Sushi House

Shrimp Tempura Roll

We went to dinner at the Sushi House in La Grange.  They have 6 locations all in the suburbs. We ordered a few traditional sushi rolls and few specialty rolls.

Alaskan & Unagi rolls

The 3 more traditional rolls were the unagi roll with bbq eel and cucumber, the Alaskan with salmon, avocado and cucumber and a shrimp tempura roll. These were pretty typical sushi rolls; they aren't as flashy or intricate as the more specialty rolls but they are also more affordable.

Sweet heart - spicy tuna, crunch crumbs avocado, tuna over top and served with a spicy honey sauce. This is definitely something we haven't seen before.  They took tuna and used it as the exterior of the sushi and shaped it into a heart and put all of the rice and other items inside of it.  It was fun to look at and actually a bit spicy to eat with both the spicy tuna and the spicy honey sauce.

Sweetheart

Dragon Roll

Dragon roll - bbq eel, cucumber and fish eggs with avocado outside. This is a bit more elaborate of a sushi roll (but not as unique as the sweetheart).  Natalie loves bbq eel and avocado so we tend to order things like this at most sushi restaurants we go to.

Crazy roll - Tuna, salmon, whitefish, avocado, deep fried.  The fried exterior of the roll is like the tempura batter on shrimp or veggies. These were large pieces of sushi that barely could fit in our mouths.

Final thoughts on Sushi House:
Food - excellent sushi.  The sweet heart roll was fun and creative.
Service - we ordered a few sushi to start and then wanted a couple more.  It took a long time for someone to come back to take that order we were almost ready just to get the check.
Atmosphere - typical Japanese style restaurant.  At some point we would like to sit in the pit style seating in the front (where you basically sit on the ground).

Crazy Roll

Anna's Asian Bistro

We went to dinner at Anna's Asian Bistro in the West Loop of Chicago.  We found out about it from Chicago's Best.  Otherwise we probably would have walked right by it because it doesn't stand out too much from the street; and it is on Lake street so the facade kind of gets covered up by the El trains.

Stuffed Fried Avocado

When the title says Asian they are correct - the menu is huge and covers pretty much all Asian fare: including Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, and even Filipino.

We went there specifically to try the Stuffed Fried Avocado - avocado stuffed with spicy tuna and tempura fried.  This was the item featured on Chicago's Best.  It was really good and we could have easily had more of it. It was warm and spicy and crunch all at the same time. Kind of like having sushi, except with avocado instead (which we love).

Lumpia

Since we saw some Filipino items on the menu we couldn't resist because we don't find them that often.  We had lumpia which are small egg rolls/spring rolls with chicken and vegetables. They were nice and crunchy but pretty standard Filipino fare.

For an entree we had Panang Curry - chicken with green peppers and basil in a peanut coconut curry sauce. The sauce was great.  The only disappointment is that there wasn't quite enough rice for all the sauce - but that seems to be the case with all curry dishes at any restaurant - there is only a small scoop of rice included with the entree.

Pancit Noodles

Unagi roll

Filipino Pancit noodles - we had to try another Filipino dish.  Pancit is thin noodles and in this case it was served with eggs, vegetables and shrimp.  Nick thought it wasn't quite up to the ultimate Filipino standard (something about how the noodles stuck together), but Natalie enjoyed it.

Panang Curry

We also had a black maki roll with unagi.  Don't know what the "black" in the title meant but Natalie loves unagi (eel).  Nick thought it was pretty standard/nothing special.  We've had better sushi elsewhere.

Final thoughts on Anna's Asian Bistro:
Food - the avocado and tuna was amazing.  The entrees were good. The other appetizers were just okay.  What was interesting was having the variety of Asian options in one restaurant. But since they were trying to do every type of cuisine they weren't outstanding in one category.
Service - pretty good but there weren't that many people on a Tuesday night when we went
Atmosphere - it is easy to miss it from the outside, kind of non-descript, but looks nice inside

Ra

We had eaten at Ra a while ago (before we started the blog) and have wanted to return for some time now. When we moved back to the area a few years ago we made a list of all of the restaurants we wanted to eat at.  It was quite a long and extensive list, but we are happy to say that we have almost finished the list.  So we will go to the few remaining on the list, but now also sprinkle in some places we have tried in the past and have really enjoyed.

Ra has happy hours deals between 3-7pm every weekday where many sushi rolls and appetizers are 1/2 off.  Bascially everything we ordered was off of this happy hour menu.

Pineapple and cream cheese wontons

Viva Las Vegas Rolls

Viva Las Vegas Roll - we ordered 2 of these because we remember we enjoyed it so much last time and wanted one for each of us.  It was still great. Crab and cream cheese on top with a tempura fried roll.  We're not quite sure why they named it for Las Vegas though.

