Akai Hana

Get you in, take your hundred bucks, get you the heck out.

What happened to this place?

kenji wrote:Get you in, take your hundred bucks, get you the heck out.

What happened to this place?

Would you mind expanding on this a bit?

Walk in, 4 of us get get seated. Menus come. Waitress comes back in 2.5 minutes and asks if we are ready. We say no. Flag her down a few minutes later. She takes our food and drink order. Food comes out, two plates first 5 minutes after the order, drinks haven't arrived yet. Two hot plates are on the table with diners waiting for drinks. Drinks arrive. 5 more minutes then two other plates arrive. Waitress doesn't come over to ask if all is OK. Two of four drinks are empty. Waitress never appears. Wewant more stuff,and askan employee walking by if they'd get us a menu, they say yes. Menu doesn't appear. I walk back to front after five more minutes and grab a menu. Hostess tries to take it from me. I walk back with menu, stand up to make my point. Different waitress appears takes order for more food. Water decanter appears. Waitress comes over takes extrao order for more food. Food appears in 5 minutes. Waitress doesn't come back to check if the second order is OK. We clean our plates. Busboy comes over and clears plates. Waitress appears and asks the one diner who had a bento box if they want green tea or bean ice cream. Ice cream comes in 45 seconds with a check on a tablet.

Total time in restaurant 47 minutes.

Kinda like a massage on Elmhurst Road in that unicorporated area over there by Touhy in a stripmall.

I don't remember having serious service issues, but my last visit was less than impressive on the food front. I had remembered them being pretty good when they (and I) were young, but hadn't been there in years. Then I was up north about a year ago and popped in on a whim. I sat at the bar and was a little disturbed to watch the sushi "chef" pulling a saran wrapped packet out of the refrigerator that contained pre-sliced sashimi, which he arranged and sent out. I wouldn't go so far as to say the fish was awful, but it was only a notch or two above awful. I don't know if they changed or if I changed in the intervening years, but either way I felt pretty confident that there was no reason to return... at least for sushi and sashimi.

I've always found the place to be a bit crazed, service-wise, during peak hours but the food was fresh and consistent. I remember going there with a group of 10 on a Saturday night a couple of years back and service ground to a virtual halt. And I do hate that supremely annoying parking lot but if you circle long enough you can eventually secure a spot.

Food-wise, about a year ago I noticed a change. It was subtle but many of the items which had become my favorites seemed to be missing their edge. It's hard to explain but the flavors were no longer popping and the fish itself, while still seeming very fresh, just wasn't packing the same intensity of flavor that it once did. It just didn't scratch the itch like it used to.

Since then, Kamehachi in Northbrook has become my new north-suburban favorite. They do a great job, freshness is immaculate (even mid-week) and a great deal of care is put into the preparation. If you're disappointed in Akai Hana, I'd recommend giving it a try.

Kamehachi
1320 Shermer Rd
Northbrook, IL
(847) 562-0064

Akai Hana
3223 Lake Ave
Wilmette, IL
(847) 251-0384

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kenji wrote:Kinda like a massage on Elmhurst Road in that unicorporated area over there by Touhy in a stripmall.

Would you mind expanding on this a bit?

I'm pretty sure we'd mind.

Mike G,
for the moderators

HB wrote:

kenji wrote:Kinda like a massage on Elmhurst Road in that unicorporated area over there by Touhy in a stripmall.

Would you mind expanding on this a bit?

Mike G wrote:I'm pretty sure we'd mind.

Mike G,
for the moderators

Should massage have been in "quotes?"

Hello All,

This is my first post, but I've been lurking for a moment.

First, I am a vegetarian with a husband who eats everything (this includes elephant). We went to Akai Hana a few weeks ago for my birthday with about 15 others, including a 1 yr. old recovering from jetlag (recent return from Australia).

Our service was gracious and accomodating. I made a reservation for 8, but everyone else just kept appearing and they moved us to a larger section. The food kept coming. Our beverages were refilled, and empty plates disappeared to create space without me ever having to ask.

Surprisingly, several of our friends had not had sushi before. Our server, very patiently, answered questions. She even brought "Kid chopsticks" for one of the adults who wanted to try to eat with chopsticks.

One friend sent something back because she misunderstood what she had ordered, the server didn't flinch at all.


Food: Still a large number of vegetarian offerings that made me happy. My husband can be very picky about his fish and he was content, as usual.

