Sushi Quest

I love sushi.  I'd have to say it's my favorite food, and I would eat it every day if the fresh stuff wasn't so crazy expensive.  But when I am able (i.e. when my mom is paying) I try to find new, great sushi restaurants.  In Elmhurst, where I grew up, there's an excellent place called Sushi Nest.  They have fresh ingredients, to-die-for rolls (try the Red Dragon), and friendly staff, and the dim lighting and soft piano jazz playing in the background make it perfect for unwinding and digging into raw fish.  It's my go-to, but because I live in the city now I've started searching for sushi closer to home.

Kamehachi

1531 N Wells St.
Chicago, IL 60611

Kamehachi in Old Town is fantastic.  We had a wonderful waiter who helped us choose some rolls, and they were delicious.  To be honest I don't really remember what they were because what stuck with me was the rock shrimp tempura--soft juicy shrimp delicately fried and covered in a heavenly sweet and spicy sauce--and the hachi ceviche, which added cashew, plaintain chips, basil, and wasabi to the traditional whitefish. Yum.  Ambiance-wise it's a bit trendy and contemporary, which I do like, but it's not a very traditional sushi-restaurant atmosphere.  It's a big restaurant and lacks the cozy feel of other places I've been.  It's well suited to a younger crowd, for a night out with friends.

Tanoshii

5547 N Clark St.

Chicago, IL 60640

Tanoshii on Check, Please! 

Recently my mom paid me a somewhat spontaneous visit, so we went to try a new place, Tanoshii in Andersonville.  We had tried to go there the night we ended up at Kamehachi, but for some reason or another we didn't.  It was well worth the wait.  Tanoshii was on Check, Please!, the PBS show where regular people review Chicago-area restaurants, and I can't imagine that anyone had anything bad to say about this place.  Tanoshii means "happy/pleasurable/delightful" and it is aptly named.  It was probably the best sushi experience I've had.  

First, we accidentally arrived about 20 minutes before they opened at 4, but they sat us anyway and one of the chefs chatted with us.  We looked over the menu but were indecisive, and he suggested the Sushi Mike special: the chef (Sushi Mike wasn't in yet but our guy was extremely capable) would ask us what we liked and didn't like, and he would make up custom dishes suited to our tastes.  This is the best possible thing to propose because a) customized sushi!!! and b) no deciding between all the delicious menu items!  We told him we liked tuna, salmon, avocado, cucumber, and tempura.  My mom told him nothing spicy and no mayonnaise, which I generally agree with.  Though when he asked me "But you're good with anything, right?" I didn't think and nodded my head (I don't love spicy either).  But it worked out alright.

Our first course was tuna sashimi dressed in truffle honey, rosemary, and chives and lightly caramelized with a blow torch. Holy Bluefin, it was amazing!  I would have never put those flavors together but they worked together flawlessly.  The chef continued to feed us a steady stream of rolls: salmon and avocado with chili sauce, a crab/shrimp tempura roll topped with avocado, tuna with cucumber, and more decadence than I can describe.  "Do you want one more?" Absolutely.  Everything came with some sort of sauce that eliminated the need for soy sauce, all with unconventional flavors that I've never had with sushi.  Aside from the food, Tanoshii's service was amazing, from the friendly host who sat us before they opened to the expert sushi chef.  It was personal and everyone chatted with us and made us feel welcome.  Maybe it would have been different if we weren't the only customers there (only three other people had come by the time we left) but as it was, it was a great experience.  The bill was more than the typical sushi bill but for what we got, we agreed it was well worth it.  Oh, and if you're looking for drinks, it's BYOB.  We were so focused on the food we didn't even think about that and just stuck to water.  

I'm looking forward to revisiting Tanoshii.  I think next time I'll tell the chef that I like yellowfin and eel and see what he comes up with.