Came here with a fellow foodie friend for restaurant week.. $22 bucks for a prixe fix sushi lunch? Hell, yes!
The service was impeccable - staff was super attentive, even though we were spending mere pennies.
Fish was very fresh and portions were more than plentiful. Â Decor and ambiance was fantastic, as well.
There is valet parking through the hotel. Â Make sure you get validated!
We went there for Chicago Restaurant week 2013.
It's a tiny but elegant dining place; so you better make a reservation first.
From the appetizers to deserts, we enjoyed the food and ambiance so much. They don't rush you even though it's such a small place; they serve food at the right time, no pressure from the beginning till the time we leave.
$22 lunch during the Chicago Restaurant week is such a good deal. Each cuisine is well decorated, many wow wow wows...
The best part of the whole set is the scallop. I have never had such a great taste of scallop for a loooong time.
Sashimi tastes fresh, I guess. But the worst part is the sushi rice. I can't believe it's so hard to swallow; sushi rice is dry and hard. I don't know why they can take good care of every part of food from decorating, taste, sauces, and food selection but why they made such a mistake on making sushi rice?! I really hope they can improve that when we visit next time.
Sorbet wrapped with seaweed sounds funny but it tastes not bad at all.
Servants there are all nice and willing to explain each cuisine but their uniform(?) looks funny. It's like they wear a sexy pajama working in the high-end Japanese restaurant. Really odd and not professional. Maybe it's a good benefit for male customers?!
Excellent value for $. Â The price you pay for Masaki fresh fish is the same as going to a reputable steak house. Â Instead of quality steak, you get quality fish. Â Nobu begone, Chicago has Masaki.
The posted photos for restaurant week says it all -- the "wow," "ahh," and "nice". Â Plenty of food for the $22 price.
$14 Shou Mei White for the pot -- the most expensive tea I had to date. Â Quality is obvious. Â Lots of unique tea selection that is not offered in Chicago.
Soy Sauce -- house made
VENUE: Â Purse has its own chair. Â No overcrowding. Â No rushing. Â The circle chandelier was featured on "Million Dollar Listing" show. Â Nice wood paneling that absorbs sounds and prevents echo. Â Marble or granite table, or counter.
TASTE: Â Due to impeccable quality, there is NO after taste from the fish or the tea. Â Flavor is subtle that makes you pay attention to what you are eating. Â
Caution: Â If you are used to fried roll with grease, like salty soy sauce, jacked up sushi with jalapeno or sauce....Masaki is NOT the place for you.
Request to Masaki: Â Silence the fridge door closure please as it is ruining my zen moment. Â Either re-arrange fridge content to minimize open/close, or a better method of creating the dishes.
Okay. So I never write reviews for restaurants, but I must for the sake of promoting this wonderful restaurant.
Previous reviewers have already mentioned that Masaki isn't your everyday, go-to Japanese restaurant. Masaki is for those who care about the superb quality of food, the presentation and the overall 'flow' of the meal. I opted for the Omakase menu, which I highly recommend for all first-timers. Having said that, the composition of the Omakase menu leans toward stronger flavors (Gurage Gomae, Sunomono(duh!), Toro Tataki, etc), and I personally appreciate subtler flavors (like Black cod in aka-miso, etc). Nevertheless, the whole Masaki experience was well-balanced and the staff was very attentive. Masaki's Sashimi pieces were one of the BEST in Chicago. Their cocktail and sake listings are also fantastic. I highly recommend Masaki to all Japanese food lovers, especially those who pride themselves on their sophisticated palates.
Most other reviewers gave detailed reviews of the food, so I will just underscore that this is a Michelin-Star-type-place. Â The prices are high, the portions are small, the food is unique, beautiful, and delicious. Â
The restaurant is VERY small (22 seats I think), and there may have been more staff than diners on the Saturday night that I ate there. Â Eating here was an experience for sure, but I will not be back - I am not a super adventurous eater and get a little freaked out when the heads of the animals I am eating are on my plate!
Sign, I can't help thinking it's the place about the hype and not about the food. Â The foods were fine but it's not the real deal that you get in Japan. Â Masaki just put expensive ingredients and decorations to justify the price. Â The course were not authentic Japanese but more like Asian fusion. Â Maybe my expectation was too high for this restaurant.
