Solid, dependable, casual, but not spectacular sushi in the River North area. Â I went to Oysy with a friend last night and it was a refreshingly easy going, not stuffy, sushi joint in a neighborhood filled with stuffy and trendy sushi joints.
I started with a mango martini which was light and delicious - a nice blend of fruit and alcohol without being overly sweet or thick.
We kept our meal simple. Â An order of edamame that was fresh, steaming, and lightly salted. Â (You'd be surprised how many sushi places in Chicago can actually mess up edamame. Â Oysy is not one of them.) Â
I followed up with a Ruby roll and a standard Negi Hamachi roll. Â The Ruby roll was tasty, but the pieces were cut incredibly large and there was way too much rice on the outside. Â The tuna was moderately fresh. Â Not the freshest I've had around town, but not bad at all. Â The roll was just a little hard to eat due to the large bites and the rice dulled the flavor of everything else. Â The Negi Hamachi was pretty standard and dependable. Â Again, the yellowtail was fresh enough. Â Not the freshest I've had, not mind blowingly fresh, but very tasty and dependable.
All in all, Oysy is a good place for a quick sushi bite when you're in River North. Â It's not flashy and it's not incredibly memorable. Â But it gets the job done and you will leave satisfied.
Oysy is my go-to sushi place in the Streeterville and River North neighborhoods. The restaurant is clean, comfortable and serves solid food.
My initial focus for Japanese restaurants will always be the fish (duh) and I wasn't disappointed here. Quality was good, variety was there. I'm not a huge fan of rolls in general so I don't have much to say about those except that there seemed to be plenty of options for those inclined to order rolls. The steak we got was solid but the tempura was lacking in execution and didn't have the traditional fried texture, which admittedly is difficult to achieve.
Service was friendly, attentive, and relatively quick. But like almost all restaurants in the area, the food was pretty expensive. But honestly, there's not much to say. Good sushi in a nice restaurant.
Oysy offers a refreshingly comfortable experience in an otherwise huffy, stuffy, touristy, and often incredibly irritating area to spend time in. Having worked in the area for several years, it's one of the only places that continues to be a regular stop.
I love the veg options, and not just the maki. There are hot and cold small plates to investigate, so don't hesitate to be adventurous.
Should we talk about the cocktails? No--you're right, you'd better just go and try one that you think you'll fancy (although the gin cocktails are particularly delicious!).
I'd read about this sushi place on blogs before moving to Chicago so when I found out our housing was a block away I made sure to get there on the day we arrived. Â I was craving sushi since it wasn't a popular type of food in the city we moved from. Â The ordering is a bit confusing at first because you write it all down on this piece of paper but once you do it it makes sense. Â I just wish there was more room for others because the line is only about an inch long but I just realized you could write on the back of the paper. Â Just make sure your server sees it so he places the order. The food was great. Â We had make, soup, salad, edamame, and dumplings. Very happy with everything and even went back 3 days later.
Review Source:I love this place. i try to stop here whenever I am traveling for work and am staying at the Conrad or Hilton Garden Inn right around the corner. For the price, you really can't  beat the quality. The tuna tartar is awesome and so is the rock shrimp appetizer. Staff is friendly and attentive. They prepare take-out orders quickly.
Review Source:I stumbled upon this place while wandering the side streets of Michigan Ave.  It was right next to Joe's Stone Crab restauranr.  They had an hour wait, so I came here because i figured they'd have equally good seafood. WRONG!  They have $13 lunch specials which seem like a bargain when you see the amount of food you get.  I oredered the sushi bento box....it came with tempura (the best thing in the box),  a salad (a little overdressed but it was decent), a fried croquette (i think it was raw...so runny, cold and mealy), miso soup (decent), California roll, tuna rolland 5 pieces of nigiri.  The fish was chewy and tasteless. The rice wasn't seasoned.  I would have sent it back but I wanted to get on with my shopping.... I could barely finish the sushi, left most of the croquette and my water glass stayed empty the entire meal.  No  wonder  the place was 3/4 empty during lunch hour.