"Ra"ckin Shrimp

(Official description from menu - Kani kama crab & cream cheese rolled in rice & seaweed, lightly tempura battered & topped with spicy tuna, kani kama crab mix & sliced lotus root; finished with a sweet eel sauce & spinach tempura bits)

Spicy Shrimp roll - a good standard roll, nothing to fancy

Shishito Peppers

"Ra"ckin Shrimp - we were disappointed in this dish because it really was just fried shrimp over a bed of lettuce.  The best part of the dish was the dipping sauce (creamy ginger teriyaki).  We wouldn't lean in this direction in the future.

Shishito peppers - smoky but not hot peppers that were enjoyable. They were sauteed in an Asian seasoning with a hot sauce decoration around the bowl (too hot for Natalie).

Spicy Shrimp Roll

Pineapple and cream cheese wontons - these kind of reminded us of crab rangoon.  We really couldn't taste the pineapple too much inside the wonton but there was a pineapple dipping sauce that came with it that was enjoyable.

Final thoughts on Ra:
Food - We liked the sushi and the peppers; probably wouldn't order the shrimp or wontons again.  The prices at happy hour are great.
Service - pretty good; water didn't get refilled immediately thought
Atmosphere - Americanized Asian look

Union Sushi & BBQ

We saw Union Sushi and BBQ featured on Check Please a couple of months ago. Despite having gone to a similar restaurant back in December, we thought we would give this place a try because it looked really fun from the tv feature.

Buffalo Duck Wing

We ordered a bunch of small items so we could try a lot more. We had a combination of appetizers, sushi rolls and robata grill items.

Buffalo duck wing - sweet chili and hot sauce butter, napa cabbage slaw, yuzu blue cheese dressing. Fortunately a duck wing is much larger than a chicken wing so a single wing does give way to several bites to enjoy. (In fact a week after we ate at Union Sushi, they were going to have duck wing eating contest.) The meat fell off the bone and had a crispy exterior but warm and tender on the inside.  The flavors of the hot sauce, slaw and blue cheese were a more sophisticated play on the buffalo wing.

Truffled Tuna

Truffled Tuna - truffle oil, Parmesan  avocado, chili fresco, wonton chips. Basically this was a tuna tartare dish.  Although tasty, we've enjoyed similar combinations better at other establishments.

Squash and Scallop

Cauliflower

Robata Grill, bbq items - bacon wrapped scallop - wasabi avocado puree, sweet plum sauce and ginger, squash - sweet miso, sesame and chive, cauliflower - cheddar spice.  This was our second foray into Robata grill cooking and once again we loved it. The 3 items we tried here were all fantastic.  There was just enough for us to get a little taste of each.  The were all unique flavor combinations.  Natalie's favorite was the sweet miso on the squash and Nick's favorite was the cauliflower. (Interestingly, we enjoyed the veggies the most at the other Robata grill restaurant as well.) The Robata grill lends itself to sweet and smoky flavors from all of the dishes.

We tried 4 different sushi rolls.  For all of them, we only ordered half rolls each (4 pieces) so we could try more combinations.  They had a few traditional sushi rolls but also had lots of unique variations.
Dragon roll with black rice - shrimp, eel, avocado, masago, green onion, eel sauce. Black rice has a firm texture and boasts less carbs and calories than white rice.  The black rice made the presentation much more dramatic.  It was a firmer, dryer rice than white rice, while still holding the vinegary taste of sushi rice.

Dragon Roll with black rice

Shrimp tempura roll - avocado, eel sauce, caramelized onion, masago mayo. We thought the tempura aspect of this roll would just be the shrimp, but the entire roll was fried tempura style, which gave the roll and extra layer of crunchiness.

Shrimp Tempura Roll

Bay Street california roll (with crabcake instead of crab alone), crabcake, cucumber, masago, spicy mayo. This was a twist on the traditional California roll with small bits of crab cake instead of crab (or krab) meat.

Soft shell crab roll - what made this sushi roll different was that it was wrapped in cucumber instead of rice. Therefore it was crunchier and the cucumber also gave it a "springy" type of feel.

We had some unique combinations.  There were small enough portions of everything that we didn't feel overstuffed and really got to try a lot, but the items are kind of pricey considering the size of the portions.

California roll (L) and Soft Shell Crab Roll (R)

Final thoughts on Union Sushi and BBQ:
Food - we loved the duck wing and Robata items. The sushi was unique but not as exciting as the grilled items.


I Pad menu display

Service - so the interesting thing about the wait staff is that they all have I pads which they carry to each table and leave for a few minutes so you can see the pictures of the specials for the day. It would have been neat if the entire menu were on the Ipad, but it gave us a good idea of what to expect. The items were brought to our table as they were prepared. We ordered everything in 2 batches.

