Ika-no Sumi

Being very close to Niigata JR station,This restaurant seemed very popular. All the dishes ordered were very very tasty and I was happy to have chosen this place but you have to trade off many other bad things.i.e. 1. Smoking is allowed so you cannot avoid probable smoke from other guests. 2. Seats ...before counter are all packed and you need to sit almost shoulder to shoulder. 3. Waitresses are not friendly and one was unwillling to get order of 6 cups of different types of Sake for comparison saying that it woud take time to pour one by one though it was offered in their menu but ended up being brought right away. Maybe not customers first but servers first policy. 4. First appetizer should be ordered though there were several choice. 5. As the table was full of dishes, one waitress bringing dishes for my neighbor guestsiooed over my sake cup and my trousers got wet. 6.Price seemed over priced. I would not come again.

Visited May 2017

Ika No Sumi Eki-Mae came highly recommended to us when we asked at our hotel's reception desk about a fish restaurant. After dining here, I think it would be difficult to find a place in Niigata that tops this restaurant in food quality, ambiance.and service. The only drawback for us, as tourists wi...thout a knowledge of the Japanese language beyond polite basics, was the lack of an English menu and English-speaking staff. But employees worked successfully with us to ensure that we had a wonderful dining experience. This casual restaurant offers various areas to sit, from private dining rooms to a long counter with bench that held a big space beneath the counter for our legs. We had a reservation and the hostess seated us at the far end of the counter in front of a chef with many duties, including sushi preparation and the steaming of special appetizers. As we couldn't read the menu and wanted grilled fish, we tried to convey this to our server. He eventually sought the assistance of a man with some understanding of English, who worked elsewhere in the restaurant. This fellow could only stay with us briefly but informed our server what we wanted. Then our server worked with a translation device to show us what fish was available. I chose rock fish and my husband chose tile fish. The chef then showed us a variety of appetizers ready to be steamed. We selected vegetables and they came nicely prepared and proved to be quite tasty. Our huge mixed salad was radish-based. We later saw other diners eating the same type of salad filled with sashimi. That's when we understood why the server kept saying "salmon" when he understood that we wanted salad. If we had known, we definitely would have ordered what the others chose. When our two whole fish arrived, they proved to be grilled to perfection. We dug in with our chopsticks and the rock fish seemed to almost melt in my mouth. The tile fish was very good but the rock fish truly excelled. Our dinner came to Y2980, which we considered to be extremely good value. When we arrived at 6:30 p.m., only one diner was at the counter. When we left at 8 p.m., a line waited to get into the restaurant.. We departed with the fish offered here written in Japanese and English by our server. This was helpful when ordering elsewhere. Ika No Sumi Eki-Mae is about a 5-minute stroll from the train station. We showed the name to a couple of people. The first directed us with hand signals to the restaurant's location; the second walked us to the entrance.

Visited June 2016

This restaurant serves top quality delicious food in Niigata area. Only 5 -10 mintues walk from JR Niigata station to there, easy and convenient. Restaurant are decorated in modern Japanese style, and have been separated into different partitions. You can enjoy sushi and sashimi master working in f...ront of you; or grill and stick grill bar front; or sitting in a private room with friends. Besides the wonderful everyday "sea-catch", serving wonder sashimi and sushi, restaurant are serving excellent quality of grilled fish, no matter charcoal grilled, which makes Kimetai crispy outside, and juicy inside. Or grilled with sauce, which had a wonderful tasty balance and presentations. Overall, this is a 'never-fail' restaurant unless you did reserve table in advanced, it may have chance to turn you down when you do the walk-in.

Visited January 2016