Food Review: Ichiban Japanese Steakhouse in Allentown, Pennsylvania

I decided to try something different than my usual American food and tried Japanese for the first time. I have had Chinese food before but never Japanese. Some of the Chinese food is similar but Japanese restaurants seem to serve more seafood dishes.

I had tried California sushi rolls from Wegmans supermarket but they really are not "real" sushi and contain artificial crab meat, which is basically seasoned Pollock fish and not the real deal. It came with the usual 3 sauces (soy, wasabi and ginger). It tasted reasonably good and I might try it again but it felt too retail to be considered authentic by a long shot. That was basically the closest I ever got to Japanese food.

This is my review of Ichiban Japanese Steakhouse that is located in Allentown, PA in the Valley Plaza on 1914 Catasauqua Road. Ichiban means "number 1" in Japanese. My order included 3 kinds of sushi, an appetizer sampler and a Hibachi dinner.

Sushi

Since this was my first time trying "real" sushi, I decided to try a wide variety and ordered 3 different flavors using raw fish including, spicy tuna, eel and Boston. The sushi rolls cost about $5 to $7 for 5 or 6 pieces each.

Spicy tuna cost $5. I heard great things about this flavor and, while it tasted pretty good to me, I don't know where the spicy part went because I did not taste much heat at all. It's a good start for sushi beginners I think.

Eel roll cost $5.50. I made myself buy this flavor not because I have a preference for it but because it sounded the strangest and I wanted to get a better idea of what different types of sushi taste like. I think this was my least favorite of the 3 flavors I tried. Maybe it's just because I kept having thoughts of the movie, "Leviathan," about a giant creature underwater.

Boston roll cost $5.95. I think I misunderstood what this sushi roll was supposed to contain. I was thinking crab, salmon, cucumber and cream cheese but I read that Boston is supposed to contain cooked shrimp but I couldn't really tell. This was my favorite of the 3 I tried. Whatever seafood this contained, the other ingredients tasted really good.

The sauces were a little better than Wegman's. As usual, I received 3 sauces (soy, wasabi and ginger) in separate plastic cups and there was enough for the 3 different types of sushi with some left over. The soy tasted the same as usual, the wasabi tasted fresher than Wegman's and the ginger was much fresher and contained pieces of ginger that just tasted better than Wegman's.

Overall, the sushi tasted reasonably good and I definitely received a lot. I don't think I like sushi that much mostly due to the raw fish. It has nothing to do with Ichiban because I thought their fish was fresh and tasted the way it was supposed to. Sushi connoisseurs might differ in their opinion but it tasted fine to me.

Appetizers

Ichiban Sampler cost $11.95. In order to get a broad idea of Ichiban's food, I thought that a sampler would be the best choice. The sampler included 4 chicken wings, 2 yakitori, 3 shumais and 2 egg rolls. I had to do a little research on two of the items to know what they were.

The egg rolls were one of my favorites of my whole order. Ichiban eggrolls had a good flavored crust and the filling inside had a great taste with cabbage, carrots and other ingredients that were finely chopped. They really were not that different from Chinese eggrolls but I prefer these.

I had some confusion over determining which pieces of chicken were chicken wings and which were yakitori. At first I thought that the chicken wings were on the skewers because they were tender like chicken wings but, I think it turned out the chicken wings were not on the skewers.

If I have it correct, yakitori is a Japanese type of skewered chicken barbecued on a charcoal grill. This means that these were probably 4 pieces of chicken breast that were as tender as chicken wings. They were full of flavor and I wished there were more.

This means that 4 chicken wings were the 4 pieces that were flat and lightly breaded. These were my least favorite of my entire order because they were very tough and a little bit dry. I assume this is the way they are supposed to be made but they definitely did not taste like chicken wings to me. In any case, they were too dry for me and I had to drink a lot of liquid to get them down.

