New Sushi/Pan-Asian Restaurant in Streeterville Next to AMC

Niu Japanese Fusion Lounge
332 E Illinois St

This place is great for a lot of reasons. First and foremost, the service.
The servers and staff at this restaurant really know how to be helpful and attentive without being in your face obnoxious/trying to be funny/overly helpful (you know what i mean, "is everything okay? is everything okay?" Yeah, dude, we're still fine....

First, we were trying to catch a movie that started at 7:10 (Niu is in the same building as the AMC Movie Theater on Illinois), and when I called at 5:30 and asked if we came in at 6, would we be able to be outta there by 7, and they basically did whatever they could to make it happen.

As for the staff, the server swooped in and picked up the chopsticks I had dropped within 5 seconds of it happening, and another server swooped in and picked my boyfriend's hat which had fallen off his knee. Sounds like we just travel around the city dropping shit, but I assure you this was an isolated string of clumsiness.

We ordered the Pepper Salmon roll, the Sexy Mexican, and a spicy tuna roll. These rolls were,...gorgeous. They really pay attention to detail here, and they were the nicest looking rolls i've ever seen. Sexy mexi was fantastic, but the pepper salmon wasn't our fave. Good quality salmon, I think that the pepper was too much or something, just had a strange flavor. Not their fault, just wasn't our taste. They did forget the spicy sauce in the spicy tuna, which was just...tuna, but after mentioning it we got some sauce on the side.

Here's the thing, the quality of everything was A1, but 2 of the rolls just weren't what we should have ordered.

I definitely want to go back here before a movie, and I think I'll try their dragon roll and for sure the sexy mexi again!

Cherry, Cherry, Cherry...

You just posted a help wantedad for a server at Niu. Couldn't you at least have thought to post this review under a different name?

For the record, I despise Niu. Bizarre, expensive combinations that work only in that they cover up the taste of low quality fish.

I do commend you for seeking new staff. The place definitely needs it.

Grandpa Simpson: "You're the worst shill I've ever seen!"

That is too funny...I wish the help wanted ad wasn't gone already

Comic book Guy:

Worst...shill...ever

Kennyz wrote:Cherry, Cherry, Cherry...

You just posted a help wantedad for a server at Niu. Couldn't you at least have thought to post this review under a different name?

For the record, I despise Niu. Bizarre, expensive combinations that work only in that they cover up the taste of low quality fish.

I do commend you for seeking new staff. The place definitely needs it.

I went to Niu once and wanted very much to hate the place. For one thing, their cocktail list is so sad. Revisiting their menu via their website, I see they have a featured "Saketini Reloaded" menu, as well as the "Choco Collection" for when you're in the mood for a Mochacino Martini with your hamachi. (blarf.) And calling maki sushi "Sexy Mexican" is demeaning to your customer, your sushi chef, and the fish. (I know I need to lighten up already, but it's gross.)

That being said there were two things I liked about Niu. One, they carry Hendricks gin, which is becoming more popular, but still. And they made a pretty good, albeit fishbowl sized martini.

The other thing I liked were their jalapeño poppers. Or shishito poppers--I'm pretty sure that they were shishito and not jalapeño but I wouldn't stake my life on it. In any case they are stuffed with scallop and crab and a discriminating amount of cream cheese, panko'd and fried and topped with bonito shavings. Fun snack!

The rest of the food else was utterly forgettable, not horrible, certainly not hate-able. Our server didn't swoop in to do anything.

cherry0826 wrote:This place is great for a lot of reasons.

I have to disagree, i have been to NIU recently and I find the place to be awful. The "creative" maki selection makes me yearn for the solid California Roll served at my local 7-11. Case in point, the signature "white angel" maki consisting of spicy Tuna, escolar, cream cheese, avocado, caviar and lemon zest is a particularly foul arrangement. That growl in my stomach is not the sound of hunger but the sound of a spicy mexican returning. Next time I am hungry before an 11 dollar movie I will buy a $3.75 hot dog to go with my $5.75 popcorn rather then spend $15 on truly terrible sushi.

Kenny thanks for catching this shill. The place is gross

trixie-pea wrote:The rest of the food else was utterly forgettable, not horrible, certainly not hate-able. Our server didn't swoop in to do anything.

That was pretty much my feeling as well. Niu was about on par with many other sushi places in Chicago: our sashimi was fresh enough, but the "fusion" dishes seemed generally misbegotten (emphasis on cream cheese and garlic, which masks ingredients from the sea).

Although we were amused by the servers lack of knowledge ("What's fresh wasabi?"), they were friendly and enthusiastic, which counts for something.

The key advantage of this place could be location; if you want a light dinner before a movie (at, as I recall, decent prices), Niu is a reasonable option.

Shilling, of course, is not, and I think this thread is a good example of how trying to game LTHForum almost always backfires.

David Hammond wrote:Shilling, of course, is not, and I think this thread is a good example of how trying to game LTHForum almost always backfires.

LTH,

With Hammond's fair warning above and iblock9's Gary Coleman it seems an apt time to lock the thread.

LTHForum - Shill free since 1973

Enjoy,
Gary for the moderators