We had a very nice experience dining at the Izakaya! Our…read moreserver is awesome. The food and drinks - fantastic! The Momo Royale Burger is the star of the night. It's one of the best burger we tried in Chicago so far. The bao bun makes it unique. It's a must try! The chicken wings (let me say.. the whole part!) huge portion. Delish!!! Love the flavor. Kind of saucy, so prepare to lick your fingers... haha! The ramen - not crazy about this one. We could skip this but I wanted to try anyway. Not bad and not that good either. Ube Tiramisu is the great way to end the night. This is delish!! A very nice lively music going on at the bar... as it is an izakaya or speakeasy type... it's kind of dim. I like it.

Get the RAMEN!!! Wow I've never had such a bowl Service was…read moreincredible and they brought us such a sweet birthday dessert :) Loud and chill vibes all around if you know what I mean. Absolutely coming back and bringing friends :)

Disclaimer: I'm a New Yorker who's moved to Chicagoland so maybe I'm a bit snooty but the regular…read moreYelpers in the Midwest should always be viewed with a star and a 1/2 less than what is expected normally. Any bar with Yamazaki 18 is good in my book. We had lunch at Chubby Cattle so couldn't eat that much .: no skewers. The Sushi taco was good, pretty impressive with the thin seaweed that had a great crunch; didn't feel greasy at all. The seafood udon was decent; just a tad bit too salty is all. If you're into kushiyaki and what's presented here, definitely give it a try.

Good food! Love the…read moreconcept and you can order on the same QR code two different phones at the same time. The food is fresh made and full of flavor. My favorite thing was the fish cake skewer and the squid. Service was great and people keep checking on you if you need more things. They were havung a karaoke night the saturday at 10pm, but we were packed for other activities after dinner so we missed that out. The only down side that we found, it is some of the plates used to serve, they are chipped or damaged, and that bother a little the presentation.

We've been wanting to try happy hour at Ikigai Sushi & Izakaya for a while. We started with a cold…read moreSapporo (no cocktails for happy hour), then went straight into the karaage (barely edible, the chicken used was so chewy and nasty, we couldn't finish it), sushi rolls (very fishy smell, not the best), and grilled kushiyaki skewers (these were my fav). Everything came out looking seriously tempting, but somewhat fell short.

So pleasantly surprised! Came in on a Friday night for a 6:30 reso and the place was empty BUT it…read morewas packed, seemingly by regulars, by the time we left. Service was a little slow at time but they got slammed very quickly and and we weren't in a rush. What we got: - chuturo nigiri - so buttery - hamachi nigiri - good flavor and cut - chili hotate - love the flavor - negi toro maki - good flavor - unakyu- fine a little on the sweeter side - Amai - not my favorite and I think the tuna had a strong fishy flavor Overall, good meal and pretty reasonable bill. Will definitely be coming back to check out the rest of the menu!

Gaoku was fun! Was in recently to catch up with a friend who spent the last couple of weeks in…read moreJapan. Another great addition to the Humboldt Park neighborhood, their take on hand rolls was really unqiue and interesting. They treat hand rolls like seaweed wrapped tacos, and the flavor of the spicy tuna and tempura shrimp were notable standouts. The hamachi was one I was less crazy about just due to flavor profile, but also I was feeling adventourous when I visited. But before that, we got an order of Oysters and Sakura Pork which were quite dressed up and the Pork serving as a clear favorite! We also ordered a round of miso soups for the table which were excellent! Lastly, I will absolutely be back for some more of the cocktails on the menu as I did have the humboldt afternoon, which is MALORT-based and so tasty. One funny thing was our server who told us that she was five shots in, which was idk kind of weird. Lastly, the inside is really sexy and dark and an absolute for date night!

We went for the Thursday night hand roll deals. Everything tasted so fresh and flavorful. Very cozy…read morevibe inside, and no wait. The service was also quick and attentive.

One of the best Omakase experience I've ever had. I booked last minute during a Chicago business…read moretrip and was able to get a seating for one: I came at my time and had a drink alone at the bar and had an awesome conversation with the bartender Brandon who shared some stories about Japan with me. I was seated at the sushi bar shortly and to my surprise I had the chefs table all to myself! It was very beautifully decorated and clean and got to meet Chef Shoji. I was well taken care of by both the staff and Chef Shoji and he meticulously explained every dish and we chatted about everything from his time in America, Japan, and even shared some of my life stories. All in all the dinner service was about 90 minutes with maybe 12-15 or so dishes? I was absolutely satisfied and more. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience having personalized service!

Great omakase!! Loved the cuts of fish especially the toro. I dream about going back every now and…read morethen. Service was spectacular as well.

The service was great, super attentive. Kind gesture with a signed birthday menu…read more Sushi was fresh, with simple but great flavors. Didn't love the wagyu bao buns since it was more of a ground meat, similar to a kabob. But overall the food was good, atmosphere was perfect date night/special occasion, and we will definitely be back.

