Best Chinese in Madison, hands down, and one of the few places to get authentic Sichuan.

The food here was excellent, and the service was very fast on a Saturday night. We had the shrimp Lo mein and pork with thin pancakes, both of which were very good read more

one of the best Chinese food in Madison area! The spicy dishes are great and truly spicy! read more

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Love ichiban. Food is always consistent and efficient service. A bit pricey but taste and quality is good.

One of my favorites. This place is the best Chinese/Thai in Madison! Every time my family goes here it's great. Nice staff, and easy to do take out too. We are a bunch of foodies, but still list this as one of our favorites over many of the upscale/nice restaruants in town. Whenever we order/try something new, it ends up being GREAT! My favorite is the Chicken Pad Thai, but the whole menu seems to be all deliciousness! read more

I have visited Ichiban at least 10 times. This place serves legit Chinese food, Szechuan/Sichuan specialty. In terms of food, it is definitely among, if not the best in Madison. If you want to try some authentic stuff, you are at the right place. This is reflected in the fact that Ichiban is probably the most popular dinner gathering place for the Chinese-speaking students on UW campus. Then, why not five stars? 1) The price is less affordable than places such as oriental house (just next door!) or Double 10 (newest authentic restaurant on the block at time of this review), and i think you get less out your bucks at Ichiban 2) Food could be a little too oily and spicy for people not accustomed to Sichuan cooking. 3) I do not usually care much about service than the food itself, but yes, their service is pretty bad, as other Yelper mentioned. read more

Ive gotten take out from here quite a few times. This is the most authentic Chinese food I've had in Madison so far. They offer Americanized food too like sesame chicken, but I'm a fan of the spicy crispy chicken and the pig stomach in chili sauce. Do you like bacon? Try twice cooked pork read more

The food here is excellent. There's just the right balance of salt and spices with the natural flavors and textures of the dish and sauces. The sauces and seasonings stick with the food too rather than falling off, something you can't find everywhere. The service is also good. We were served promptly and courteously and everything went off without a hitch. Would recommend! read more

By far the best Chinese place in Madison. (Don't let the name fool you). Trust me, the best way to experience Ichiban is to go with a big group and order several dishes and eat family-style. This is usually NOT my preferred way to go, because I don't eat red meat or pork and don't want to limit others' choices. But my Chinese-American friend who I've gone with twice suggested this for the real experience, and it didn't disappoint. The great thing is that there are so many fantastic veggie options, there was more than enough for this to work out both times we've done this with large groups. Best dishes I've had: Pan Seared Pea Sprouts Kung Pao Chicken Singapore Mei Fun Fish in Hot Chili Sauce Sauteed Udon (with tofu) -- the udon noodles are made in-house, mmm Spicy String bean (my fave, so crazy good) Ma Po Tofu (there is one with and without pork) Sichuan Eggplant The service is super fast and last time I went with a gluten free friend, and the waitress was very knowledgeable and careful to tell her what did and did not have gluten. Like I said I think the way to go is eat-in, family style, although my good friends order take out from here all the time. Since there is very little in the way of good Chinese take out in Madison, it's a great option. read more

Very good, authentic Chinese food! The portions are large and easy to share with the whole family. My family doesn't like very spicy food, but if you ask, you can ask how spicy it is or to make it mild. Our family had the beef hibachi, fried rice, and steamed/stir fry vegetables. It was all very good! There are a lot of dishes to choose from. The service isn't the best-- not what you would suspect from a typical restaurant. Though, we got in, ordered food, and got it right away, so it's not much of a problem. Parking is an issue; we weren't sure where to park and parking in front of the restaurant is prohibited from 4-6 M-F. I would visit again! read more

3 star is being nice. I was here last month with colleagues from the office. We ordered quite a variety to share. The Mao pao tofu was delicious that day! Couldn't wait to come back to have it again. Back today with the family for lunch...boy were we disappointed. Ou Mao pao tofu had so much food enhancer my hubby and I could feel our lips tingling. Not a good feeling. Out beef lomein was greasy(especially since I asked for less oil). The Chinese vegetable dish with fresh garlic was blah...lack favor & salt. Where can we go for good healthy flavorful Chinese food???? read more

Food was very greasy and not appetizing. Ate four bites and threw all of it away. Will not order from this place again.