Review Source:We looked for an affordable sushi place in Downtown Chicago for a long time and... indeed the food is very well priced as well as well prepared. Other sushi bars in this area are not much better and significantly more expensive. I guess, the other reviewers are too sensitive or.. too demanding since I never noticed that the service was unpleasant or for that matter insensitive. My experience is definitely positive; every time I am shopping at Nordstrom, I get a Chicago Crazy and/or Dragon Maki at Oysy!
The only negative remark I have... weekends it could be a long waiting time simply because the place is packed.
This is a diner that serves sushi. Â It is not a trendy sushi joint by any stretch. Â The ambiance SUCKS. Â Food = 3 out of 5 stars, ambiance 0 out of 5, service 2 out of 5 (I rounded up). Â If you're shopping and want sushi this place is fine. Â If you want a nice trendy sushi spot, go elsewhere!
Review Source:This is my go-to sushi place when staying in downtown Chicago. I've never had a bad thing here, the service has been great, and I like to sit by the window (although it was so cold last night I should have "gone in deeper".)
As I write this I haven't been here in almost 6 months, but hope I'll be going back to Chicago soon. Right now I'd say it's the second or third best sushi I've ever had.
Coming from California (especially that stretch of Santa Monica Blvd. just east of Santa Monica proper with maybe 5 sushi restaurants per block), I was disappointed by the lack of affordable sushi restaurants in Chicago. Â Everyone said the proximity to the coast was an issue. Â
Luckily, we stumbled upon Oysy. Â We avoided it at first because the hip, classy decor implied higher price tags, but to fulfill an exceptional craving, we went in. Â Turns out the prices are not too bad--on average, $12-15 per specialty roll (we tried the Summer roll and enjoyed it), and the regular Maki rolls are very affordable (think in the $7 range). Â
Additionally, the fish was fresh and well-selected, and the service was prompt and courteous. Â If you find yourself craving sushi, I'd definitely recommend this place.
This place has good quality fish, but I don't like their menu and some of their execution was off. Â The rice was noticeably sweet, (too much mirin?). Â The toro nigiri had a bit too much rice for the amount of fatty tuna, and at that price it should be perfect. Â Also, they don't really have much of the classic/traditional rolls, which I find far superior to the too busy and far too westernized "triple ninja dragon spider four backflips" types of items.
I have to compliment to service however. Â I ordered a sake kawa (salmon skin) maki and it came with pieces of cooked salmon in it in addition to the skin. Â I HATE when that happens as it only comes that way at westernized sushi joints. Â I told the server I didn't want it that way and she took it back, and didn't charge, with no hassel. Â I appreciated that.
The decor is nice, modern minimalist chic.
First of all, the Miso soup is lack of taste, so under-seasoned, we need to add A LOT OF soy sauce to make it taste OK.
Then we had the Rainbow Dragon, the presentation was interesting, however it was just so-so, no special flavor.
After that we had Spicy Super White Tuna maki, which was also lack of flavor.
Their sashimi was good and  fresh but slightly over-priced.
Lastly, we had the Black Pearl which was the best roll among all.
After me and my friend left, we were chased by our server because when we signed the check, we didn't write down the amount of tips even though we already added the tips in the total. He chased after us to make us do the math!?
After all, Oysy is just ok. Worth a try but don't know if I'd come back!
They have a great lunch deal every day. Â At $13 you can get a nicely stocked bento box. Â Grilled salmon, ginger salad, tempura veggies, spicy tuna roll, california roll, and miso soup....not bad for $13! Â It was good...not great but good. Â They did have a full sushi bar menu but we only did the bento box. Â Cute atmosphere and conveniently located to Nordstrom and other shopping places.
