Ichiban (aka sushi with my babies)

Ichiban, at 13th and Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis, is one of my favorite places to get sushi in the Twin Cities. They have hibachi, where you have your own private chef who cooks food for you on a hibachi, a large griddle-type heating platter, with many theatrical tosses of cooking utensils. They also have a sushi bar, which is where I like to go, because it's a better value for the money, where you get all of the sushi, potstickers, miso soup, and green tea or orange ice cream you want for about $30. The sushi bar is round, with an open area in the middle, where the sushi chefs prepare the sushi, surrounded by a small waterway upon which plastic boats float. The sushi chefs put the prepared sushi, along with other side dishes, such as edamame, on the boats and you take what you want when the boats go by you. There is seating for about twenty people around the sushi bar, and the seating is first come, first served, so you can't make a reservation for it. If you come early, you usually don't have to wait, though. The sushi chefs prepare a wide variety of sushi, and oftentimes, you can request sushi if you want a certain type. When I went there with my friends last Saturday, they served everything from salmon sashimi (raw salmon on rice) to sweet potato tempura sashimi to sushi rolls with green fish eggs in them, along with more traditional sushi fare. I have been going there for about six or seven years and I think the quality of the fish they serve has improved in that time. I feel like it's a really fun place to go with friends, I always have a good time there eating delicious sushi. Unfortunately, the quality of the pictures isn't super great, the lighting in the restaurant is rather dim, so sorry about that.

 The sushi boats

 A smoked salmon roll with avocado

 The green tea ice cream