Ichi Tokyo (South) — Restaurant in Rochester

Overall we had a bad experience, with misleading menu for the "AYCE" sushi, which isn't really all you can eat, they limit things like nigiri and Sashimi, which they "Kind of try and tell you about" But I've been to quite a few AYCE sushi restaurants over the years and their way of running their AYCE sushi, is designed to be tricky in my opinion, and in my doesn't make it worth it.

Also I found the cuts to be weird and thin, and the quality over to be acceptable, but easy to notice on the lower side of the quality range.

I eat a lot of sushi, from top end restaurants and I'm certainly not above grocery store sushi, and where as I find almost all to be acceptable in today's times, between the tricky AYCE rules, and the lower end quality of fish we had, we will choose to go elsewhere.

Overall we got there about a half hour after they opened and there wasn't a single customer in restaurant, that is usually a red flag, though they did get busier, we should've listened to our gut.

We did try and clarify things before we sat down and ordered, but they didn't in our opinion explain things clearly, and clearly they knew what the hot topics are with their AYCE menu design and they were well and ready argue the nuances with us.

We didn't ask, nor was any compensation offered for the misleading menu, we paid full price for our meals, I paid 31.99 for the "AYCE" sushi in which I had 5 orders of sashimi, and a soup and that was all I could eat without them forcing to order and eat rolls with rice, which I cannot currently eat rice. My partner ordered veggie hibachi a did not like it or eat it, found their veggies to be undercooked and under seasoned.

We both left...

Terribly disappointed by management's decisions... My husband found a piece of stainless steel scour (used for pot scrubbing) inside his tempura. After showing it to the waiter, he came back and offered to replace it, but with a new one. We declined because it would have been from the same batter and he lost all appetite. The waiter then return shortly and gave us a quick pass-by, saying "we'll give you a discount." Already turned off by the food, we decided to peel off all the batter, inspect the sustenance underneath and then eventually gave up on eating at all because it completely ruined the point of eating tempura... Meanwhile, while all of this is going on, boss-lady is standing within whispering distance from our table and just staring us down, but not approaching us to ask about our concerns. Boss man was behind the bar, apparently nonchalant about our experience at all while the waiters seemed concerned about our experience. Check comes back later and there's a measly $5 discount on a 2x $20 meals, that were torn apart and partially eaten (see photo, Bento Box A and Ichi Tokyo tempura). We expected a better experience.

To top it all off, it was my birthday. I told the hostess, she said she would ask management. She mentioned a free ice cream and singing, however this was not even apparent to the waiter.

tl;dr Management is cheap, service was good (felt bad for the poor guy waiting on us because he was just the in-between man), food was good if it didn't have a wire, and birthday dinner was disregarded. We will not...

Where my wife and I are from, sushi restaurants are everywhere, and we have both had sushi from many different establishments, including ones in Tokyo. Ichi Tokyo surprised the two of us on multiple fronts. Firstly, the service was exceptional. Our waiter was prompt, friendly and very knowledgeable which was surprising because he was clearly not Japanese and still knew so much about the menu and had personal preferences. Secondly, we found the menu was diverse; it has the standards, but also some creative rolls that are unique to the establishment. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, we were surprised at the quality of the food, especially because we both opted for the all-you-can-eat special. the prawns were plump, the salads fresh, the rolls meaty and the sauces were tasty. Sometimes I find that the all-you-can-eat establishments offer two-tiered food quality - the rolls you get with A-Y-C-E have more rice and are smaller than the ones found on the menu. Not the case at Ichi Tokyo. A-Y-C-E guests seem to get the same rolls offered on the regular menu. All of these pleasant surprises made the $50 price tag extremely palatable, just like the delicious sushi. 5 STARS from an avid...