Review Source:Came here on on a Monday night for a 7 o'clock dinner to celebrate a friends bday. There were six of us total. Decor is nothing too nice. It looks like something designed for a brunch place.I ordered the plum martini which wasn't good. It tasted like moscato, AND there was an olive in it. Which I tried to eat at the end but it had absorbed what I 100 percent to believe to be moscato and was disgusting. Food was  nothing to brag home about. I order the miso soup which had way too many scallions in it. Followed by the salmon with sesame. I thought this would be a sauce. No. It was a half inch thick green paste that literally looked like shit. Unappetizing. Tried to eat it anyway but couldn't get passed the fact it looked like poop was on my salmon. I also ordered the California maki and a green bean tempura maki. The green bean one was better than the California. I'm pretty sure the California roll was made with imitation crab meat and was poorly rolled you could tell. Waitress had a bit of an attitude
when a member of our party asked to split the check. I normally never ask to do this. From being a server in the past I know how annoying it is but she made it well known that she was incredibly agitated. Didn't try and hide it at all. Way better sushi places in the city. I was disappointed considering how much this place costs. And the fact it's on Michigan ave.
I've visited this little gem twice now in the last two months. While I'm from out of town, I was sent to Chicago for work. It's definitely going to be a go-to place when I visit the city now. It's tucked off the Magnificent Mile so isn't crazy busy. The staff is very nice and helpful. The sushi is great and there's such a large selection of rolls and specialty rolls it's hard to choose.
I really liked the Ruby Roll and the Caterpillar Roll. The Ruby Roll is just a beautiful roll and it's delicious to boot. The caterpillar roll surprisingly came out presented as a caterpillar...black sesame seed eyes and all!
I wandered around The Magnificent Mile for a little while looking for a sushi restaurant, and found the following choices:
Friend's Sushi - What kind of sushi place is called Friend's Sushi?
Sushi Taiyo (?) - Nothing concerning about the name, but from the outside seemed to be combined with a place called Top Wok or something.
Oysy - Seemed promising on a superficial basis
So here we were, looking at the menu, and investigating the rolls, but mostly just checking a bunch of boxes under sashimi and nigiri. Â Also ordered some miso and a roll for good measure... Â Both were good, but nothing spectacular.
Thankfully, they had uni. Â I hate showing up to a sushi joint and finding they don't have any uni. Â Easily my favorite sashimi.
The super white tuna was also awesome, and they had a couple other cool things, like fluke and abalone.
We also ordered the wasabi tobiko. Â BIG mistake. Â I didn't think it would have as much wasabi as it did. Â Next time, I'll be more careful.
Oysy seems to be a respectable place, but not the greatest sushi you'll ever eat. Â Good selection, and everything seems fresh enough. Â But I've had better sushi, and at a much lower price.
This is my favorite sushi restaurant, not only in Chicago but anywhere. I really cannot say enough good things about this place. The sushi is super tasty, the wait staff is always so nice, friendly and attentive, plus it's always busy but not too busy that you can't get a table right away or pretty soon after arrival.
All the apps are great. Edamame, as always, is a great way to start your meal. I also enjoy any of the tempura dishes, but mostly the soft-shell crab and rock shrimp.
I have so many loves in terms of maki, but if I had to choose, I suggest the Black Pearl and any of the Dragon rolls (the traditional one is my fave). Green Turtle and Dynamite are also phenom.
I also always order nigiri sushi/sashimi here. The saba/mackerel is the best I've had anywhere. Even my friends from LA say it's the best mackerel they've had and it beats anywhere in California. So this sounds crazy, but just go with it... the ikura/salmon roll with a quail egg is rich and super, super good.
As far as drinks, try the lychee martini, and for desserts, the green tea mochi. Yum!
Scene: Sunday lunch, around noon, wanted sushi and were already downtown. Oysy is in a good location so the four of us stopped in. There were maybe two tables filled in the whole place, so we were seated right away.
And then we waited. And waited. I think it was almost 20 minutes before our waitress approached our table for the first time and when she did, she greeted us with, "So, do you know what you want?" Just not a great first impression, and she didn't do anything to make up for it through the rest of lunch, either.
To be fair, I did enjoy the tuna roll, salmon roll, and seafood dumplings. I would try it again to see if the service was just a fluke, but to me that's a big deal because eating out is just as much about the experience as it is about the food.
My friends and I made a reservation for four on a Friday night at Oysy...but it was at the wrong location (whoops!). Â However, we were quickly seated after waiting a few minutes. Â
I enjoyed the clean and simplistic feel of the restaurant. Â The seating was mostly booth style, with an exception to the bar area.