They quickly took my birthday cake, from Sweet Mandy B's, into the prep area; arranged the candles, lit them and prompted the group to sing. They also brought plenty of plates and a knife.

I have seen, but not experienced, less than stellar service, but they were great on 2-24-07.

Cheers,

Ava

Thanks, Ava, for the report. No doubt I'll be eating at Akai Hana again sooner or later because it takes a lot for me to give up on a place that has such a good long-term record. Still, it's nice to know that their reported service problems may be intermittent or present only at certain shifts.

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ronnie_suburban wrote:
Since then, Kamehachi in Northbrook has become my new north-suburban favorite. They do a great job, freshness is immaculate (even mid-week) and a great deal of care is put into the preparation. If you're disappointed in Akai Hana, I'd recommend giving it a try.


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My wife and I eat at Kamehachi (Northbrook) every couple weeks because it's right around the corner form our home. The service there has also suffered as of recently, although I think the food is still terrific.

For example, the other night my wife's spicy tuna roll came to the table sans spicy sauce AND TUNA. It was just sushi rice rolled in nori. I guess the chef must have been paying attention to something else at the time. The waitress actually gave us a little hassle about replacing the rice roll.

If you want better food and service than Kamehachi and Akai Hana then goto either Sushi Kushi's Highland Park location or Lake Forst location.

The quality is incomparable. If you go into a Japanese Restaurant like Akai Hana where the majority of the sushi chefs are Hispanic, the waitstaff are nearly all Thai, and the establishment itself is owned by Koreans (more specifically, by the Unification Church run by Sun Myung Moon http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcece ... groups.htm) you have to ask yourself where the Japanese are in this Japanese restaurant. The Non-Japanese immigrant work staff is there not necessarily because their abilities result in better quality but because they mainly are CHEAPER.

From my experience the combination of Cheap and Sushi usually leads to bad things. Being Chinese myself, I can say that the Sushi restaurants owned by Chinese are usually the ones to definitely steer away from; the religious low-cost strategy adopted by Chinese purveyors coupled with the idea of fresh Sushi is a contradiction.

I always thought Akai Hana did teriyaki fish well. We don't ever order sushi because the fish is always so average. However, teriyaki tuna, salmon, or sea bass is usually well done. I find it funny that the Moonie's control the majority of the sushi fish supply for the Chicagoland area yet their own sushi restaurant serves such average fish. Am I the only one who finds it funny?

i was there for lunch recently too...it was amazing how bad the sushi was. tuna was definetly cut from frozen blocks of yellowfin...uni was turning brown...mackeral was so pickled or old that it was starting to flake...scallop, unagi, tai, hamachi, everything had something wrong with it. Hahaha the similarites between our visit and kenjii's are shocking...our server also asked us about one minute after being seated if we were ready to order...serving pace was very odd: both hurried and slow...i also had to go the front to retrieve a menu...server never asked if the sushi or apps or anythign was ok...and then at the end of our meal she just disappeared or died. When i went to the bathroom i found out why, she was sitting in the hallway eating lunch...i mean i have no problem with that, everyone needs to eat but shouldn't you wait until your tables are wrapped up before calling it a day?

i wished i had gone anywhere but there but my bf needed to eat right away...spent $140 for the lamest lunch ever...im pretty sure it wasnt like this before...been going to akai hana forever with fam...but now that i think about it, our last visit was maybe 2 years ago.

Sushi-kushi-toyo was nice...its like a hipper/cleaner traditional japanese restaurant. Atmosphere is better than other izakaya/sushi placesr...but food is better at sakura or sankyu

P.S. do the moonies also own trueworld (or truelife) seafood company?

I've never been thrilled with Sushi-kushi's Highland Park location but it's near my office, so I'll likely try it again before too long.

I agree that AH's teriyaki can be very good. I used to occasionally enjoy the teriyaki sea bass bento box for lunch but as I described above, it seems to have slipped somewhat compared to how it was a few years back.

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i_like_cereal wrote:P.S. do the moonies also own trueworld (or truelife) seafood company?

Yes.

