Ichiro Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Richmond

It seems like I’ve been waiting to go to Ichiro Japanese Restaurant in Steveston for ages but, in the past, I’ve always wound up filling up on fish and chips instead. Well, in March this year, we decided to change things up a bit. We still got fish and chips from Pajos but we only ordered a small serving to save room for our visit to Ichiro.

This restaurant is super busy and was practically full as soon as they opened. Their menu is rather extensive so it’s a bit difficult to decide what to order. I like that their menu is more typical of a Japanese restaurant instead of the generic “sushi” places that you find all over town.

The Sashimi Boat Set ($30) was the first to arrive and contained an assortment of sashimi… including tuna, salmon, yellowtail, surf clam, octopus, sweet shrimp, red tuna, and white fish. It also came with chicken karaage, spring roll, steamed rice, and miso soup.

The sashimi, as expected in a seafood community like Steveston, was super fresh. The only bad thing was that the sashimi boat came out so early that it was practically finished by the time my meal finally arrived.

After quite a wait, my Wanko & Sashimi ($27.95) finally arrived and included miso soup, assorted tempura, wanko soba, sashimi, and my choice of rice dish.

In my set, I picked the Bara Chirashi which is rice topped with chopped up pieces of tuna, salmon, tamago, as well as ikura and cucumbers.

Wanko refers to the small bowls of soba noodles in my set and originates from the Iwate Prefecture of Japan. My set included two bowls of cold noodles (one topped by a soft poached egg and the other topped with ikura and grated daikon).

Like the sashimi boat that we had earlier, the sashimi in my set was super fresh and included tuna, salmon, yellowtail, and sweet shrimp.

Overall, the food was quite good and the seafood was super fresh. Service was a bit slow but I’m assuming that’s because they were so busy. Also, the restroom was a bit of a mess. But if you’re just coming here for the food and you’re looking for something other than your typical sushi restaurant, Ichiro is a good pick with lots of set menu options to choose from.

UPDATE - June 2025: It's been about six years since our last visit to Ichiro. We had some trouble opening the door because (even though there are signs) it took us a hot minute to realize we needed to "wave" at the button on the side in order to open the door.

I forgot how big the menu is here. Decided to have the Yume Bento ($28.95) with 1/2 cali roll, 1/2 dynamite roll, tempura, sashimi, sunomono, karaage, and chicken teriyaki. Also ordered the Agedashi Tofu ($4.5 upgrade) and the Yakitori ($9.95) with a sweet tare sauce and the Oyster Motoyaki ($11.5). The motoyaki was a bit different and not as creamy as others. The sashimi...

Edit: Something in the kitchen and service staff has changed for the worse. I've not a clue what happened but the change was rapid and drastic over the summer.

The menu pricing has changed again with prices going up and down across the board, mostly up. ($25 for a saba set?!) The service has become slow, unbearable and inattentive the last 3 times I've went, perhaps a lack of training or understaffed. I cannot pin it on a bad day at the restaurant after 3 consecutive times of bad service, having to wave someone down to order, for the bill as well as for more tea. This would be somewhat excusable if the food was overwhelmingly positive, but alas it was not. The soba noodles were poorly cooked, the noodles were cooked at a rapid boil showing a mushy exterior with an under cooked core. The chicken karaage was bland, greasy, fried at a temperature too low for the size of the thighs cut. The marinade definitely did not seep through such a huge piece of chicken. The sushi quality has also dropped. Though the fish remains decently fresh, the quality of workmanship has not; with the fish falling out of the roll when picked up, the nigiri's rice falls apart when picked up now too. Crazy sauced rolls now exist with more traditional "normal" maki rolls being phased out. The chopped scallop rolls have more mayo squeezed on top which was highly unnecessary.

I am unfortunately very disappointed in such a drastic change in quality over the summer, and I cannot even in nostalgia's sake come back for such high priced mediocrity. The biggest sign was it being half empty on a Friday night when it is usually packed to the brim til closing. I can safely say there are far better choices now than Ichiro, such as Takeya or Shintaro, when before they were always on par.

Old Review: I have been coming for nearly 10 years now. Not much has changed and that's good. Service is good when it's not packed to the brim with people and take out overflowing out the window, Food is consistent no matter, one of the best in Vancouver, easily tops most instagram hype restaurants downtown. It is out of the way for most people, but rest assured, it is one of the chart toppers in...

This is our first time here. We live 10 minutes away. I highly recommend making reservations and bring your ID and proof of vaccinations because they will check. You are allowed to enjoy your visit for 90 minutes. First off I'd like to say from the phone call to the service, they had been professional, courteous and very respectful. We came in for a 6pm reservation. They sat us immediately. I believe not all tables have this option of ringing for service when you are ready. Smart. Second, the menu was quite full of variety and wonderful looking options. We ordered, prawn and assorted tempura, assorted sashimi, which was chosen by the sushi chef ( 7 items ): shrimp, high grade tuna, tuna belly in a sesame oil and green onion mixture, salmon, sea urchin roe, snapper I think or yellow tail, and one other that I swear tasted like lovely beef carpaccio but wasn't, tempura and chicken karaage don and soba noodles, roll set consisting of California rolls, avocado rolls, kappa rolls, dynamite rolls, sunomono salad and edamame. We also ordered Japanese calamari with a subtle mayo sesame dipping sauce. Everything about this meal was excellent. The rolls weren't rolled with too much rice. The quality of the sashimi was incredibly fresh and delicious. The house made soy sauce was light and paired well with the sashimi. The japanese chefs to the Japanese servers were great. The server was attentive and friendly. The value for money was good. I want to go back and try the other items. The tempura was lightly battered and tasty. We were so pleasantly satisfied. Our server came by with a scoop of green tea ice cream with a candle on top to celebrate my son's birthday today. How sweet. And yes I ordered a scoop of mango ice cream and it was a perfect way to cap off the evening. Thank you...