Kennyz wrote:

Kennyz wrote: Six tiny (but delicious) turnips were also 3 bucks, ...

At the Green City Market on Saturday, Heritage Prairie Farm was selling turnips this same size: 4 bite-sized turnips for a nutty $3. Turns out Chizakaya's turnips are an incredible bargain.

and delicious...I'd never tasted those tiny turnips (I'm not sure I've EVER had a turnip) and it was possibly my favorite bite of the tasting menu.

Dinner at Chiyakaya last night, and oh boy, was it a delight. More than any restaurant in the past several months, Chizakaya's opening excited me most. I was geeked to try it.

Pleased with the front dining room and bar area. Found it super comfortable and inviting. Lighting and sound is perfect. Our waitress was informative and insightful all night long. When pressed for recs, she was honest and had solid reasoning behind each suggestion.

My group of three started out with cocktails, an interesting list all incorporating sake or shochu. Loved the balanced sweetness of my Ume Ume, made with sweet potato shochu, ginger bitters, ginger ale, plum juice.

Starter snacks were the crispy pork with slow-poached egg, puffed pig ears and Japanese sweet potato fries w spiced mayo. The fries were a huge hit. Addictive and bursting with really fresh Japanese sweet potato flavor. Wasn't crazy about the pig ears. Too chewy and didn't taste of togarashi at all. The crispy pork was delightful, and the perfectly silky soy-sauced egg was wonderful.

For kushi yaki, we got chicken skin and sweet sausage. Chicken skin was alright, but the sweet sausage was the star. Had a delightful sweet 'n' sour kielbasa-type flavor to it.

We then got one item from each of the Steamed, Fried, Grilled, Roasted section. We asked our waitress to surprise us with her favorite item from each section. She did not disappoint. Steamed pork gyoza was filled with warm broth and tender shredded pork. Reminded me of a really stellar soup dumpling!!! I wanted to lick the crumbs out of the bowl containing the corn fritters with chile mayo. Those crunchy little nuggets were all kinds of amazing. Grilled hamachi collar with daikon and ginger was so-so. Due to their not providing us with utensils, we opted to hack at the fish with spoons and chopsticks. We managed. I didn't care at all for the plate of roasted Japanese mushrooms. But that's just a flavor preference for me. My friends loved it a little too much, I think.

Dessert: yuzu cake with green tea ice cream. The sponge cake was insanely spongey. Like they tore off pieces of an actual sponge and infused it with yuzu. Although they must not have infused very much, cause the "cake" didn't taste like much of anything. I saw taro rice pudding on the menu and my eyes bulged. Though the pudding was a beautifully purple sight to behold, flecked with shredded coconut, I wish it had more taro flavor.

All in all, great time at Chiyakaya, and I can't wait to go back. Much more I want to try, including the congee and the ramen especially.

My husband and I were also at Chizakaya last night and would like to add our kudos to the chorus of positive feedback here. We live just around the corner and so were very anxious for this to be a great experience, and we weren't disappointed. We also had some of the innovative cocktails (Ume Ume and the Shiso Mojito), and the pickled vegetables were a particularly good snack to enjoy with these light and refreshing drinks. We sampled around the menu and had mostly hits and few misses, but hope this place will be around long enough for us to explore every corner of the list. While pacing was a little hurried for my Friday night relaxed mood, the service was so pleasant and enthusiastic that it would seem churlish to complain. All in all, a very welcome addition to the neighborhood.

LTH,

If Chizakaya's (Chi/izakaya) goal is to bring the conviviality of an izakaya to Chicago they are seriously missing the mark. Distant service on a slow Saturday night, noticeable variation of same menu item plate to plate and total cost, regardless of multiple $3 items, that caused a slight widening of eyes amongst all four at the table.

