I really had no idea there were that many in Toronto. Must be one of those rare sushi franchises here in TO. Anyways, this is my first taste of Ichiban. The place is small and cozy with a traditional bamboo looking decor. We arrived at around 6:30pm and were seated near the window. At that time, it wasn’t that busy.

You can’t forget the “Fire Mountain Roll”. This time we opted to go only rolls route after the last few we focused on the sushi side of things. The food came out pretty quick with the sushi pizza first. It was a bit more spicy as per the description but I found the bed of rice way too hard/crunchy. I think they overcooked it in the deep fryer.

Well it is definitely the current front runner for the worst sushi pizza in Toronto. The rest of the rolls were served together in a large serving plate. The presentation of all the rolls was nice, especially the caterpillar rolls which were the centre piece of the plate and actually did look like a caterpillar!

I’ll agree with you there. The best out of the bunch was the caterpillar roll. The Fire roll to me was the worst and they didn’t really have any taste or “fire” to them at all. It looks like they just sprinkled some chili spice on it and that was it. I guess you could say they are passable. It looks like this place is going to fall into the “yet another Toronto sushi restaurant” category which are a dime a dozen here.

Ha here’s a tip from the pros: If you want to “command the table” at Ichiban Sushi House, get the bench seats ASAP so you can tower over all the other diners! Well the cantaloupe dessert is pretty much the worst for me. I am allergic to it so no instant +0.5 from me! In the end, not the most impressive experience by a long shot. In that area, I actually expected a lot better. 5/10 from me.

Yeah that was a bit of a SNAFU on my part. I came out of the subway and started walking towards the Adelaide and happen to see the “Ninki” sign and assumed that was it. Once I was seated, I look around the restaurant and notice a poster saying “try our other place in Scotia Plaza” and realize that I am in the wrong restaurant! Anyways, this place has a more casual feel to it with a lot of bright colours that seems geared to towards the non formal dining.

They had a pretty large menu with the usual variety of rolls that you see in Toronto. There weren’t any signature Ninki rolls or dishes that we could have tried. This time we decided to mix it up a little bit and order some rolls as well as some sushi. Of course the obvious spicy tuna rolls and sushi pizza as our standard picks.

Your telling me! The whole point of sushi is that it is prepared fresh with care and skill by a sushi chef. I think for quality sushi, it should take a bit of time to prepare. In this case, it felt just a little too fast and the place wasn’t empty either! As always, it comes down to the taste but I was already feeling a little bit nervous.

Agreed. Unfortunately, there was a lack of any special about the rolls. Seems that it’s easier just to slather their spicy sauce on them rather than actually prepare the sushi as it should be mixed with any sauce beforehand then rolled. The worst for me was the Unagi. It looked like it was just microwaved for the 10th time and tasted that way. Almost tasted like it was a sardine.

Yup the standard trick of putting in more rice to make the sushi look bigger and make it more filling. That’s basically the trick that all the prepackaged sushi places do. You know the ones at food courts or mall kiosks where the sushi combos are made before hand and you pick what you want from the cooler. Always avoid these places because you basically pay for a small sliver of fish on top a large portion of rice. Unless of course you simply love rice!

Yup it seems it’s a bad start for the new year and it looks like the restaurant mix up came back to haunt us. I would imagine that the other location in Scotia Plaza must be better. I have to agree with you on this one: 3/10 from me as well. As a consolation prize, we can only go up from here right?

Based on the website link you sent me the placed look pretty fancy going with the darker modern feel kind of thing. It’s very close to King Subway Station (yes I did take the subway there) and you really can’t miss it. Huge black and Bikkuri sign. When I arrived it wasn’t too busy and was seated by the window. Looking around, has some private rooms/booths as well for larger parties I guess.

Yeah it was lightning quick. Probably because it wasn’t that busy. More people started to trickle in here and there as the evening went on. I guess it’s hard to expect more on a Tuesday night. Your exactly right about the dishes. The first thing I noticed that was different was the Salmon Sushi Pizza. It wasn’t the usual deep fried rice base. The rice base was actually some kind of rice tempura. Different but still tasted pretty good. The rolls were all pretty decent the Shichimi Maki was extra spicy to me. This time more of the spicy sauce variety. This spiciness I prefer over the way Daio Japanese Restaurant does theirs.

Ah yes the Martini Rolls! Presentation and taste was nice but just broke apart too easily. I was going to say that it’s due to your chopstick skills but it was happening to me as well, a seasoned chopstick user…so it must be the sushi chefs fault!

The jury is still out on that fly. Was it already in the glass or did it land there during the dinner?? I’ll give them a slight benefit of the doubt as there was a fly flying around at the end of the dinner so it’s possible it just dropped in on your beer.

Service was pretty good up until that point. It’s aways a bit weird when you have to flag a waiter/waitress down to GIVE them money. At least we get a few candies for our troubles that were included with the bill. Anyways, overall the Bikkuri was decent but nothing really stands out. Might be a good place to have private party dinners as they have private areas with pillows and it looks like you even remove your shoes for more “traditional” Japanese dinning. The prices were a bit more expensive than others but you can probably chalk that up to being in the Yonge and King Street area. I’ll have to add it to the ever growing list of “yet another Toronto sushi place” category. I give it a 7/10. Bonus points for getting another few candies(!) when the waitress returned with the credit card sheet to sign.