Hana Asian Bistro - Skokie

Hanna Asian Bistro just opened in Skokie. It's in the same shopping center as Ruby of Siam on Skokie Blvd.
There's a 15% off entire order promotion until 1/31/09.

Hana Asian Bistro
9434 N. Skokie Blvd.
Skokie
847-677-4262
http://www.hanabistro.com

Just stopped by Hana for lunch a couple hours ago. Got the maki/nigiri lunch combo, which let you choose one type of roll and five pieces of any type of nigiri (with a few notable exceptions, like Toro).

I selected spicy tuna for the maki and three tuna/two salmon for the nigiri; the special also came with the standard miso soup and green salad.

The soup and salad were pleasant, if fairly average, but the sushi was really well executed. Both the tuna and salmon nigiri were buttery in texture and the taste was fresh and right on the mark for each fish. The tuna in the spicy rolls was chopped up rather than whole, an all-too-common practice that I generally abhor, but in this case the cohesion of the flavors and the silkiness of the texture won me over and I ended up really enjoying them.

For ten dollars, which seems to be the defacto price for sushi lunch specials at the places I’ve tried, I thought Hana was easily the best I’ve had and would definitely recommend checking them out.

Thanks for the tip. The nigiri looks delightfully reasonable.

Ronna

After driving past this place several hundred times, I finally had my first meal today. Part of the problem is that it's buried towards the back of a non-descriptive L-shaped half deserted strip mall. Same strip mall as Ruby of Siam.

Anyway, I had a bento box with beef and chicken teriyaki. You get a choice of two meats with the box. Just a heads up, both meat portions are quite filling. Go easy on ordering any appetizers (I had a side order of spicy tuna maki) along with a bento box. I have a good appetite and I left with a doggie bag, which I rarely do in a restaurant. I'll be damned if my dog is getting the leftovers. Anyway, it was quite good. The only downside is that the miso soup was too salty.

Favorite Dining Companion made a meal out of an order of steamed dumplings and gomae. She was willing to part with one dumpling to share with me. Quite filling.

Service was very good. Our server was very patient as we were kind of slow in deciding what to order. This place will definitely be on our Asian restaurant rotation.