Certainly there were scattered tasty interesting bites, hard not to love crisp chicken skin on a skewer, but $3 for 3-cents of skin- come-on, puffed pig ear- crunchy, light, completely flavorless without liberal application of togarashi. I could go on picking menu items apart, but suffice to say unless I specifically was in the mood for a Bob Harris -cynar, old overholt rye, carpano, antica sweet vermouth, bittercube blackstrap bitters- perfectly grilled squid with yuzu vinegar or crispy pork belly with soft poached farm fresh egg, I will not be back anytime soon.

Chizakaya at first blush, not a fan.

Not sated nutritionally or intellectually we stopped at Diner Grill for burgers, crisp hash browns and a bit of back and forth with the grill man.

Enjoy,
Gary

Diner Grill
1635 W Irving
Chicago, IL
773-248-2030

This was my 3rd visit to Chizakaya, and my enthusiasm (imho) after the dust has settled is limited to the following:
- Cocktails from the menu were excellently executed, balanced and nuanced, with Violet Hour rock ice for perfectly iced but not diluted cocktails. On par with any of the craft cocktail houses around the City, but better priced at $9. Would go back just for cocktails and sake.
- Excellent selection of cold artisan sake as well with reasonable price points.
- Crispy pork belly with poached eggs were a perfect contrast of texture and taste
- Ramen - I remember the noodle to be a little softer than I like, but the stock and poached egg were a solid complement pairing of richness and flavor.

Not to say that there aren't other noteworthy and likable dishes. Just kind of feel me wanting instead of sated if not by quantity than at least by quality. Quality is preferable, then I would return time and again, even if I have to count out my piggie bank.

Beware of wine pours (non-sake variety), they *appeared/seemed* to be minature in scale, perhaps bordering on a 5 to 6 oz. pour at best.

*Left the pipette at home*

There's nothing miniature about a 5 to 6 oz. wine pour. I doubt very many places pour glasses with more than 6 oz. A four ounce pour of most wines (say about 13.5 alcohol) contains about 90% of the alcohol in a 12 oz. can of Budweiser.

Harold makes the "house ramen" for WCIU

http://www.wciu.com/youandme.php?assetID=10003728

I hope Chizakaya turns into a successful venture because he expressed interest about opening a traditional ramen-ya during my last visit. I would love to sit down at a counter and watch a chef bang out a steaming bowl of ramen for me.

According to their Twitter feed, Chizakaya is now taking reservations, making me far more likely to finally eat there.

Had my first meal at Chizakaya tonight. Business was pretty good for a Monday night, but there were still some open spots for my party of two.

Crispy pork belly with slow poached egg is one of the best things I’ve eaten all year.

Ramen was especially satisfying with the colder weather making an appearance. The chef mentioned they are still perfecting it, and have made an effort to make the noodles more al dente recently, perhaps addressing some of the points made up thread. The dish seemed just about perfect to me in the form served tonight, and I definitely see more of that in my future.

Duck “congee,” with nicely tender, rare slices of duck over a multigrain bed of rice that (as chezbrad noted) was more risotto than congee, was almost equally satisfying, though perhaps not an immediate repeater for me.

Dessert of dark chocolate ganache with black sesame ice cream and some puffed barley on the side made an excellent not-too-sweet finish.

Tried a couple of really nice craft cocktails as well, including the excellent cynar-rye-vermouth-bitters concoction noted by others. And learned the rather sad story behind the wall art dog-wolf which apparently inspired the “station”-named cocktail on the menu (short version: an old Japanese story tells of a dog/wolf that met its master at the train station everyday; one day the master dies, the dog/wolf keeps coming back to the station every day until it too dies – so why not make a slightly sweet, slightly bitter cocktail in honor of it?)

Friendly, attentive, welcoming service; cozy space; reasonable prices for the quality and quantity, at least to my perhaps undersized-by-LTH-standards appetite.

Chizakaya after my maiden voyage, count me a fan!

