Ikko: Dover, NH
Dover, NH is a small town about 20 minutes from Portsmouth, NH. If you are visiting Portsmouth, it's worth it to venture into Dover for the night to grab dinner and drinks. Some of my favorite establishments in Dover include Saigon Tokyo, Blue Latitudes, and The Orchard Street Chop Shop.I had been hearing about Ikko Japanese Steakhouse for a while now. It is a Hibachi restaurant in a strip mall in Dover. So many people had told me how amazing the restaurant was. They are famous for their Sushi Sundays where you only pay $2.75 for assorted regular rolls, as well as other sushi specials.
Derek doesn't eat anything other than edamame at Japanese restaurants, therefore, we never go out for Japanese food. So, when I was invited to my friend Lindsey's birthday party at Ikko, I was pretty excited to try the place out.
We arrived at Ikko for out 8pm reservation. Walking in to the restaurant, you almost feel like you are in a casino. The decor is very dramatic, bright lights, very modernized lines. I walked up to the hostess (who was running around yelling for parties like a chicken with her head cut off) and told her that we were here for our reservation. I was told that the entire party had to be there before we got seated. This annoyed me a little. I understood slightly because we did reserve a hibachi table, and hibachi is a show, but I would have liked to enjoy a drink while I was waiting and the bar was full. In general, I'm not a huge fan of restaurants that force you to wait until all your party is there to be seated. We were finally seated at 8:20pm.
We sat down and ordered drinks. I ordered the blue margarita. It was $7.50 (pricey for a lot of Japanese restaurants in the area). It took about 15 to 20 minutes for our drinks to get to the table, and our party was getting restless.
The drink was decent. It didn't have a lot of tequila in it, and tasted really juicy but wasn't too sweet. I just ordered the one.
Shortly after, the hibachi cart rolled out. I was a little worried all the hibachi people would be eating and finished before we got our sushi, but they ended up timing it perfectly so that our sushi came out on time with their meal being done. The show was pretty great. They guy we had was energetic and funny, not the same guy that was our waiter. He was pretty pushy about squirting sake in our mouths, but a few of us said no as we had to drive home later that night. He did the whole hibachi routine, built an onion volcano, threw food in our mouths, and cracked jokes. It was very entertaining.Those that got hibachi seemed to enjoy their meals. There was one complaint from my mother in law, who ordered her steak rare and got it well done.
When my sushi arrived, my order was wrong. I got the tuna avocado roll, but the other roll on my plate was supposed to be a special roll, and it was obviously not. I sent it back, but told the waiter to please bring back the roll that was correct. He did, and shortly after I got my other roll, before everyone's meals were finished cooking.
The tuna roll was good. For $5.50, it was your traditional tuna avocado roll. The rice was cooked perfectly, exactly the way I like it. It was warm and not too sticky at all. Perfection.
The Sapporo Roll was delicious. It was well worth the $12.00. It was made up of Spicy tuna, spicy salmon, and spicy yellow tail. It was then wrapped with white seaweed paper and had spicy sauce drizzled on the top. I had never had white seaweed paper before. I really enjoyed it. It was a little thinner than the seaweed my maki is usually rolled in. I liked the mix of all the different kinds of fish. Also, with special rolls, the pieces are usually cut way too big. This roll was cut in just the right sized pieces.
I couldn't get a picture of my sushi rolls because the restaurant was too dark at that time.
My entire bill came to $27.25. Pretty good price for a night out of good sushi.
My friend Lindsey got a free fried ice cream and a $10 gift certificate to use at her next visit for her birthday. I thought that was a pretty good deal!
So, my final thoughts? The sushi was very good, one of the top 10 sushi places that I have been too. I liked the warm rice, the freshness of the fish, etc.
However, I wasn't impressed with the service. The combination of not being seated until our whole party was there, waiting for eternity for our drinks, and getting the wrong order put a bad taste in my mouth that thankfully was made up for by the sushi. Would I go again? I would probably give it another shot and see if I just hit it on a bad night. It would also be a good place to pick up sushi takeout. When I go out to eat, I pay for not only the food, but the experience, and unfortunately, the experience was a little lacking for me.
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