Ichiban Japanese Steak House
189 Carlton StreetWinnipeg, MB R3C 3H7
1-204-925-7400
On June 23rd, we visited Ichiban in
Winnipeg. Ichiban is a Japanese
restaurant specializing in teppanyaki, a form of table-side preparation and
cooking. As you enter, you can view the
entire dining room from above – a vast arrangement of various sized tables, each
centered around its own flat-top grill.
Tables seat from six to twelve people, and our party of four
was pleasantly surprised to find ourselves seated with two lovely gentlemen from
Flin Flon, who were in town for a convention.
We felt we were lucky, as Mike and Vern were both wonderful
company. It was like an extra treat to
get to know them throughout the meal and share such a unique dining experience
with them. None of us had ever been to
Ichiban before this, so we were all experiencing it fresh for the first time.
The menu offers a fair variety of combinations, mostly
centering on beef, chicken and seafood.
Combination dinners include soup, salad, an appetizer, green tea, rice and your combination
selections, plus a choice of ginger, vanilla, orange or green tea ice cream for dessert.
The soup was a very nice, definitely home-made tasting
chicken broth with vegetables. This is
followed by a marinated cucumber salad topped with minced crabmeat. The salad is tangy and sweet and a refreshing
start to the meal.
The starters are served by a wait person, and after those
are finished, the chef approaches the table with the appetizers. These are prepared on the grill right in
front of you. Our chef started us off
with a bang, literally! We truly enjoyed
the theatrics throughout the whole meal, as well as the wacky sense of humour
of our chef.
The standard appetizer is a mixture of chicken livers, onion
and mushrooms seasoned with sake and soy and some other ingredients. Upon first read, few of us were interested in
the appetizer. Ichiban does offer the
ability to substitute another appetizer at half price instead of the chicken
liver one if you want. About half the
table opted for the chicken liver appetizer and half for other appetizers, such
as gyoza or sautéed shrimp or calamari.
The chef served portions of each
and did offer the chicken liver appetizer to others at the table as well. We did a lot of sharing and sampling
throughout the meal, which enhanced the friendly, communal feel of the evening. Everyone was quite impressed with how very
tasty the chicken liver appetizer was.
Those who hadn’t ordered it, but tried it, noted that if they returned
again, they would order that appetizer. It
doesn’t sound delectable, but it really is!
Next, the chef prepared the fried rice. There is an option to have steamed rice
instead, but only one of us ordered that.
Again, the chef did share some of the dish with everyone, and everyone
raved at how good it was.
After that, our entrée selections were brought to the table
and the chef began by putting all the chicken on one part of the grill, while
preparing the meat and seafood on other parts.
If you order the beef, the chef asks how you like it cooked (rare to
well-done). All of the meat is cubed and
cooked together, but rarer portions are served first to ensure that everyone
gets the doneness they prefer. Seafood
is cooked last to keep it just right.
Everything was truly cooked to perfection and seasoned just right.
Pricing is by combination and ranges from approximately $25 up to $50 per person for all excluding cocktails. A variety of public parking is nearby, and validated parking at the Delta Hotel lot is available after 5:30, making access easy even for this busy downtown location. Ichiban is certainly a special occasion destination, but worth it. It was difficult to say which was more exciting –
the wonderful flavours or the fabulous show put on by the chef. Both were quite impressive and made for a
spectacular evening for everyone. We
even had a lovely walk back to our car with our little Buddha mugs that came with our cocktails – souvenirs
of a memorable evening.
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