Dining Out: A Belated Birthday All-You-Can-Eat Japanese Feast at Ichiban

When my friend Iris asked where I'd want to go for a belated birthday dinner, I was craving Japanese food but also just wanted to eat a lot, so what better place than Ichiban, my go-to AYCE Japanese restaurant?

Assorted sashimi: Salmon, surf clams, sweet shrimp, scallops, and white tuna

Beef tataki

Smoked duck and wagyu aburi sushi

Truffle wasabi tuna roll with jalapeño

Assorted aburi sushi: White tuna, snapper, shrimp, salmon, eel, and wagyu

Japanese-style cubed beef with garlic

Deep-fried scallops

Grilled jumbo shrimp skewer

Cream puffs

Deep-fried coconut custard

There was also steamed shrimp dumplings, pork dumplings, Japanese steamed egg, enoki beef rolls, baked mussels with uni sauce, deep-fried calamari, deep-fried tofu, and a plethora of tempura. Unfortunately, we were too full to even touch the Asian stir-fried and noodle and rice sections, but you know, I think we did pretty well overall. GLUTTONOUS BIRTHDAY DINNER, SUCCESS!

Ichiban Asian All You Can Eat

4261 Highway 7, Unit C-8

Markham, ON L3R 9W6

(905) 305-8825

Dining Out: Holiday All-You-Can-Eat Japanese Feast at Ichiban

Took my friend Iris out for a belated birthday/holiday dinner tonight at Ichiban, where we ate and ate and ate some more:

Surf clams, sweet shrimp, snapper, scallop, octopus, and salmon sashimi
Avocado salmon, salmon, and fish roe temaki
Fish roe, salmon, BBQ eel, snapper, and mackerel nigiri
Shrimp, salmon, smoked duck, BBQ eel, and salmon box aburi sushi
Beef tataki
Shrimp, zucchini, yam, and pumpkin tempura
Agedashi tofu
Japanese-style cubed garlic steak
Enoki mushroom beef rolls
Torched mussels with house sauce
Stir-fried shrimp with vegetables
Cream puffs
Banana tempura
Deep-fried coconut custard

I have a massive food baby right now (twins, actually), but I can conclude from this second visit that Ichiban is officially my go-to Japanese AYCE restaurant. Although, judging from the line-up out the door on this Thursday evening (and the 15 minutes we had to wait even though we had a reservation), it's everyone else's, too. 

Ichiban Asian All You Can Eat

4261 Highway 7, Unit C-8

Markham, ON L3R 9W6

(905) 305-8825

Dining Out: Holiday Reunion Japanese BBQ at Shinta

After a year, I finally met up with my favourite ex-colleagues, Linh and Caitlin, for dinner at Shinta:

Marinated steak, marinated kalbi short ribs, clams in sake, and enoki mushrooms
Prime kalbi short ribs, toro beef, Berkshire pork belly, and miso toro beef
Marinated kalbi short ribs and toro beef

Nothing says SUCCESSFUL REUNION DINNER like gossiping non-stop for two straight hours over unlimited prime kalbi short ribs, toro beef, black pepper short rib strips, marinated steak, sukiyaki beef, pork belly, Berkshire sausages, sake clams, garlic shrimp, king oyster mushrooms, zucchini, pineapple, and an embarrassing amount of cheesy butter corn. 

Shinta Japanese BBQ

280 West Beaver Creek Rd.

Richmond Hill, ON L4B 3B1

(905) 597-0305

Dining Out: An Early Birthday All-You-Can-Eat Japanese Feast at Ichiban

My mom and her best friend took me out for an early birthday dinner at the newly opened Ichiban Japanese all-you-can-eat restaurant this evening and we became absolute gluttons:

Beef tataki
Assorted sashimi: Salmon, sweet shrimp, white tuna, and octopus
Assorted aburi sushi: salmon, shrimp, smoked duck, eel oshizushi, and salmon oshizushi
Assorted nigiri: Eel, white tuna, salmon, and salmon roses
Ichiban Golden Roll
Enoki beef rolls
Shrimp tempura
Fried chicken cartilage
Grilled scallop skewers
Grilled galbi
Grilled chicken skewers
Japanese-style garlic beef

There's a lot of the standard fare that you get at Asian AYCE restaurants, but they do offer some items that you'd typically only find at à la carte Japanese restaurants like aburi sushi and oshizushi. They also have self-serve sections for salad, soup, dessert, shaved ice, and ice cream that also set them apart from the typical Japanese AYCE place. (My advice is to limit yourself at the self-serves because they have so many great offerings on their regular menu.) Quality-wise, I would put it above most of the other AYCE restaurants I've been to; no freshly defrosted fish, no hard sushi rice, no maki or nigiri falling apart, no overly dry or chewy meat. Presentation is top-notch, decor is clean and modern, and service was fantastic — our server, Wendy, was attentive, efficient, and helpful. (She was on it with the water refills and clearing the table.) 

The key here, however, is to make sure you get your server's attention when you're ready to put in your order — they do use tablets here, but only a server can actually submit your order (which, admittedly, negates the efficiency of a tablet) — otherwise, you'll be waiting forever for food that you thought was automatically input into their system. 

Ichiban Asian All You Can Eat

4261 Highway 7, Unit C-8

Markham, ON L3R 9W6

(905) 305-8825

Dining Out: An Early Birthday Dinner at Sushi Kiku

My dad asked if I wanted to have an early birthday dinner at Sushi Kiku, so I obviously said yes because I would never turn down the opportunity to eat unlimited amounts of Japanese food for free.

Salmon, white tuna, octopus, and surf clam sashimi
White tuna, shrimp, cuttlefish, and tuna nigiri, and salmon roses
Salmon, white tuna, and BBQ eel nigiri
Salmon and avocado, spicy salmon, and rainbow maki
Teppan garlic sirloin steak, baked scallops, and deep-fried coconut shrimp
Shrimp and vegetable tempura, marinated beef ribs, beef-wrapped enoki rolls, and grilled salmon steak

At one point, there was so much food that we couldn't even see our table. (What's pictured here is literally half of what we ordered.) What's shocking is that the four of us actually managed to finish everything and still have green tea ice cream for dessert. Basically, we were Chihiro's parents in Spirited Away. (Except we haven't turned into pigs. Yet.)

Anyway, a good start to birthday week dinners!

Sushi Kiku

230 Commerce Valley Dr. E., Unit 10

Thornhill, ON L3T 7Y3

(905) 597-8099

Dining Out: Japanese BBQ at Shinta

Had an early dinner with some co-workers at Shinta this evening:

Japanese BBQ
Garlic shrimp, sous vide pork belly, and toro beef
Plates upon plates upon plates of meat
Berkshire pork belly, marinated lamb with cumin, and marinated salmon
We literally ordered everything on the menu which resulted in so much food that our server ended up having to layer our plates on top of each other. Basically, it was GLORIOUS. Man, what a great way to spend hump day. I wonder if we can make this a regular thing...

Shinta

Jubilee Square

280 West Beaver Creek Rd., Unit 37-39

Richmond Hill, ON L4B 3B1

(905) 597-0305