Icho Izakaya Sushi & Grill — Restaurant in Mesa

Overall, I had a great experience, and would definitely recommend this place to anyone looking for good Japanese cuisine restaurant. (Especially if you love good sushi and appreciate the different types of fish that are hard to find in AZ). I was lucky enough to speak with the owner during my visit. Anyone could tell how much care he put into properly storing, prepping, and even cutting all the fish for an amazing and more authentic sushi eating experience.

For the breakdown, I had dinner here, and ordered the following: Agedashi Sea Bass - Imagine the delicious agedashi broth, but now with a nice pairing of lightly breaded and tender Sea Bass. The two worked amazing together and is something that I don't see too often Grilled Beef Tongue - Properly grilled and lightly seasoned. Has all the amazing textures and meat flavors as expected (One of my favs) Chef's choice sushi and sashimi - Clearly the star of the show. This dish was served in two courses, as seen in the pics. So many fish to share, but my favorite 2 fish from these were the Baby Red Snapper (subtly sweet with a tender texture) and O-toro sashimi (fatty tuna belly full of flavor that just melts in your mouth) Uni Nigiri - The sea urchin tasted fresh and was as amazing as it looked. It was served with the right ratio of rice to Uni for proper mixture in your mouth. You can taste the uni slightly sweet with a hint of soy sauce blend with the bed of sushi rice as it mixes and melts in your mouth. 👌

From my experience here I will definitely be going again and hope anyone seeing this will also consider...

The food at Icho Izakaya Sushi and Grill goes above and beyond. The food is beyond fresh and Shaun is a master chef when it comes to Sushi and Japanese and Taiwanese and Chinese cuisine. Since finding Icho Izakaya two months ago my wife and I have eaten here at least 2 to 3 times a week.

The skewers ,beef, chicken and fish, and beef tongue are the fattest and freshest I have had in Phoenix.

The pork and chicken katsu are packed with flavor and beyond crispy and the curry is rich in flavor with a little bit of spice and kick but not too much. The Kung Pao chicken has a great spice that I have not had in Phoenix yet while the orange chicken has a fresh orange flavor that tastes like the fruit is in your mouth.

The fish has always been the freshest we have had ,feels weird to say in Phoenix,and the grilled fish has a unique flavor that my wife from Taiwan has not been able to find anywhere else.

Shaun has also made lots of unique soups, including clam, beef and daikon, Oden and other daily special soups he has ask him what he can do that day. That has a unique flavor that my wife says reminds her of cooking from home.

All in all Icho Izakaya Sushi and Grill is one of the best Sushi spots in Phoenix. Have patience during their soft opening and call ahead to make a reservation and you will have some of the best Asian...

I dined here with my manager on June 13th and our experience was interesting. It was later in the evening when we arrived, around 8pm and the restaurant was decently full (it’s an intimate & small place). We ordered the sea bream, veggie tempura, shrimp tempura roll and loliopops. Our sea bream and veggie tempura arrived within the first 30 minutes. Our two other rolls never arrived to our table. We sat for over 45 minutes waiting for two rolls while our sever Cat/Kat plus the busser continued to come and apologize about the wait. Why continue to patronize us? My manger and I ended up eating veggie tempura and the whole kitchen’s worth of ginger for the time we were there. We ended up taking our rolls to go because we had waited for so long and it was LATE.

When I arrived home and opened up my roll, I was shocked to see how messy and uneven my roll slices were. On the menu it states that the rolls have 8 pieces and mine did not. After waiting for so long, I received a half-assed roll but couldn’t say anything because we had already left. I inserted the picture of the end piece of my roll which was very thick and again, messy.

Strangely enough, I would absolutely come and try this place again because the fish was amazing. I am slightly terrified of raw fish but Cat had recommended to Sea Bream...