediately upon entering.
We decided to forgo the mainly sushi dinner and ordered two bento boxes- tempura and sashimi, and teriyaki salmon and vegetable croquettes, plus some nigiri of sake, maguro and unagi.
I liked the little appetizer of hamachi cooked with kelp, but the dark meat was very fishy and the kelp just made it all the more so.
The tempura was a little on the greasy side but still edible. The sashimi was really unremarkable- I could have gone to any of the Japanese markets and made better cuts at home. I was really underimpressed with their unagi- I didn't even want to finish my bite.
The teriyaki salmon was drowned in a gooey bath of teriyaki sauce- honestly they served a full cup on the somewhat thinnish slice of salmon. The tonkatsu sauce served with the croquette was extremely heavy on the vinegar so much that I had to put it on the other side of the table. Each bite I was taking (NOT of the tonkatsu sauce) tasted of it, it crept up my nostrils and permeated everything!
Sorry Ichirio, you are just average to me. You could have given us less food, but made it so much better. Funny how you can't go the other way and have it work the same more- food and lesser quantity. Does not compute.
Service 2.5 stars
food 3 stars
atmosphere 3 stars
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