Kansaku

For dinner last night, my sister and I ventured to Kansaku, the new Japanese restaurant in downtown Evanston. According to Metromix (I don't think the restaurant has its own website yet), Kansaku is "the second upscale sushi spot to arrive in Evanston." Which was the first upscale sushi spot? I wouldn't use that characterization for Koi or Kuni's...What place am I forgetting?

I had a very difficult time deciding what to eat (I didn't have access to a menu before last night) because I don't care at all for crab or cream cheese in maki--the two most common ingredients in Kansaku's special and signature rolls. As for the entrees, I was somewhat disturbed by the fact that their various teriyaki dishes (chicken, salmon, etc) are served with mashed potatoes instead of rice. Mashed potatoes are one of my dietary staples, but I grew up in a meat and rice Filipino household. Given the cold and rainy weather last night, I wanted something comforting and familiar--not chicken teriyaki with mashed potatoes.

My sister and I ended up ordering conservatively. For our appetizer, we had the "green mussels dynamite," which the menu described as "oven baked green mussels and crab topped with house spicy sauce." I felt like we ate warmed mussels of a generic variety covered with a crab-cream cheese mixture, shredded cheese and a dab of Tobasco sauce.



For entrees, I chose their "assorted sushi" plate and my sister chose three standard rolls--rainbow, shrimp tempura and philadelphia. I liked that the accompanying miso soup was served in small white ceramic bowls. I feel like I sometimes forget my own strength when I pick up with two hands the black plastic bowls used at so many other Japanese restaurants. The white ceramic bowl at Kansaku was just a little heavier and made the process of eating my miso more solid. One final note about dishware: I also appreciated the ceramic soy sauce dishes. I don't think they were customized to an Alinea-esque degree, but the simple tilted design seemed refreshingly appropriate for soy sauce dipping and wasabi mixing.

I don't have much to say about the food of the entrees. My fish, seven pieces of nigiri and a tuna roll, were fresh and plump. It's been too long since I've been to Kuni's to compare the quality, and I've only ever had small amounts of maki at Koi. If I want to eat nigiri in Evanston, I would return to Kansaku. I also liked that there was a bigger than average pile of ginger that came with my meal last night.



I only tasted one piece of my sister's shrimp tempura maki, which I found to be very audibly crunchy but slightly tough to chew. I prize delicacy in tempura, and though the portion of shrimp in the maki piece was more than adequate, there was no delicacy there. I don't think it was a kind-of-flour problem--I think it was an overcooking problem.



As my sister said in the middle of our meal last night, "You know what this place needs?" She answered herself: "More customers." We were there for about an hour, and only one other table was occupied.

The next time I have a craving for nigiri in Evanston, I'll probe Kansaku's supposedly extensive sake list. I'm also curious to try their equivalent of gyu maki--which they describe as thin slices of filet mignon wrapped in asparagus with a teriyaki sauce. I'm cynical that Kansaku's could rival Mirai's, but I'm willing to try it if someone doesn't dissuade me before then.

Kansaku
1514 Sherman Ave.
Evanston 60201
847-864-4386

happy_stomach wrote:Which was the first upscale sushi spot? I wouldn't use that characterization for Koi or Kuni's...

I'm guessing they mean Koi. I wouldn't use that characterization either, but Koi is a little upscale and they do serve sushi.

happy_stomach wrote:Kansaku
1514 Sherman Ave.
Evanston 60201
847-864-4386

Is this the corner of Grove and Sherman, where Egea and before that Ofischl were?
Thanks for the review!

Is this the corner of Grove and Sherman, where Egea and before that Ofischl were?

Yes, that's the corner but across the street. If Egea is the spa, it's still in that spot. Kansaku is next door to Bar Louie. I've neglected that corner of downtown for a while, but while I was a student in Evanston about five years ago, I think there was a Chinese bookstore (?) in the spot Kansaku now occupies (with major renovations). That block, both east and west sides, looks a lot different than it did five years ago, but then, again, so does the entire city of Evanston.

happy_stomach wrote:That block, both east and west sides, looks a lot different than it did five years ago, but then, again, so does the entire city of Evanston.

Ah, right. Even address number => west side of the street; I just knew it wasn't Bar Louie and forgot there was anything else vacant there. The bookstore was pretty small -- maybe it's the space that was Peggy Robinson Jewelers, or the jeweler plus the bookstore.


Yeah, times have changed since the only bar options were My Bar, Nevin's, the Keg and the Holiday Inn.

Now this is odd. I've been away for a while and haven't posted in forever, and I'm pretty sure I was at the other table there last night. I was thinking of posting, because I was surprised by this place and much of the food.

We had the seaweed salad and gyoza which both seemed to pop in flavor more the same dishes ordered in similar places. Then two rolls, both of which were much bigger than I would have preferred, but seemed fresh, clean and with nice combos of flavor.

The truth is, I'm more of a Mediteranean food expert, and am just never sure what's good or not. I do know fresh and clean in flavors, and this was enough to get me to return sometime. I hope others go and report.

I'm genuinely surprised that there has been no substantive commentary on Evanston's Kansaku for five years.

We tried it last night, using a Groupon set to expire in a few days, and were pleasantly surprised to see them doing very good business on a Wednesday evening around 6:00 pm. And the special maki was good enough to justify giving this restaurant a bump.

We tried three of their composed rolls, first a near-traditional Rainbow roll, basically a California roll topped with four nice pieces of nigiri sushi. This was not a far departure from traditional maki, and we found the roll to be very good, solid sushi, where the nigiri was fresh and tasty, and the roll had a nice balance of flavors.

Next, a Kamikaze roll, described on the menu as Spicy tuna and cucumber roll topped with seared tuna and black tobiko served with spicy mayo and eel sauce. This conformed to the new type of modern hand rolls popularized by places such as Oysy downtown, and this was also a very good example of the type. The tuna was good, the flavors balanced, and the tobiko was really nice and snappy. There was not an overabundance of mayo, which we both considered a plus.

Finally, we tried a "low carb" hand roll, obviously low carb because it involved no sushi rice. The Lollipop, described as Tuna, white tuna, shrimp, asparagus, and avocado wrapped in cucumber with ponzu, looked just too precious to eat, and we wondered if we hadn't made a large mistake with this choice. We were pleasantly surprised; this roll simply worked, the tuna and sweet shrimp were in harmony, and the crisp cucumber acting as a nori wrap made for a very interesting texture and subtle flavor. There was a residual sweetness that some might dislike, but acted as a palate cleanser for us. The presentation, where each piece of roll was stuck with a wooden skewer, was a bit too cute for me, especially when one slipped out, and the roll fell apart, but on the whole, the creativity overcame the practical issues, and we were amused.

Service was good, although wait time for the maki was a bit high, because all were brought at the same time. That's a quibble, though, and we were impressed enough that we will return.

Went for dinner last night prior to visiting someone at Evanston Hospital.

Didn't feel like entrees so had a number of appetizers.

Mrs Willie felt like Calamari - I was hoping that this would be lightly breaded but it was not. Not a good choice.

Oyster shooters, fantastic. Raw oyster, some ponzu, bit of sake, quail egg, a bit of finely chopped scallion. $5 per, we still had 2 of these apiece.

Takoyaki were very good, nice chunks of octopus

Beef Tataki - amazingly tender beef, just too bad the beef had zero flavor