Bites Nearby: Don't Miss Ichiban

Personalized restaurant recommendations are a gift. I don't know about others, but deciding which place to go out to is never easy. It's a rare night when either Amy or I will make a suggestion and the other immediately responds, "I've been craving that!" Relying on someone else's recommendation makes the decision process a little easier and takes the risk out of trying something new.

The subject of this week’s review is Ichiban located at 146 Gansett Ave. in Cranston, R.I. Ichiban specializes in Japanese and Korean cuisine. This review is my furthest to date from the Seekonk area - it’s a whopping 12 miles at most from the Fall River Ave area. For those native to the area, I know that’s considered a long way away. But trust me. It’s well worth the distance.

I knew from the start that I was eventually going to do a write up on Ichiban. It was just a matter of when. Last week, Amy and I had our second experience there, and it proved just as good as the first time. There are a few things that set Ichiban apart from your typical Asian restaurant. First and foremost is service. From walking in to walking out, the service at Ichiban is fantastically atypical for the genre of restaurants. You’re greeted warmly and tended to throughout your meal by an entire team of staff members, including the owners. Once sitting, you’re immediately brought four little trays of items to pick on. Another primary focus at Ichiban is freshness and quality. Order with the confidence that what you get will be fresh and good. 

Someone in your party must order something from the Home Made Noodles section. Both visits to Ichiban, we ordered the Stir Fried Udon with Chicken. The consistency and components of the dish were fantastic. The noodles are soft and delicious. The mix of chicken, sauce and vegetables are perfect. The sauce is a thicker savory sauce typical of stir-fry dishes, and I can’t praise this dish enough. You can customize the amount of spice, but be careful how spicy you order it. I’m a spice fan, but the medium packed too hot a punch for Amy (who fares very well with tolerance for spice). It would be borderline criminal to ruin this dish for yourself by overdoing it on spice. 

Across two visits we have tried a few different items all of which were great. The sushi has received high praise on the Internet, and on our second visit I tried some sushi. I had a difficult time picking, because they offer such a wide range of unique and traditional rolls. Almost too many to pick just one! My Alaska Roll offered a mix of lobster, crab, and salmon, and delivered as expected. Our friends ordered some additional rolls, which were presented very nicely, and they had only good things to say about them. The miso soup is a traditional soup of the region and was perfectly flavored. 

Some of the dishes are difficult but fun to try to pronounce. Kopdol Bibimbab was a beautifully presented array of rice, spices, vegetables, and meat in a stone bowl meant to be mixed together just before eating. Ganpungki was from their Ichiban Specialties list and rivaled any General Tso’s I’ve ever had. The chicken was high quality bits of meat without excessive breading to hide the quality of components. The shredded veggies were a perfect compliment to the chicken bites. The level of spice was perfect for the dish and I’d order it again anytime. On all the dishes I’ve seen, presentation was artistic and added to the high quality of the experience. 

On our first visit to Ichiban, toward the end of the meal, we were asked how things were going from a gentleman dressed differently from the other wait staff. He identified himself as the owner and I told him how great the stir-fried udon dish was. He told us that they have a lot of Italians that come in and order variations of the noodle dishes because they love the fresh made noodles, and they tell him the noodles rival anything on Federal Hill. The owner makes a regular habit of chatting with customers that are willing to talk, and he was happy to talk about his restaurant and the competing restaurants of his friends. 

I wish Amy and I had the time and budget to eat here once a week. I’d love to go through the menu and try lots of different items. It is one of those places that you want to try all sorts of new and delicious sounding dishes, but what you ordered last time was so good that you can’t help but order it again. Maybe the key is going with at lease a couple friends so that you can stick to the favorites and get to try a couple new things too. But one last tidbit: they charge for soda refills. Prices in general were very reasonable; a bill for two people ordering a variety of dishes can be kept around $60.