Saturday, February 23, 2008

Listen Up Sushi Lovers

I've had a lot of people tell me to go try Ichiban Sushi downtown in Salt Lake (400 East 366 South)- that it is amazing. Since our favorite standbys at 6:00 this evening were running 45 minute wait times, we thought we'd try it out (it: Ichiban).

I am going to give a mini review of this visit and feel qualified to do so since DH and I "do" sushi more regularly than any other kind of food.

The atmosphere at Ichiban is nice, even interesting since it's located in an old downtown church. Our first impression was very good, and our service was very good too.

However, the food was not...at all. If you eat sushi, and specifically sashimi, you know that it is at its best when it is cold, and firm - not room temperature and mushy, which is what our Sake and Hamachi were. Even our rolls were too mushy (we got the Death and Jazz rolls). We gave them several opportunities to do better by ordering more of both of the Sake and Hamachi but it really never got any better. The primarily reason we had to order more was because SP loves the stuff too and was eating all of ours, not because we were loving it.

If it wasn't bad enough that the temperature and texture of our food wasn't good, we got the bill which was about 25% more than most other common sushi joints. And by that, I'm comparing it to Takashi, Tsunami, Kyoto, and Happy Sumo. We were very disappointed.

Having said all of that, I will now say that it was convenient to be able to get seated immediately at 6pm on a Saturday - although now I know why.

So, if you're in Salt Lake and you want a run-down of where to go for sushi here ya go:

Takashi - if you want a very nice place with the VERY BEST SUSHI IN THE STATE (not kid friendly)
Kyoto - if you want very good sushi for a very reasonable price (very kid friendly)
Happy Sumo - if you want a good variety of rolls and very decent sashimi (mod kid friendly)
Ichiban - if you're desperate for sushi and you can't get in anywhere else (mod kid friendly)

Toodles!

3 backward glances:

Unknown said...

Very interesting! I haven't been there for about 4 years and I guess it has definitely changed.

Rachel said...

oh SUSHI. my tummy needs some good sushi, it's been months!
The church that you mentioned is the place where we had our Wedding Luncheon, however at the time is was a cute little Italian place. Ichiban took over a week later. They were great in their day, but they have gone through many changes and lost their edge, too bad.
Takashi was the McCann favorite. Yummy power lunches!!

Amy said...

Katie - I didnt' know you were a sushi lover!

Rachel - I went to that italian place about 15 years ago, and it was better food than the sushi place. You are so funny though - you don't even EAT SUSHI, you california roll wannabee! jk, you know i love you.