Ichiban Asian All You Can Eat Markham — Restaurant in Markham

Went here for lunch on International Sushi day, which was the Wednesday after Father's Day. My mom had been fasting to give blood and after hours of waiting as a walk-in she was hangry by the time she was done. To assuage her, i googled the closest buffet after i had to inform her that the closest pizza hut no longer had a buffet option (for the past 6 years!)

I was a little leery as my mom is not a big fan of sushi and some of the reviews from Father's Day were not all that. Luckily, their online menu had some chinese stir fry options that i thought would be good enough for her. We were also running late for a lunch buffet; we didn't reach there until 1:45pm which is usually a big no for us since most buffets are picked over by that time. Luckily for us, their website said that they closed at 3:30pm and they bring the lunch course items to your table.

My mom (and I) loved the food and thought it was great value for the price. We both loved the self-serve soups (hot and sour, mushroom and something) and the mango salad. They were some of the most flavourful we've had. The seaweed salad was good enough. I like sushi and I thought that all their specialty sushi's were delicious, the best I've had in a long time. They were so fresh and tasty.

Surprisingly, the things my mother liked and did not like were the opposite of what i would have thought. She loved the sushi rolls but wasn't a fan of the chicken skewer, chicken karage, and seafood udon noodles (that one shrimp was lonely having to represent all the seafood in the small plate of seafood noodles).

The tempura vegetables and shrimp were good. The ordered desserts were bleh. The self-serve desserts were simple but good. We enjoyed the puddings and the opportunity to make your own red bean, mango syrup, rasberry syrup, lychee topping slush. They had 4 different types of ice cream with flavours such as mango and green tea but we were so full we couldn't get any. My mom liked the coffee mocha cake but i didn't think it was worth the calories.

This was our first time there and we'll definitely be back. We liked that we would order what we wanted off the menu using the table tablet and the servers would bring it to our table. Service was slow at the beginning but felt normal once we received our first or second order.

We've tried other buffets in Markham but this one is our favourite so far. If you like specialty sushi rolls you'll love this place. It felt like all the sushi rolls were made fresh which made a big difference in taste IMHO. The lunch pricing is decent for the quality of...

Haven't been to AYCE sushi in awhile. Kaka was meant to be an AYCE disruptor but their markham location hasn't really solidified itself in the AYCE category after dropping it's quality the last couple of years imo.

I recently visited this resto because my cousin was in Canada visiting w/ her husband and they were craving sushi. Also, I had heard good things about Ichiban (for an AYCE place) from a workout buddy of mine. He had raved about the North York location so I decided to test out the markham location to see if the hype was justified.

We arrived on a wednesday evening for dinner. Got seated right away at our 7pm res time.

Soups, salad and desserts are all at a self-serve bar in the middle of the resto which is convenient.

As others have pointed out, all items are ordered through 1 ipad that every table/group is given.

The sashimi was quite solid for an AYCE I have to say (no stomach issues haha). The torched sushi and rolls were good but I wish they didn't sauce them as much. There was a REALLY thick layer of mustard-based sauce on all the torched stuff. Kind of completely masked the flavour of the fish LOL. The smoked duck roll was unique though. I don't usually see smoked duck on sushi at a lot of places.

Tbh, the grilled items on the menu impressed me more than the sushi though. Particularly the grilled scallop skewers. I think I mowed down like 15+ of these by myself. SOO GOOD. The scallops are obviously not the big sea scallops but they grilled these so well. There was a lot of seasoning and they came w/ the skirts attached (which had crispy edges from being grilled).

You thought the grilled items were the best? SURPRISE! My fave part of the meal was actually dessert. All of the dessert items on the iPad were actually made well. The fried milk, the fried banana, the cream puffs. I was genuinely surprised. The cream puffs usually have a stale exterior and the cream is usually expired at most places. Here they are nice. The fried bananas are coated in panko rather than tempura batter here so take what you will w/ that info. I enjoyed it. The fried milk is usually not crispy OR cooked all the way through at a lot of places so I was also surprised it was cooked well here (and to top it off they were big boi pieces). Having the ice cream as self-serve is actually very smart on the resto's part. I can just keep ordering the fried stuff to accompany all the ice cream I want (chocolate was the best flavour imo; the matcha wasn't grassy enough).

Would definitely say this is the most solid spot for AYCE quality sushi in York region...

Bit of a mixed review here. Visited the restaurant on a Saturday. A lot of ups and downs. The restaurant is very busy on a weekend which makes sense. However, the entrance of the building is just stacked with people waiting to be seated, even with reservations and they just simply call out people to be seated. For reference, our reservation was for 8:00PM and we sat at approximately 8:20. Not bad by any means, but it felt claustrophobic as it seems 30 people or so were waiting for their 8:00 reservation as well. Once seated, we ordered on the iPad given. Some of the food took approximately 20 minutes to arrive, but for all items non-sushi related. It seems very obvious that the sushi department was backed up, but we waited for a very long time for our sushi rolls. Sashimi took about an hour to arrive. Maki rolls about an hour and a half. The torched sushi which we ordered at the beginning as soon as we got seated down, took almost two hours. In terms of wait time for rolls, is abysmal. In terms of the quality of sushi, it is also a bit of a mix as well. Sashimi quality is great. No complaints whatsoever. However the individual rolls (maki, specialty, etc.) have a much thicker coat of rice. The ratio between rice and contents of the sushi was very off. I would estimate the excess rice used in 2-3 rolls could be used to make another roll. The other items that were non-sushi related was pretty decent. Good selection and variety. The atmosphere of the restaurant was okay, however having a conversation is a bit difficult unless you talk at a much higher volume. Occasionally there are birthdays which they play the birthday theme over the speakers. I do think they need to adjust the volume because it is VERY loud. I would maybe try the restaurant again when it is a little less busy, but waiting 30 minutes to be seated, and then waiting two hours for our sushi dampens the mood quite a bit. In combination of this and the loud environment, just ruined the meal overall. I think the food was good, in particularly in regards to the sashimi. The service was great, with lots of workers around to ask for help. There was a lady who kept apologizing for the wait and obviously it's not the fault of the staff. But until they find a way to have a better system in regards to the waiting room and the wait for food (specifically in regards to the sushi preparation), I cannot recommend this restaurant unless you go...