My friends and I ordered some drinks to go with our meal. Â The boys ordered Sapporo beer and I got the Lychee Mimosa, which I highly recommend. Â The Lychee Mimosa can be best described as pure liquid goodness topped off with a lychee and maraschino cherry. Â Â
For our meal, we ordered:
-Salmon and tuna sashimi: two thumbs up for being fresh
-Grilled chilean sea bass with garlic black bean sauce: two BIG thumbs up, one of my favorite dishes of the night! My only complaint was that it was too delicious, causing my friends to eat most of it before I could grab more...
-Grilled salmon with sesame sauce: one thumb up. I was not a big fan of the pasty sesame sauce that we chose. The salmon was grilled nicely, however, I would probably go for the teriyaki sauce next time...
-Dragon roll: two thumbs up for presentation and taste. Â This menacing little roll was quite popular among my friends...you can't go wrong with shrimp tempura, avocado, and eel
-Philadelphia roll: two thumbs up for adding more to this very common roll. Â The extra asparagus and green onion Oysy includes adds a little more crunch and flavor to this already delicious roll
-Black pearl: two BIG thumbs up for this seemingly simple roll. Â The outside of the roll is showered with black tobiko which contributes little bursts of happiness with each bite
This was one of the rare occasions where I was very impressed with our service. No one at our table ever had an empty glass. Â During our meal, Mr. Chen, the owner, even stopped by chat with our table to check on our meal! Â
I look forward to coming back in the future.
I love, love, love Oysy!!
I absolutely love sushi and this makes me very weary of trying different sushi bars. I'm also very particular about the way my sushi is made and if I'm ordering sushi that I want to be spicy and there's just mustard on top, that's not going to cut it.
I'm pleased to say that Oysy does not have any of the above-mentioned problems. The sushi is always fresh, delicious, and their combinations are great.
The atmosphere is also fun and relaxed and the location is fabulous. For a downtown location, Oysy is surprisingly affordable.
For 4 different plates of sushi, mochi, and two cocktails, you can typically stay under $60, which is fabulous!
I would definitely recommend it!
If you're looking for a quick and happy sushi meal, with a budget- Oysy would never put you down.
They've got excellent quality fish, they know how to cook their rice and their selections are quite varied, so there's something for everyone.
I really enjoyed the Black pearl. Their agadashi is probably the best I've tried so far- really crispy and soft silken tofu just melts in your mouth.
The atmosphere varies. Don't let their affordable prices turn you away- it's good affordable food!
So, I saw a lot of shady reviews on here, mostly pertaining to sub-par service, and I was a bit concerned. I tend to be a stickler for great service, but I went in with an open mind.
I was pleasantly surprised! I was greeted warmly the moment that I walked in. I was the first to arrive and before my friend showed, the waitress had already been to my table about four times. I was curious about their Lychee martini, but I have never had  Lychee, and was skeptical. She tried to describe, but then decided that she would let me taste one to see for myself. It was delicious!!! It was so kind of her to let me do that, because I didn't want to order a $10 martini and then hate the flavor. As it turned out, I loved it!
The sushi was great. Fresh fish, great rice, great presentation. I would go back to this in a heartbeat. Nothing represented by the negative reviews happened in my experience there, and I will absolutely be returning!
This was my cousin't favorite sushi spot when she lived in the area. The fancy rolls we had were very well prepared and the seafood was fresh and tasty. Â The regular sushi was equally good. Â
I wasn't as thrilled with my specialty drink, but that was probably just me. The staff was available but not pushy. Â Definitely worth a stop if you're in the area.
Great place for the value! Â Very cheap sushi...and almost always super fresh! Â Great selection of specialty rolls - i usually come here if i crave sushi but don't feel like spending an arm and a leg on it. Â I recommend - just don't expect to find blowfish or any other exotic fish - just mostly generic sushi but fresh and tasty for the value!
