Looking for awesome sushi place with a respectable sake list . . .

[gremzo]

Hey all -

I'm trying to find a place for my fiance's b-day, and we're both sushi and sake fanatics. I'd love to try someplace new and am looking for suggestions.

We've been to Coast, South Cost, Sushi Samba, Naniwa, Mirai, Bob San, Toro, Ponzu, Japonais . . . Coast currently tops the list for sushi, Sushi Samba probably has the best sake list we've seen . . . Thoughts??

[gordeaux]

Got to a byob joint, and have your own sake thing going on. Beware of getting out of hand tho. :-)
Mitsuwa has a decent vendor for sake, and I've been trying to make it through the choices at Chicago Food Corp over on Kimball.
BYOB joints are there if you search. I know Butterfly is byob - sushi is decent there, not mind blowing, but solid. They do offer a lot of hipster mayo maki rolls, and it gets kinda full of scenesters on wknds.
I think Kaze is byo also? There are others.

For a sushi omakase, I'd suggest splurging at Katsu.

[gremzo]

I forgot to put Katsu and Butterfly on my " been there" list. Butterfly is pretty decent - but I actually was not impressed at all by Katsu. Maybe I need to give it another chance?

[mountsac]

do you remember what was wrong with your experience at katsu? what did you order? in any event, people have different tastes. it happens. if you hated it the first time, i'd trust your own instinct more than our suggestions.

[ferret]

I'm also in Katsu-not-so-hotsu crowd. It was just "good" but didn't wow me. Nothing specific, it's just that I didn't leave with a "man, I've got to come back here" impression.

[tschaf17]

hey gremzo - you know i am the only one that can figure out this alias (other then your fam) - anyways...i saw that you found me. warning. this is addicting to no end.

yep - agreed. i am NOT a fan of katsu. butterfly has a fun atmosphere but sushi is hit or miss. i have heard good things about kaze re sushi but not sure about sake

[gremzo]

ah! too late - i think i'm already an addict! thanks for the tip, hun! anyway, i'm glad i'm not alone in my katsu opinion. and way ahead of ya - i looked over the kaze website. their sushi looks solid . . . the sake list is a bit disappointing. could be worth a shot anyway . . .

[gremzo]

yeah, we do byob a lot so that's always an option and i definitely need to check out the selection at mitsuwa . . . it has been a long time since i've been out there. chicago food corp, eh? i'm intrigued . . .

[tschaf17]

oh yes! chicago food rocks. right off the expressway, so much quicker trip then doing groceries in K town...but then again you are always in that hood anyways

[gordeaux]

Feh - I was thinking of Coast, but Kaze came out. Anyway, intrigued, did a search for byob shi joints in Chicago. One that I've never been to, but heard good things about is Indie Cafe.
http://www.indiecafe.us

[mountsac]

in terms of nigiri and sashimi (i'm not a big maki person), "katsu" is by far my favorite. the quality of fish there is the highest i've had in chicago. but i've never had sake there.

there's another japanese restaurant near k-town called "chiyo." their sushi is also pretty good and they have a very strong sake program. but again, i'm not sure if their maki is any good (as i've never paid attention to that).