Ichiki Japanese & Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in Vaughan

I am a regular repeat customer at Sushi 168 at Dufferin St. and Steeles Ave. and Kuu Sushi close to Bathurst St. and Centre St. I tried this place for the first time past Friday. For all three places (Sushi 168, Kuu Sushi, and Ichiki), they use tablet for ordering. Sashimi order took over 30 minutes to arrive; this never happens at Sushi 168 or Kuu. Also sashimi was not sliced well and looked like cut with scissors. I mean they must have used knife to cut it but I guess inexperienced maki man or sushi man must have done it. And freshness was not good. Had salmon, tuna, etc. Rice on sushi & rolls on the earlier orders were not tender and little bit dry, also too much rice. On later orders, the rice on sushi & rolls were great. Must have had wrong batch of rice cooked but this never happened at Sushi 168 or Kuu. Pad thai was missing peanuts, lime, and tofu plus more. Did not taste good. LA Kalbi was very good. Fried rice was good on the first order but second order was super salty. Fried milk pudding (my favourite dish) was very good. Soft drink refills. Servers asked frequently and were fast on refills. My friend’s wife tried to steal my friend’s soda pop (with free refills). Waitress came quickly with her hand blocking the drink and advised no sharing of drinks on refillable soda pop. My friend’s wife wasn’t supposed to share but not many places have waitress running forward and blocking with hand. Kind of embarrassing. I jokingly said to our 6 people that dined here that waitress and staff should rather focus on getting the orders on time to tables than watching for people sharing drinks. My issue later was the bill. There was no indication of automatic 15% gratuity added to the table with a party of 6 or more. I’ve been to bar or other restaurant that do such for party of 8 or more, not 6. There was no mention of such when we entered. I wouldn’t have minded the 15% if the food quality and service were good. When our initial orders were taking forever and the rice on sushi & rolls were subpar, I was planning on 0 to 5% gratuity. Then, things improved for later orders and service was better, I was thinking towards 8 to 10% gratuity. When our party of 6 got 2 split bills for 3 people each, the waitress (server) comes with bill and card machine with 15% gratuity circled. I asked for manager or owner. A gentleman comes over and I could tell this person is not a customer service oriented person. He was too defensive. His focus seemed to be that this is the policy. I said I respect that policy and that I wasn’t looking to argue on 15% gratuity. I said I would have appreciated if I knew of such from the beginning or sign that indicates such on the wall. To me, it was unfair to pay 15% gratuity on mediocre food quality and service compared to what I am used to at Sushi 168...

Where do I begin… Ichiki has been my go to sushi spot for all you can eat since my family and I discovered it about 4 years ago. It remains our favourite spot EVER and has yet to be beaten… It’s a bit pricey, but the most you’ll end up paying is $42.93 (tax included for a regular weekend dinner price at most, & lunch prices are even cheaper, although you get less menu options). It is definitely worth the price. I usually get my money’s worth through eating about 35 pieces of sashimi alone (not including all the sushi I eat, etc.)! They never shrink portion sizes either, what you order is what you get, so they don’t really seem to try and cheat you out by giving you smaller and smaller portions as some other places do.

The food is always amazing quality, the portions are large, and the service is usually very fast! I have brought friends and family here, all of whom have returned to Ichiki as repeat customers multiple times — even sometimes without me present! Unashamedly, I have been multiple times in the past two months, and I crave it almost everyday. My favourite roll is the firework roll: it’s like a warm, spicy huh for your mouth! The sashimi is always of excellent quality, buttery and melt-in-your-mouth with excellent fresh flavours (even on busy nights like a Saturday!). It is my favourite place to eat after a heavy lifting day in the gym.

Not pictured: Ichiki’s iconic short ribs. If you go, you must try them. They are a staple for anyone’s all you can eat experience! The first time my brother and I had Ichiki, we each had about 25 short ribs!

The rice is also amazing, I can’t describe how moist (?) yet chewy it is. Like proper fried rice, since I know some places (especially takeout places) tend to have very dry fried rice. There are 5 options of rice: plain Japanese, chicken, beef, shrimp, and pineapple fried rice. I recommend all, but especially the chicken fried rice! Again, great portion sizes and actual chunks of chicken, not dry or too tiny.

As you can see, I can go on and on about this place. But don’t listen to me, try it out for...

Been here few years ago, I remember I liked the place. Things went downhill a bit like some of the reviews mentioned here. As a professional reviewer of AYCE shops, I have no choice but lower the stars, and I mostly give 5 stars even for a ton of imperfect restaurants.

The Cons (why lost 3 stars): The 1 thing I disliked most in a Jap AYCE happened here: LARGE "rice to ingredient" ratio. This is a malpractice to scam patrons into getting full with rice quickly, especially for newbies. Even my children could sense it, saying this place puts way too much rice. My pix can't do justice of that as I stopped taking pix in the worst half of the dinner, mood was gone.

Child hurt his tooth by chewing on a hard string (see pic) mixed into the Ramen. (likely used to prepared pork belly) Disregarded.

Very low craftmanship and accuracy in sushi. (See comparison picture) Ichiki make roll looked great on display, but it came out:

1. Without the torching
2. Without the avocado and green onions
3. A fully cooked salmon instead of a charred salmon
4. Worst, "cut corners" on salmon
5. I can ignore the very bad spread

All of the above signifies a struggling kitchen with owners that cut corners.

Despite being very below average compared to its competitors, this place still charges the same upscale price.

The Pros (why i added an extra star): The staff were nice The variety is decent, it's not fully common anymore to find ramen, and also with a nice (but too tiny) pork belly inside. The veggies options are nice, and not as badly submerged into starchy sauce as some other places. It even has grilled price mushrooms which was nice. The speed is good The maki with mango was refreshing Despite us leaving a ton of rice out on the plates, no complaints from staff.

• I would wish to re-evaluate this to a 5-star one day, when I hear they decided to cut down rice ratio by half, and actually spend time putting the rightful ingredients and steps back correctly. This location has so...