Chizakaya is now experimenting with weekly specials. I was pleasantly surprised last night to see Okonomiyaki and Seafood Curry Ramen on the board last night. It is hard to find okonomiyaki in the city. Hamamatsu in Andersonville has an "okay" version, but Chizakaya nailed it perfectly. Egg and scallion pancake with shrimp, octopus, bacon and a small drizzle of soy-mirin mayo. It reminded me of my recent trip to Tokyo where I ate okonomiyaki as a mid-day cafeteria snack while roaming their ridiculously large shopping malls. The seafood curry ramen was delicious too. A light Japanese curry broth with giant prawns, scallop and fingerling potatoes. I had seafood ramen in the past and it was loaded with the sea (lobster, oyster, shrimp etc.) in a shio broth. I thought the curry broth was a better companion than my previous experience.

I am also impressed with their cocktail program. I occasionally curl up at Tiny Lounge when in the mood for a cocktail, but Chizakaya now offers another great option in the neighborhood.

FYI: Closed Jan 9-16

We finally checked out Chizakaya the other night and I came away impressed.

We started with a series of items from the "starters" and "cold" sections of the menu. The much lauded hamachi with bone marrow deserves every accolade it was received. Bonito tataki was a nice, bright dish. Sweet potato fries with spicy mayo were well fried and brought to the table piping hot. My only disappointment was the crispy pork with poached egg. The pork was sort of bland and I thought the dish overall was a little hard to eat. You could dip the pork into the egg but it didn't really pick up much of the egg, so you sort of lost the whole point of the dish.

From the skewers section we did the wagyu beef with lime and wasabi, the chicken skin, and the sweet sausage. I would imagine these are all intended to be "drinking foods" and they did, in fact, pair well with our cocktails (really good cocktails I might add).

We finished with a couple of hot dishes. The grilled squid was simply done and exceptionally tender. A dish of grilled tofu with XO sauce and baby sardines was interesting and grew on me as I ate it. The little sardines were crunchy and added quite a bit of funk. Definitely not for everybody.

We finished with two desserts. The first was a special of a waffle with some sort of bean creme anglaise. The other was honey toast served with tres leches ice cream. Split decision on these, as my wife really enjoyed to waffle while I much preferred the toast.

Service was warm and friendly throughout the course of our leisurely dinner (we were there for over 2 hours, but didn't really notice the time going by). For the food above plus 4 cocktails our check was about $120 after tax but before tip which I thought was reasonable given was we had.

Cooked Japanese food is among my favorite things to eat, so I have been excited to try this place, but I had an up and down meal here last night.

The hits were the simpler plates: duck heart, chicken skin, and Wagyu beef cheek skewers along with the hamachi kama. I also enjoyed the kimchi soup with mushrooms.

I thought the hamachi with bone marrow was a miss. The plum sauce was completely MIA when I tasted it, and the marrow was easily missed in some pieces. One bite where everything came together was good, but this was uneven and the hamachi on its own was uninteresting.

The shishito peppers were not cooked through (verging on raw in spots). The smelt appetizer with roe was bland and not very crispy. I should have read the jesteinf's post about the crispy pork and onsen egg. All the technique was used to get the pork crispy and it did not taste much of pork. It was difficult to eat and when I saw it, I immediately ordered rice. Unfortunately, this didn't come out until 10 minutes later when we were basically done. They serve this with spoons, but I'd much rather dip something into runny egg than to eat it alone with a spoon. This is a puzzling dish.

The baby octopus skewer was fine, but underseasoned. The fried pig ears basically tasted like ever so slightly porky onion rings - but really also lacked much flavor. The jalapeno dipping sauce helped, but you wouldn't know what you were eating if it weren't on the menu.

The cocktails we tried were very good.

To sum up, my dining companion said it would be a fine place to pop into for skewers and cocktails. The skewers were better, on the whole, than other dishes, but I'm not sure there's enough variety (given the small portions) to really make a meal of these. If you order carefully, you can do fine here, but while there were some high points, but I'm not racing back.