I have been going there for a long time and will keep going there. Â Both locations are good, the Grand one and the South Loop one - I do like South Loop one better because it seems more spacious and it's closer to home and (better seafood!) ;)
Def recommend!
We hit up Oysy Sushi for our last lunch in Chicago. It's a solid businessman's approach to sushi. The lunch menu is pretty standard: bento boxes headlined by a teriyakied meat or sushi/sashimi sampler. It's also priced slightly steep at $12.
For that price, the box better be packed, which it was. It came with a couple pieces of California and Spicy Tuna rolls, a heaping of tempura, an interesting tofu pancake, and salad, with a miso soup starter. The tempura was the highlight of the bunch, in my opinion. The sashimi, even for a lunch serving, was fresh enough.
On the basis of Yelp, I also went with an Arizona Summer roll and was left wanting. I was hooked by the prospect of a cilantro + avocado + spicy sauce combination, but it didn't have the requisite salty/sour kick I was expecting. I also wasn't a fan of the tuna tempura, with the flash fry basically absorbing all of the tuna's taste and moistness. The regular Summer roll, presumably with raw tuna, may have been a better choice.
Decor-wise, Oysy is bright and green. Service is friendly, if a little slow. Overall, it appears fine as a business lunch joint, but I'm not sure I'd ever go out of my way to eat here.
I love this place. It is at a perfect location right in the middle of down town. Despite the area it is not a pretentious sushi place. It does not require the "formal" attire that some of the sushi restaurants nearby do. It is a simple, laid back joint.
Along with being a good atmosphere the fish is extremely fresh and the prices are just right. When I want downtown good sushi I automatically go to Oysy. They have a great variety of rolls and a good amount of vegetarian rolls.
Oysy is definitely a solid spot for some good sushi rolls.
Butterfly has always been my go-to for take-out sushi, but decided to give Oysy a try last night since it's 2 blocks from my apartment. Â I was very pleased with the expeirence, though the two sushi restaurant will serve different purposes in my life going forward. Â :)
Oysy has really solid rolls, but they are not as creative as Butterfly. Â On the flip side, Oysy is definitely much more affordable (4 rolls plus a seaweed salad at Oysy ran $45, while the same order at Butterfly is typically around $65).
We tried the following rolls:
- White Dragon: Â this was far and away the winner in my book - nothing beats some good super white tuna!
- Green Turtle: Â adorable presentation as an actual turtle, the eel roll with shrimp on top was really good. Â would definitely order this one again.
- Chicago Crazy: Â this was my least favorite of the rolls - it wasn't bad, just didn't stand out in any way.
- Arizona Summer (with no cilantro - because cilantro ruins everything): i wasn't a fan of the tuna tempura in this one. Â i usually love tempura, but i realized i didn't like the flavor or texture of the fried tuna in this one. Â The Summer roll is basically the same thing with regular tuna, so I'd try that next time.
Overall, a solid choice. Â This will be integrated into my ongoing rotation for days when I'm craving sushi, but don't want to break the bank. Â Butterfly will continue to reign as my favorite take-out place for more unique, flavorful rolls. Â And of course, nothing will ever match the joy of Toro for in-person dining.
Never disappointed.
I have frequented Oysy a handful of times and I have never had a bad experience. Â The maki is incredibly tastey. Â My boyfriend really loves the soft shell crab tempura, and my favorite is one of their special rolls, The Turtle, which, by no mistake, is presented as a turtle. Â Classics like spicy tuna, california , eel with unagi sauce, and others along those lines are promising each time. Â
Their grilled options, which serve as tapas or appetizers, are fantastic. Â I recommend the rock shrimp, the miso garlic steak, and the teriyaki chicken. Â
The cocktails are plentiful and delicious. Â I've become a big fan of Sapporo beer, which they offer in "small" or "large." Â Also, their martini concoctions are creative and quite enjoyable.
Okay, so if you aren't convinced yet, this should do the trick. ITS SO CHEAP! Â Given the area, posh venue, and decadent food/beverage selection, this place is a real steal with rolls/grilled plates averaging between $4- $12. Â
Staff is nice and efficient. Â Ambience is casual cool. Â Oysy is a winner.
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