Tonight, we were in the West Loop and decided to try an establishment new to us. We chose…read moreMomotaro, since we love Japanese and Japanese influenced cuisine. We had to make a late reservation since nothing was available earlier. We tried walking in earlier and there was a 1 hour and 45 min wait. So we kept our reservation for 9:30. Upon entering, the manager and the host were very friendly and promptly sat us about 15 min early. The ambiance is really nice, but the music... is way to loud. You have to yell across a standard 4-seat tabletop to communicate. Since everyone has to yell, the crowd noise then amplifies this issue. I've never understood restaurants that try to be a nightclub. You can have music at normal levels to keep the energy without causing your patrons to yell. Once we were seated, the waitress came over within 5 minutes. She was friendly, but slow. After she offered us water, she was didn't return to the table for 20 minutes to take drink orders. After we ordered drinks, it was another 15-20 to help with the menus. We asked about portion sizes (shareable vs not shareable). We were told each plate was good for 2-4 people. I'm not sure what portion sizes she classified suitable for sharing... but no way were a majority of our dishes enough to share. We ordered edamame, which we were able to share. We really liked how they salted it, sometimes you get edamame and it's bland. We also ordered spicy tuna sushi (6 pieces), Komodo sushi rolls, pork chops (comes with 2 pieces), 2 orders of wagyu sliders (only 2 per order), hotate batayaki (3 scallops), shishito peppers (8 grilled peppers), and yakatori don (chicken bowl with rice and a soft egg). I have tried many Japanese restaurants and have been to Japan as well. Loved the food. To start with the good, we really liked the pork chops. They were on the rarer cooked side but delicious. The sliders were really good as well. Tons of flavor and each one was a decent size. These 2 items we felt were slightly over priced but felt we got a great food experience for the money. The shishito peppers were barely grilled and bland. They literally were no better than what my teenagers can do on the grill. Absolutely not worth $12 for peppers. Each sushi roll was decent but very small very overpriced for what you get. There is nothing special about either roll. I have gotten better spicy tuna in the city, that comes with 8 rolls for half of momotaro's price. The scallops were very fishy. I love scallops, and I wouldn't order these again... no way! $22 for such. Small serving that was too fishy compared to other establishments. My chicken bowl yakatori don) had a great presentation. That's where the dish ends. The toppings overpowered the chicken. The chicken tasted like plain boiled chicken that was so bland, literally no flavor to it. After we were done, the waitress came over about 15 min later, asking if we were interested in dessert. We told her no, we were full and ready for the check. We sat around for over 20 minutes waiting. I'm watching our server talking in the corner with 4 other servers. Laughing, on their phones, etc. after watching them for over 10 minutes I walked up to the front host and asked for a manager. The girl, was prompt, and very friendly. I discussed my dissatisfaction with the service. It was slow, terrible for the price point of the restaurant. The manager brought the check to me fairly quickly and apologized. She didn't ask what they could do to make it right, nothing. Not until after the bill was paid she conveniently asked what they could do. Little late at that point. Overall, we have been to many low and high end restaurants in Chicago... River North, West Loop,, Manhattan, Munich, etc... and this was about as bad of service as you can get. With all the options in the city, I don't recommend this one.

The staff are nice, the interior is clean but uninteresting, and the food is disappointing. The…read moremenu is also formatted badly, the udon lunch set comes with a standard "plain udon" that isn't even on the menu as far as I can tell. The way it's written implies that you can choose an udon from the udon section, not the case. Minor gripe, but annoying nonetheless. The maki is fine, spicy tuna was bland but decent quality and the shrimp tempura maki was good but also lacking. Personally I prefer a spicy tuna with more tuna texture and this is basically puree, personal preference I guess. The udon is where my meal fell apart. For a lunch menu focusing on udon I expected a more flavorful broth and noodles that weren't overcooked. It's not like the underlying flavor is bad or anything, it's just barely there at all. The dashi is very weak and one dimensional, and the noodles taste like plain flour with a spongy overly soft bite. The toppings are extremely basic, I can't even comment on them because I'm not sure if I hallucinated them having any flavor or not. They might as well not exist. The shredded cabbage side salad is also mediocre. Dressing was weak and the cabbage could've been cut thinner. People I went with told me "maybe you just got the wrong things" but I don't think a chef should have losing items on their menu to begin with. Overall quite disappointed considering the name attached to this place.

