Ichiban Hibachi Steakhouse & Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Dubuque

Hey, Japanese cuisine fans, we have a five star winner! Who would have thought? Amazing Japanese eats in Dubuque,Iowa. Based on one lunch visit, Ichiban is the most excellent sushi I have had since living in Alaska for 40 years.

The food is what it’s all about, but the atmosphere and service were everything I hope for in a high end West Coast Japanese restaurant. Maybe even better, considering these folks have a beautiful old fashioned Midwest Steakhouse style bar in addition to the Tokyo style sushi bar and a teppanyaki dinner room. Damn! This place has it all.

My ala carte sushi was PERFECTLY proportioned and as fresh as it gets, short of picking your fish live from a tank. In my recent experience, American nigiri sushi is heading towards oversized chunks of crudely butchered fish on top of equally oversized and poorly seasoned rice balls. Today, I thought I was back in some alleyway Tokyo eatery. Damn near magic.

Did I suggest magic??? These folks had FRESH UNI!!!!! In Iowa? Amazing.

Perfect experience? No. The tempura appetizer was the low point of the meal, but it’s relative. Still pretty good, all things considered, just not the magic light golden crispy tempura batter of my Asian dreams.

Ichiban has a small element of Chinese fusion, but is pretty much true to its Japanese theme. The wa shoku will not disappoint.

Gyoza are always my tell when trying a new Japanese restaurant. These were excellent little pork morsels in delicate tender skins, most excellently prepared, but may have been a commercial frozen product. The sauce was a Chinese style mustard, excellent, but not a classic Japanese presentation. Still, the plating was far better than most I’ve had lately, other than my own preparation, of course.

I left Ichiban feeling better about the food, sake, and service than I have for ages. This place is a gem.

I’m coming back soon to work my way through the menu, especially the nabe yaki udon bowl.

As a purist, I totally overlook the ‘rolls’, but if that’s your thing theirs were legion and from what I saw on other tables, quite generous portions.

So, whatever you are looking for th the Japanese genre, you won’t go wrong with Ichiban....

When I used to go to Hibachi Grill restaurants with my family when I was young, the restaurants for large, and had multiple cooking tables where the chefs would put on their show. The entire area would be dark or very dimly lit, which was entertaining in itself, and you felt like you had more privacy that way. However this restaurant has very bright lights, and no dimly-lit areas, where you can see all the other groups and you feel crowded by them in a way, or at least we did, my family and I. Are the table next to us, had a chef putting on an incredible show, with tons of entertainment, comedy, special effects, and passion. Our Chef or cook however, didn't seem to know really what he was doing and it just seemed to want to go through the motions. I had ordered a steak and fried rice, with some mixed vegetables, and expected the steak to be not only Japanese steak, but thinly sliced and cooked that way, by the chef, as had been done at every other hibachi restaurant I've ever been to. However again, the chef didn't seem to know what he was doing, because when he cut my steak, he cut it up in large blocks, like I was at some sort of cowboy Steakhouse. I could have done that. He cooked the whole steak first, like we were at a Texas roadhouse, and then cut it up in blocks for me like I was some child. Instead, he should have thinly sliced the steak ahead of time, when it was raw, and cooked it as those thin slices. And it should have been cooked in the special Teriyaki sauce, so that it has the flavor and sauteed like taste to it. Instead it was like we had gone to a Denny's or a Perkins and ordered steak. It was definitely not worth the money that we paid, nor the tip that we provided. We were overly generous. We were definitely...

Have never ever had a problem here until last night. My friend decided to take me out as I was having a very bad day, so girls day it was. We got sat down at the hibachi and there ended up being 8 of us all together at this table. As the cook started to plate the rice he gave everyone their regular scoop then went on to divvy out the rest, except that wasn’t the case for me. He started on my end of the table me being 3rd in line looked at my plate then looked at me straight up skipped me then gave everyone else the rest of the rice. He then did the same thing with the vegetables and the chicken! What’s worse is that the lady next to me noticed and even said something to me. Now I can say I wasn’t the skinniest person of the group, but looking at someone’s plate, then the person themselves and deciding whether or not they get more food is completely out of line, unbelievably disrespectful, and quite frankly body shaming. Needless to say I went home crying after an even worse night and informed all my family members and close friends we will not be coming back, which is a shame because the food really is good, but I’m not going to sit there and be made to feel insecure while eating or inferior to anyone else because of size. I’m paying just like...