Shumai is a traditional Chinese dumpling. Ichiban dumplings tasted good and I detected a slightly seafood taste which I assumed was possibly from shrimp. They were quite soft and easy to chew.

Along with the appetizers, I also received another type of dipping sauce that I assumed was a thicker type of soy sauce. It was great and it really brought out the flavor of the yakitori and the egg rolls.

Overall, the appetizer sampler gave me a good idea of what to expect from Ichiban. Aside from what I believe to be the chicken wings, I liked every part of the sampler.

Hibachi Dinner

I wanted to get something that would include an entire dinner in one item, so I went with a hibachi dinner, which is grilled on a Hibachi Grill with a whole bunch of side dishes and your choice of steamed rice or noodles. Ichiban has a wide variety of Hibachi dinners with different prices depending on the seafood, poultry or meat included. I chose a combination dinner, which includes 2 different types of seafood or meat, because I wanted to try as many things as I could on my budget.

Each Hibachi dinner includes the meat(s) of your choice, shrimp appetizers, mushroom clear soup, house salad with special Japanese dressing, steamed rice or noodles and hibachi vegetables (zucchini, onions, mushrooms, carrots, baby corn and broccoli).

Combination Dinner cost $20.95. I chose chicken and scallops with steamed rice. The chicken was white meat and tasted okay but a bit tough to chew. The scallops were my absolute favorite of my entire order -- they were large and the outside was almost crisp with a soft center. The grilled flavor was perfect. In hindsight, I should have just ordered the dinner with scallops because there weren't enough due to my ordering a combination dinner.

The shrimp appetizers were basically grilled shrimp and they were cooked well without being too tough or stringy which is often the case at other restaurants.

The clear mushroom soup definitely tasted like mushrooms with a few pieces as well. The cup was very small -- maybe 4 to 6 ounces.

The house salad was rather pathetic with a few pieces of lettuce, cabbage and slivers of carrots. The special Japanese dressing was made of some type of squash and it was very thick -- I tasted a little bit of it but couldn't stand anymore.

The steamed rice was your standard white rice. I'm not sure this it's just Ichiban or if all Japanese restaurants cook their rice like this but the rice was fully cooked which is a nice change from Chinese restaurants with their rice that seems to be only halfway cooked (or I just have bad luck with Chinese restaurants!).

The hibachi vegetables were terrific compared to what I usually get from Chinese restaurants. The vegetables were all thoroughly cooked but not enough to be considered soft, just perfectly tender without loosing any flavor. Most of the pieces were moderately sized but a few carrots were huge. Ichiban wasn't stingy because they really piled on the veggies.

Overall, the good aspects of the hibachi dinner far outweighed the few negative issues I had with it but I was not expecting much from the side dishes at all.

Conclusion

I used a Half Off the Valley certificate that cost $25 for a $50 order which really allowed me to try a wide variety of foods from Ichiban. My order probably would be enough for 2 or 3 people -- it lasted me for 3 separate meals. The total price of my order with tax was $52.31 which wasn't too bad considering I only had to pay about $25 for it; $52 would have been out of my budget. So, expect to pay about $25 per person when at Ichiban.

Ichiban offers good Japanese food that is flavorful, well-cooked, fresh and served in large portions at a moderate price. It costs more than your standard fast food Chinese restaurant but it is well worth the price when you can afford it occasionally.

The restaurant interior was well decorated in an Asian style and everything was clean. The staff was dressed in Japanese style clothes, the women in dresses similar to kimonos. Everything just felt Japanese which perfectly complements a Japanese restaurant.

Ichiban Japanese Steakhouse is quite popular and I can see why. There might be better Japanese restaurants out there but I was quite satisfied with their food and that's all I care about. Give this place a try and you might be satisfied like I was.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Contact Information

Ichiban Japanese Steakhouse
Valley Plaza 1914 Catasauqua Rd.
Allentown, PA 18109
Telephone: (610) 266-7781
Web: www.ichibanpa.com