Ikkyu

To be honest with you I don’t know what all the hype is about. I was severely disappointed. I had high expectations for this place after reading all the positive reviews. I can honestly say that this place is exactly what you would expect out of a ramen place in Arizona. Not too many people know what good ramen is so they are quick to give positive reviews. Looks like I will have to go to San Diego to find a ramen spot. Also like to mention the customer service when I walked into this place I was never acknowledged and I was confused about the whole ordering process so I had to ask whether I just take a seat or order of front. Just seems like bad business to me

I live near the university and I must say, this place was well worth the drive! I had just the spicy ramen and I loved it! It came with a few slices of pork which were very tender. I don’t typically like pork much but they were cooked well and had good flavor. I do wish there were some veggies that came with the ramen. However the broth was so flavorful and was just a little spicy. I think they only serve ramen on some days but their other food looked and smelled delicious as well. The place didn’t have much seating but at lunch time on a Saturday they were completely packed!

In my opinion this is the best quick Japanese food place in town. The good is always on point and fresh. The service is always top quality and friendly. They have not changed since they opened. Definitely give this place a try. I live by the U of A and still make the drive.

I can’t believe I haven’t reviewed Ikkyu before, as I am a frequent customer, and have been for years. Ikkyu is a small Japanese restaurant on the end of the shopping plaza where Lee Lees Oriental Supermarket is located. They have maybe 10 tables inside, and an outdoor patio that is covered for the short time of the year when eating outside isn’t oppressively hot with another 4 – 5 tables. The menu includes bento boxes, rice bowls, a limited number of sushi rolls and salads. After the gym I love to go here and either get their spicy tuna don (which I order Volcano style-​with eel sauce, tempura flakes, spicy mayo and dried seaweed flakes) or their ramen which is only offered Thursday-​Sunday. So when you walk in looking for Ramen and don’t see it on the menu, that is because it isn’t on the menu. There will be a sign posted for Ramen on the counter with pictures and then you know you are in luck. Boy is this great ramen! I like the Tonkatsu Ramen best; i’ve had all three and all are delicious. A special detail I especially like about Ikkyu (which is silly I know) is they have a self served soda machine with 7-​up, RC cola, ginger ale and lemonade (possibly root beer too). I love love love these choices so much. I usually drink water or green tea when I eat a dinner unless I get a cocktail. This to me is all my favorites from when I was a kid.
Bathroom’s are single stall rooms for men and ladies, which are at the end of a hall way past the order counter. The place is small and a bit cramped for space. So many times when I am sitting customers ordering or inches from me. Also if you need to use the restroom, you often are waiting for another customer to vacate the restroom. That being said, I love the food here. For Japanese food in Tucson this it is my comfort food and reasonably priced. The staff are always very nice and if it’s not too noisy you’ll notice they always seem to be playing pandora radio 80’s hits which brings a smile to my face.

Yum!!! Went in search of ramen after doing a little research and this was one of the places at the top of my list. The tonkatsu spicy pork ramen was just as good as everyone claims. I didn’t find the pork to be salty as many reviewers said, but maybe my taste buds are more sodium friendly. The spice was just right to enjoy the bowl without sweating up a storm while eating. The noodles were perfectly tender and the broth itself was very flavorful. And it doesn’t hurt that the price is great! I will definitely be going back to try the other ramen and their bento boxes.

I heard about the famous ramen here and decided to stop in for lunch yesterday — the place is tightly packed, but worth being crammed in! I ordered the miso ramen with pork — MMM! Both the broth and the noodles had a thick creamy texture. The daikon radish makes it authentic. It cleared out my sinus’s for sure! This is a very popular place on Thursday, Friday, and Saturdays because those are the days they serve the ramen! I want to go back and try donburi (different concoctions over rice) and the volcano sushi. Being so close to my work, I think this will be a new favorite lunch for me and my co-​workers. The service was great too! They do have a nice patio if you don’t want to be squeezed inside!

their ramen is awesome. I am a huge naruto (Japanese animé) fan and seeing ramen that looked like in the animé was just too cool
the place is cozy and not a lot of seating but that doesn’t stop me.

