Ichiban Japanese Steakhouse & Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Concord

I had the Spicy Girl Roll that had zero crunch, considering it was with tempura salmon. I opened one slice, it was not tempura at all, just flaked pieces of salmon that registered quite fishy. I tasted no other contrasting or complimentary taste to override the significant fishy oral overtake. My cafeteria makes tastier salmon. Fishy lukewarm salmon in rice is what this was, which is a great combination, but it wasn't what I read advertised. I ate two pieces and gave the rest to my table.

I also ordered the Arigato roll. It had more flavor that I could appreciate. It felt more invested than the Spicy Girl Roll but I would still not order either roll again. Both lacked a level of freshness. This roll reminded me of the one I just purchased at Hannafords last week. The price, however, was half.

I had a water and tried their signature dirty spicy martini. I, and no offense to them, very much felt it tasted like the worst well liquor (almost that diesel gasoline taste), olives that neither made it taste dirty nor had much of an olive taste in general, and it had just the ever so faintest hint of spice - a very short afterthought.

The service was great considering the volume and it being the pinnacle of dinnertime hours. Would I go again? Yes. I do feel like it must have some hidden gems in the menu. It wasn't it for me tonight, and, certainly, this wasn't the destination...

This place is such a fun time. Take your family if you have one, or someone else's family if you don't. Great idea for date night too. If you can't get a date, I guess you could go alone, but then it's just you at a table and they'll seat you with a bunch of strangers, but you could get lucky and get a fun crowd who adopts you as one of their own. Not literally because adoption is a long, drawn out, expensive legal process. These crazy people will be throwing food all over the place and it's salty as all hell. The food is just kind of good. You're there for the show. It's like a demolition derby. They're junk cars to begin with. You're there to see them get junkier. Hate zucchini? Me too, but not when someone is sinking Kobe 3-pointers with the things directly into my gaping mouth. In hindsight, I don't even know that the undercooked vegetable was zucchini. I didn't care at the time. I was just praying that he didn't fling someone else's shrimp my way because I'm deathly allergic. Well, I assume I am. They look like gross like pinky toe insects and I don't know how anybody stomachs that sort of thing. If those things were crawling around on land you wouldn't think of eating them, but because they're in the ocean you do? That makes no sense. I go with the filet mignon, but it's pronounced "min-yawn" just so you don't look as foolish as me ordering it. It's everything...

It was a busy night and maybe the hibachi chef was new but the show was horrible. He didn't engage his audience well. When his lighter didn't work for the first trick he should have stopped to get a new one or asked a waitress or one of the other chefs in the room. The other party at our table were celebrating a birthday and clearly the other tables with cheers and laughter and clapping were being better entertained. If the chef was new, the restaurant should not have had him on yet on a Friday night. As for the food, the salad was tasty but over dressed. The shrimp over cooked and the steak was tough and over cooked. The rice was ok as were the vegetables. I didnt ask how the other party enjoyed their meals but I would not have wanted to be the one who ordered shrimp and scallops. While they cooked on the cooler parts if the grill, they cooked way too long and were the last things portioned out from the grill. They should have been one of the first. The shrimp I had came from that same pile tasted fine but over cooked. This was my second experience at Ichiban and I don't need any more. If you want Japanese food in Concord, go to Moritomo. They have sushi and other Japanese food that is excellent. And they also have hibachi...