You know when you go to a food place for the first time and your first thought is something like: “How did I just find out about this place? I’ve been wasting all this precious time when I could’ve been eating here, and I didn’t even know it?” That’s exactly what happened to me when I ate at Ichiban.
Ichiban Sushi is a sushi and Thai food restaurant in Gainesville, located off of 43rd Ave. at 4401 NW 25th Place (imagine that, it’s not on Archer!). It opened in 1998, and they’ve been making bomb food ever since then.
They make their sushi daily using only fresh ingredients. The sushi chefs cut fresh fish and veggies every morning right before opening, smoke the eel, and make the rice (which I found out is sticky because they add rice vinegar, fun fact).
Ichiban offers over 40 unique rolls, in addition to traditional sushi, Thai, Korean and Chinese options. Let me just warn you, it’s tough to pick just one thing. We spent a while studying the menu and discussing our options in depth until we settled on ordering two rolls…as well as a Pad Thai lunch special (with miso soup). What? We were hungry. Stop judging.
For the sushi, we ordered a Special Cucumber Roll and a Symphony roll.
The Special Cucumber Roll has tuna, krab, salmon, yellowtail and masago, and it came wrapped in cucumber instead of the typical rice. I know, we’re so ~healthy.~ It also came in the shape of a flower. If that’s not art, I don’t know what is.
The Symphony, appropriately named because your taste buds sing when you eat it, has tuna, salmon, escolar, cucumbers and scallions, and comes topped with avocado, smoked eel, tempura flakes, eel masago and eel sauce. I know, it’s a mouthful (literally). It was amazing. If you’re not eating this roll, you’re wrong, and you need to sit down and figure out your priorities.
As for the Pad Thai, I got a warning from the manager: even though it’s a very popular dish, people either love it or hate it. I’m very picky with Pad Thai, but I was feeling adventurous, and personally, I loved it. It’s less creamy and nutty than average Pad Thai and more citrusy and ~saucy.~ It quickly became one of my favorite dishes, and I would definitely encourage you to try it and decide for yourself.
I found that—probably because it’s not on Archer—a lot of UF students don’t know about this place. Basically, I thought I’d enlighten you because Ichiban is changing the game, so stop wasting your time and try it.