Ichiban greets its diners with a very intimate and Zen-like dining room that includes a sushi bar as well as regular tables. The dining room is a lot smaller than I expected, but that just gives a more intimate and relaxing feel to the restaurant.

This Japanese restaurant has much more than just an extensive sushi menu. There are many different entrees, mainly seafood-based, as well as a large variety of noodle dishes.

Ichiban’s extensive food menu and interesting exotic drink menu (I recommend the sake and plum wine) creates many possibilities as to how you will approach your meal.

Along with glasses of plum wine, sake, colorful martinis and an endless amount of green tea, my dining companions and I decided to order appetizers and sushi.

We started out with the “Happy Avocado” and a special they had for the day that included cheese, mushrooms, and different seafood in a shell. The “Happy Avocado” was pre-sliced, making it easy to eat. It had tuna and whitefish inside the half avocado and was topped with a sesame sauce. The sesame sauce really added to the great flavor of all these things together.

The other appetizer I did not eat because I hate mushrooms, but it was enjoyed with no complaints by everyone else in my party.

We moved on to the various sushis that we ordered: flounder, striped bass and shrimp sushi. Mixed with our creation of wasabi soy sauce, each sushi was deliciously different. We also tried the flake maki rolls and fresh salmon rolls, which were equally mouth-watering. All the food we selected turned out to be delightful.

The menu prices ranged from $3 to $10 for appetizers, $5 to $8 for rolls, $4 to $7 (per order) for sushi, and $12 to $27 for entrees. For the fresh fish and excellent setups, the prices are outstanding.

The service was exceptional and the atmosphere was a lot more comfortable than any restaurant near a Blockbuster in a strip mall I have ever been to.

I would highly recommend checking Ichiban out at least once. Although it seemed to have a very authentic Asian feel, the patrons weren’t exactly what you’d expect.

Don’t let the unfamiliar atmosphere and food varieties intimidate you; Ichiban is a wonderful alternative to better-known East Side restaurants. But just be careful who you bring with you.

While dining, my party and I had a conversation about how you should never bring a first date or someone you aren’t comfortable with when you go out for sushi. And after fishing rice out of my soy sauce, I realized how true that is.

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