Sushi Purgatory - Heat

I never had any suspicions that something was amiss at Heat until my last visit. I’ve always touted it as one of the absolute gems of the culinary scene in Chicago. After going to Heat for the first time, I remember how much of an impact it had on my perspective about what constitutes serious fish. I had never seen live fish being dismantled right before my eyes and then have it immediately served to me. I could swear that I saw some of the slices twitching. Maybe I did. But my utopian perceptions about Heat were seriously challenged on my last visit.

We finally got around to owning up to my niece’s seriously belated graduation present of an elegant dinner on the town (she’s a 2nd semester college sophomore now). Trix & I figured the pre-med from Highland Park would enjoy a chic-y experience so we opted for Heat. What better choice?

Upon entering the restaurant, we were immediately greeted by the ice hostess. I might be from the old school but the minimum anyone should expect when walking into a fine restaurant is a smile. This is easily the most uninviting and frigid greeting in town. Afterwards, you are then subjected to the continuing freeze with your waiter who makes you feel like it is your honor to be there. Cold steel. Professional and yet void of a pulse.

The ambiance is antiseptic and sterile. The sushi chefs were the only members of the staff to radiate any sort of warmth.

We tried a chef’s selection all raw omakase, which included some wonderful fish varieties such as premium escolar, Kanpachi (wild yellowtail - the farm raised variety being called hamachi), and chu-toro. About the best sushi offering in the entire city is Heat’s hand rolls. They are off the charts stupendous. This time, we had a spicy tuna hand roll with a white truffle oil that was absolutely amazing. Whereas many sushi places around town often serve things such as hand rolls a little tardy, causing the nori to become soggy. Heat is all over that fact. The second the hand rolls have been formed they are handed to you. Overall, this is some of the best fish I’ve tried anywhere. The coordination between the sushi chefs and the service staff was seamless. However, the aesthetic of the plates while appealing, were certainly not noteworthy for a restaurant of this caliber.

If it weren’t for their exotic and pristine fish, I’d have to seriously reconsider ever returning or suggesting it to anyone again. Historically, I often enthusiastically endorse Heat but after last Thursday’s experience, I’m in some sort of purgatory about whether that will be a future habit.

So, what is one to do about this apparent dichotomy? I guess time will tell.

As I mentioned in a post relating to Renga-tei, one of the most important elements to a true Japanese dining experience for me is the sense that you have entered into someone’s home and that you are being treated as an honored guest. Since, as far as I know, Heat isn’t Japanese owned (I believe from Hong Kong?), this emphasis doesn’t seem to take on that sort of priority. If it does, it is presented in a hyper-polished, impersonal, scripted sort of way.
No matter how great the fish is, I’ll always feel like an outsider instead of a valued and cherished guest, which in the end is too important a factor to overlook.



Heat
1507 N Sedgwick St
Chicago
(312) 397-0668

As a fish enthusiast, particularly re: sushi-grade varieties, I wanted to clarify that Kanpachi is a young yellowtail, Kampachi is a farm-raised fish bred specifically for the sushi market, and that Hamachi can either be farm-raised or wild. Kampachi is a farm-raised product developed in Hawaii.

http://www.kona-kampachi.com/kona-kampachi.html

http://www.catalinaop.com/sushifish.htm

Thanks for the clarifying points, Jay.

I was worried my post would come off snotty (which was not my intention); Thanks for being kind - I've enjoyed many of your posts and reviews.

jay k-

Just as a point of clarification:

In Japanese->English transliteration,

Kanpachi = Kampachi.

There is only one possibly used element (usually written 'n', but sometimes as an 'm', pronounced between 'n' and 'm', and in the hirigana system looking sort of like an english-language 'h').

While these words may be used in english esoteric usage to mean 2 different things: (as you say "Kanpachi is a young yellowtail, Kampachi is a farm-raised fish bred specifically for the sushi market"), in reality they most assuredly stem from the same japanese word.

paul

Kenkyusha's (4th edition) didn't shed any light on this piscine controversey for me, but (social) science just might. The romanization of written Japanese (romaji) in its common forms, Kunrei-shiki, Nippon-shiki, and Hepburn, permits only n for a consonantal syllable termination, but Japanese phonology is a little recalcitrant. The moraic nasal n is usually a uvular nasal, but becomes m before p or b, so we typically part company with the romanizers and write Kampai! when we wish to betoken our enthusiasm for a cold Ebisu. I assume Kampachi/Kanpachi follows the same rules, so I'm throwing my lot in with paulfinamore. Still, I'd order the anago just to be on the safe side.