Visiting from out of town someone suggested this restaurant. The restaurant is nicely decorated for…read moreits style. There are plenty of offerings. However to me it's pricey for single skewer items and even the maki. I was not that impressed with the food the best item I ate was the gyoza.

now *this* is great okonomiyaki…read more coming from seattle and very recently having a disastrous experience at the only okonomiyaki spot in our area (you can read my past reviews for that), my two friends, my partner, and i were looking forward to having great okonomiyaki. thankfully, gaijin delivered! we came by on a friday night, and it was fairly busy. we wouldn't have been surprised if we were turned away since we didn't have a reservation. they ended up making space for us thankfully and we didn't even have to wait long at all. the inside of the place isn't that big, but it's not so tiny that it's cramped. when you sit down, if you are in a large enough party, you sit down in front of a flat stovetop to keep your okonomiyaki warm when the waiter brings it out to you. we started with some drinks. they were all very good - next time i'm trying that espresso goma-tini! i did get a lychee martini though, and it was a little strong of a pour but i still really enjoyed it. onto the okonomiyaki. we all ordered different ones so we could try them. every single one of them were delicious. i got the tofu osaka-style, my partner got the beef osaka-style, one of my friends got the fried shrimp osaka-style, and my other friend got the traditional hiroshima-style. each okonomiyaki is prepared perfectly, not too thick and not overly saucy (so it doesn't get soggy). the flavours are quite rich but also really nicely umami. sometimes, too rich of a sauce kind of overwhelms me, but the ratios are well-balanced. overall, truly recommend this place. probably some of the best okonomiyaki i've had. next time i'm in chicago, i'd love to go again. there's so many options to choose from and i want to try them all!

I've been wanting to try Okonomiyaki for a long time, so when I saw that they had it I had to stop…read moreby! It's really cool in here because you can watch them make the Okonomiyaki in front of you! They had like a set meal going on which included soup and okonomiyaki and dessert, which was mochi donuts. The soup was pretty good, standard. The Okonomiyaki was such a big portion. I loved the little tempura bits on top and they were generous with the amount of shrimp. It's like a yummy savory pancake. I will say I didn't really enjoy the mochi donuts but I was so full I couldn't eat them until later so it may have been because they weren't as fresh and got hard. If you've been wanting to try Okonomiyaki you should check this place out!

This is the perfect late night location when you want to eat something that isn't fast food. They…read morehad so many options on their menu and lots of "small bites" so you can try multiple things at an affordable price. The food came out quick and it was the perfect thing we needed to end our night.

We had a late dinner after Bruno Mars concert & this place didn't disappoint! Got all the food we…read morewanted to try & were very pleased with our choices! Service was friendly & efficient. It's a cozy izakaya, open til late!

Incredible! Walked in on a Tuesday around 5 and there was plenty of seating open at the bar…read more There's a happy hour menu for 4-6! I got the eggplant tempura snack off the happy hour menu for $6 and this was SO good. And actually a little too much for one person! Portion was generous and this was delicious. Perfectly crispy, with super soft jammy eggplant, with mildly sweet, savory, herby, and fish saucy(?) flavors. I opted to get a yuzu margarita, not on the happy hour menu, but yuzu margarita. YUM! To round it out, I got the deluxe nigiri set and this was SO fabulous. Really delicious, high quality fish, with inventive garnishes, but while still letting the fish itself shine. There was a specialty scallop nigiri on the menu as well with nori-infused French butter. The sushi chef heard me talking about all the things I was trying to choose between and just upgraded the scallop nigiri that comes with the deluxe set to the specialty one, with no added charge (which was a surprise!). Super lovely folks working behind the bar. If I wasn't an out of towner, I could absolutely see myself becoming a regular here. Interior was vibey but in a relaxed, approachable way. Highly recommend checking this spot out!

Definitely recommend making reservations which you can do pretty easily online. I came on a Sunday…read morearound 5:15pm and it was already packed. They said it was one hour wait by the time I got there but they were able to seat me right away due to my reservation. We got seated at the bar which was cool cuz u can see the people making the sushi. It was a pretty causal vibe where you can hang with friends and such. They also had a good amount of seating. Okay now the food... it was really good. Mako scallop 10/10 this was my fave dish of the night. Super super creamy!! It also had avocado inside which helped w the creaminess. If you're by yourself just get the 5 bc it's so rich you might get tired of it. But yes I rly liked this one. Togarashi Chicken Nuggets 7/10: the seasoning was so good but it could be a bit dry some parts. The sauce was okay, it was like a garlic aoili sauce? But def crispy. Crispy tuna rice 6/10: I didn't really like this dish bc it felt like it wasn't spicy? Enough. The rice was crispy yes but the tuna on top just tasted kinda bland. Matcha tiramisu 9/10: I thought it was gonna be on the heavy and sweet side but I thought wrong! It wasn't too sweet and it was pretty airy. However the strawberry sauce wasn't my vibe but the cake itself was really good. I recommend you tell the server you'll put the sauce on yourself in case you don't like it. Hand rolls: Salmon avo 6/10: nothing super special Toro: 8/10 yummy and rich Scallop 6/10: I usually like scallop but this one was kinda like smoked? Idk but I liked the scalllop taste on the maki more. tuna crunch 8/10: the crunch made it pretty good texture wise Overall it was such a great place to have dinner. Our server was also so helpful and gave us his recs and they didn't disappoint. I would def come back if I was in the area!