Interior

Atmosphere - it was very industrial looking with metal mesh netting and exposed steel. There were also graffiti style Japanese animation on the walls. This is a hip and trendy place were a lot of younger  (yuppie types) were prepping for nights out.

Yuzu Sushi & Robata Grill

We saw Yuzu Sushi & Robata Grill on Check Please about 1 month ago. We were in the mood for sushi so we decided to give it a try - despite the recent feature (and popularity).

Robata Grill Items

Robata grill items (robata means "by the fireside" and refers to old style cooking of norther Japanese fisherman).  They are appetizer size and there is one skewer per order.

We picked 3 different robata items.  We ordered 1 of each of the vegetables and 2 chicken satays
Nasu (japanese eggplant) - served with teriyaki sauce
Eryngii (king oyseter mushroom) - served with peanut sauce
Chicken Satay - marinated chicken in light curry and basted with peanut sauce

Unagi roll (L) My favorite Midwest roll (R)

The chicken was pretty standard for satay but the eggplant and mushroom were really great - maybe because they were a bit different. We would definitely try those veggies again.

Sushi Rolls:
My favorite Midwest roll - there was no rice, ahi tuna, avocado, cream cheese, jalapeno, scallin, masago, spicy mayo, lighted battered tempura - served warm with pepper yuzu sauce - not a traditional sushi roll, more like a Japanese style jalapeno popper

South Beach Roll

South beach - white tuna, spicy tuna, mango, japanese pepper, sesame oil, masago, mayo, red and black tobiko, lime. Got this partially because it had mango in it, but really couldn't taste the mango; it was spicy - due to the spicy tuna and peppers. This (and the dragon roll) had beautiful sauce "art" accompanying it.  They put a few different flavors and colors of sauces on the sushi board and then use a small wood stick point to swirl the colors.

Dragon Roll

Dragon Roll

Dragon - shrimp tempura, unagi, avocado, cucumber, tempura crumbs, masago, spicy mayo, sweet soy sauce.  Yummy specialty roll with lots of good flavors.

Unagi - fresh water eel, cucumber, sweet soy sauce. This was the simplest of the rolls we got but probably Natalie's favorite because she loves eel and there weren't any competing flavors here so it was highlighted

We figured this restaurant might be a little busy, so we wanted to arrive on the earlier side.  We didn't make reservations because we didn't know exactly what time we would be there. We got there at 5:50 and there were only three tables full (so probably 10 tables open). But they didn't want to seat us at a table because they had a lot of later reservations.  So they had us sit at the sushi bar.  There were 6 chairs there and 2 people already sitting.  This wasn't a huge problem for us, but we had a sneaking suspicion that we would probably be done and gone before all of the open tables were filled.  And we were right; when we left there were still 3 tables that hadn't been filled.  They were so quick about bringing us our food that we were out of there at 6:35 - so we had only been there 45 minutes. (In fact, this would have been even quicker but we ordered 3 sushi rolls at first and then ordered the 4th because we still had a little room left). It was nice to sit at the bar because we got to see all of the sushi being made and that was fun, but the whole thing was just a bit awkward since we knew for sure we wouldn't still be there at 7 - when those last reservations were probably scheduled.  Don't know if this place has always been this busy or if is the Check Please effect. Maybe it was too soon to go there after it being featured on TV

Final thoughts on Yuzu Sushi:
Food - The sushi and chicken satay were good; the Robata veggies were great. Due to the reservation situation and the fact that the sushi rolls were pretty standard we probably won't be back since it is a medium sized hike for us.  The Midwest roll was different, but not really sushi.
Service - the service was very quick and efficient.  The Robata items and the first 3 sushi rolls we ordered came out very quickly.  The 4th sushi roll took a bit longer but at that point there were a few more customers at the restaurant.
Atmosphere - small place, very dark inside, playing really loud music (rap) which didn't always have appropriate lyrics, but I guess this didn't seem to be an issue for the family with 4 small children at the front of the restaurant.  They have a large to go business as well which we could see since we were sitting right int front of the area were everything was boxed up at the sushi bar.

Takashi

We went to dinner at Takashi in Bucktown.  We had heard about it on Check Please and also we know that the chef (Takashi himself) competed on Top Chef Masters (so he is somewhat of a celebrity chef).

Pork Belly Appetizer

Appetizers
Pork Belly - soy ginger caramel pork belly with pickled daikon salad and steamed buns.  We were told to eat it like an open face sandwich.  This dish was not only fun but tasted great. The soy ginger caramel flavor was unique and it was fun to make the little sandwiches. A must have - this was probably the best dish of the night.

Scallops - sauteed Maine scallops and gnocchi, with trumpet mushrooms and celery root - parmesan foam.  The whole dish was super creamy and the scallops and gnocchi worked really well together. The celery root foam was very aromatic and was a delicate way to flavor the scallops.

