Ichiban — Restaurant in Scotland

Summary: Nothing like Japanese food. Avoid.

This was one of the worst attempts at Japanese food I've ever eaten. Everything you love about the cuisine was missing or wrong. The soup broths were bland to a fault - clear, but with no depth of flavour whatsoever. No umami. They weren't even seasoned. We ended up asking for soy sauce in an attempt to make it palatable.

The noodles were cheap, flavourless and utterly without bounce. The Katsu-don was literally a schnitzel, and not a great one. (I love schnitzel in other contexts, of course, but not here).

The Agedashi Tofu was definitively the worst I've ever eaten. The chefs definitely cheaped out by using medium tofu instead of extra smooth, so the texture was all wrong. As the tofu had not been prepared or flavoured properly, it tasted revolting.

I'll tell you what kind of place this is: you know its bad before you've even sat down (it smells very strongly of old grease by the entrance), but you're hungry, so you sit anyway, but there's something about it that makes you think: I'm not going to buy drinks here. So you're there, drinking your tap water, poking around this dishwater with overcooked noodles in it and you can't wait to leave. Fortunately the staff were completely disinterested in us, otherwise I'd have had to say something or make some kind of complaint, which would have made the whole thing even more depressing.

Somehow, it feels racist to insinuate that this outfit are serving Japanese food. Who are...

If you are in Glasgow you really have to stop by Ichiban, the food is amazing.

The restaurant is not that close to crowded areas and it's located on a first floor which you access through a small door on the street, but this doesn't mean that ichiban has fee customers, the place is always crowded and you better go with a reservation, otherwise you might not find a table.

The restaurant itself is very cozy, the staff is very friendly, always tried to make sure that they understood correctly what you ordered (which is important when you go with friends that are not fluent in English) and the food is just amazing.

We had some vegetable gyozas, and chashu initially and they were very good. The taste of the chashu pork was amazing and you should definitely order this if you can. As a main dish I ordered a pork katsu curry and everything was perfect, crispy pork, creamy and tasty curry and fluffy rice.

For dessert we all had ice cream and it was very good, but the chocolate miso ice cream was something else, it starts savory and then it hits you with all the richness and sweetness of the chocolate; amazing if you like chocolate as much as I do

Additional points for noticing that one of my friends was struggling with chopsticks and offering an alternative right away.

6/5 if it was possible. Stopping...

Glasgow is the second to the last stop on our 21 day grand tour of Scotland. After lots of various kinds of food, we were itching for some Japanese fare. Ichiban was exactly the right ticket!

It was an easy half mile walk from where we are staying and even though it was nearly 9, when we walked home, we never felt unsafe. That said, there are some homeless folks in the area, but it was not a big deal to us. The restaurant is upstairs and is set out with long communal tables, but with separated benches for each group. There weren’t a lot of people when we arrived on a Monday night so seating was no issue.

The wait staff was very pleasant and helpful. Everything in the restaurant was squeaky, clean and beautiful. The menu has quite a few choices as you will see in the pictures posted. Prices were very reasonable.

We started with the vegetable tempura, which was cooked to perfection and served within just a few minutes. We followed up with two bowls of soup. My wife chose the Ichiban with Ramen noodles and broth. I selected the seafood with soba noodles and the kimchi broth. Both were excellent super flavorful and had an abundant amount of ingredients. Neither of us could finish our bowl.

If you’re looking for outstanding Japanese food, this is a...