Ichiban Yakitori Sushi House — Restaurant in Boston

My wife knew that I've been craving yakitori, so she surprised me by taking me here for a dinner. In short, this was less yakitori and more Chinese skewers.

The food here is priced pretty fair, so that was nice. And alcohol selection had some interesting sake that went well with the food. Service was nice and quick and ambiance was just your regular run of the mill restaurant. Nothing special but nothing glaring.

Udon: It was actually very nice. Very nicely flavored and not too salty and was nice to have the soup on the side with everything else. Skewers/yakitori: All of the skewers had this spice/powder mix. It is that Chinese mix that is typically put on meat skewers sold in China, mainly lamb skewers. Japanese yakitori typically use tare/soy sauce based sauce from what I've tried. I understand some places interpret food differently, but when it said yakitori, I expected it to have tare sauce that complement the meat well, but instead what we got was skewers that were covered in the powder and ended up being super herby. It works really well with the lamb, but I think they need to change to using tare or stop calling it yakitori (because yakitori is supposed to be either salt or tare). And maybe lighten up on the amount of powder.

Overall, it wasn't the yakitori experience I expected, but if you just think of it as Chinese meat...

DONT get sushi here. The hot food my friend got was good (bibimbap) and smelled nice, but OMG my sushi was INEDIBLE. I ate ONE piece of the tuna toll-- it tasted acrid like vomit (actually!!). The rice was so vinegary and the tuna was such an odd texture and taste... It just combined to a strange, disgusting, unbearable flavor. My friend had a bite too and felt exactly the same. All the other fish too looked so disgusting. The texture was off, they looked dry and very much not fresh. I tried a nigiri piece and it was so gross I could not even swallow it. Do me a favor: ZOOM IN on the photo of the salmon I have attached here. Look how LOW QUALITY and STALE and DRY it looks. Now, please turn to the photos of the tuna roll. Look at all the TENDONS in it. They took all the cheapest trimmings of the fish and shoved it into one roll. It was vile. I give it two stars because the hot food looked ok. The restaurant felt mildly unclean (sticky table etc) and it was SO loud. I will never return. Also just to specify I really don't have high expectations for sushi. I just want decent tasting fish and rice. And one that I don't think would make me sick. Usually that is very easy to find. Not...

Food was great. Grilled whole ika (squid) had a type of dry rub bbq-ish spice and had been topped with fresh chive, also came with a nice sauce - soy-based with sesame seeds and probably some vinegar and fish sauce type elements. Grilled whole eggplant was delicious, skin was nicely charred. I love yakitori, and I will be back.

Service was lacking - ignored empty water glass when food came, took forever to clear a table in an uncrowded restaurant instead of bringing water to go with my food after I pointed out the obvious, left me staring at an empty plate forever while looking right at me doing sidework instead of brining check or checking on me (and they had taken my menu away after my 2nd dish came so they knew I was done). Food was hot when they brought it at least.

From the outside it looks like a little place, but there is actually a good-sized dining area in the back.

If you are over 6' tall, watch your head as you enter the...