Ichiro Japanese Restaurant w/ Friends

This dinner was planned for about a month.  A few weeks ago I saw the comment in my previous Ichiro Japanese Restaurant review and saw that the commenter did not have a good experience here.  That worried me as I had highly recommended it to my coworkers.  It was also tediously planned so I really didn’t want to change anything.  Thankfully whatever happened that night to harrysaxon that night did not happen to us.  If you’re reading this harrysaxon, I really want you to change your mind about it.  Perhaps it was one of their off-nights.  Please do attempt to try it again!

So on to the review~!!

GRock is afraid of food with heads attached.  Apparently he can’t eat anything with eyes such as prawns because he feels like they’re looking at him.

I thought of the perfect dinner outing for him.  L1, L2 and J were very excited at my idea.  It was quite fun.  All we told him was we’re taking him to Mystery Meat Dinner.  That secret was kept for around 4 weeks.  Up until we arrived at the restaurant and it was served, he didn’t know exactly what we had planned for him.

But before we spoil the surprise, we ordered a bunch of other stuff first.

The Beef Sashimi was really good, at least to me.  The beef was very flavorful, it wasn’t just the taste of the dipping sauce but I could actually taste something else.  I really enjoyed it.  I didn’t think raw beef could taste like this.

Spicy Tuna Sashimi was not my choice.  First of all, I really think that if I were to order sashimi, I like it as is to taste the true flavor of the flesh.  Any type of sauce covers the natural tastiness of the fish.

Having said that, this was just ok.  The sauce was yummy, but again I wouldn’t pick it.

It seems that my co-workers like to stick with the tried-and-true stuff.  GRock and L2 loves Toro Sashimi (left), and with good reason.  It was buttery and fatty and melt-in-your-mouth goodness….no bones here!  But it had better be with a price tag of $13.95.

On the right is Salmon Toro Sashimi.   I kind of picked this one as I’ve never had Salmon Toro before.  I thought it was presented beautifully.  I enjoyed it too.  It was slightly fattier than normal Salmon Sashimi, but aside from the aesthetic value, I wasn’t really wow-ed.  This was $13.95 also.

Now this was more like it!  I urged the party to try something off their usual Japanese restaurant routine.  Originally I suggested we try the Sea Bass Sashimi, since I tried it at Soul a while back and enjoyed it.  But when we came to ordering the waitress suggested we try the Sole Sashimi which is on their Daily Specials.  She said it’s similar to it.  I think it’s mostly that it’s more expensive ($9.95 vs. $16.95).  But we fell for it and ordered it.

I find that they present their Daily Specials in a more unusual way than the stuff on their regular menu.

G and L2 were not impressed with the head hahaha!

Well, honestly speaking, I didn’t enjoy this very much.  The texture was very similar to Sea Bass, but a LOT MORE chewier.  This fish was CHEWY!!! Now I know I’ve always said I loved chewy things, but not this time.

The fish was also quite bland.  Aside from the presentation, I was not impressed.

Until they came back with this.  Yep!  It’s the deep-fried remnants of the fish~  It was really good haha~!  This part probably made up for the sashimi part for me.  The bones were so thin that once deep-fried it was like chips.  They provided salt and pepper for dipping.  We gobbled this up pretty quickly.  Only the head was left because it really looked too ghastly.

We also ordered a few rolls.  On the left with the pretty plate is the Ichiroll which is their Daily Special too.  On the right is the Chopped Scallop Roll and the Steveston Roll, which I’ve blogged before previously.

The Ichiroll is more like a platter of two different rolls.  The far left is a Prawn tempura roll topped with prosciutto, and the yellow one is asparagus tempura roll topped with some yellow wrapper.  I really don’t know what it is.

Actually, describing it like this…it doesn’t seem like this was worth $14.00… 🙁

With the Ichiroll we were brought a bowl of sesame seeds and were instructed to grind it up.  They were to be added to a dipping sauce for the special roll.

The sauce consisted of pecans, miso, ginger, and the sesame seeds.  It was much loved by all parties.  In fact, we used it to dip the other rolls too.  Afterwards, we ordered MORE rolls just to dip into it.

I recommended the Yakiudon because their udon is really good and chewy.  L1 picked the beef to go with it.  It was still good, but tonight the sauce was a bit too salty.

So what was the surprise mystery meat?????

It was Lobster Sashimi!

I wish our lobster was livelier…well…as lively as it could be…..because it’s cool to see.  Search around on Youtube and you’ll see much more active ones.  That’s how they should be.  Now animal activists please don’t assault me!!!

If you haven’t tasted it before, lobster sashimi has a sort of sweetness to it.  I find it pretty different from eating it cooked.  I really enjoy this everytime.

After we’re done with the sashimi, they take the rest back to make a miso soup out of it.  It’s really good and sweet too, full of lobster flavor.  And then there’s some cooked lobster to eat too!

Oh, and G enjoyed it.  He wasn’t afraid!  I was proud of him.  L2, on the other hand…was apprehensive to say the least….

So after all that food, it must be the end of our meal right?

Nope!  There’s always room for dessert!  This is called the Dyno Egg which is deep-fried ice cream drizzled with berry sauce.  It’s basically mango ice cream inside vanilla ice cream, which is how it looks like an egg.  I’ve always wanted to get this everytime I was here but was also too full.  This time I had lots of people to share it with!

So again, this really is a great place.  Please do go check it out!