Ichiro Japanese Restaurant - Richmond

Ichiro is on the West side of Steveston Village serving authentic Japanese cuisine.  It seems to be run by Japanese servers and the sushi chefs look Japanese as well.  We haven’t been here for quite a few years since our last experience was just soso.  We brought out of town visitors here to try out so hopefully they have improved since then.

Cover of Ichiro’s menu. 

Their menu changed slightly from a couple of weeks ago when we passed by to look.  We asked the server and was told this is the new “Spring Menu”.  Most of the items and sets were the same.  The only difference was that all the prices shot up higher when compared to 2 weeks ago...

For starters we ordered a few different sushies.  On this plate are California roll, Dynamite roll and chopped scallop roll.

They cost a bit more than the other small takeout places.  Quality and taste wise, they were not bad nor spectacular.  At least the rice was cold which was good for sushi.

We also ordered the assorted sashimi trio.  It has salmon, taro and yellow tail. 

They were nice and thick.  One gripe was that the salmon had bones in it.  This was unacceptable for sashimi.  Even the all you can eat places we’ve been to in the past do not serve sashimi with bones.  We brought this up to the attention of our server and she was apologetic, yet mentioned it happens regularly.  Thus, you should be careful when ordering sashimi from this place.

Next was an assorted sushi plate with more California roll and various nigiri sushi.

Luckily no bones were in the sashimi. Overall it was quite fresh.

Next are the hot foods.

This is deep fried prawns in a spicy mayo sauce. The prawns didn’t seem to be coated with enough breading so it was not very crunchy.  The prawns were large but lacked flavor once you bite into the middle. Furthermore, the prawns just didn’t feel hot enough inside.

Grilled Squid: The taste was good except the squid was not tender enough.

Deep fried squid: This included some spicy mayo dipping sauce.  It was not overly fried and includes the squid tentacles as well.

Chicken Rice Bowl:

The chicken rice was odd because at the bottom there was lots of water.  This made the rice much too moist.  It was not overly flavorful either.

Eel Rice:

Eel rice was a bit pricey because of the eel.  The sauce was a unique sweet eel sauce, similar to teriyaki sauce.

Overall, the food quality was lacking.  Also, the food served here is very pricey and definitely not worth what they charge based on this visit.  We think some improvements need to be made to the food service before they can justify charging these prices.

SFDD gives 3 out of 5 Delights.