Ruk Sushi and Thai - Jefferson Park, Chicago

Family and I had dinner here Thursday evening. 4 adults and one 13 year old. Place has been open just about a week now.

Portage Park / Jefferson Park's first ever sushi restaurant and first ever Thai cuisine all rolled into one in a great storefront location. Lots of street parking with the meter needing to be fed until 9pm. Mostly tables for two and four but they pull them together for larger groups. Hip interior decorating, relaxed atmosphere, and at night the lighting is warm and cozy. By day I'd assume it's light and airy. Good sound system, they were playing some instrumental downbeat trance/techno/house music which was just right for the moment.

Menu is pretty large with lots of variations for appetizers, soups, makimono, sushi, and sashimi and thai entrees. The website link below will take you to their menu's current offerings. We ordered up Japanese and Thai dishes. Thai appetizer of skewered chicken, some fried dumplings, entrees were sashimi/sushi combo, sushi plate, red curry with chicken, extra large makimono and also ordered some extra wonton soup in the middle of dinner. Japanese entrees include a miso soup.

The soups were top notch with good broths, lots of flavor, and of course very fresh ingedients. The miso dashi seems to be made from scratch and not using Hon Dashi. Sashimi/sushi fish was of very good quality. Their fish product is in the same league as Rengai Tei , Midori, Tensuke quality. Seems they are using True World as one of their suppliers. The Thai dishes were great also harking back to the Thai Star, (State St. and Erie St, River North circa 1980's) tastes.

The place is BYOB, and there's a liquor store/tap room a few storefronts to the South on Milwaukee, with a darn good selection of quality beers.

Price points are just what the neighborhood needs. Great food and reasonable prices. In my opinion Ruk will become a "destination" eatery, which is just what the neighborhood needs.

Ruk Sushi and Thai Cuisine is opening today.

4431 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago, IL 60630
(773) 286-1900
DINE IN * CARRY OUT * DELIVERY
B.Y.O.B
HOURS
Mon - Thu 11:30am - 9:30pm
Fri - Sat 11:30am - 10:00pm
Sun 4:00pm - 9:30pm

website has their menu posted:

http://ruksushi.com/

We ordered some of the less adventurous dishes, because that is a good test of the quality of the kitchen -- can they make even those stand out? They were all excellent -- wonton soup, spring rolls, fried rice w/chicken, and pad see eiw w/beef. We will probably be ordering from here at least weekly -- want to try the the avocado maki next.

PortPkPaul wrote:We ordered some of the less adventurous dishes

Funny. I did the same thing, but I see Japanese sushi/sashimi as less adventurous than a Thai red curry.

If a place says "Sushi" in it's name it better do that really really well in my book. Which Ruk does do well.

We had a very pleasant dinner here last night. I'm not currently eating raw fish, so I decided to start by trying their Sweet Potato maki roll. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it and appreciated the care with which the roll was made and presented. Jonathan started with a Spicy Tuna roll. We both commented on the generous amount of tuna in the roll. He liked that the heat came from wasabi alone as opposed to a lot of mayo goop.

I went with their Panang Curry w/ Tofu, (spicy), as my entree. I didn't say "Thai-spicy," and was pleasantly surprised by how much heat was brought. The portion of tofu was generous compared to what I often receive when ordering a curry dish.

Jonathan had the Spicy Basil Noodles w/ Beef, (medium-spicy.) Per Jonathan, a better-than-average version of the dish. Not as spicy as mine, but it had a pleasant kick. Both dishes were prepared w/ noticable care and attention to presentation.

As mentioned above, we also liked the music/atmosphere. Service was welcoming & efficient. Another plus due to the fact that the room is very small - you can reserve through OpenTable. All & all, a nice addition to the area. Can't wait to go back when I can sample the raw fish.

One minor complaint - I ordered the Jasmine tea and was brought a very low-grade "tea dust" bag w/ little flavor. Would be nice if they would upgrade to Mighty Leaf or something similar...

Hit it tonight with a friend since Renga-Tei is closed on Tuesdays. Everything was excellent. The tempura were light and had a crispy but not overly battered texture and the shrimp dumplings were delicate. We ordered a few things off the special menu including oyster shots mixed with quail egg, ponzu sauce, and daikon - it was exquisite. Ditto for the special scallop sushi and white tiger roll.

Really, the only complaint we had was that the automatic paper towel dispensers in the bathroom only give out 3-4 inches of paper towel at a time.

Ate here the first month they opened and not terribly impressed. Food was average but prices a little high for the neighborhood and completely aloof uncaring apathetic waitress. It was much better as crave cafe, which i am sad to see go.

Am very suprised somebody thinks the prices high. I think this place puts out really nice food, in a nice setting for bargain prices. It is also byob. I have been there several times now for both takeout and dine in and have really enjoyed everything including the presention. Theres not many places you can get a flower carved out of a radish on your plate when your only spending 8 bucks! I haven't been to elephant on Devon in months...

The last time i ordered takeout, because i spent over 20 bucks they included a tray of california maki. There are coupons on the back of the takeout menu or available online.

What is the noise level like? We were thinking about meeting another couple here this weekend.

It's a small, popular place so it will be fairly noisy during peak times. I highly recommend making a reservation via OpenTable on weekends. There isn't much comfortable space for waiting.

I've never been bothered by noise here. I would say you could have a comfortable conversation even when busy.

The noise level was indeed fine. I was enamored with those nifty teacups. Unfortunately, I was not wild about the food. The sushi was incredibly bland and the mini egg rolls tasted like they were filled with Underwood deviled chicken. Not bad, just disappointing.