Ichiriki Japanese Restaurant

It gets busy and loud at lunch time, food was good. Had chicken teriyaki, it comes with miso soup, rice and salad. Nice deco, feels very cozy.

Ichiriki is a NICE restaurant, suitable for a date night with Yorkville prices to impress $$$. Quite authentic, the head itamae is Japanese and they have jazz nights as well.
The food itself is quite par, with expensive ingredients (triple A striploin for beef teriyaki) that don’t really justify or hitting the market target. So the prices I find exuberant. The restaurant also closes extremely early (9 PM).
What is really noteworthy are the desserts. Strong mango pudding and green tea pudding game but I also heard the puffs were amazing. Guess what, you can get takeout dessert too!
I recommend a try but return for the desserts!

This is one of the lunch-​hour style places that serves decent Japanese fare. Seating is a bit cramped. Saki selection is decent.

One of my Japanese friends told me good things about this restaurant, and I had been curious to try their food for a while.
Overall, I enjoyed my experience here. Two of us were here and we shared Tempura dinner and Chirashi Sushi. Their tempura was crispy and tasty, but nothing spectacular about it. However, their Chirashi Sushi was very good. Sashimi on the rice was fresh and nicely presented, the rice seasoning was fantastic.
I would definitely come back to this restaurant to try other food on the menu.

A very convenient location situated just on the north-​east corner of Yonge & Bloor. This nice little boutique restaurant is quite visible thanks to a standing sign that says «Ichiriki sushi restaurant».
The service in this restaurant is quick. I ordered a salmon and sashimi dish, with steam rice for an extra dollar. The portions are surprisingly huge. On my dish, there are three pieces of sashimi, three pieces of sushi roll, garden salad on the side, two large pieces of salmon and a small dish of tuna salad. The tuna salad mini-​dish was refreshing and tasty. The sushi has wasabi inside, which is prepared the correct authentic way.
The setting of the restaurant is suitable for a jazz band, as there are many jazz photos posted on the wall. I was told by the waitress that jazz nights take place in the restaurant on the weekends. I would raise an extra star rating if I come here one night for their jazz performance.

This place is great when you’re in a rush and on the go. They have a great lunch menu with discounted prices from their dinner menu. The selection is pretty decent and I’m a fan of their bento boxes in particular.
The service is quick and for take out, you’re usually not waiting for more than 10 – 15 minutes for your food. The sushi is also pretty decent and the sashimi is pretty fresh. One of the better sushi restaurants around yonge/​bloor.
Keep in mind the sushi is made the authentic way, so the wasabi is rolled into the sushi when made. Not a bad spot for Japanese downtown!

Convenient location at Yonge/​Blood with efficient staff. I found the food a bit pricey during lunch, but I think it’s probably consistent with other places in the area. The restaurant is small-​ish, so if you’re coming in a bigger group, it’s probably best to call ahead. I had a bento box, which comes with sushi.
Fair warning: the chefs here prepare sushi the «Japanese» way (that’s what I was told, anyway) with wasabi inside, so be prepared for that if you’re not used to eating it or if you’re used to only using a small bit.

I come here for lunch usually, and I find that their lunch specials (if you make it in time before they sell out) are pretty worth it! The sashimi here is especially fresh, and the lunch combo comes with salad, soup, rice, some dish of the day, crab rolls, and sushi+sashimi! The other lunch specials with no sushi (the teriyaki salmon, chicken etc. with rice) is a pretty big portion which also comes with soup and salad, and those are around 10 – 15 $.
Other than the specials, the regular menu is on the pricy side. With chirashi being around $ 18, and sashimi sets being more. But like I said, they have really fresh tasting sashimi so it makes sense they charge more :)

