Ichibar

Cary just got its first decent Japanese restaurant! Ichibar just opened up on Kildare Farm Road just north of where Outback Steakhouse is. It’s not a typo, for some reason they decided “Ichibar” would be a better name than “Ichiban”. Maybe the market is just saturated with Ichibans already.

I had gotten a card in my mailbox last week announcing the opening of this restaurant. I figured most other restaurants might be packed on Mother’s Day, so a Japanese restaurant would be a good spot to go to. We arrived at about 5:30pm and the place was pretty empty, only 1 other table seated.

This restaurant has a really great interior! When you first come in, you’re greeted by a koi pond with 2 waterfall structures and water running down the tile wall. My son loved looking at the fish throughout our time there.

They also have a very nice bar there. They serve a wide array of mixed drinks, wines, beers, and sake. I was kind of worried though, one of their drinks was a mojito with vodka. Vodka, no rum? Blasphemy! I just had some hot green tea with ice water.

We ordered some appetizers, the veggie spring rolls and some gyoza. Both were good, although I prefer my spring rolls with sweet and sour sauce instead of soy sauce. The gyoza was good, exactly the way I like it.

We had ordered apple sticks for our 4-year-old. They came out shortly after the appetizers, piping hot. They looked like mozzarella sticks, but tasted a lot like McDonald’s apple pies. Probably not a very healthy dinner, but the boy is very picky and usually doesn’t eat anything at restaurants unless we bring him a sandwich. He actually ate most of the apple sticks without much prodding.

My husband got the tonkatsu (pork cutlet). He said it was very good. I tasted the tonkatsu sauce and it tasted pretty authentic. The only complaints were that the miso soup that he ordered never showed up, the tonkatsu was served on lettuce instead of shredded cabbage, and the slices were a little large and unwieldy. But he said otherwise it was very good.

I asked if they would make me some special rolls with my own selection of ingredients. The server consulted with the sushi chef, and said yes. I ordered my favorite combo of yellowtail, avocado, egg and cucumber. It doesn’t really have a name, so I’ll just call it a “Magie roll”. I also ordered the Ninja roll, minus the peppers. It was supposed to be spicy yellowtail, mango inside, yellowtail, jalapeno and tobiko (black caviar) on top, but I decided jalapeno peppers would be a bit too much for me. Maybe next time I’ll go for them.

Everything turned out beautifully, and was delicious. I was so happy to find a decent sushi restaurant in the area. So many either won’t make the rolls the way I want them, or just generally have crappy food or a crappy atmosphere. This one, despite being in a strip-mall type building, had a really gorgeous and welcoming interior. They even had a “sushi boat” for a sushi bar!

I look forward to eating here a lot in the future. Maybe next time we’ll even get the tea room, and I’m sure there’s many more good rolls to try.