Glendale: Sushi and More at Ichiban

 

Sometimes I have to keep in mind a review site’s average of 4 stars doesn’t translate to actual 4 stars. Or rather, I should take into consideration some things such as the ratio of sushi restaurants in Glendale to other types of restaurants.

Ichiban is a popular Japanese restaurant in Glendale. It wasn’t a problem to get a table as the restaurant is enormous. We could have sat at the sushi counter but my friends and I wanted to catch up at a table.

After viewing the menu with a growing sense of alarm with pages and pages of sushi rolls, I opted for some standard nigiri and a relatively safe spicy tuna roll.

 

I try not to be a snob about sake and sushi but it’s hard not to cringe when you get asked if you want hot sake. Ah, I’m in one of those kinds of restaurants. I decided to go with the flow.

 

I invariably want the seaweed salad even if they’re generally overpriced. However, Ichiban was charmingly low-priced and quite generous with their portion size.

 

One of my friends wanted a riceless roll and was recommended a cucumber roll. She seemed to like it. I didn’t try as I had my hands full.

 

Overall the fish was fine but I missed the warm rice at such places like Sugarfish where you may not get as much bang for the buck but at least it’s quality fish. This was a hard lesson to learn through my sushi eating years going from a huge boat covered with barely acceptable sushi and rolls to omakase orgasm found at Sushi Gen.

 

At the end of the night, my friends were happy and I was happy to grab drinks at The Famous around the corner.

 

Ichiban

120 S Brand Blvd., Glendale, CA 91204  —  (818) 242-9966

 

© The Minty 2014