Ichiban Sushi Garden
127 15th St SE, Puyallup
253.845.4222
Tucked away in the northeastern corner of Puyallup, Ichiban Sushi Garden provides avid and novice sushi connoisseurs with a wide variety of authentic Japanese cuisine. Once inside the restaurant, diners are greeted with the sounds of light jazz filling the room with a comfortable and inviting atmosphere. The décor is simple, clean and elegant with Asian curtains, maple chairs and clean lines providing the perfect feng shui.
Ichiban’s comprehensive menu offers an eclectic selection from traditional nigiri sushi to signature creations. Not familiar with sushi or Japanese cuisine? Their menu layout is novice friendly, describing each dish in detail. Afraid of braving the raw fish? Ichiban has a wide selection of mouth-watering cooked sushi rolls. A safe choice for a beginner is the ever popular California roll made up of cooked snow crab meat, cucumber and avocado surrounded by white rice and wrapped with seaweed.
The restaurant identifies the dishes that are raw or cooked allowing the sushi lovers to challenge their taste buds, while more leery diners can enjoy delicious flavor without the raw fish. Every dish is served with pickled ginger and wasabi (Japanese horseradish) on the side. Take caution when trying the wasabi. It can melt your eyebrows off!
Ichiban takes its Japanese cuisine seriously, and beautiful presentation is just as important as the taste. Flavorful miso soup is served in pretty dainty cups and garnished with bits of shiitake and enoki mushrooms, green onions, seaweed and tofu. Salted edamame and salad with ginger dressing are served to prepare the pallet for the diverse tastes to come. With many selections, diners have the option of meats, vegetables, and seafood. Rolls can be as simple as spicy tuna , sprouts, cucumber and gobo to a complex Dragon roll which is composed of shrimp tempura, crab and cucumber layered with fresh water eel and avocado with an eel sauce.
The “stuffed pumpkin” is particularly worth trying especially if you like salmon. It isn’t, of course, a real pumpkin, but pieces of fresh salmon shaped to cradle together a mixture of spicy snow crab, scallops, and tobiko (flying fish caviar) with mayonnaise and tempura crunch over rice. Entrees at Ichiban Sushi Garden focus on a few basic elements. Salmon, crab, yellow-tail, freshwater eel, shrimp, avocado, cucumber, and alfalfa sprouts appear in some form in almost every dish. Added to those is one of a variety of sauces which are deliciously contrasting yet have complimenting flavors in each bite.
Our food was brought promptly and the friendly waitresses remained close by to respond to any further needs throughout the meal. All sushi aficionados know the importance of absolutely fresh ingredients and evidently so do the chefs at Ichiban Sushi Garden. It is definitely an excellent place to dine.
Nivekisha Reyoberik