Review Source:This is a tough review to write. Â
We done out frequently- 4-6 times per week, and Masaki is less than 1/2 block from home. Â So we were every enthusiastic about the new addition to the neighborhood! We ordered the tasting menu (around $120) after the server's recommendation. Portions were huge. Â All very artfully presented. Â While I read the menu and knew exactly what I was getting, I don't think this is a sustainable business model in this neighborhood. Of all of the courses, each comprising at least two items, so at least 10 things total, just one was cooked(black cod). Â Two courses included raw egg yolk. Â Everything was very fresh and lovely, but I don't think this is something the Chicago dining scene will support. Â
I will add that there was only one other table of diners in the restaurant that night.
The room is beautifully decorated.
I will be shocked if Masaki doesn't have a Michelin star in the very near future.
The concept of the menu layout is fantastic. Even if you don't opt for the omakase menu, the main courses are presented as groups of different little bites so you will get to try a lot. I started with the rare sashimi from the Chef's Signature Dish menu, which was incredible, but NOTHING compared to the main course of sea urchin-squid, scallop, and sweet shrimp nigiri with assorted other sashimi. The fish was extremely fresh, the presentation was spectacular, and there are many interesting bites that you probably won't find anywhere else in Chicago - jellyfish noodles, sting ray, etc.
I don't normally go for dessert at a Japanese restaurant, but Masaki is an exception. The seaweed-wrapped sorbets were my favorite - very unique and a nice light finish. Some of my dinner companions opted for tea, and they were brought a delicious little assortment of fruit, cookies, and meringues.
Finally, the service was extremely attentive - they even pull up purse stools for the ladies. The service is a bit "hovering" at times, but they are trying very hard.
Let me preface this by saying that this isn't your typical ritzy-glitzy re-imagined sushi bar experience. This is kaiseki-style, mini multicourse indulgences featuring the BEST and FRESHEST pieces of sashimi that you'll ever have. I hadn't experienced this level of melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness since Katsu and my recent trip to Cali. Thus begins one of my long, coveted 5-star worthy review...
Â
While their extravagant omakase dinner price tag is enough to leave your head spinning, let me tell you that the time to go is LUNCH! Yes, hold onto that huge wad of cash-- for a third of dinner, get the two-course omakase with the fixings.
1st Course:
(Mine)
**Chawanmushi (steamed egg custard)
**Gurage (jellyfish salad)
**Tempura
Call me a simpleton but there's just something lovely about a well-made chawanmushi. Masaki did just that: simple yet flavorful. However I wished they didn't serve it in such a tiny vessel. I could just eat it in a cereal bowl. The gurage was a bit on the chewier side but it's something that I've come to expect with jellyfish. Of course it's hard to mess up tempura.
(His)
**Kizami Wasabi Maguro (cubed tuna in avocado and shitake chips)
**Sake Tartare (salmon with micro shiro)
**Hamachi Tsumire (fish ball soup)
I had tastes and liked his first course better than mine. My favorite was the kizami with sips of the soup. The fish balls were far from the frozen kinds I've come to associate with various shabu houses and home hot pots. This was the real deal, people. The tuna and salmon was subtle yet buttery and melt-in-your-mouth.
2nd Course:
(Mine)
**Hirame * Madai * Kampachi
**Hotate Gai * Aji * Tako
A variety of flounder, red snapper, amberjack, scallops, mackerel, and octopus. It was quite an exotic variety, artfully plated and delicately devoured bite by bite.
(His)
**Akami * Hamachi * Zuke Sake
Sashimi and nigiri style tuna, salmon, and yellowtail belly. Again, I liked his main course over mine... super fresh and a must-order!
We decided to order an additional dish from the signature menu... by golly I'm so glad we got the sashimi rare: Get in my bellay, Uni!! It BLEW ME AWAY-- creamy, flavorful... I was in an uni-induced-trance.
Lunch was super intimate. We had front row seats at the sushi bar and dined like royalty-- even my purse had its own little plush seat. Not kidding. Our server was super attentive with prepping, steeping and refilling our tea. Not to mention lengthy explanations for every element on our dishes. Masaki is without a doubt, the place you go to impress. Throw down your hard earned $$$$ in your finest business casual, feel like a VIP while tasting their artful creations.
I warmly welcome Masaki to the neighborhood!
We wandered in by chance and got surprised.
It is a really up-scale Japanese restaurant so
(1) The food portion is small but very carefully made. It is a piece of art rather than a plate of food.
(2) Since it is an art, expect to pay accordingly. Its tasting menu is actually more expensive than Takashi.