Read the reviews and decided to give it a try. Had the spicy, crispy chicken. It was good. I just have a couple of caveats. First, there was no sauce. The picture I saw suggested a sauce accompanying the dish. I still liked it , I just added sriacha. Secondly there are no veggies in the dish, just a mass amount of chili peppers. I don't mind spice, in fact I love it and I consumed all my chicken, I just didn't see the purpose of one pound of chili peppers. Picture to follow. I will go again because I liked my food and the service was decent. Looking forward to trying one of their hot pots. read more

Ichiban Sichuan - I ate the chicken, these were the chili peppers left behind. Maybe a little excessive? - Chinese Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

Ichiban is one of the few places on state street (in Madison even) that has authentic Chinese food. It always seems to be pretty empty when I've been there but it's my go to lunch spot. They offer a decent lunch deal as well. Reminder to vegetarians that just because it says it's tofu doesn't mean it's vegetarian. Lots of Chinese veggie and tofu dishes have meat in them (ex. mapo tofu). read more

GREAT Chinese food ，spicy，i like spicy food , spicy crisp chicken ,spicy string bean,\eggplant with spicy gralic sauce,thin wrap pork in sauce , sichuan style cucumber,its awesome， read more

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Pretty standard Chinese delivery. It was a little greasier than I usually like but it was still good. It's a decent amount of food as well. Delivered in about an hour which was fine and got everything right in the order read more

This place has got to be one of the best restaurants on Park Street. Love this authentic Chinese cuisine. The spicy crispy chicken is my favorite dish there with the spicy cucumber salad. Definitely would recommend. read more

On our road trip back home from Chicago to Minneapolis, we decided to stop in Madison for lunch. After indulging in all kinds of bar food while on vacation, I was craving a different cuisine; so Chinese was the final decision. The service we received was great, we were seated right away and our food came quickly after we'd ordered it. The waitress was helpful in aiding us with our decisions on what to get. My boyfriend and I started with some Hot & Sour soup then shared the Kung Pao Chicken and the Red Curry Chicken. Both dishes came with side bowls of rice (more than enough definitely). The portions are large, so if you don't have a huge appetite I'd recommend sharing one dish between two people. I'm giving this three stars because the Sichuan pepper spice was good and left my mouth feeling slightly numb, but the food was overall A-OK. Some of the pieces of chicken in the Kung Pao dish were a little chewy and fatty which grossed me out a bit. The Red Curry Chicken was better and I enjoyed the snap peas, zucchini, and mushrooms which were part of the dish. The hot & sour soup was a little thicker than I enjoy but it warmed me up and was still okay! This restaurant is a little unique because the SIchuan spice is so different and not many places specialize in dishes that use it. But honestly, I would have enjoyed some unhealthy, greasy "mall" chinese food more. read more

glad to see Park st on the up and up! This place is good, but a little overpriced IMO. read more

OK. 4 stars for the food 2 stars for the experience. The place is crazy, when we got there it was fairly quiet except for this waiter who ran around like a bull in a china shop. The staff were all yelling at each other and there was loud karaoke or something coming from the back room. A waitress approached us who was so soft spoken, I could not hear a word she said. It was bazaar. That said the Ma Po tofu was outstanding (albeit off of the veggie menu and loaded with pork) read more

Oh my goodness this place is wonderful. Never once have I had a bad experience in the last five visits. My only recommendation to people is to understand that this is authentic. If you ask them for something like egg foo young, they might look at you kind of funny. The menu items are priced reasonable enough to try several things and share. read more

