My 800th review - Good grief! I honestly can't believe I've lasted this long writing about every single new restaurant that I've been to around the globe. I'm not sure how much longer I'll keep it up but it's definitely been a fun ride so far.
Luckily, for my 800th review, I'm writing a positive one! I was back in Chicago for work and landed just in time for dinner on Friday. Deanna and I decided to keep it local to Bucktown and I've always wanted to try this place that was right around the corner from her. We walked in around 8ish, which I know is prime dinner time but apparently it was also Restaurant Week in Chicago and the place was packed. The hostess told us there were no available seats all night because of Restaurant Week (no offense but I actually think the whole concept of Restaurant Week is kind of lame) but that we could fight it out for any seats at the bar. While we were contemplating where to go next, 2 seats at the bar magically appeared. Phew.
As you can tell by the name, the menu here is Japanese small plates. They have a fantastic menu with truly every kind of Japanese comfort food you can imagine. We started the meal with: sashimi salad ($12.50), kinoko itame ($8.50), yu dofu ($7.50), shishito peppers ($5.50), and assorted vegetable tempura ($5). God, I really miss eating in Chicago when you see prices like this. Yes, it's small plates but they are priced as they should be whereas in NYC, each of these plates could be over $10. Obviously the sashimi salad was just for me and I gotta say it was fucking amazing and I'm glad I didn't have to share it (sorry D!). It was 6 really fresh and large cuts of tuna, yellowtail and salmon on a bed of mixed greens and a light vinaigrette dressing. Clean, simple and a must-have in my book (if you eat fish). Based on that, I was really excited for the rest of my meal. The kinoko itame was warm mushrooms dish sauteed in butter and soy citrus sauce - essentially it's really just oyster mushroom drowning in butter - it was good but almost too heavy handed on the butter for me. The shishito peppers were your typical salted blistered peppers - crunchy, peppery but not spicy at all. Next we tried the assorted vegetable tempura (there's actually an entire tempura section if you want to mix and match your own). This veggie mix came with onion, kabocha squash, green beans, carrot and mushroom. For $5, it was a LOT of veggies. They were lightly battered and the right level of crispness and weren't soggy at all when you dipped it in the dipping sauce. Lastly, we had the yu dofu, which was our least favorite dish of the night. We had asked the waitress to recommend a good tofu dish and this was the one she pointed us too. Unfortunately, it was pretty blah. It was just pieces of firm tofu soaking in hot water and ponzu served with mushroom and scallion. While I don't mind tofu, serving it in a literal hot water bath doesn't really do it any favors in terms of flavor. I'll give it points for being a very clean dish but it kind of missed the mark for me.
At this point, we're both 1 bottle of sake and beer in, so of course that lends to us ordering more food (which in hindsight was totally unnecessary). I opted for the kara age ($7) and Deanna got the mushroom tempura ($5). Kara age are bites of deep fried ginger marinated chicken - basically it's freaking chicken nuggets fried Asian style. In true Asian form, they use dark meat, which is so juicy and delicious to me. These bites were salty goodness and totally addictive. I could see myself coming back here and ordering this with a cold beer and being really really happy. The mushroom tempura was also a huge order of very large pieces of oyster mushrooms. The caps on these mushrooms were kind of ridiculous - they were the size of the entire plate but it looked great none the less.
Overall, I left happy, full and slightly tipsy - which are all good things on a brisk Chicago night. Deanna mentioned that it's normally not spilling over with people - so I guess Restaurant Week really does bring in a crowd? If I lived near here, I could totally see myself coming back as a regular and sitting at the bar while I nibble on a bunch of affordable and tasty bites, but sadly I'll just have to wait for the next time I'm back in town. Total bill for 2 people: $128 with tax, tip and drinks
Photo Credit: Yelp
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