Monday, February 3, 2020

Ichigo Curry & Ramen in Grand Parkway Marketplace

We had a family dinner here the other night.  For drinks we had Thai tea, Teahouse tea, a Pineapple cream smoothie and a banana cream smoothie.  The Thai tea was OK, rather sweet and not much tea flavor.  The Teahouse tea had more tea flavor but also had boba, which I was not expecting and don't like much.  The smoothies were quite good--The fruit taste really came through and was high quality, very enjoyable.

We had a couple of appetizers, the egg rolls and the cheese wontons.  These were both very good--fried fresh and quite hot, crunchy with good flavor.  Glad we got them.

For mains we had chicken curry, tonkatsu beef curry, wings, and ramen.  The chicken curry was OK but underwhelming.  The chicken was cooked well and the curry had a little kick, but not a lot of flavor--you could tell it was curry but seemed lacking.  The tonkatsu beef curry was excellent--a kind of chicken fried steak (you can also get chicken or pork) pounded thin and deep fried, then sliced on top of rice with sauce.  A tonkatsu sauce is served on the side, and it really made the dish.  It had very deep umami flavor which really complemented the beef.  Be warned, it has a pretty high spice level but it is worth bearing some pain if you are sensitive.  The beef itself was reasonably tender and the breading was crunchy, very good.

The wings were a disappointment.  We got the General Tso's wings, and the sauce was fine, it was recognizable.  But the wings were small, somewhat overdone, and not cut well--lots of broken, sharp bones.  The only accompaniment was plain white rice.

The ramen was interesting and tasty, we got the black garlic ramen with mushrooms and sweet onions.

The service was, well, interesting.  The counter help was very good, the server asked good questions and helped us put together a satisfying meal.  The food was delivered when ready--we all got ours at different times.  That's unusual but I've had it before, it just means you don't make people wait to eat.

The ambiance was very interesting--they put up a good fight against the usual sterility of Grand Parkway Marketplace.  There's a large urban Japan mural wall, and on the opposite wall there are little potted plants.  All the tables were clean and ready to go, as was the bathroom.  The musical ambiance is worth comment--they were playing kind of generic covers of current pop hits, like Muzak.  Maybe it was.


My Yelp Review

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