For a place in Arizona, this is not half bad (this is coming from LA, where there’s a hundred competing Ramen places). The broth is pretty good; however, they really short change you on the noodles. They serve other items like different dons and sushi rolls, but I think their Ramen is their top dish. Pretty good, just really short on the noodles!

Hands down best home style Japanese joint in tucson. Fantastic friendly service, these guys know what they’re doing and they do it well.

Had lunch here with my boyfriend after reading reviews and it did not disappoint. I had the spicy tuna don volcano style and it was sooo good! Had to wait a while to get seats and it was a little tight in the restaurant, but it wasn’t terrible and we managed to grab a table before we got our food. Definitely going back and trying the ramen next time.
Updating to 5 stars! Ikkyu hasn’t disappointed and we have a whole crew of people at work who love to eat at Ikkyu.

Definitely a win! Fast and delicious. There is nothing like going to a place to eat and the people smile. You can taste the love for what they do. I will return when I need my Japanese fix! Kind of reminded me of some really good poke I had in Newport Beach. Great job Ikkyu!

This is the best ramen place I could find in town. They really put flavors into their ramen broths along with real home made ramen noodles.
I’ve always been a fan of the animé show Naruto so watching when that character chows down ramen it makes me want to eat ramen too.
The tonkatsu ramen here presented just like how the animé draws it; With the fish cake slice and garnish. I literally finished the whole bowl down to the broth. It’s pretty delicious and spicy too! I may have had to add a little more spice (Siracha and cayenne) just because my spice tolerance is pretty high.
The Ikkyu roll here is another recommendation. It is a large roll sliced into 4 big pieces. With crab, cucumber avocado and octopus. It is definitely a good roll to try and yes it’s a pretty big roll which always over fills me after my ramen.
I have definitely been coming back to this place occasionally. However I will note that they only serve ramen Friday and Saturday and close Sunday’s. I’ve done some embarrassing visits on Sunday forgetting they are close!

Had to try try this place after reading so many great reviews and was not disappointed.
This small family run restaurant is great. Very nice location and building, even has a nice outdoor area. Most meals are served in disposable plates but no one seems to mind since it’s about the food and it’s clean.
Most importantly is the awesome food and the friendly staff. The owner says hello and goodbye to everyone when she is up front. Their famous ramen is delicious. I ordered some to go and it was packed perfectly. I was surprised to see it was a very large portion once I poured it all into a larger bowl.

The tonkatsu ramen is excellent. Garlicky, mildly spicy, umami broth with a generous portion of chewy ramen noodles. The tonkatsu ramen had pieces of pork that were very very salty for my taste, but it was otherwise a pretty flawless bowl of noodles. It seems that everyone loves the tuna don volcano which I kept eyeing as they were being prepared. Will have to try that next time.
The ramen is definitely worth trying, but keep in mind they only serve them on Thursday-​Saturday. The dining area is also very small.

Hands down my favorite Asian restaurant in Tucson. Great for sushi, and famous for ramen (which they usually only serve on weekends). On top of that, the prices and service are both fantastic. Food is always prepared quickly, and the lady that manages the place always seems especially committed to customer satisfaction. Limited seating sometimes reaches capacity — particularly during the weekday lunch rush — but it’s hard to get upset about that… it’s good to see this place doing well!