If you’ve had real Japanese food, you’ll steer clear of this place. Disorganized service and terrible food with a high price tag slapped on.
We ordered a-​la-​carte, Tako Kimuchi (Kimchi Octopus), Uni Sushi, Negi-​toro roll, Shrimp Tempura Soba, Salmon Collar and Cheese Isobe.
Here’s how it came out (in order):
1) Tako Kimuchi ($ 7.00) — a small bowl of sliced boiled octopus with kimchi sauce and raw cucumbers. A tasty combination but an overpriced appetizer.
2) Uni sushi ($ 8.00 for two pieces) — I’m a big fan of uni, and while I’m biased just to the basic flavour, I sadly had to acknowledge that it wasn’t very fresh at all. For the same price, I recommend trying the uni at Japango. Amazing.
3) Negitoro roll ($ 8.00) — chopped fatty tuna with green onion — everything EXCEPT the fish itself was good. Premium Japanese sushi rice but sadly, the toro could not be tasted at all. Very disappointing.
4) Shrimp Tempura Soba ($ 15.00) — three pieces of shrimp tempura sitting in soba and hot soup. For the hefty price, I was expecting hand made soba or at least tasty broth… something on the level of what you would get (for half the price) in Japan. I applaud them for using real dashi stock in their broth, but otherwise there isn’t anything positive to say.
About this time, nothing was coming to our table. We were still waiting for the Cheese Isobe and the Salmon Collar. We asked a waitress about them and she said they were coming. Shortly afterwards, the Cheese Isobe came.
5) Cheese Isobe ($ 4.00) — Four pieces of Philli cream cheese, wrapped in seaweed, then rolled in bread bits and deep fried. Yeah, this was probably was a bad choice on our end but as soon as we saw it we felt a little bit sick. Let me say, this is not very Japanese and was ridiculously rich. It reminded me of something you could order at a Chinese run all-​you-​can eat Japanese establishment. One bite was enough.
An hour after we had ordered, we were still waiting for the grilled Salmon Kama. We were sure they were preparing it since we had checked with the waitress and she had previously mentioned that it was coming. But to our surprise, 15 minutes after the fried cheese had come out, the waitress gave us the bill. We were surprised and disappointed with the disorganization and rudeness of the service. Never mind not getting the Salmon Kama, we hadn’t even asked for the bill. And with empty tables everywhere around us, we were wondering why they were in such a hurry to make us leave.
The staff were confused and were sure they had served us the Salmon Kama. But when we insisted we never got it, she ran over to a neighbouring table and looked at what they had been served. Although she never said it, we suspect that they had mistakenly given our order to another table.
FIrst and last time we will ever step into this establishment. If you have lived in Toronto for a wee bit of time, or have done your research, you know there are tens of (actually authentic) Japanese restaurants at the same price level that will out-​do Ichiriki by light years. So so so disappointing, especially after reading all the positive reviews.
The verdict — Ichiriki is a gimmick and preys on customers who think they are getting the authentic Japanese experience because this establishment is Japanese run. You pay for the ‘upscale’ environment and jazz music and the illusion that this is the real stuff. For the same price, go to Japango.

One of the best Japanese restaurants in Toronto. I’ve visted it three times.
I think its strong point is its fried food (Abura-​mono), compared to other Japanese restaurants in Toronto. You can read from their menu that they use egg yolk to make tempura, and will be soundly confirmed at first bite. Fried shrimp balls (not sure if it’s the name) was also very tasty, so I guess all their fried food are best in Toronto.
Its sushi is also very classy, but expensive at the same time. For newbies like me, I would recommend you to try sushi at Ematei (if you want authentic ones).
Also recommended is their daily special meal set. They kind of know what you need even if you don’t.
Don’t forget the Omakase course if you are treating someone (need reservation).

Ichiriki is a inconspicuous little Japanese-​run restaurant. Like most other eateries in this area, they draw a big lunch crowd from all the nearby offices. However, after-​hours Ichiriki is just as lively. Aside from a seasonal omakase menu and a monthly live jazz band night, every Tuesday evening they welcome Soba Canada to take over the kitchen and serve fresh handmade authentic soba.
Recommended Orders:
Chirashi ($ 24): pretty presentation, fresh fish, and reasonable value given the area that it’s located in. Nothing to complain about.
Urajiro ($ 9, Deep fried shiitaki mushrooms with shrimp paste) :
This was our favourite dish of the night. Succulent shiitake mushrooms are filled with a shrimp fish paste, and deep fried tempura-​style. They went light on the seasoning here, but it allows allows the sweet dipping sauce to highlight the earthy shiitake aroma. A highly recommended order!
Karaage ($ 6, Deep Fried Chicken): a deliciously moist chunks of meat wrapped in a light, non-​greasy batter. It wasn’t overly crunchy like I would’ve preferred, but I’d probably still place it on of my list of contenders for best karaage’s in Toronto.
Green Tea Pudding ($ 3): Every bite is smooth, creamy, and potent with matcha. Delicious! Free on Monday evenings with a $ 30 bill.

