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Date: 1/20/2022
EAST LONGMEADOW – Dark wooden booths, a gleaming bar area and Asian-inspired art on the walls, Ikura Asian House is far from the building’s former life as Patsy’s Ristorante.
Ikura, which means salmon egg in Japanese, offers Japanese fare, including noodles, sushi and sashimi, as well as common Chinese, Korean and Thai dishes, such as General Tso’s chicken, kimchi and pad Thai. In addition to the restaurant’s set menu, there will be rotating weekly specials.
“We received very good reviews on Google, and people said they would come back,” said Manager Hui Chen. Her boyfriend, Wei Ni owns the new eatery.
The restaurant is at the end of a two-week soft opening. Chen said it made sense to ease into the grand opening because, like many other businesses, Ikura has had challenges hiring enough employees to fully staff the restaurant. They are hoping to have a full staff of 10 employees to allow the restaurant to be open seven days a week.
Ikura Asian House has experienced some of the same shipping issues that have plagued businesses around the country for the past several months. For example, the alcohol for the full-service bar has not yet arrived. Another challenge has been the increasing prices for many ingredients. “We’re hoping it stays,” steady, Chen said of ingredient costs.
With most of the issues now resolved, the grand opening is planned for the week of Jan. 24.
Chen and Ni previously ran a restaurant in North Carolina, but when visiting family in the East Longmeadow area last year, they saw that Patsy’s Restaurant had gone out of business and decided to take the opportunity and start a new restaurant here.
The couple went before the Planning Board in late September and has spent the time since then remodeling the restaurant’s interior, including creating a small private dining area for larger parties, and preparing to open. Chen said it was fairly easy to work with the town and get the business up and running.
“We’re new here,” Chen said. “We’re trying our best to bring good quality food in.”
Ikura Asian House is located at 600 North Main St. The restaurant is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 12 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, including the full menu, visit https://www.ikurahouse.com.