I had a fantastic meal here this past Tuesday. I had purchased a tasting menu through popsugar and wasn't sure what to expect. My fiancee and I did not plan to eat here but we were passing the address when I remembered I had purchased said deal.

As always, we started off with drinks
SHIBUYA STATION in Spring Old Weller Bourbon, Okinawa Kobuto Floral Syrup, Bittercube Cherry Bark Vanilla Biters
PAMPELMUSE Rehorst Milwaukee Gin, Lime, Housemade Grapefruit Liqueur

The ice...sphere(?) was a very nice touch.

Oysters, tobiko, ponzu, sriracha, scallion

Refreshing, and yet, had a nice spicy kick

Puffed pig ears, togarashi

I know G Wiv had an issue with this - I loved it. I could not stop popping these. Although the togarashi tasted good, the application made the pig ear too flimsy for my taste.

Pear & prosciutto

Off menu, so I'm not positive what was drizzled, but the pears actually distracted from the dish.

Takoyaki, bonito flakes, mayo


KUSHI YAKI (Tasty Tidbits on Skewers)


Shishito peppers, bonito & sweet corn

peppers were great and I honestly only had one bite of the corn due to my fiancee devouring it - She loved it.

Sweet sausage


Baby octopus


This one did my head in. Cost 3 dollars, and I'm still not sure if this was a ripoff or not. I loved it, honestly. But look how small they are! I'm so confused.

Chicken wing, slow poached egg, Tokyo negi

Amazing. Chicken was tender, garlic-y and just delicious.

Crab congee, corn, parmesan


House ramen, braised pork, slow poached egg, fish ball

Sorry, but no words can describe this. My father would make Top Ramen at least twice a week, and that's all I had ever known. This blew me away. Pork was amazing, egg made the dish creamy, and the noodles? Jeebus...

Desserts
Strawberry, yuzu sorbet, brown sugar cookie

Refreshing. Fiancee couldn't wait and had to dig in.

Sesame fried mochi

Not what I was expecting, and because of this, I don't think I enjoyed it. All I've known of mochi is what I buy from Trader Joe's; ice cream. This was warm and doughy.

I'm extremly happy I went to Chizakaya. It's the sort of place where I feel comfortable taking the fiancee out for a nice dinner, or going with several of my friends for drinks and a bite.

incite wrote:I had a fantastic meal here this past Tuesday. I had purchased a tasting menu through popsugar and wasn't sure what to expect. My fiancee and I did not plan to eat here but we were passing the address when I remembered I had purchased said deal.

Looks awesome. I've never been but your account really makes me want to try it (and it's been on my list for a while). Thanks, for the post and the beautiful pics.

=R=

Abortions for some, miniature American flags for others!

I had dinner at Chizakaya the other night--my third visit there.

Some quick notes:
* The fried pigs ears and the pork belly with poached eggs continue to wow. My tip: Dip the pigs ears into the leftover poached egg from the pork belly.
* The okonomiyaki was tasty, but a bit thicker than I though it was supposed to be. (Maybe 3/4" thick.) Does anyone know what's typical? (I'm a huge fan of crunchy edges on crepes, pancakes, etc., so I would have preferred it a bit thinner.)
* We got the seafood curry ramen and it was a bit of a miss primarily because I couldn't help thinking the noodles were dry/store bought. Why? The noodles had that tell-tale kink to them. I wouldn't have minded if it weren't for the fact that they also seemed a bit overcooked.

I continue to adore this place. With Barrelhouse Flats, I have a pretty solid one-two punch that is just what my neighborhood needed. Shared a lovely meal of pigs ears, octopus balls, a creamy scallop and crab app, shishito peppers and duck hearts, finished with a 3-way split of a bowl of ramen to which they graciously added their perfectly cooked egg for each of us. Heaven. This place needs more love in my opinion. I go about once a month and it's always solid, with an owner who loves what he's doing and who takes good care of his customers.

cilantro wrote:Abortions for some, miniature American flags for others!

