Roka Akor

It is rare I give 5 stars but this place was exceptional!  Service is amazing and skilled.  The food here is so good and the presentation and ambiance were truly excellent.  The steak and Ginger sauce I had was so delicious that I had dreams about it for a week afterwards.  This is a place that I was truly impressed with and will come back to soon.

I was recently in Chicago for business and my colleague and I had dinner here on our last night. Everything about it was amazing!  The atmosphere is really cool.....when we walked in Wesley greeted us and when we told him that we were from out of town he proceeded to tell us about the restaurant and recommend some of the signature dishes to try including the black cod and the butterfish tatami. We tried both and they were fantastic. The service was incredible all around!  Our server Maro, took great care of us and was very personable. Overall everything we ordered was fresh and fabulous...from yellowtail, tuna and salmon sashimi to a grilled salmon from the robata grill. We are from Los Angeles and are used to great Japanese restaurants. I would say this is one of the best and will definitely come back here the next time that I am in Chicago :)

Everything in this restaurant is about presentation. There is a cool ambiance to the restaurant; the decor is very modern, and the sushi bar is in a big open space. It looks really nice from the outside too because they have those big glass windows where you can see everything inside without ever having to step into the building.

I think that's why it's a little surprising how empty it was when my family came here on a Sunday night. I think because the restaurant is so big and there were only five tables filled the entire night, it looked kind of dead. But that was okay because that meant faster service and a quieter dinner for us. I guess I would just expect a place that looked so nice to be bustling with people.

Anyway, the food was pretty good. All of the sashimi was fresh. The pork belly was delicious. If I could recommend one thing, it would be the pork belly -- unless you're a health nut, in which case, do not get the pork belly. It's one of those things that's so good yet so bad, and you can tell just from one bite. The cod had a nice texture and was cooked perfectly. The steak was tender. The lamb was alright - I think I was already too full to taste anything by then - but I do remember it had a little kick to it. Regardless, everything looked amazing. I couldn't stop taking pictures. Like I said, it was all about the presentation here.

My only complaint is the price. It was $98 for the Signature five-course meal. They have another five-course meal that is even more expensive than that. And if one person gets it, the whole table is supposed to get the same thing. I mean, the food was great and it's a wonderful choice if you want to try a little bit of everything, but nothing really blew me away. By the end of the meal, I was so stuffed I couldn't enjoy the rest of my $100 meal, so I personally don't know if it was worth it. I will say that our server was very accommodating when I asked about the options in the beginning, and he even offered to come up with a cheaper three-course meal for us, to which I was open but the rest of my family declined...

Overall, I would recommend this place but only get the five-course meal if you're there celebrating something, or if you're rich. Otherwise try asking about a three-course meal instead; that way you're not uncomfortably full by the end and you still get to have a great meal for a slightly lower price than the Signature option.