Review of Mizu

Tonight I had dinner at Mizu (315 W North Ave) in Old Town. They serve sushi and noodles but their claim to fame is yakitori -- Japanese skewered chicken. (They do offer more than just chicken.) Mizu has been open for about three weeks and since I live in Old Town, I decided to give it a try.

Seated at the marble bar in a new leather chair, I started with the "hamachi carpaccio" ($11), which consisted of slices of hamachi lightly cooked with ponzu sauce and cilantro. It was good but nothing special. For my meal, I chose six different types of yakitori: eringi mushroom, chicken wings, chicken meatballs, beef, beef tongue and duck. Each skewer was $2 to $3. The meal was accompanied by a platter of condiments: wasabi mustard, soy sauce, ponzu sauce, chili powder, black pepper and salt. Mizu doesn't have a liquor license yet (another month or two) so I went with a pot of green tea, which oddly refused to stay hot for more than a minute.

I don't consider myself an expert in Japanese cuisine but I've been to Japan and yakitori is actually one of my earliest dining memories there. That being said, I don't remember the chicken meatballs being a clump of chicken like it was at Mizu. The tongue and duck were the best of the group. Bottom line, the meal was average. Fortunately, the waiter/bartender was attentive and friendly.

The lure of sushi and a chic decor will make Mizu popular with the locals, but frankly, I'm sick of all the overpriced sushi places that fail to deliver. I will give Mizu credit for at least trying to be original.

Like so many of my dining experiences in Old Town, the best part of the evening was stopping by Fudge Pot for my usual two, chocolate-covered pretzels ... I love my Fudge Pot.

What other yakitoris were available that you did not order?

agnesfong wrote:What other yakitoris were available that you did not order?

They did have a list of seafood (mostly shellfish) that I completely ignored (I don't like shellfish). There were additional vegetable, chicken and beef yakitori. Fish aside, I think the ones I tried were a fair representation.

I tried Mizu last night. It’s an impressive space; they’ve obviously put a lot of thought and money into the décor. If only they put as much thought into the food.

The yakitoris were very small – two or three bites each. As the original poster noted, they come with a small tray of condiments (at least last night, it had teriyaki sauce, not soy sauce, but there were small pots of soy sauce separately on the table).

The duck breast (with a significant layer of fat) and the beef tongue were good, but I would have liked more to try in combination with the different condiments. Maybe that’s my fault – I should have ordered two of each. The eringi mushroom yakitori was rather tough; it might have benefited from a little more cooking.

An asparagus/salmon roe appetizer was unusual; while the individual elements were well executed, the flavors really didn’t come together – a case of the sum being less than its parts.

We also had the seaweed salad and the hot mushroom salad. Both were relatively bland. I’m used to having seaweed salads that have a distinct, but not overpowering flavor of sesame. It’s possible that someone in the room whispered the words “sesame oil” to the seaweed, but I doubt it. And the dragon maki roll featured soft shell crab with unfortunately heavy breading.

Finally, we had a vegetable udon soup. Fine, nice chicken broth, nice chewy noodles, but really nothing special.

I found it amusing that a waiter at a Japanese restaurant, who admitted he was still hung over from the night before (at 8:15 pm), couldn't pronounce togarashi.

To their credit, one of the managers came by after the meal and asked for specific opinions on the meal; I shared basically the same comments I’ve posted here.

So, nothing was bad, but nothing was particularly good, either. My current favorite yuppie sushi place is still Indie Café, and GWiv introduced me to an excellent more traditional sushi place, Tampopo. I concur with shakezula’s summary that “Bottom line, the meal was average.” At least it’s still BYOB – we had a nice bottle of sake – but its BYOB days may be limited.

Mizu Yakitori & Sushi Lounge
315 W. North Ave., Chicago
(312) 951-8880

Indie Cafe
5951 N. Broadway Ave., Chicago
(773) 561-5577

Tampopo
5665 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago
(773) 561-2277

I had the pleasure of meeting Chef Matsumoto at Murasaki, where he's lovingly known as "ero jiji" (don't look it up). He's working at Mizu, and completely missing the boat on this gem of a restaurant, I asked him if he still does Kaiseki Ryouri. He'll need to be notified a week in advance with a minimum of 5 people at $85 each. There was much shochu imbibed at this point, but if I remember correctly, he mentioned that the meal will have about 7 or 8 courses.

Anyway, I'm trying to gauge interest in holding a Kaiseki Ryouri event at Mizu. I have a feeling different arrangements can be made on the price point and number of courses. Let me know and I'll set something up in the events calendar.

More info:
Matsumoto - Chicago's only All-Kaiseki Japanese restaurant
The Unrequited Quest of the Impossible Restaurant: Matsumoto