Did this place undergo new management? I haven't been here in at least 6 months and noticed immediately upon walking in that they've done a remodel. The walls are now red and they've got booths along one side. They kept the same old tattered menus, however, that looked like they can fall apart any minute. I was craving their Dan Dan noodles and it's definitely different now. Instead of spicy Sichuan goodness, this version is closer to Thai peanut noodles. Not entirely unappetizing but not what I was expecting at all. I felt robbed! The lunch special green curry with beef was a large portion. There was a generous amount of beef in there, along with black shiitake mushrooms, red bell peppers, snow peas and onions. My son seemed happy enough with it but I tasted it and it was also different from what I recalled in the past. The chicken lo mein was average, not any better than a Chinese take out place. Same with the pork potstickers. The last dish that we got, scallion pancakes, was probably the best dish of our meal. It came in 8 large wedge shaped pieces and while greasy, had good flavor. I did find it weird that the waitress didn't bring out a sauce for it and she seemed confused when I asked for one. We ended up using the dipping sauce from the potstickers and that worked fine. Bottom line, given all these changes, this place no longer distinguishes itself as one of the better authentic Chinese restaurants in Madison. It's now just like any of the dozen quick take out places in town but with higher prices. Edit: found out why the green curry "lunch" portion was generous. Even though we pointed out the item clearly to the waitress on the lunch menu, she ordered it as a dinner item. So of course we got charged $12 instead of $7.50 and when I pointed this out to her, she just shrugged and did not offer to make any adjustments on the price or at the very least apologize. Another reason to not come back. read more

We stooped for our first time for an early dinner. The menu was huge and filled with a variety of items that caught our attention for the good and for the bad (ie everything with intestine). We were less than daring and ordered three items. We tried to order pan fried dumplings but the waiter redirected us to the pot stickers. Good advice. They were perfect. We then asked for entree recommendations. The first was a beautiful looking and quite tasty beef ginger and scallion plate. The second dish of chicken and basil was quite tasty but the chicken pieces were splintered with bones and difficult if not dangerous to eat! Overall the taste and quality of it all was very good and we will go back. We will not order anything from the chicken portion of the menu. read more

I had read reviews about Ichiban and Fugu having both authentic Chinese cuisines in Madison. I recently went to Fugu so I had to go to Ichiban. The staff allowed us to peruse the menu for a while before taking our order. It's huge and many things sound yummy. We spent some time trying to get a look of other's meals without being too obvious and rude. I decided to order 3 ingredient potstickers for all of us. I love hot and sour soup so I ordered their sour and spicy seafood soup for myself, or so I thought. They brought out a huge bowl of soup and three cups for everyone. Thankfully, the others were willing to eat it. I even ended up taking soup home. The soup had a wonderful flavor and perfect heat. The seafood was fake crab, canned shrimp and possibly octopus. I didn't eat the krab or shrimp but the octopus was good. The potstickers were great with a tasty soy sauce. For entrees, one person got the mei fun which she loved and are it all up. I got the shrimp in black bean sauce. I wanted to go outside my comfort zone but I couldn't decide what I wanted so I went with a safe bet. The other person ordered poached chicken hot chili sauce. The waitress accidentally wrote sliced fish. It was still amazing. He'll try the chicken next time but it was still amazing. Overall, the food was great and fast. I hate to say but I like Fugu a tiny bit more. Thus, the 4 star. read more

We like ordering takeout from Ichiban. I love the ma po, spicy string bean, eggplant with chili garlic sauce, and the scallion pancakes.

