Ichiban Japanese Grill & Sushi — Restaurant in Freeport

The primary reason this rating is so low is because the atmosphere is completely wrong for a sushi place. There is no music, the decorations are japanese but that's literally it. They have salt and pepper on the table. You start with a fork. We had to ask for soy sauce saucers. The amount of wasabi and ginger was much less compared to all of the other sushi places we have been to. They gave us fortune cookies at the end. The atmosphere is closer to a takeout diner that suddenly serves japanese food. The menu wasn't bad. The fish selection wasn't large, and 90% of all the rolls have cream cheese. The rolls themselves were okay. The tiger and the baked salmon rolls were great. The Marry roll, Alaska, and spicy salmon with crunchy rolls had very little flavor. The house salad dressing wasn't bad at all; I just wish they had more variety in vegetables. The service was okay. Our waitress was very smiley, but was quiet and was not very engaging. She literally did her JOB. There's nothing wrong with it, but having customer interaction really adds value to the customer experience. I doubt we would ever actively seek to go to this place again; if we were in the area and feeling very lazy, we would go here. The price isn't bad for...

Stopped by here on a Sunday evening after 5p with another family on our drive back to Chicago from Galena only because 1) we were told to stop in Freeport for ice cream at Union Dairy and their grill is closed on Sundays; 2) virtually every other restaurant in Freeport was closed. We came here two miles away because it was not only open, but seemed to have decent reviews. The modest exterior was a bit concerning but inside, clean decor, a very friendly staff, and delicious food awaited. Being from Chicago, we figured there was zero chance this place would have sushi that would be on par with some of our favorite neighborhood spots in the city. However, not only was the sushi of great quality, the value was amazing relative to what we're use to. Got the Family Sushi Roll plate with eight rolls for $37, including 4 miso soups and crab rangoon. The Ryan Roll was the best. We also ordered four bento boxes and the shrimp and yume yume chicken were quite flavorful. Kids loved everything they had.

Would welcome the opportunity to come back and...

This place has gone severely down hill over the last couple of years. After COVID they decided to close the dining area and never reopened it so its take out only. The sushi used to be decent at least. My last stop here however will be my last visit. The sushi was poorly slapped together, and falling apart. Taste was off, had a burned piece of something in the middle of my roll which I spit out. Hardly any Wasabi or ginger to go with the sushi. This used to be my place to go if I wanted to pick up sushi quickly. I'll be looking for a new place now. They have lost my confidence as a customer and as a result my...