Ichiban — Restaurant in Rapid City

Japanese cuisine is by far our favorite food to eat. We were incredibly disappointed with our experience here at Ichiban. Upon entering the restaurant, there were about 4 other tables (roughly 12 guests plus us 2) in the restaurant. We sat for about 10 minutes before our waitress came to our table with menus.. and a piece of paper and pen. We watched the lone waitress take orders from the table to our left, yet we had to write out order (apps, drinks AND meal) and deliver it to the kitchen. My pop came in about 5 additional minutes and my boyfriend did not get his beer for about 10 additional minutes (a bottle) and us having to flag the waitress down for it.

We ordered gyoza for our appetizer. It was 6 pieces for 8.27. This is a reasonable price for gyoza that is well cooked and hot. Our gyoza was lukewarm and I bit into an ice cold spot in one of them. 8 dollars for still frozen gyoza. We hoped our experience would go up from here.

Our salads were made of iceberg lettuce and a single drop of dressing that was just rice vinegar. So just iceberg lettuce. Yum.

They had no miso soup and the waitress did not offer a replacement side without us complaining. Our replacement side: disgusting, dry rice. This is a Japanese restaurant and their rice was almost stale.

I ordered the tempura dinner. It was 17.63 for 2 pieces of shrimp and 2 pieces of DEFINITELY FROZEN calamari. The rest of the plate was filled with deep friend onions and carrots. The value of this dinner was not nearly 20 dollars. My dipping sauce tasted like literally nothing. We asked the waitress if that was customary and she said yes. This dinner was a total rip off.

My boyfriend order the beef teriyaki bento box. It was 17.63 as well. The salmon was less than 2 oz and was cooked okay. It tasted frozen, not fresh. His California rolls were just fine. The IMITATION CRAB tasted like NOTHING. And it was imitation!!! His teriyaki chicken tasted like fast 5 dollar Chinese food chicken. Definitely frozen. The sauce was from a bag. So far, NOTHING seems to be fresh or homemade. He got two servings of terrible rice because again, no miso soup.

We saw the cook pull precut sushi from a bag and did not see him prepare any sushi that did not come from precut bags of sushi fish.

You’d be better off sourcing a Japanese dinner from Costco than going here. Not only will it be fresh, but it will also be cheaper. There is no cook here. Only microwaves and freezers.

The only positive, the waitress was sweet and gave us 10% off our dinner because we talked with her about what a rip off this is to customers and how this can hurt their business.

We will never be coming back. So...

We walked into the restaurant there were only 2 people inside. The waitress was more concerned with cleaning the tables then taking our order. After 10 minutes she finally took our order. Then when we got our food the girl said our other roll was still baking. My mom waited another 30 when they finally noticed that they forgot the roll They offered my mom another roll that they had already made. By this point my mom was upset she told them that she wanted the baked shrimp not the alternative. Instead of apologizing or offering a discount they just said okay. I would've considered going back if the customer service was good or if they would've tried to redeem the situation by offering the baked shrimp with a discount, but they didn't, they didn't even apologize. The food was also overpriced. Overall bad experience, I won't be coming back. Fix...

Update:* the service has improved greatly ** I've been a loyal customer for years. Used to be the best sushi in rapid but it's been going down hill. Dinner last night was the worst service I've ever seen with zero regard for the customers seated in the store. My wife and I waited for 1 and a half hours for our food while we watched dozens of to go orders leave the door, and then we only received half our food! The waitress was rude and unhelpful. Not even an apology for the terrible service. No discount for the long wait time or not receiving half our order. Looking at our receipt the waitress didn't even put our order in for 20+ minutes after she took it. She was not tipped. A second couple next to us sat at their table for 25 minutes until they were even asked for drinks. I wish I could give lower...