Ichiban Steak House - Minneapolis - (612) 339-0540

I have been to itchiban on several occasions. I really love the lighting and the chefs are great and friendly 4 out of every 5 times I go. The service for beverages or anything from the kitchen directly leaves much to be desired. There has been an occasion when I walked up to the manager to ask for my beverage since I had not had one refill and the meal was over and our waitress had not returned once. Don't expect great drinks or fast refills but when you go and are friendly to the chefs they make it a great experience where we have even brought the little ones and the chef did wonderful tricks for us and always makes us smile. They even stopped and told my daughter to sit back before the lit the big fire and made sure she got to see all the fun that is cooking at the table.

After hearing the locals rave about this restaurant I was excited. The moment we got to our table it was awful. The chef was clusmy and dropped utensils on the floor. At one point he just left the food cooking without any explanation. He tried to do a trick with an egg and my son's fried rice had eggshell in it. I mentioned it to the cook he just shrugged. He was placing meat on another ladies plate and missed stated;"The five second rule counts" and placed the meat on her plate. The ladies face was flushed red with embarassement. The cooked attempted to turn the rice bowls on a spatula and dropped not one bowl but two bowls in attempt to dazzle us. Awful. The food was mediocre at best the portions were small the salad and soup terrible. The bill 158.00 for two adults and 2 y/o. Don't waste your time going to this place. It's a beautiful building but the service is terrible. I had two glasses of wine to stomach the food. Which reminds me I had a 12 dollar itchiban drink couldn't even drink it was terrible.

After reading all these reviews raving about Ichibans, especially 2 in particular that said they liked it more than Benihana, I had to give it a try. Benihana is my all-time favorite restaurant since as long as I can remember, so I really had some high hopes for Ichibans. When I called in to make my reservation, I asked for a more experienced chef and we ended up getting the head chef! I really liked the set-up of the place and everyone was nice. So far, so good. But, It all went downhill from there. The food SUCKED plain and simple. Everything was swimming in this AWFUL sauce!!! The food itself was cooked so good, but then it was all ruined when the chef poured some gross red sauce all over it. Everytime he put it on something else, I cringed!! It was awful. The meat was so tender and perfect when he cooked it, and then, BAM the sauce and it's ruined. We spent $98 for just two people and NO drinks. I wouldn't have paid $5 for that food. Benihana ONLY from now on. Nothing beats that place. I grew up in LA, so if you are ever there, go to the one in Encino! Nothing can beat it!!