Ichiban Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Ames

Cute little shop in a nice location. Lighting was very nice.

We ordered ramen and several rolls. The "Sweet Heart Roll" was really great in particular. The sushi was good and I would go back just for sushi. The ramen was not good. I ordered "steak ramen" and was served a bowl of what was clearly dry block noodles in what tasted like an instant soup base. The steak was small in serving, cooked to death, and tough. The ramen eggs were fair and a good helping of sliced mushroom topped off of the bowl. It was edible, but I wasn't happy with it. My wife had the spicy tonkatsu ramen, and her report was similar; very spicy, but little flavor. The fried cutlet was fresh and crisp, however. We could have probably asked to have it taken back, but we're not the type to cause trouble or complain.

Service at the start of our dinner was sluggish and inattentive. The shop wasn't particularly busy, but we waited a long time to get out orders taken. The staff was chatting in the kitchen, which being right next to our table, we could hear every word and didn't want to be rude or interrupt. At some point, I think the shift switched and a different server was helping us. He was very involved and the service did a 180 the second half of our visit.

Would I return? Yes, for sushi. I also would return on a weekday again. How things went on a Wednesday, I would be concerned for how slow it could feel on a Saturday night. The location and feel of the room is great, so I have hope the next time will be better. Would be great to call it a regular spot for us if things...

This place use to be our favorite Japanese place in Ames, but it's gone downhill hard. Originally it was a really clean, cute place with good food. The original manager was really cool as well and I liked chatting with him. The new server or maybe manager is really rude and has a bad attitude. The place seems to have been allowed to become run down and now decor is broken and the restaurant feels grungy.

My food was gross, our hot food was cold and my teriyaki was flavorless goop with too much cornstarch. The tonkatsu was cold and dry, and the salad usually has a really nice dressing and ramen bits in it for crunch but was just plain lettuce with a watery dressing.

Also, we ordered take out and waited quite a while for food. People came in and sat down while we were waiting and got their...

I actually came back to change my rating as I have come back to this restaurant multiple times over the years with much better experiences, the food is great but they haven't had all the advertised beer on tap for years now.

My original review is this: Went to try out this ramen place because I was excited to try it, we were told it was busy but we could find a place to be seated and they would get to us in turn, well sure enough as people left and others were sat down and served we watched 6 tables come in after us and get served before us before we left. We were never given a menu or approached by a server except for when we had first approached the door. I'd love to try the food but the service just does not...