Ichiban Express Japanese Steak House — Restaurant in Roanoke Rapids

Bad service, mediocre food. Traveling down 95 and looking for a quick bite that wasn't fast food, we saw Ichiban Express with option to order online. Ordered 15 minutes out and got email saying would be ready on 30. Ok. Went to get gas to kill time and use restroom. Still about 10 min early on our arrival. Gave name for online order and were told it would be about 10 more minutes. Ok. Fair. They told us the total ($35 and change) and we paid. We sat at an empty table (all tables were empty) near counter. Killed time on phones. Waited waited waited. After about 25 min waiting, I just started staring at the counter guys because this seemed ridiculous. Eventually, the one guy started going through the many ready orders and asked me my name as a question and I affirmed I was she. He was like oh, here it is. So it had been sitting for I don't know how long. Had to ask for the coke we were supposed to get and for chopsticks and then for napkins as we were eating there. The sauces we got all tasted the same except the yum yum sauce even though we ordered 4 different ones so I don't know if we got the right ones or not. We ordered: Chicken/shrimp hibachi with noodles, zucchini/onions and mushrooms (extra charge for mushrooms); Steak(medium)/chicken hibachi with fried rice, zucchini/onions; and the coke. Chicken/shrimp, zucchini, and mushrooms all tasted pretty good but were COLD. Steak was very overdone for medium but still tasty. Onions were underdone and in many places simply raw. Noodles were ordinary spaghetti. Rice was bland. At the completion of our meal, we remarked that we probably should have taken a chance on one of the nearby bbq places with mixed...

I typically love this place however, tonight’s service and assistance was horrible. We placed an order and we got home and my food was completely wrong. My bf called and told them I was coming back to get my order remade. They seemed nice, yeah not really. I drive 15 mins back to get my remade food, and not one “I’m sorry, my apologies” because THEY made it wrong. No sympathy or anything from this woman who greeted me with nothing but the name for the order. Then proceeds to slam the window in my face, and then hand me my food and slam it again. How rude? You guys messed up, which made me drive 15 mins out of my way AGAIN to pick up a mistake you guys made. I understand there are mistakes in the food industry and I’ve worked in food. But no need to be rude to customers for YOUR...

I love the only carrot option for hibachi. The sweetness with the savory is delish. Their onion soup is also great, getting soup at hibachi places is hit or miss… flavorless, too salty, water used for it tastes weird, this one is perfect. I drive from emporia about 20 mins each way just to come here because there’s nothing in emporia Asian wise, and I’m SO glad theirs is the closest one. Drive thru is more for pickup, order ahead if possible or they’ll have you pull around like a merry go round with other cars until your food is ready. I have never been inside personally but been here many times. These little old spots are always really good or really bad and this one happens to...