Ichiro Hibachi & Sushi Bar

Offers Many Choices For Area Diners

Ichiro Hibachi & Sushi Bar on Newtown Road, Danbury, now in its fifth year of business, transports visitors to a Japanese environment, complete with abundant use of wood, screens, and hanging lamps. Beyond the reception area, the restaurant is divided into two distinct sections; the light wood-toned dining room with individual tables and sushi bar with additional seating, and the larger, dark wood-toned hibachi room with its dozen half and full hibachi tables, the latter which can seat up to 18. There are also two party rooms off the main hibachi room; the smaller can accommodate parties up to 20 people, the larger is used for groups of 20 to 30.

The owner and manager is David Pan, who operates another restaurant of the same name in Trumbull. The restaurant has been well received, he said, and proven popular for those celebrating a birthday, anniversary, or other special occasions. The menu at Ichiro is quite extensive, offering a range of traditional Japanese tempura, sushi, sashimi, and hibachi entrees.

Guests can choose the privacy of individual tables in the dining room, or the conviviality of the community hibachi tables, where talented chefs make the meals on ultra-hot, traditional Japanese tabletop grills, performance style. The managers are quick to note that hibachi guests will not have to wait for a table to fill before food preparation begins. Children especially love the hibachi tables, highlighting the showmanship and dexterity of the chefs.

Hibachi chefs receive a minimum of six years of training in Japan before joining the Ichiro staff, said Mr Pan, and are equally skilled as chefs and performers. Dazzling customers with juggling, slicing, dicing, and pyrotechnics, the chefs prepare a perfectly cooked meal to each individual’s liking.

Hibachi dinners include clear broth onion soup, green salad with ginger dressing, hibachi noodles, vegetables, and shrimp. Entrée choices are chicken, salmon, scallops, shrimp, steak, filet mignon, vegetables, and lobster tail, individually or in combination, $16.65–$29.60. Orders for children 10 and under are available in chicken, shrimp, scallops, or steak for $10.30.

In the dining room, guests can begin with a choice of seven salads, including mixed seaweed, $6.55, and spicy seafood, $8.95, and five soups, including miso, $3, and dobin (seafood and mushroom), $7.25. Entrees are served with soup and salad, and often rice or noodles, including the teriyaki and tempura meals. There are also 20 hot appetizers, ranging from edamame (slightly salted boiled soybeans), bacon rolled around asparagus to beef negimaki (beef rolled around scallion) and soft shell crab tempura, and five cold appetizers, all involving seafood. Prices range from $4.95 to $10.25.

Ichiro customers can also select the five-course prix fixe menu, with includes salad; soup; a choice of edamame soy beans or steamed shrimp dumplings for an appetizer; a choice of steak, chicken, shrimp, or salmon teriyaki or hibachi dinners, or the sushi or sashimi deluxe from the sushi bar; and either fried tempura ice cream or mochi ice cream for dessert, all for $20.99 per person. The prix fixe menu is not available for takeout.

Sushi chefs are on hand to fill diners’ orders, including chef’s special rolls (15 choices priced from $11.95 to $15.95), sushi bar special combos ($13.25–$22.25), sushi sashimi entrees ($16.25–$24.25), or a choice of three complete dinner boxes, $21.25 each. Like the hibachi chefs, the sushi chefs must undergo extensive training in Japan before working in the restaurant, said Mr Pan. To hold the head sushi chef position, a chef needs a minimum of ten years experience.

A lunch menu is available Monday through Friday, but excludes holidays. The hibachi lunch includes clear onion soup, vegetables and a choice of entree, including chicken, salmon, shrimp, scallops, steak, or filet mignon, ranging from $9.25 to $12.95. Three combos are also offered, with the most expensive being filet mignon and shrimp for $14.25.

Those seeking lighter fare can have Miso soup and a choice of two sushi rolls, 13 options offered, for $8.25 in the dining room. Sushi, don buri, noodle soup, and lunch box specials are also offered, $9.15–$12.25. Food is also available for takeout.

Ichiro also offers full bar service, including the traditional sake.

Ichiro, 69 Newtown Road, Danbury, is open seven days a week. Lunch is served from 11 to 3 Monday through Saturday, dinner from 4:30 to 10 pm, to 11 on Friday and Saturday. Sunday hours are 11:30 to 10. All major credit cards are accepted. Weekend reservations recommended; phone, 203-792-8881; fax, 203-792-8818.