Ichiban 四川

Great food, service, and atmosphere.

Great customer service, very clean dining. Freshly made to order meals plenty to share. Prices are remarkable for the amount of food you get. A must visit for awesome food.

Parking: Sometimes you need to park on the side streets due to traffic restrictions.

Enjoyed lunch with my wife and infant on a Thursday. The restaurant only had a few occupied tables so we had fast service. The staff was welcoming and friendly and helped with suggestions since there are so many options. The menu has a large section for more authentic Chinese food, as well as, a section for more Americanized dishes. We had a nice and relaxed dine-in experience. We’d happily come back in to enjoy more quality Chinese dishes compared to lower quality takeout Chinese restaurants. Parking: You can sometimes find parking on Park street, but may need to park around the block in a neighborhood, but it’s a short walk.

Ordered Orange Chicken, Sesame Chicken, and Shanghai Spring Rolls from the American-Chinese menu. It was terrible. The orange chicken tasted like someone melted orange soda or orange candy on breaded chicken. There was no other flavor beyond a super sugary orange candy type flavor to the sauce. Trader joes frozen bag of orange chicken is way better. The sesame chicken was just sweet and sour chicken with 5 sesame seeds on top. I kid you not. There was a total of 5 sesame seeds on top of an order of sweet and sour chicken. Sesame Chicken usually is a garlic type of sauce, brown, and not bright yellowish orange. I dont know why they only put 5 sesame seeds on top of it. The rice was dry and a chore to eat. Most of the meal went to waste because the flavor was terrible. Oh, and about half the pieces of chicken were so dry. It was like freezer burned or something. Some of the chicken reminded me of bad, dried out jerky. The Shanginese spring rolls are just tiny egg rolls. They are filled with a little tiny bit of a typical vegetable mix and some type of filler that is a tasteless breading. This type of little egg roll with the breading filler is common in lower quality Chinese restaurants. Good restaurants just use vegetable mix. But, in the US, at least, spring rolls are often something very different from mini egg rolls. I was expecting mini egg rolls. But I had hoped they would be better than the cheap little toaster egg rolls that I can buy from the freezer section at any grocery store. I don't know where to go for a good American-Chinese experience in Madison. But, now I do know where not to go.

I tried the Hot & Crispy Chicken. Those crispy bits are fantastic. I thought eating the crispy lil bits from Popeyes chicken was something, be sure to try this! Lots and Lots of hot red peppers in the mix but its only a little spicy if your not chewing on the peppers. ️