If you want authentic Chinese food, this is the place to go. Many of the staff do not speak English. So when I explained to our waitress, I had never been there and asked for recommendations, she pointed to the back of the menu and said, this is American! My "American" Chinese food was indeed that. Nothing spectacular and somewhat bland - well, I did request it not be spicy. Service was short and somewhat slow. However looking at menu, they boast a wide array of dishes such as rabbit, frog, chicken feet, duck and other not typical "american" food. The table next to us was enjoying an intestine and fish soup. read more

I am really sad to give the restaurant a 2 star review, because some of the staff (probably owners) are actually pretty friendly. However, today's Saturday afternoon visit was a really bad visit. What makes me uncomfortable and offended my husband was the lady who served us. When I asked for no ice for my water, the young lady server didn't reply. She came back with water without ice silently. We needed to go to the counter to ask for order service, just to see 2 young ladies busy chatting (should we order at the cashier?) We asked for some extra utensils just to be treated with (passive aggressive) silence again, plus we had to go over to the counter for any extra water or ready to pay. The food was greasy as usual, but that seems to be the nature of Chinese food. We couldn't finish the dish because it was all in oil, and we didn't feel healthy after eating... I wanted to support this restaurant very much but after this time, I probably won't come back after a very long while. No one wants to be treated badly for a lovely Saturday afternoon. read more

I am so like it spicy food ,spicy crispy chicken.too many special food,if you like spicy food ,you will be come here try it .eggplant with chili garlic sauce .string bean , read more

The best authentic Chinese food in Wisconsin. Sichuan food is spicy and oily so be prepare for a large blast of flavor. I love ordering the poach fish, spicy crispy chicken and the saute pork intestine. read more

Always delicious! A regular spot for my family and we've passed it on to in laws as well. A less Americanized Chinese food that we can actually enjoy. Possibly the best seafood in Madison. Really nice atmosphere and great servers who are attentive. read more

I can't believe this place doesn't have 5 stars. I agree dreams about the spicy string beans and crispy chicken, but everything I've ever had is amazing! read more

I lived in China for 3 years, and this is one of the few places in Madison I have to go and satisfy my hunger for authentic Chinese food. Their MaPo Doufu is the best I have ever had that wasn't homemade. To find anything better, you would probably need to drive down to Chicago. If you ever lived in Sichuan, it is nowhere near as spicy or as good, but it is the best you will find around here unless you cook it yourself. read more

I'm giving their food 5 stars and their service 1 star. They only know a little bit of English and they did not seem happy about answering questions on the menu. They also did not check on us, I had to look for them twice to ask for napkins and a fork. No friendly smiles. My husband and I ordered 3 dishes: cumin lamb, three chili chicken and generals chicken. I'm from San Francisco and Ive tried some real authentic chineese food over there and this food is just like that, the real thing! Glad I found this place but I hope they can improve on their service. read more

One of my favorite restaurants in Madison. The Sichuan dishes on their menu are full-on spicy, so you have been warned. One of my favorite dishes is their chili garlic eggplant. It's medium spicy and has a delicious garlicky flavor. I've ordered online twice and picked up my food and eaten at the restaurant once. The food comes out super quick (about 5 minutes) but doesn't taste like they took any short cuts. They have a huge menu, so it might be hard to make a choice, but any choice you make is bound to be delicious. read more

I've ordered from here probably six times. The first two times were A+++ experiences and I thought the food was excellent. In addition, they actually followed my instructions for spicy food, which I viewed as a huge plus. Since then, the quality of the food has really dipped. I cannot get them to give me spicy/hot food anymore. I don't know what happened there, but I assure you that I know what I'm asking for when I ask for spicy/hot food. I really, really loathe going to (or ordering from) a restaurant, asking for spicy food, and getting totally bland (or even worse, sweet) food. Just because this is the midwest and just because I have a totally whitebread name doesn't mean I can't take the heat. In addition, the quality of the food itself has dropped. I rarely order noodle dishes because usually they are disappointing, but I decided to try them here. The noodles were overcooked and falling apart even though they were supposedly "pan fried". This may indeed be the best Chinese in Madison, but that just means that there's no good Chinese food in Madison. From now on, I'll go to the Laotian or Vietnamese places on Willy Street. read more

