Ichiban Japanese steakhouse — Restaurant in Pooler

This place was just so bad on so many levels. I wish there was a way to give a negative number of stars. Zero stars just doesn’t even cover it. Where do I even start?

We were seated and didn’t see a waiter for at least ten minutes. Not even for drink orders. He finally came, took our drink and food orders, but when the chef came out he was wrong in so many ways, but he spoke so little (basically zero) English that we couldn’t hardly tell that he had the orders wrong until after it was cooked. Meat was cooked differently than was ordered, parts of order was missing. I had ordered extra shrimp that he didn’t have.

But back to cooking because this is where the really bizarre stuff happened. So he’s cooking rice, it’s being flung everywhere. And I don’t mean like for fun where they throw it at you as a joke. I mean it was like I’d expect my 7 year old to cook. I’m talking a gigantic mess. When he’s dishing out rice, he apparently decided he didn’t divide it up well, so he reached BACK onto my plate and took some back. The shrimp was doused with pepper, and when I say doused, imagine shaking a pepper shaker on a small pile of shrimp for like twenty shakes. It was literally COVERED in pepper. And as if in some attempt to rectify this atrocity, he drowned it in teriyaki sauce to point you couldn’t really even see the shrimp under the puddle of teriyaki. Now for the rest of the meat... this is the part that quite honestly isn’t just bizarre, but it’s borderline health department territory. So he’s cooking the steak really close to the chicken and when he dished it up, some pieces of the steak dropped ONTO the raw chicken, WHICH HE THEN PICKED BACK UP OFF OF THE RAW CHICKEN AND PLACED IT DIRECTLY ON MY PLATE. I’m talking like salmonella straight from the grill to my plate.

Needless to say we won’t be coming back. Granted perhaps other chefs there provide a better product, but the question is if this dude has so little understanding of basic cross contamination, what about the rest? And what is going on in that back of that kitchen? Seriously Gordon Ramsey would have a field day...

I hate giving low reviews but there needs to be changes at this establishment… came here for the first time ever on a Saturday night (1-28-23) for a friends birthday dinner (reservations were made). After we were seated, it felt like the waiter was rushing us to put in our drinks/entrees/appetizers. They were out of silverware so my boyfriend ate his whole meal with a PLASTIC FORK from a pack that was on his plate when we sat down. Other people who were sitting at the grill with us also got a plastic fork from a pack. Unacceptable. We only saw the waiter roughly 4 times the entire night and it was difficult to get him to bring anything we needed when we did get the chance to ask. We didn’t get any drink refills (the beverages are served in plastic cups which isn’t that big of a deal but I’m paying a pretty penny to eat here so you would think they would at least have glass drink-ware). The one sushi roll we ordered as an appetizer came after the chef was done cooking and it was crumbling while trying to eat it. We were not given little cups for the shrimp sauce like other tables were and there was no sauce at the table so we had to ask for that from the chef. The floor was greasy and slippery which was unpleasant. My boyfriend went to the restroom after eating and came back to say that the men’s room was covered in urine and smeared feces on the toilet. Needless to say I didn’t go to the ladies room before leaving for the night. There seems to not be enough staff for this restaurant because everyone was running around and too busy to help anyone at our table, even our waiter. It seemed very unorganized and rushed. The food was okay… but this experience was NOT worth $80. I would have rather spent my money elsewhere for the evening. I will not...

OK so it was a Monday night around 630pm we came to eat. Food was delicious. 5 stars for that BUUUUT there's a bit more to the story. Firzt off it was FREEEZING Waitress was even wearing a huge puffy jacket.. Waitress and chef didn't speak. She took our orders but that was it. Very quick about it. Chef unfortunately did not put on any show what so ever. Kids definitely mentioned it because as we love hibachi they usually know what to expect. This was the first place ever that made zero effort for a show. Didn't even talk to us except to ask how we like our steak. He cooked, and we ate. I fed my 6 month old food from a jar as she isn't eating cooked food yet and when I got the bill I was added an $18 gratuity. I asked why I was being forced to pay a certain gratuity instead of tipping as I usually do. She stated because we had a party of 6 . . . But my party of 6 was including a baby that sat in her carrier and couldn't even eat any food. It took a fight and a half but the manager had canceled the gratuity charge. But I couldn't believe that was being forced on me for bringing my 6 month old baby to dinner. . . Had it been 5 of us she couldn't add gratuity, so she basically saw my little baby and tried to take advantage of that and charge me extra. Ridiculously rude. The manager was nice trying to handle and fix the situation. Definitely won't ever be back though. I felt very taken advantage of and...