Tsuki - brand new and working out the kinks

For the 4th time we were supposed to go to Ixcapuzalco this evening, but I was distracted. This time it was a small note about a new Japanese place - half price on their sharing style menu, and BYOB as they are waiting for the liquor license. Okay, gotta try it.

Six of us, so we tried lots of things. For those who want the final score and not the detail - decent Sushi, and a great deal at 1/2 off. Not exquisite, but some very good stuff and I would go back to let the owner put together an exquisite selection. The other food was spotty.

Hits:

Spicy Pinenut/Tuna - maki-toro inside, white tune on top, nice pine nut texture and ginger and horseradish for spice.

Volcano sushi - smoked salmon maki with spicy scallop on top, raw but torched to brown. Good tastes, texture of scallop was pleasing to me.

Moon Chowder - Very clean clam chowder.

Piri Piri Ebi Osumashi - Spicy shrimp soup. Did not get to try this, but my companions enjoyed it quite a bit.

Smoked Octopus Salad - earthy and briny and delightfully fishy.

Misses:

Hotate Kushi - Grilled asparagus and scallop skewers. Overcooked (this will become a theme) and the teriyaki sauce was boring.

Tsukune Kushi - Grilled chicken meat ball skewers. I do not think we ordered this, but we got it. Better than the Scallops, but think chicken nuggets on a skewer with teriyaki sauce. Waste of a good appetite.

Pistachio Salmon Teriyaki - overcooked

Crab and Shrimp cake - heavy, lacking much flavor.

Deserts were blah - americanized green tea ice cream (sweeter, creamier and more muted tea flavor), Mochi Ice Cream (chocolate ice cream in some sort of dumpling) and Yin Yan Goma Pudding (black and white sesame, though the black was green, so we were confused).

Not sure:

Tsuki Maki - Eel, tamago, and vegies. This would be pretty good for me if you hold the tamago.

Tropical Mango Maki - salmon, tuna and mango topped with avocado and raspberry sauce. I liked the first order quite a bit, but discovered they had forgotten the raspberry sauce, which came on the second order. A tad to sweet with the sauce for me.

Tsuki
1441 W Fullerton
Chicago

Sadly, the 1/2 price deal is over.

Actually went to Tsuki twice this weekend, once on Friday and again on Sunday.

Friday was a better experience. We were at the sushi bar next to two friends of the owner. We had:

Sea Bass Cartaccio - Sea bass with mushrooms and asparagus in a lemon butter sauce. Not a bad dish. Bass a little bland, but the veggies were great!

Sushi platter: Uni-ika, Spicy Scallop, Spicy Octopus, Beni-toro, Duck, Toro Sashimi, etc... Can't remember the rest. The uni-ika was great, and we ordered 2 more pieces each. The Beni-toro was good too (Beni-Toro is the fatty part of Salmon). Everything else was ok.

Scallop Kushi - Agree with Dickson. The scallop was a little overcooked.

They do have a few kinks to work out, but I am forgiving because the servers were truly apologetic. The sushi chefs were nice and entertaining too. When we returned last night, they were out of a lot of things including uni, toro, striped bass, tempura ice cream, etc.

How did I miss you? Actually, we were there early, and gone by 7, so I imagine that was how. Where are we going next week?

We were there at 7:30 both nights...

We had the pinenut roll too last night. It was interesting texturally, and I kinda liked it. Also had the volcano maki and the Hamachi Atama which was asparagus roll with hamachi and some sauce. It was just ok...

Something I want to try is the aji where they fillet it and serve it sashimi style and when they plate it, they stick a skewer through the head and tail. Visually interesting and since I like aji, I am sure it would be good.

A good note too is their oyster shooters. They use fresh oysters and actually shuck it to order. It was really fresh but since they still do not have a liquor license, it came without the sake in it.

I would go back again and give it another try. Growing pains are to be expected, but I have a fun time. Dinner on Friday took us 2 hours and 2.5 hours last night. =)

We were visiting, so I am not sure how long the meal took.

Clams were fresh too, and made the Moon Chowder particularly good.