I agree with Sinos comments about Sushi Kushi in Lake Forest. The food, including the sushi is excellant. In fact, I've frequented many of the North Shore sushi joints, including, but not limited to: Kamahachi in Northbrook, Kuni's in Evanston, and Akai Hana in Wilmette. Sushi Kushi has excellant fish and you can sit at the sushi bar and watch the sushi and sashimi prepared to order from the slabs of fish in front of you. All the sushi chefs are Japanese, some recently from Japan, and they speak fluent Japanese if you want some practice while you're eating. The owner is Kawabata-san. At both lunch and dinner, but especially at lunch, there is a significant percentage of Japanese customers and a relative by marriage, who is a native Japanese, says this is one of the most authentic Japanese restaurants she's been to in the Chicago area.

The decor is very inviting and nicely remodeled about 3 years ago. Within the last two weeks the size of the restaurant was almost doubled by adding the space of the store next to it. Most of the servers are also Japanese and the service is prompt and efficient. They also have a good selction of sake and Japanese beers.

My only complaint is that they have modestly raised their prices again. The sushi lunch special at $8.95 with 4 pieces of sushi, a spicy tuna roll, miso soup and tea was reasonable. It's now up to $10.00. The bento box lunch of shrimp tempura, beef or chicken teriyaki, California roll, vegetables, miso soup and tea at $9.95 is also a good value.

I can't comment on Sushi Kushi Too which is the Highland Park sibling, but I noticed driving by it's much smaller.

IMHO Sushi Kushi Toyo is the best of the North Shore. It was featured on Check Please a while ago, FWIW.

Sushi Kushi Toyo
825 S. Waukegan Road
Lake Forest
847-234-9950

IMO, the Lake Forest location is better than the Highland Park location but compared to Akai Hana they are both many times better.

Can someone please comment on Kuni in Evanston? I've heard its existence but no real commentary on its food.

For those of you that don't mind traveling to the Northern part of Chicago, I've found the sushi at Chiyo to be excellent and at a decent value considering its quality. If you get the sushi set for $25, you get 9 pieces of sushi plus a tuna roll. My 9 pieces included uni, hotate-gai (whole scallop), tai, salmon, hamachi, ebi, unagi, and two other pieces I can't remember. The quality is as good as Katsu's and the price is definitely more palatable.

sinos wrote:For those of you that don't mind traveling to the Northern part of Chicago, I've found the sushi at Chiyo to be excellent and at a decent value considering its quality. If you get the sushi set for $25, you get 9 pieces of sushi plus a tuna roll. My 9 pieces included uni, hotate-gai (whole scallop), tai, salmon, hamachi, ebi, unagi, and two other pieces I can't remember. The quality is as good as Katsu's and the price is definitely more palatable.

Interesting that you should bring up Chiyo. It's been discussed here quite a bit, but the focus has been almost exclusively on the kaiseki and nabemono. I don't believe there's been much, if any, discussion of the sushi.

sinos wrote:Can someone please comment on Kuni in Evanston? I've heard its existence but no real commentary on its food.

I don't think there have been any specific threadsd on Kuni's but it pops up from time to time, and I think it's generally pretty well regarded ... try a search on Kuni.

It's traditional sushi - I don't remember seeing anything with mayo or a lot of other "trendy" ingredients.

I talked about it here but I don't know that there's that much to say specifically about dishes-- it serves the standard repertoire and it's pretty much a B+ place, perfectly good quality, not great or mind-blowing, reasonable care in presentation and appropriate pricing for its level. Like Renga-Tei, it's the corner sushi place, and perfectly fine for that.

I think Kuni's is fantastic, and I think I have said it in a lot of different threads. The quality of the fish is top notch, the rice is exactly how it should be. It's not trendy rolls, but Kuni is there at the sushi bar every day (not Tuesdays, when it is closed). Even the cooked food is very good. I haven't eaten at every place in Chicago, but I do rank it higher than Mirai, Coast, Sai Cafe where I have eaten. Just good, clean, fresh, perfectly prepared fish.

sinos wrote:If you want better food and service than Kamehachi and Akai Hana then goto either Sushi Kushi's Highland Park location or Lake Forst location.

The quality is incomparable. If you go into a Japanese Restaurant like Akai Hana where the majority of the sushi chefs are Hispanic, the waitstaff are nearly all Thai, and the establishment itself is owned by Koreans (more specifically, by the Unification Church run by Sun Myung Moon http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcece ... groups.htm) you have to ask yourself where the Japanese are in this Japanese restaurant. The Non-Japanese immigrant work staff is there not necessarily because their abilities result in better quality but because they mainly are CHEAPER.

