First look: Ichiban

Masahiro Kaneko prepares sushi at Ichiban in Mt. Lookout. (Credit: Amie Dworecki | Metromix)

As a friend and I left Ichiban in Mount Lookout Square, we walked by Dancing Wasabi. The door burst open and we peered into the popular sushi restaurant with the wistfulness of two geeks glimpsing the Playboy Mansion. Dancing Wasabi was packed with beautiful people tossing back shots and feasting on half-price sushi to music by Beck.

By comparison, we'd just left the library.

Japanese restaurant Ichiban opened Aug. 28 in the place of Aqua, the trendy Asian restaurant that never seemed to find its legs on the square. Let's hope Ichiban - which does show promise - fares better.

The mood

Since Ichiban had been open less than a week, service flubs were expected. Still, we had no fewer than three servers try to take our order. I ordered a lychee martini only to be told they served no such thing. Our regular server didn't hide her annoyance when someone else stepped in to take our appetizer order. "She does that," the waitress sighed.

The place was nearly empty, and the vibe was subdued. Ichiban looks no different than Aqua did - very sleek and dark and modern and a bit cold. "You want to go to a quiet restaurant - that was it," my friend said. I wish the dining room had more of a pulse. The food deserves it.

The food, drinks

We started with the soft shell crab spring roll ($10) and a spicy tuna roll ($6) from the sushi bar. The spring roll was hot and crisp but the sweetness of the crab was lost somewhere in the fryer. The tuna roll was tight and fresh. Next we tried the squid robata-yaki, two skewers of grilled squid ($5) with a delicate chewiness and simple flavor.

And then the entrée blew our mouths away.

We moved past the list of noodle dishes and split the charbroiled prime rib ($20) with sherry teriyaki sauce and wasabi cream and tempura-fried lotus root. We didn't care much for the bland lotus root, but we might have wrestled for the last bit of prime rib. The sauces were thick with a rich, dense flavor and the prime rib was juicy, a deep pink in the middle.

It was the high point of the night and filled us up so much we had to pass on dessert, though we were intrigued by the green tea mousse ($7) and ice cream anmitsu ($7), a cube of agar jelly topped with a petite rice cake, sweet bean paste, small cut fruit, ice cream and organic brown syrup.

My lychee martini dreams dashed, I had a sweet gewürztraminer ($10) with the fish and a Carson Peak cabernet ($10) with the steak. My friend started with a pinot grigio ($7) and moved to a pinot noir ($7). The wine list here ranges from $7 a glass to a yeah-right $400 bottle of Armand de Bringnac Brut.

Why you should go

Ichiban has some kinks to work out to compete with party-place Dancing Wasabi - but it could carve out a place as a quieter, more serious place to enjoy sushi and both traditional Japanese and Japanese-fusion dishes.

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