Great experience here. Â Went here for lunch. Â There is a huge variety to the menu, multi-coursed small plates. Â The presentation is the most beautiful Japanese in the city. Â The flavors are good and almost great but nothing really blew me away. Â Overall it was a great experience, though a tiny bit disappointing for me. Â
I've been to Japan and had Omakases that blew me away...at this price point I expected to be blown away and wasn't but overall was a satisfactory meal and one of the most visually beautiful I've seen. Â Will be back to give dinner a chance.
A friend and I ate here last night. Â We had the 7 course omokase the lychee vodka/rose drink, 3 Â large japanese beers and 1 bottle of small (300ml) sake. Â It's clear this place is very special in terms of appearance, size and menu. Â It seats 17 i believe and is very intimate. Â They offer nothing but omokase dining and a pretty wide array of sake options. Â I have only ate omokase a handful of times at a handful of places and this was the second best I have ever had to Shibuya in Las Vegas. Â
The food itself is artfully prepared, as for the highlights from the 7 course omokase -- a cucumber wrapped sashimi in a red broth. Â The very spicy salad that comes as a part of the first dish which is completely neutralized by the broth presented with it. Â The toro course, where every piece of tuna was so excellent, It all literally melted in mouth. Â The nigiri and finally the unagi in the final course served on top of a seashell, was an amazing finish. Â
In addition to the excellent food, the service was spectacular. Â The sommelier was knowledgeable and the service is literally unlike anything in the city of Chicago, very high touch. Â The only draw back for me was really the octopus and the sea urchin, Â sea urchin being basically impossible to get right and the octopus which is always too tough to my liking. Â Outside of those small complaints, its an amazing dining experience not to be missed if you can afford it, our bill was 531 dollars for 2.
This was such an awesome dining experience, and I'm really glad I ate here while visiting Chicago. This is fine dining sushi at its best and it's such a unique concept. They offer 3,5 and 7 course meals, and we went ahead and got the 5 because the waitress told us it was the most popular. The food was absolutely fantastic and all the sashimi that came out was extremely fresh. I am also a huge uni fanatic, and I had the best uni of my life at Masaki!
Also, the service was outstanding. Kelly, the manager, is absolutely amazing and we really enjoyed everything. It is a little more expensive than your average sushi restaurant but worth every cent!
Very few restaurants in the United States offer this quality of Japanese sushi. Â We had the 7 course menu and every course was suburb. Â The staff was very attentive and knowledgeable which added to the pleasure of the dinner. Â The presentations of each course were beautiful. Â You can pretend you are in Japan for the evening as the food and atmosphere is very authentic. Â The cocktails were delicious as well as the Saki. Â Outstanding
Review Source:An experience I will never forget, we had the five course omakase, every course was in itself profound. The sommelier was so insightful, though every course was at its base sashimi, he suggested a light and aromatic pinot noir that was able to complement each course perfectly. 2009 Summerland Pinot Noir, Bien Nacido Vineyard. Amazing. Â We ate at the chefs table, in awe of how each dish was so artistically created. Â This is a very small restaurant, by my count only seating 18, reminiscent of authentic sushi bars found in the small side streets of cities like Osaka. Â The ceiling was literally higher than its floor space. Â This made for a most intimate atmosphere, the entire staff was attentive and polite, giving the restaurant a feeling akin to that of a tranquil spa. Â I have been to every sushi restaurant in chicago worth its weight and this place is something else entirely, no specialty maki rolls with blah blah aioli sauce, this is true japanese cuisine at its finest.
Review Source:We visited Masaki the other day for dinner. The experience was wonderful. The food, presentation and service was exceptional..You should be aware however that Masaki's price point is quite high and you may experience some "sticker shock".
The only negative on the food was the octopus. It had the texture of a winter tire.
The 5 best restaurants in the 2015 Denver Restaurant Week
3,607 Views | Category: Denver
The complete list of 2015 Denver Restaurant Week businesses
1,970 Views | Category: Denver
The tourists' guide to Portillos: 5 must have dishes
3,307 Views | Category: Chicago
Pho = Pronounced "fuh" not "foe" for pho-king sake
2,905 Views | Category: Denver
Indulgery selected to exhibit at Collision Conference
2,983 Views | Category: Press Releases
Not Logged In
BUSINESSES
Local Businesses
Near Me
My Favorites
SOCIAL
Blog & News
MY ACCOUNT
Login
Register
Contact Us
Add Your Business
