Ichibang Sushi Izakaya & Karaoke Lounge — Restaurant in Carrollton

Fish quality was excellent, but service was disappointing to say the least (literally 0 stars). We went in last night for AYCE dinner around 5:15, so there were only 3-4 tables including ours that actually were seated.

From the start, the service was lacking. We had to physically walk the paper to our server for R1 submission. Food came out at a reasonable pace, but we had to wait 10+ minutes for water refills, and neither of the 2 times that we ASKED for a refill was it done by our waitress. Empty, dirty dishes were left on our table for a long time as well, and in the end, were bussed by other servers. Our R2 paper was given to us by a different server as well. Throughout this entire time, we watched her check on her other table multiple times without them having to flag her down.

After R2 was submitted, we asked a different server to please ask our waitress to come refill our water. When she finally came by, she apologized saying that she has an 11 top that she is also taking care of, so she was getting confused. Which, as someone who has worked hospitality/service industry, if you are new, that is fair. However, then management should have stepped in and made sure there was coverage.

After waiting for 30+ minutes for R2 to arrive, we had to walk across the restaurant to ask our waitress when we would be getting our order as it has been over 30 minutes. She checked on the order, then came over to our table to tell us that it would be another 20+ minute wait for our order to come through. We asked for a time extension since waiting 1 hour for R2 on a 2 hour time limit is ridiculous, and her response was that "our time limit is 2 hours, and this happened yesterday as well so customers were getting upset". When we told her we were uncomfortable paying such a high price for this kind of wait time, she reiterated that 2 hours was the limit. As she kept trying to justify the wait time, a different server (or the floor manager, as he was wearing a different uniform from the rest), brought out our food. The geto karaage was cold, and the sashimi order was wrong (pictures attached, ordered scallop sashimi and was given squid instead). Throughout our 30+ wait time, every time we wanted a water refill, we had to flag down a server and ask for it. Again, we watched as she checked on her other table that was right behind us multiple times without them needing to flag her down.

Spending $35/person, not including tax and tip, for AYCE and a strict 2-hour limit with this kind of service is not worth it, and honestly, embarrassing for a restaurant that wants to highlight good service as a reason...

Very well rounded restaurant perfect for a date night or a fun night out with friends with great food. The ambience is slightly dark, sophisticated, and elegant. The restaurant is spacious and there is plenty of space to host a large group. We didn’t get to check out the second floor but according to their Google reviews, there are private k pop group themed karaoke rooms up there.

We ordered several things across their menu. And I must say, the presentation and quality of the food is impressive given their price point. It is very obvious they put details in each of their item from plates, garnishes, to carefully cooked ingredients. Some of the stand outs from what we’ve ordered were mushroom (shiitake), sausage, large nigiri (chef’s selection) and beef fried rice. A dedicated restaurant will do a great job cooking the most simple ingredients- ichiBang’s robata can attest to that. I was very impressed with how well they grilled their robata vegetables and even the sausage was very juicy with nice meaty texture with great flavor. Their sushi is very impressionable with nice thick cuts of sushi that taste fresh with no fishy taste at all. Each nigiri was formed carefully and with each little touches and I really enjoyed the generous fish to rice ratio. Now don’t hesitate to order fried rice because it’s hands down the best fried rice I’ve had at an izakaya restaurant! The amount of beef in the rice was the most amount of meat I’ve seen in any fried rice. The vegetables were perfectly done with some nice chew and rice was perfectly seasoned with a hint of butter.. the perfect combo to a perfect fried rice.

Everything else was good as well and there was no single dish that we regret ordering. If I were to nitpick, I wish the foie gras in scallop with foie gras and truffle had more flavor. But the scallop was impressive as it had no fishy taste at all- even my husband who doesn’t like scallop because of the oceany taste was willing to try and didn’t hate it!

Overall I would highly recommend IchiBang to anyone who is looking for a Japanese restaurant that does both sushi and Izakaya very well. It’s such a bonus that they have a decent sized Japanese flared cocktail menu and karaoke. I plan on returning with friends to try the karaoke. The service was great and the server did an excellent job speaking both Korean and English to my multi...

My wife and I went here with two friends for a dinner party of four, and while the place seems relatively new, the overall vibe we got was of a chaotic restaurant trying to do too much without really excelling at any one thing.

They offer both an à la carte menu and an AYCE sushi menu. We opted for the AYCE at $35 per person. The problem? The rules for ordering sushi were absurdly complicated—even the staff seemed confused by them. No joke: there was an actual list of rules printed on the ordering sheet, with things like “you can order X amount of Y, but only Z amount of X, but everyone has to order X amount of Z with each order.” It was unnecessarily overcomplicated and killed the flow of the evening. To make it worse, it took another 15 minutes just to get a pen to mark our selections. Four different staff members tried to explain the rules, and even then, there were still ambiguities.

While trying to figure out the menu, we ordered drinks, which took about 20 minutes to arrive. After we finally got our first round of sushi ordered, it took nearly 55 minutes for the food to come out. Drinks and sushi arrived one by one instead of together, so someone at the table was always left waiting. The staff was kind and respectful, but they were clearly too caught up in managing the complicated system to focus on basics—we even had to specifically request essentials like soy sauce and wasabi.

When the sushi finally came, it was actually pretty good. But honestly, the hassle of navigating the chaotic ordering system overshadowed the food.

On top of that, Ichibang is trying to be more than just a sushi spot. They also operate karaoke rooms upstairs and, strangely enough, offer off-menu buffet-style food at the counter for AYCE diners. Personally, that felt a bit insulting. If we’re paying $35 per person, why not just include those items on the ordering menu instead of making people get up and serve themselves?

After finishing just the first round of “all-you-can-eat” sushi, we decided we’d had enough and left for a nearby Korean chicken place—which turned out to be a much better experience.

If you’re looking for AYCE sushi in the area, I’d recommend skipping Ichibang and heading over to Sushi Kushi instead. They’ve got the process down the way...