Downtown Duds part I: Ichiban

I've been hesitating to post this blog for some time as I don't wish to propel more negativity into the infinite realm of the internet; however, many friends have urged me to just go ahead and say the following: there are alot of shitty restaurants in this town (please note the usage of a comma, a semi-colon, a colon, a period, and parentheticals in this sentence). Many of them happen to be within spitting distance of my office, therefore, I find myself at them from time to time.

Today, let's start with Ichiban's new downtown sushi location!

Ichiban Downtown: no thumbs up

Menu Highlights: none

Price Range: the lunch special was 8:50 (two rolls and a small salad).

I sometimes eat at the Ichiban on 43rd St because it's near my house and always when I'm in a pinch for time. It's never good. At best, it's mediocre. I've always said that you can tell good sushi when you first see it and even before tasting it. The rolls are crafted with pride and are therefore aesthetically pleasing, the fish appears fresh and moist, and the internal components of the roll maintain their integrity and don't mush into a burrito style hodgepodge. Ichiban rarely has one of these factors let alone all three at the same time.

Today's lunch started out with something that presumably existed only to serve as an example of the minimum amount of effort devoted to a lettuce based dish that could still qualify as a "salad." It was followed by a tuna roll and a rainbow roll. The tuna roll smelled and tasted fishy while the california roll contents had already converged into a mush like the one described above. No amount of ginger or wasabi could resurrect these rolls from their Tokyo tinged tedium.

On a side note, Tony's sushi in Ocala (which is a great sushi establishment) gives you a california roll, 3 pieces of sushi, a salad, soup, rice, and a generous portion of chicken teriyaki or tempura for the same price as Ichiban's lunch "special."