I have lived in Madison a short time. I constantly here there are not good Chinese restaurants. BULL!!! This place was a gem! Most reviews rave about the food, but comment on service. The manager kept coming by to offer any help in eating or ordering. What a huge menu! They certainly tried to be responsive. We tried the dumplings and spring rolls as appetizers, and both were different and fantastic. They were well-prepared with a great blend of spices. We got the dandan noodles, garlic pork, and cashew chicken for entrees. All were delicious, fresh, and flavorful. The garlic pork was the biggest hit! We took a lot home, but the price was great for the quality and quantity. My only regret is this glowing review, because I do not want them to get too busy, haha. Seriously, it was very memorable! read more

I'm baffled by the good reviews on here. First, this is not a Japanese restaurant if the name suggested otherwise. It really shouldn't even be considered a Chinese restaurant as the food does injustice to what is actually good Sze Chuan / Chinese food. Second, I'm not the best cook in the world, but I feel like I can stir fry green beans and sizzling beef (or "hibachi beef" as they call it) much better than this place. The food was way too salty and tasted worse than the Chang Jiang Americanized stuff, especially given the not-so-cheap prices ($15 for the hibachi blob, $10 for the green beans). Third, tea is charged per cup ($1.75) with free refills. Since it was per cup anyways, I asked to have a different tea from my co-diner, but the server was basically too lazy to brew two different kettles, so she told us that they only had one type of tea. Sure. They really should just charge per kettle, like almost every other Chinese restaurant in the country. I really wanted to support Asian restaurants in Madison out of the hope that more will spring up, but this is just plain bad. If you want to try what is actually good Sze Chuan food, please do yourself a favor and drive to Chinatown in Chicago and go to Lao Sze Chuan. Then come back and revise your review for this place. read more

I ordered the Spicy Crispy Shrimp and the Kung Pao Chicken. The crispy shrimp was not to my liking. The sauce was extremely oily and greasy and I tasted cinnamon which I did not care for at all. The kung pao was only ok and also very oily. There was something off about the taste. What a waste of $30. Not only was the food terrible but my delivery driver had some nerve to text me a picture of the receipt after claiming I didn't tip him well enough. The funny part was that it was an honest mistake. I realized later that some of the money blew off the table to the ground when I opened the door but I didn't realize it until after I got the very RUDE text from the driver. I work in the service industry and it certainly sucks to not get tipped properly but I would NEVER be so rude as to send a text to the customer. Ichiban has permanently lost a customer and i'm disgusted. read more

Five stars for food, but no star for their service. It's all about attitude, especially in the restaurant industry.

What a disappointment. Got fooled by Japanese name. As soon as you walk in the door, a sign of today's special all written in Chinese. Should have checked Yelp first. Or walked out. Service very slow even though we came late for lunch. Ordered green tea. No taste and not hot. Chopsticks, another sign, not Japanese. Music is also Chinese. Well we ordered any way, too late if day to go somewhere else. I just still can't understand why you have to trick people like this with the name. Looks like they are going to try to do sushi, they have a sushi cooler but right now has fruit or something in it. Not fish. Food came same time as soup. Mom ordered garlic beef not spicy. Came without garlic. I order Shicuan beef, it was ok, not the best. It took a while before server came to ask how we were doing. When we explained about the garlic, server took the plate, came back with a woman who just couldn't understand what was wrong. My food got cold explaining. Then finally offered to make new. Rice is also Chinese. Lots of it and dry. The server is very nice and well mannered guy. But I dont think we will be back. I'd to explain my " pickiness" when it comes to Japanese food. My mother is Japanese, I'm half, born there. My husband is Japanese. If are going to be serving Chinese or something other then what you lead the customers to believe, you are totally Fake! We cook Japanese food at home but it is nice to get out of cooking and have someone else cook it and serve with a smile. If I want Chinese, I go to Chinese. If I want American , I go to eat American food. If I want African, same. I just don't get it. You might be able to fool some people , but eventually , the causes you are making will catch with you. I didn't even want to give this place an one star. Just as bad as the Edo down the street. Why people? Do you keep on getting fooled , if you pay cheap, you get what you pay for. read more