What first caught my attention about this restaurant was probably the numerous amount of times I would see someone post about the Spicy Tuna Don on their Instagram or Facebook, which lead me to think we have places in Tucson that sell things that look that delicious!?! I knew i had to immediately hop on to this bandwagon and try this out for myself and see what the hype was all about, and let me tell you it was worth every struggle, from realizing it was closed on Sunday and having to go another day, and from trying to make it right before it closes.
I was definitely surprised when I first walked into the restaurant though for some reason I was expecting more of a sit down restaurant style, someone will serve you all the typical formalities of a sit-​down restaurant, at Ikkyu it’s more of a Japanese fast food place where you go to the cashier to order and pick up your own food, You also get your own utensils get your own drinks ect. Overall though the places is relatively small so I don’t recommend going with big groups, I would say going with a partner is ideal try not to go with more than 4 people though it may get crowded. they do offer outdoor seating though!
So I did end up ordering the Spicy Tuna Don Volcano style, and to my surprise it came with miso soup! I was pretty happy about that, I’d definitely recommend this dish if you love spicy tuna rolls, its basically the same concept but into a rice bowl, but you MUST MUST get it volcano style i think that’s what gave the whole dish an extra boost, they do charge you more for volcano style but it is relatively cheap, the restaurant itself is very cheap and affordable which makes it all more worth while, but in the long run i loved every bite of it! It would definitely be my go to place to eat! I sometimes debate if I should try their ramen (which is only sold Thursday-​Saturday) but their spicy tuna don is so good its always a struggle to say no to it):
I definitely dont recommend getting the beef yakisoba thought it was pretty disappointing.

I really like their spicy tuna don, either way, volcano style added a lot of crunchiness. I like to put the wasabi on top of tuna and then some soy sauce goes from the top. Really comforting food.

TUESDAYS is Raman Night which I highly recommend! Although I’ve eaten at many Asian restaurants in the past, I have never ordered Ramen. I appreciated the small, family-​owned atmosphere and the authenticity of the food. In my case, I ordered the Tonkatsu raman which was excellent. The soup medium was well prepared and the Tonkatsu was cooked well and minced into manageable portions. For a simple meal of soup with other items mixed in, I was fairly impressed with the service, promptness of preparing the meal, and quantity of food. The broth was fresh and had a great aroma to it. Also, for people who don’t tend to eat excessively spicy meals, this place would be great. The meal is pretty soft, but has enough flavor without too much spice or salt. Next time, I gotta order the popular Sushi or Teriyaki meat as it is a Japanese restaurant.

Ikkyu isn’t so much a *restaurant* in the traditional sense as it is a friendly, family-​run, self-​serve, take out place in the vernacular sense.
Ikkyu also isn’t so much of a *Japanese* restaurant in the sock-​it-​to-​me sashimi, and exquisite Van-​Gogh-​inspired art carved out of gnarly root vegetables as it is a comfort-​food of Japanese-​Hawaiian descent.
After an arduous all-​day hike we had ordered a ton of food… for two people — Ikkyu roll, Ginger Pork and Teryaki Chicken bowl.
The Ikkyu roll was OK — it was huge: like a 15-​pound baby that took 3 weeks of labor to birth — a lot of rice and good value for the price ($ 6-​ish), fresh with an OK flavor, but falling apart.
Ginger Pork was average — just stir fried pork with ginger over rice with a side of pickled (pink) ginger slices. Teriyaki chicken came with some good zucchini and mushrooms — step up from the pork, but neither of the dishes wasn’t anything we couldn’t duplicate at home. The pictures don’t look very appetizing… but that’s how the food looked when we got them.
Most of the customers are regulars and many get take out. The effusively friendly owners know them all by name. They are also pretty quick at whipping out the dishes.
Everything was pretty much self serve — get your own cutlery and tepid tea from a cooler. Bus your own tables. Food served on styrafoam plates (yikes!). Tepid tea in styrafoam cups. The laminated menu didn’t have all the options — none of the ramen, for example. More options are tacked by the cash register as you go up to order. Everything we ordered was $ 7.00 or less — a great deal, and filling. But unfortunately, not so satisfying for us.

Ok I have been here numerous times and have always had a great experience. I keep putting off writing a review, but I finally have time — so here it is!
The restaurant is small but cozy, and I almost always sit out on the covered patio to enjoy the fresh air.
I usually stick with getting «bowl» of something (yakiniku, ginger pork, teriyaki chicken, etc) which is served over rice and is the perfect size for me for lunch — and a good price (under $ 7!).
If I’m feeling crazy, I’ll get the spicy tuna volcano style, but that’s a treat for me.
The employees are really nice and the food is consistently good.
I will definitely continue to come here and enjoy their great food — maybe one day I will try the ramen!