This almost made me spit Diet Pepsi on my keyboard. Well played.

"Well, I believe I'll vote for a third-party candidate."
"Go ahead, throw your vote away!"

boudreaulicious wrote:This place needs more love in my opinion. I go about once a month and it's always solid, with an owner who loves what he's doing and who takes good care of his customers.

I'm glad you wrote this and I completely agree. This place started slow for me with lots of hit or miss things, but they're over their growing pains and they continue to produce some wonderful food. Their house ramen has a real depth of flavor with it's wonderful pork belly and the slow poached egg bringing everything together. The skewers continue to delight and the pigs ears which were hit or miss for me last year are now always light, crispy and have surpassed chicharrons for me as a must have snack.

Harold's working hard people, give him some love.

mbh wrote:Harold's working hard people, give him some love.

And such a nice guy, too.

Best octopus balls in town. I love the version I recently had at Torishin, pictured here, but Chizakaya's rendition was vastly superior--excellent octopus texture and not overly sauced.

Happy hour at Chizakaya became happy hours*. Though we all came for drinks (and ordered every cocktail on their list), the focus quickly turned to their food and this LTHer was not complaining. Chizakaya has now become my go-to everything - regardless of what I'm considering.

For starters, we had:

Puffed Pig Ears togarashi

Enjoyed this in my previous review and my endorsement remains the same

Crispy Pork slow poached egg

Crispy outside and fatty inside, this dish has now become a must for every visit.

Takoyaki bonito flakes, mayo

Different presentation - just as delicious

Mussels

New dish and it wasn't my favorite. Mussels themselves were a bit bland, but the broth packed a nice punch when paired with the accompanying rice (not pictured).

Foie Gras





Extremely flavorful yet not overpowering. Very difficult for me to describe. Another favorite, though.

Hamachi bone marrow, garlic, ume boshi

Another good dish on its own, but when figured in our dinner, another of my least favorite.

Okonomi-yaki bacon, squid, shrimp, ginger



This pancake blew me away.

Tonkotsu Ramen

I can't say enough about Harold's ramen. I thought the absence of his house ramen's egg would detract from this dish, but it didn't at all. Noodles were soft and creamy, and pork was perfect. I loved it.

Chicken Gizzards & Chicken Skins


Chicken Skins


Chicken Gizzards


Oyster Shooter



This was pretty incredible. Took about 3 minutes for everything to hit you. First, you tasted the drop of hot sauce, then came the salt, next was the creaminess...It just kept building.

Mom's Spare Ribs




Gyoza


Honey Toast tres leches ice cream, sailor jerry rum honey

A bit too sweet for me.

Yuzu Sorbet


Bread Pudding



Though we ordered the other desserts, this was sent out by the kitchen and it was my favorite.

Chizakaya is easily one of my top 5 restaurants. A beautiful space, great drinks, fantastic food, and extremely affordable. If you're going, let me know.

I will gladly join you.

I'll reserve judgment until I visit - but what you've photographed and described seems more carefully prepared and presented than almost anything I've had at the myriad izakayas and ramen joints of New York City (maybe I'm going to the wrong places). Can't wait to try Chizakaya.

incite wrote:Happy hour at Chizakaya became happy hours*. Though we all came for drinks (and ordered every cocktail on their list), the focus quickly turned to their food and this LTHer was not complaining. Chizakaya has now become my go-to everything - regardless of what I'm considering.
...
Chizakaya is easily one of my top 5 restaurants. A beautiful space, great drinks, fantastic food, and extremely affordable. If you're going, let me know.

I will gladly join you.

I love Chizakaya & don't get there often enough. I had a conflict on Friday or I would have happily joined you. Photos look awesome & I clearly missed a great meal. I promise I'll be there next time!

What a most excellent happy hour. Thanks to the LTHers who leant their warmth, conversation and ordering power. One of the things I love about Chizakaya is that the menu isn't very extensive, yet because of the depth of so many of the dishes, there is an extremely pleasant feeling of delicious meandering that comes from ordering round upon round of items (and, of course, from more cocktails).