Main Plates

Seared Veal Loin - with onion gratin, couscous, and bacon wrapped asparagus. This was a wonderful paring. The bacon was crispy and a flavored the asparagus with a hint of salt.

Roasted duck breast with baby turnips and green beans.  Nick didn't like eating the fat on the duck; he felt it was a little under done (but that's probably the way duck is supposed to be served).

Scallops Appetizer

Desserts

Sesame Panna Cotta with Genoise cake, pickled cherries, cherry cocoa nib ice cream. A wonderful presentation - it was both sweet and tangy

Egg - milk chocolate creme brulee inside a brown egg, with caramel custard foam, and served with a macaroon (very soft not like hard ones we are used to eating), just a beautiful thing to look at.  We marveled at how they cooked this inside the egg. It didn't disapont in the flavor department. It was smooth and creamy with a warm sweet chocloate finish.

Roasted Duck Breast

Final thoughts on Takashi:

Food - very good and interesting flavor combinations. We knew it was going to be a fusion of French and Japanese, but it definitely leaned more French than we had anticipated.  Everything tasted great but with a restaurant called Takashi we expected more Japanese flavors. We preferred the appetizers and desserts over the entrees so maybe that is the way to go in the future. We saw others sharring appetizers like tapas.

Service - excellent, attentive to all of our needs

Atmosphere- upscale, small dining area on the first floor. most of the customers were more yuppie types (well it is pricey).  As a side note, as we walked in the restaurants we actually bumped into chef and owner Takashi.

Seared Veal Loin

Panna Cotta

The Egg Dessert

Sushi Station

We went to dinner at Sushi Station in Rolling Meadows (there is also a location in Elgin).  We had seen this restaurant on Check Please about a year ago and the concept sounded intriguing.  It is like Japanese fast food and it is different than any other sushi restaurant we have been to.  You sit at either a bar or a table surrounding a conveyor belt filled with different kinds of sushi.  When you see a type of sushi you want you open a door to the conveyor belt in front of you and pick it up. The color of the plate the sushi is sitting on determines the price of that item. (wood = $.50, white = $1.25, pink = $2.25, blue = $3.25, green = $4.25, yellow = $5.25, purple = $6.25) We mostly saw blue, pink and yellow plates and 1 green plate item.

There is a menu and if you don't see an item you want on the belt you can order it. Also there are appetizers and nigiri (sushi pieces) available to order.

We grabbed the following:

Spicy Tuna Roll

Spicy tuna, masago and tempura crumbs - good sweet flavor and crunchy texture, one of Nick's favorites of the night

Scallop nigiri

Scallop - Nick wasn't in the mood for this, so just Natalie tried it.  It was spicier than she had imagined because it wasn't marked as spicy on the belt.  This wasn't a roll so it was just the scallop, rice and apparently something spicy.

Hanako Roll

Hanako roll - crab, cream cheese and green onion.  This was a larger roll, with a sort of flower design to the sauce on top of it. It was hard to get the whole flavor of it in your mouth at once because it was so large - more of a 2 bite sushi.  It's always harder for us to eat the larger pieces because they tend to fall apart.

Philly roll - salmon, cream cheese and avocado.  Good standard combination. The avocado was a nice touch.

Philly Roll

Spider roll - soft shell crab and cucumber, drizzled with unagi sauce - good crunch to the crab, wasn't too chewy

Spider Roll

Lobster salad - with crab and cucumber, one of the 2 least favorites of the night, best thing about it was the spicy mayo

Lobster salad

Paradise Roll

Paradise roll - toasted coconut flakes, shrimp tempura and avocado.  This was a truly unique combination.  We've never had coconut in a sushi roll.  The sweetness of the coconut was nice with the shrimp and avocado.  We liked it enough to get a second serving of this.

Dragon Roll

Dragon roll - eel over a California roll (crab, cucumber and avocado), topped with unagi (eel) sauce.  We actually ordered the dragon roll because we didn't see it on the belt.  It was really the only thing on the menu that had eel in it.  We didn't really enjoy the dragon roll as much though - the eel didn't taste like eel we've had at other places.

Final thoughts on Sushi Station:
Food - tasty and quick; some great rolls and some others we didn't like as much.
Service - there isn't a whole lot with service happening here because you can pick your own sushi off the conveyor yourself. But there is a waitress to get drinks and anything you do order.
Atmosphere - really neat idea (apparently there are places like this all over Japan).  This way you can try more types of sushi than by going to a place where you would get a roll with 6-8 pieces. It is really too bad that this isn't closer to us because it really is a fun concept and we could see going there a lot (especially for lunch).  This restaurant was really busy, especially for a weeknight. We had to wait a few minutes to be seated, but since you can get through a meal pretty quickly there is high turnover at the seats.  We sat facing the conveyor belt which was nice so we both could see the options in front of us.