Ichiro Sushi Restaurant - Orland Park

Sorry about the abundance of south-side posts these days - but I had to do a write up on this.

I'm under the firm belief that one visit to a restaurant does not tell the full story. Some restaurants I've been disappointed by may not get more than one visit perhaps because they are a) too expensive to try again, or, more likely, b) too far away for it to be worth my time.

However, I have given *many* a restaurant in this area its fair shake, and I do honestly believe I've given Ichiro its last shake. Unless someone forces me into it, I will not be going back.

Allow me to expound: Mr. GF and I started the night off at the Best Buy tonight. I finally got myself a new stereo for my car, so, as we were "stuck" for an hour in the area, we decided to walk across the parking lot to Ichiro.

I chose that because it was between Buffalo Wild Wings and that. And I had a taste for sushi. I've been to Ichiro before, always with slightly disappointing results, but I thought: How bad could it be?

First of all, so I don't start off on a bad note, the service was fine. In fact, the service there has always been polite and efficient for the most part. It was everything else that got me.

I asked the waitress about sake options -- they have this incredibly tempting shelf full of all these different sake bottles, but they have three sakes they sell: Oseki Dry, Sho Chiku Bai, and some sake they call Country Premium Sake (I don't know if this is the brand - I guess I'd assume so). Anyway, I've had the latter before and thought it was okay, so I thought I'd get it again. They serve it in a little box on a plate (I am afraid I don't know enough, but I assume this is perhaps one traditional way of serving sake?) with a cucumber garnish.

Unfortunately, when I tried it, it tasted like they hadn't rinsed the cup well enough, because the sake had a soapy taste to it. I'm not sure whether that's the sake or the cup, though.

My husband, not being the sushi eater, ordered a Habachi dinner. [In matter of fairness, I should disclose that I used to work at the bar of a Habachi restaurant in the area, and used to make it a habit of going out to "sample" the competition -- that being said, it's possible that I am biased in the direction of my former employer.]

I, myself, ordered what I usually order: a sampling of sashimi & maki rolls. I ordered tuna, unagi, hamachi, and hirame for the sashimi and a philadelphia roll and spicy spider roll for maki.

They always give you a small bowl of edamame to start with and I immediately made a bad impression with Mr. GF when I popped a soybean in my mouth and managed to squirt both of his eyes with "edamame juice." (How that happened, I cannot say...) The edamame was okay. Can't really do that wrong.

Then, miso soup: large bowls, not bad, but not very well garnished, either. Very little tofu and seaweed in them. Disappointing, since I enjoy eating the chunks of tofu with it - they take on the flavor of the scallions and bean curd and yum. Good. But, yeah, this bowl was not-so-much.

My husband got a house salad with his entree as well. It was drowning in their house ginger dressing. (Incidentally: why do so many places *drown* the salad in dressing? Is this really necessary? This is why we usually ask for the dressing on the side!) The dressing itself was actually pretty interesting. It had a distinct orange flavor to it that I don't usually notice as much in other ginger dressings, which makes me think they must use (more?) of a concentration of orange juice in their dressing. I liked it. The salad itself was fairly lame - white iceberg lettuce bits, overdoused in dressing, carrot shavings (okay), etc.

Mr. GF's entree came out first: he ordered sirloin steak & golden shrimp hibachi. The steak was extremely tender (good), but completely flavorless (doh). They had two sauces: some kind of sauce that lacked flavor that had sesame seeds in it, and a sweet ginger sauce, that I might have liked, had they provided more of it. With that came hibachi-seared veggies and mushrooms, cooked with the steak. He said it was "all right." He was not very impressed. I know he has been okay with our trips to other Hibachi places in the area, but this dish did not wow him in the least.

Meanwhile: back to my sushi. The maki rolls arrived first. And they were HUGE. I have to give them a bit of credit on "value," but, my goodness. I could not fit these rolls into my mouth. I expect a large roll if I order something like a Futo Maki or a special roll that has eight ingredients in it, but a Philadelphia roll? That has three things: salmon, cream cheese, and avocado. I ordered it *because* I thought it would be smaller.

My second roll, the spicy Spider roll, had the fried tempura, spicy mayo, avocado, and tobiko (flying fish eggs). It was equally large. Honestly, I looked like a chipmunk trying to eat it. Other than trying to cut it in half (which sucks), it is impossible to try and eat large maki rolls.

I was relieved when the sashimi arrived so I could eat something easier -- but, wait -- noooo, they gave me sushi [nigiri]. GAH.

For those who don't know, sushi, or nigiri, is the pieces of fish with sushi rice underneath. Sashimi is when you just have the pieces of fish with no rice. I prefer it without rice because I get plenty of rice in the makimono I order and don't need more.

I ate my unagi with the rice, which was good - but honestly, I've rarely had a bad piece of unagi. It's always pretty tender and tasty. The other three - well, everything was tough and/or grizzly. That is everything you don't want in a piece of sushi. All the pieces I ordered I've had at my other [favorite] place, always, *always* with favorable results. These were horrible.

In fact, after swallowing that horrible piece of tuna, I couldn't wait to get home and wash that taste in my mouth out with a glass of wine. I was disgusted. In fact, it's hard for me to think about it now without feeling that bad texture in my mouth.

I hate to write such a detailed, bad review, so I will end on a good note:

There is a place I almost always eat sushi and always regret when I decide to go elsewhere. It's around the corner from the Tin Fish in Tinley Park -- it's called G-In Sushi. They apparently also have a sister restaurant called Sushi O Sushi on Armitage that I've never tried, but if it's anything like this place - yes. The only caveat I've come across is their overabundance of spicy mayo (they put it on everything!) ---- but the fish is fresh and always high quality, and the sushi chefs are fairly young, but interesting and talented.

The moral of the story is: if you are going for sushi in the Tinley / Orland area, always be sure to go to G-In. They could use the business for sure - I used to go in there about once a week (haven't been in a while), and never saw it really packed. It's a nice place, and while they don't have a huge list, they have a couple good sake selections, too, along with a sake flight, if you've never had it and want to try...

Ichiro Sushi Restaurant (warning: sound)
15866 S. La Grange Rd.
Orland Park, IL
708-364-1234

G-In Sushi & Grill
7140 W 183rd Street
Tinley Park, IL
708-342-1652

Sushi O Sushi
346 W Armitage Ave
Chicago, IL
773-871-4777

Thanks for the reviews. I haven't tried either of these places, although I keep meaning to, one of these days. I'll be sure to try G-In soon.

And don't apologize for reviewing south suburban restaurants -- I'm not the only member of this board who lives south! There is good food out here if you know where to look for it.

Suzy

Greenfish,

First of all, please don't apologize for having many posts on the south-side. We need more posts here from the southland!!!

As far as the 5 Sushi places in the Orland/Tinley/Mokena area goes, I like G-in the best too. I was there for lunch last week and had a very nice Bento box, and they had Hamachi Gama (yellowtail jaw) as an appetizer which is not easy to find. I order my spicy rolls with the chili oil instead of the mayo to avoid them going nuts with it.

Sushi O Sushi is owned by the same people is very good too (although sometimes noisy). And I believe they just opened a 3rd place in the city as well though I don't have the name of it handy.

Also Ichiro has been very disappointing the two times I have gone there.

Glenn

I think Ichiro is fine, so long as you don't have unreasonable expectations about what you are going to get -- good average, low to middling power, excellent defense, good speed, and a quick first step out of the box. Don't fool yourself into thinking you are going to get MVP-caliber performance (2001 notwithstanding), but steady production is more than many in Ichiro's position can provide.