At the start of the evening, I half-joked that we should organize a standing happy hour at Chizakaya, say, the third Friday of every month. This most recent knock-out visit is making me think that maybe my idea was not at all silly. Count me in for next time.

This place is near the top of my list, those oyster shooters look awesome.

cilantro wrote:Abortions for some, miniature American flags for others!

this wonderful Simpsons reference needed more love, so well done.

Looks great. Terrific place to have in the neighborhood. I had a remarkably similar, downscale version of the same meal at Sankyu Saturday in the NW burbs. Sankyu is a place I've been wanting to visit for years, though never was close with time. Entirely enjoyable spot with a vast menu of this kind of stuff that would be right at home (and right down the middle, not extraordinary, not bad) in LA's sprawling South Bay. I urge Chizakaya and Arami fans to check it out.

Which brings me to the only real point of the comparison: that tonkotsu broth doesn't look quite the part. Sankyu's broth was a complex, clean ivory number that was close to some of the better renditions I've had in Hawaii and LA, complementing high quality thickish noodles -- though the accoutrements were lacking at best, knocking the bowl out of any serious discussion. The server showed real pride in the broth when I commented on it. Grilled items, including saba and tsukune, also stood out.

JeffB wrote:Looks great. Terrific place to have in the neighborhood. I had a remarkably similar, downscale version of the same meal at Sankyu Saturday in the NW burbs. Sankyu is a place I've been wanting to visit for years, though never was close with time. Entirely enjoyable spot with a vast menu of this kind of stuff that would be right at home (and right down the middle, not extraordinary, not bad) in LA's sprawling South Bay. I urge Chizakaya and Arami fans to check it out.

Which brings me to the only real point of the comparison: that tonkotsu broth doesn't look quite the part. Sankyu's broth was a complex, clean ivory number that was close to some of the better renditions I've had in Hawaii and LA, complementing high quality thickish noodles -- though the accoutrements were lacking at best, knocking the bowl out of any serious discussion. The server showed real pride in the broth when I commented on it. Grilled items, including saba and tsukune, also stood out.

JeffB, curious what you'll think of Chizakaya'a tonkotsu. I know Sankyu's bowl well, since Mama happy_stomach lives nearby. I had figured tonkotsu just wasn't for me, based on the version at Sankyu--yes, ivory, yet without the rich depth of flavor. Maybe Chizakaya's is less traditional, but I found it an entirely different thing that really wowed me.

Sankyu tonkotsu (Did I just post this in another thread? Can't remember.):

Just had a :facepalm: moment reading this Yelp review of Chizakaya.

I'm over the moon for Chizakaya. Everything I had on a recent visit was fresh, carefully prepared and delicious. Takoyaki was the best version I've ever had - nicely caramelized on the edges and well set inside while remaining tender. It avoided the great pitfall of most takoyaki I've had - goopy, nearly raw interiors.

Wagyu skewers were just awesome, cooked perfectly medium rare, tender and bursting with buttery beef flavor. Shishitos were also well treated, blistered and salty, draped in smoky Bonito shavings.

House special ramen was probably the best version I've had in Chicago city proper. Not sure where the purists stand (would love to hear Pigmon's take), but i found that the broth possessed a pleasant if not sublime depth, and avoided the cardinal sin of being too salty. The pork was crispy belly, perfectly cooked and meltingly tender. Ditto the slow cooked egg. Noodles were a tad overcooked and clumpy, but I didnt mind. This may not be the purest bowl of ramen, but I'll be damned if it wasn't as delicious as the 20 dollar bowl I had at Ippudo in NYC.

Drinks were great and two of us got out for about $70 - a ridiculous deal for the quality and quantity of food.

Chizakaya is putting out some lovingly prepared Izakaya style food. It's a gem in Chicago and should be appreciated.