Ai Sushi, River North

After 6 weeks of not being able to have sushi, I came back to Chicago with one mission. Had a great dinner at Bob-San on Monday, and still had a craving. The nearest sushi joint was Kizoku, but they closed. So I gave love a shot... (Get it? Ai = love)

Anyways, my takeout order (I needed to catch up on Top Chef episodes) was salmon skin roll, beef asparagus roll, and a chirashi.

Beef asparagus roll was disappointing. Beef was too thick, sauce was too sweet and thick. The order came with a salad in the same box and rice (packed seperately). How was the portion? 3 rolls about 3 inches long...

Salmon skin roll was ... They put yamagobo in, which was wierd for me. If you do it right, you don't need yamagobo to add crunch. This is usually my favorite roll, but I did not even finish this one.

I left the best for last. The chirashi was very good. Especially because they had uni in it! One of the problems was that they had sliced cucumber on top, but it took up 1/3 of the surface area! I did not get that. The tamagoyaki was definitely house-made. A little too sweet, but it was a nice touch.

They also sprinkled shredded nori, kampyo and unagi on top of the rice (under the fish). This was a nice touch, because if you are like me, you usually end up with the rice untouched after eating all the fish. But this backfired this time. The mixture was a little salty, so I wished I had more rice. Luckily I have the rice from the beef rolls, so I mixed that in. A lighter touch with that mixture would be nice.

Anyways, there were other interesting dishes on the menu and I will probably give love another chance. (I hope you got it this time?!)

BTW... According to the menu, Ai uses a mix of premium brown rice and short grain rice. I liked it... The mix was pretty tasty...

Next craving... Korean BBQ...

Ai Sushi Lounge
358 W Ontario
Chicago, IL
312-335-9888
Website: http://www.aichicago.us/

We received an email coupon for 50% off at Ai, so we thought we'd give it a try tonight. Overall, we were really impressed.

We started off with two appetizers. The first was an otoro tartare that was served on top of some soft tofu and was topped with some scattered salmon roe. Nice and flavorful, but kind of a lay-up. The other appetizer was something really neat. It was an ice sake shabu shabu. We were served a plate of madai sashimi, with some thinly sliced vegetables placed on top of the fish. We wrapped the fish around the vegetables and then dipped the whole thing into an ice cold goblet of sake. After sitting in the sake, we then dipped the fish into a miso sauce served in a separate bowl. Really different, and really good.

We then moved on to some sashimi. Fatty salmon (just ok, unfortunately it had been torched, a treatment that was not advertised on the menu), shima aji (very good, one of my favorites), goldeneye snapper (unlike other snappers I've had, but very good), and otoro (served WAY too cold). Fish quality was above many other places. The cuts were a bit on the small side.

After sashimi we got one cooked item. Shell-on shrimp that had been baked in a salt crust with some rosemary. They cut the salt crust open at the table, making for a dramatic presentation. The aroma from the shrimp and the rosemary was a real treat. The shrimp themselves were very good, nicely picking up both the salt and herbal notes. Unfortunately you only get 5 shrimp for a dish priced at $15. A good dish, but I'm not sure it was $15 good.

To finish things off we got two maki. The first was crunchy salmon. Crab (with a C, not a K), cucumber, and avocado on the inside with salmon on the outside served on a bed of tempura crunchies. I really liked this roll, but I'm a strong believer that most things are better with tempura crunchies. The wife thought that this was the best roll she's ever had. The second roll was madai carpaccio. I forget what was on the inside, but the outside was madai with some sort of Japanese pepper and a bit of cilantro. This one was just ok, not nearly as good as the crunch salmon. One neat thing is that you get a "seasonal accompaniment" with each roll. With the crunchy salmon we got some diced madai mixed with tempura crunchies. With the madai ceviche we got salmon ceviche.

So, overall we really liked the place. It's definitely pricey, but I think that's mostly a function of the neighborhood it's in. The space is really lovely, apparently the new owners (the folks who own Ringo and Tsuki) didn't really need to do a lot to change it from the previous sushi place to occupy the space. Given the quality of the food, the atmosphere, and location I can see this place getting very hot once word of mouth gets out.

We had a very nice dinner at Ai last night. The highlight was a special of some sort of seasonal snapper (described as "Spring" snapper). It was a whole fish served either fried or sashimi. We went with sashimi and it was really delicious. The dish was $30, but the fish yielded quite a bit of meat, probably 10-15 slices of fish. Last night's otoro was melty, buttery good.

They didn't really seem that busy last night, which is a shame because Ai is one of Chicago's better places for sushi (IMO).

Can I ask how you got the 50% coupon? Thanks!

fenger wrote:Can I ask how you got the 50% coupon? Thanks!

It was when the restaurant first opened. I assume I got it because I'm on Tsuki's email list.