This is not a high end sushi place, which you would expect on Bloor Street with Tiffany’s a few doors down the block, but it’s a great lunch spot. The décor is lacking here, and looks more like a fast food Chinese restaurant that a sushi house. That should not detract you from coming here though. The service is quick, and the sushi is fresh & presentable. The food is well priced for the area as well. If would definitely come back here for lunch.

My go-​to spot for sushi when I am downtown. Very good quality (with flavour!) but not inexpensive. This is all good in my book.
Busy at lunch, less so at dinner.
As mentioned the take away is a steal. ½ — ²⁄₃ the price!

Food was quite good — but the whole experience was overshadowed by the horrible service. We had to remind them of part of our order as well as go up to the desk to pick up our bill since it was apparent that the servers (there were 3) were neither paying attention to is nor would they (we tried to get their attention several times). I will not be going back.

What I can say is that this place is QUICK if you want sushi on the go.
I stopped in to pick up a Bento box and was out in under a minute. For $ 11.00 it was OK and well worth it if you are business person on the go and need to pick up a quick lunch.
Worthwhile. DO IT.

Disappointing experience. Dined with three friends — the restaurant was close to our hotel. The shared gyoza were burned, but otherwise nearly tasteless. The charred theme continued into the meal one of my friends had (the beef in his sushi and beef maki combo). My spicy tuna roll was fine — not spectacular, not terrible — but I was disappointed by the seaweed salad (though it was visually rather pretty, with different seaweeds). We were startled that last call was just before 9 PM, and the place shuts down pretty early. Our waitress was nice, but communication was difficult at times. None of us were particularly happy with our meals. With so many other restaurant options in this area, I’d recommend looking elsewhere if you’re in the mood for Japanese food.

Great Japanese restaurant in the Bloor and Church area. Been coming here since the first opened years ago.
Food has always been good and fresh. However, if you are here for lunch, it will take an hour and make sure you come a few minutes earlier otherwise it may be a long wait as it is small inside!

Checked out Ichiriki for lunch today with a few coworkers and I was not impressed. Once seated, it took about 10 – 15 min. before the waitress came back to take our order.
Our meals (2 lunch specials — $ 13 and the tempura shrimp lunch set — $ 11) took a long time to arrive, almost 25 minutes which I think for lunch downtown on a weekday is a bit ridiculous.
I found the tempura to be extremely heavy and oily. It left a very unpleasant greasy coating in my mouth which is just gross. Plus they forgot my salad that was suppose to come with the meal.
The lunch special was a mix bag of stuff — chicken fried rice, California rolls, 2 salmon pieces, salad, tempura shrimp and deep fried dumplings. The folks who had the special seemed to like it but it didn’t look that appetizing to me.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go blot the oil off my tongue.

Lunch is good value for the quality. There are 2 prepared lunch takeout options by the cash.
Dinner is a bit pricey, but that is offset by free ice cream. I love the ginger one, which has pieces of candied ginger. Other flavours offered have included green tea & red bean.
The fish has always been fresh, but my favourite menu item is the urajiro, tempura of shitake mushrooms with shrimp paste.
Portions are on the small side and the menu is not extensive. Nice ambience. If I recall correctly, lunch is served Tue to Fri and dinner Wed to Sat.
[Based on 6+ visits for lunch & 3 visits for dinner]

Conveniently located minutes away from Bloor/​Yonge Station, I happen to stumble upon this establishment on the way home. The location is not car-​friendly as parking is hard to come by; however, for the TTC riders and individuals who work in the area, the location is perfect. My review is based on my experiences having lunch at Ichiriki. It looks like there is some sort of jazz event in the evenings, but as I have yet to attend, I cannot comment on it.
Pros:
* Japanese run … yes, this is the age old debate. I will only eat at a J-​resto run by Japanese.
* Location, location, location … a 5 min. walk from Bloor/​Yonge Station cannot be beat.
* Reasonable prices
* Lunch sets
* Good service
* Tonkatsu
Cons:
* Parking … maybe this is a sign that I shouldn’t be so reliant on my car
* Donburi … avoid it at all costs; you finish your rice in 3 spoon servings
* Small = limited number of seats