ICHIBAN RAMEN AND SUSHI — Restaurant in Vista

Not a fan: Not great service or food. Can't speak to the quality of their sushi, but of what I've tried it's just "meh".

On my last lunch visit the waitress took our order, then 10 minutes later came back to the table to take our order a second time. We informed her that she took it about 10 minutes earlier. She looked confused but went about her business. 20 minutes later I asked why everyone else was eating but us... she then realized she never put in the order.

She apologized and brought me one complimentary soda (there were 2 of us...perhaps my coworker and I were supposed to share it) I told her I don't really drink soda, and she offered no other remedy. They rushed our food, which was obvious and mostly undercooked. I sent back food that was not properly prepared and ate as much of my meal that I could (now rushed to get back to the office). She brought me the bill with a charge for returned food AND FOR THE "COMPLIMENTARY" SODA.

The remedy of the manager was to remove the charge for the soda (gee, thx) and give me 20% discount...even though the uncooked food I returned remained on the bill. The discount mostly covered the difference, so I paid but left quite dissatisfied. Not sure I left a tip and figured I wouldn't likely be back.

They now offer 20-30% off "happy hour" nearly all of their business hours, except on wine, beer or saki... so, I'm not certain what actually is on the happy...

My husband and I stopped in to get some dinner mid-week. The restaurant was pretty quiet but the food came out fairly quickly and the owners were attentive and lovely. The most memorable moment of the night however was the accidental "Salt and Pepper Diner" occurrence.

The owners put a birthday song on over the restaurant's sounds system for another table that was celebrating a birthday. The royalty free version of the song was cute but then it happened - no one changed to playlist back to regular music and more royalty free birthday songs were played. On the second song it was a slight eyebrow raise but we kept enjoying our meal. By the third song we started chuckling because it was pretty amusing. By song four we were laughing pretty hard. By the end of our meal we were basically laugh crying and honestly was one of the funniest things to witness in a while. It was magical.

I will definitely be going back (the black garlic ramen was amazing) and praying that someone celebrates a birthday so I can...

I don’t write reviews often, but we’ve been here several times since we moved to san marcos 2 years ago, and we never had a bad experience here. It is a family-owned restaurant with authentic recipes and very fresh food, and they treat you like family, which is so rare to find nowadays. Our kids call Miss Jamie, I believe the owner, “the kind lady” as she always makes sure they’re content with their food and always gives them a little treat in the end. The food is freshly prepared, including the rice bowls and ramen. The service is top notch, fast and always with a smile. There is no other restaurant that has this mix of good food, good hospitality and fast service. And the price is so affordable compared to everything else around! They’re not in the best location, but honestly once you’re inside, it doesn’t...