Ichiban Restaurante Japonês — Restaurant in Porto

It used to be my favorite restaurant in town. The chef was really good and you could see he used to prepare the hot dishes by himself (or at least overlook it closely). It was the best NASU DENGAKU i ever had (and i order it everywhere bc i love it. It was the only restaurant that served good hot dishes (Portuguese people think Japanese food is just sushi). I used to love it.

But last Thursday it was really bad. The service was really poor. There were three ladies and not that many tables (the restaurant is small), but there were a mix up and a kombucha that I ordered during the meal, arrived when we were ordering the bill, after dessert and cognac. it was really bizarre. they managed to get the table cleaned, the order to dessert and the order to the cognac, prepare it and bring it to the table without realizing they missed the drink - yes, I had no drink during my meal. The hot food seen better days… The TAKOYAKI was well seasoned and all but missed completely the octopus. Street food and fairs takoyaki have way more octopus than the one that was served. The TORI KARAAGE was made with dark meat like it should and that made me happy, but it came with the marks of oil foam, that happens when the deep fry oil is too dirty. That was REALLY DISAPPOINTING. I liked here because it was pricey but good. Because it had all the picky traditional rules followed. Because it was pristine. Now it’s just pricey? The SASHIMI and NIGIRI were ok: fresh fish, right size. The sushi men clearly were way faster than everyone else: they had all their plates prepared and waiting over their counter way before than cocktails and drinks arrived. (it made me think about how much I would like to have my raw fish food there sitting for that long)

It has always been an amazing meal and now was just a really expensive regular meal. That makes me sad. Because I urge amazing meals and I just lost...

Went there without planning, it was the 1st restaurant we found that served Sushi. W entered the restaurant at 14h35, it was very close to close grande time, but the staff was very nice and polite.

We select the lunch menu, appetizers, miso soup, 5 sashimi and 10 sushies pieces and desert. 17 euros. The entries were delicious, 2 small puffy cookies with a sort of fresh guacamoly (cannot remember the ingredients), then the miso soup was amazing, hot and tasty, just what we needed (it was 8 degrees celcious outside).

The sashimi was served next, the fish was fresh and they served a sauce that was fantastic (cannot remember the name). The sushi pieces were very consistent and the flavours were very similar to what I remember from Japan. To finish the meal we shared a lime ice-cream and a small piece of chocolate cake.

The service was not the fastest but since my wife and I took the day off, it didn't felt like a long time.

I will have to come back to try the other Japanese dishes.

I came back to this restaurant. The quality is still there, the prices went up, we paid 24 euros for each menu.

A small entry, a miso soup, sashimi for me, tempura for my wife and then sushi.

We ate lemon pie and chocolate pie for desert and an expresso.

Service is very nice and food quality is really great, so...

The Brazilian influence on Japanese restaurants in Portugal is quite unfortunate… as the concept of quantity over quality rules. Therefore, sushi places abound in the country, most with very low standards and an excess of tasteless farmed salmon.

However, a few places survive amidst this trend that respect the Japanese culture of excellence and focus on quality ingredients of culinary traditions (in the same way that some restaurants in São Paulo also do, usually run by Japanese descendants in São Paulo).

Ichiban is a prime example in Porto. I was ‘oh so’ pleasantly surprised to find a restaurant that focuses on local fish and ‘catch of the day’. Freshness at its best and, of course, producing absurdly good sushi. Everything I ate was delicious, and reminded me of my trips to Japan. The only downside was the gohan (sushi rice) - too cold for sushi, it became bland and slightly tasteless. But I know I’m not the average person when it comes to Japanese cuisine.

I’ve been back after my first visit (pictured), and had the okonomiyaki, the shabu-shabu, other sushi, and the katsudon. All delicious.

Cold gohan aside, it is still my favourite place in Porto....