This is a remolded restaurant formerly known as Ichiban Restaurant. I'm not sure why the name is so long now but the restaurant grew to almost twice in size. I suppose when you increase the size of the name the building space increases too :) They have a sushi bar still but they've also added a full size beverage bar. The atmosphere is more luxurious and presents a more open space. Though my pregnant wife could hardly fit into the seating space!? It's almost like they've crammed too many tables too close together. I noticed they have many deuces set up that have very comfortable looking high rise booths. This would be a nice touch for a romantic dinner for two.
The wait for seating was not almost immediate but initial quest service was lacking. They handed my (again pregnant) wife a booster seat and she couldn't maneuver around to get the booster seat in the chair. So she stood there for about 5 mins waiting on me to show up. So due to a lack of space for the seating and the lack of service to help a pregnant guest they definitely lose points here. There were 3 different servers helping us out. The time for beverages wasn't long though she had to come back a second time to make sure she had our order correct. We were talking and not paying attention to what we were going to order so one of the servers came to get our order and we only gave her our order for our 2yr old. We needed a few more minutes and so while we were looking another server came to get our order. We tried to explain that we were ready to order but another server had already started, some confusion here with the language barrier.
At Japanese restaurants with sushi, I think sushi is the appetizer and it is implied. We order 2 roles, both were good. My son really enjoyed the dragon head made out of lemon. We both order something we had before. The sushi took quite some time to get out, we were very hungry. Waiting and hungry don't go well together. The sushi our friend order was a good selection as well, he allowed me a taste of octopus which was very interesting.
Our food took about 45 for the food and that was after we asked for it ( which I don't normally do). Both our meals were not as we remembered them, mine was good but seemed drenched in a brown gravy sauce and my wife's meal was EXTREMELY bland. It took a while to get the check but we finally got it and paid.
The atmosphere was great, I really enjoyed the lighting and colors. There seating was full and everything looked new and nice. The food was not as good though, my guess is they increased seating capacity but didn't increase the kitchen which can make for a dangerous combination. I'm sure I'll return, given I have been there many times before BUT I will be extremely skeptical. Had this been my first visit I would probably not go back though. One thing that I could always say before they remolded is that the service was always lacking, a little slow and not very friendly but the food was always good. Now the service upgraded but the food was not as good... Better luck next time I suppose