From my experience the combination of Cheap and Sushi usually leads to bad things. Being Chinese myself, I can say that the Sushi restaurants owned by Chinese are usually the ones to definitely steer away from; the religious low-cost strategy adopted by Chinese purveyors coupled with the idea of fresh Sushi is a contradiction.

I agree 100%!
BTW, run, don't walk from any Sushi place that gives you a piece of paper to mark what you want to eat. That is McDonalds Sushi and not what a Japanese Sushi Bar is all about.
FYI, I have eaten at Akai Hana, once.-Dick

budrichard wrote:BTW, run, don't walk from any Sushi place that gives you a piece of paper to mark what you want to eat. That is McDonalds Sushi and not what a Japanese Sushi Bar is all about.

Um... I've been to some pretty fantastic sushi bars in Tokyo that work on the paper and pencil ordering system. The Japanese folks who were eating there didn't seem to mind.

Dine with Kuni in Evanstan and you will see what the true concept is about, discourse with the Chef over what is best that day and how to have it served to you. Tokyo, LA, Chicago or wherever, ordering by filling out a form is not the original concept.-Dick

budrichard wrote:Dine with Kuni in Evanstan and you will see what the true concept is about, discourse with the Chef over what is best that day and how to have it served to you. Tokyo, LA, Chicago or wherever, ordering by filling out a form is not the original concept.-Dick

Ahhh, okay.

Well, next time I'm eating a block from Tsukiji, I'll be sure to tell them they're doing it all wrong and that the guys in Evanston can show them how it's really supposed to be done. Who knew I was eating McDonald's sushi this whole time!

leek wrote:I think Kuni's is fantastic, and I think I have said it in a lot of different threads. The quality of the fish is top notch, the rice is exactly how it should be. It's not trendy rolls, but Kuni is there at the sushi bar every day (not Tuesdays, when it is closed). Even the cooked food is very good. I haven't eaten at every place in Chicago, but I do rank it higher than Mirai, Coast, Sai Cafe where I have eaten. Just good, clean, fresh, perfectly prepared fish.

During college, I would eat at Kuni's several times a week. The food was solid, though it always annoyed my friends and me that we'd walk in and the staff would treat us as if we'd never been there before. You sorta figure that when you're polite and tip well that maybe the staff could at least crack a smile to acknowledge they'd seen you before. But go figure...

I make it back to Kuni's a few times a year when I'm in Evanston, mainly because I love the ebi shinju (I think that's how it's spelled...shrimp balls). While it's still good, I think it's gone downhill a bit. I've been served some fish that's a little fishier-tasting than it should be. And the service is about the same. (I don't except them to recognize me, but on busy nights there can be long delays between visits by your waitress.)

After the nouveau sushi I had Tuesday night at Indie Cafe, and our Evanston Lunch Group™ meal at Kansaku a week ago,I'm jonesing for traditional sushi. Gotta get back to Kuni's soon.

I apologize... I shouldn't be that snarky without at least explaining myself.

Sure, it's wonderful when you're at a bar eating something the instant it's sliced (especially when that something was swimming a few moments ago) with a chef to guide you. But the assertion that ordering on paper is somehow wrong or improper is absurd. On top of which, given that nigiri sushi in its modern incarnation, by most accounts, dates back at least to the 18th century, and is believed to have more ancient roots in the 4th or 5th century, I don't think anybody here is really in a position to say what the original concept was. Nor do I think that's relevant.

And while I don't mean to cast aspersions on Kuni's staff, there are an awful lot of highly trained chefs that run many Japanese sushi bars which, in addition to the counter, offer table service via paper and pencil... and I'm fairly certain they'd take more than a little offense at the suggestion that they're serving McDonald's Sushi while the guys in Evanston, Illinois are the ones who really know what they're doing.

I am reminded, however, of one particular dinner at a sushi bar just two blocks from from the single largest source of fresh fish in the entire world. As we were finishing up, an American couple came in and sat down at the other end, at which time the fellow loudly asked, "So... what's fresh today?"

The two chefs down on our end of the bar just groaned.

Dmnkly wrote:the single largest source of fresh fish in the entire world. As we were finishing up, an American couple came in and sat down at the other end, at which time the fellow loudly asked, "So... what's fresh today?"

The two chefs down on our end of the bar just groaned.

Tsukiji?