This was my favorite restaurant in the Taylor St area when I lived in Chicago, and whenever I'm back in town I always find myself here at least once. I've eaten here at least 30 times, almost always maki rolls and hot sake. I can't remember a single time I wasn't satisfied. The sweet potato maki is particularly memorable. The spicy tuna has a ton of spicy mayo, which I like but others may not. At first I thought the techno music was weird/funny but it grew on me, I think it made the place feel uniquely familiar to me... and now nostalgic since I don't live down the street anymore. I agree the service may have dropped off recently... on my last trip it oddly took a long time to be helped even though the place was almost empty.
Review Source:We came to Tatsu on a whim on a Tuesday night since we were craving sushi. About 20 minutes after placing an order for carryout, our food was ready to go. Upon opening our order, here is what we got:
-Miso soup: average, nothing out of the ordinary
-Edamame: good, but nothing too special
-Maki roll platter:all of these rolls were fresh and delicious. Nothing too complicated.
-Dragon Roll: I'm not a huge fan of eel, but with the combination of flavors this was so good!
-Shumai: Little dumplings that we demolished in less than 5 minutes. I wish more than 6 came in an order.
If you are on Taylor St and have a craving for sushi, Tatsu is a great option.
We have been to this place a couple of times for dinner. They have a nice ambiance. Both times I visited, there weren't too many ppl in the restaurant.
They serve pretty decent food. Have eaten their Green curry (nice and spicy) and also their spicy Udon Noodle dish - both good and full of flavor. I have also tasted their Tom Yum soup and I love it.
First off I don't come here for sushi.
I like to get their lunch special or take out from here. Even with Thai Bowl across the street which has great noodle dishes, I still end up coming here for a more Japanese style noodle (soba or udon). They do it well and add just the right amount of spice. The restaurant also has a very nice atmosphere.
Staff has always been friendly, polite, and fast.
One time I sat down to eat and had to change my meal to takeout and they were very accommodating and understanding.
FOOD IS DELECTABLE!
My beau and I live in the neighborhood, instead of eating in we take it to go.
We ate a few times inside and every time it's the same scenario- Delicious food but obnoxious music. They play some hard house techno, electro pop, annoyance which makes it difficult to enjoy our food.
At least in the summer you can sit outside on the patio and have the bad music be drown out from your dining pleasure.
Real Japanese music would suffice or maybe some Billie Holiday or Jazz.
Will say it's 3.5 to 4 stars, but more toward 4 based on their freshness of the sushi. Â This is a little Pan-asian joint featuring Japenese and other cuisine near UIC campus. Â Because of some negative reviews, I had reservation trying this place, but I was very surprised after my first visit that this place is pretty decent (BTW, I only try sushi-kind, so wouldn't know much about thai food and other grilled stuff).
For the three visits I have made, I had decent rolls and sushi pieces. Â They were relatively fresh. Â The decoration and ambience is just casual, like an everyday joint, but relatively quiet and suitable for private conversation. Â
Sometimes the servers are not attentive (they are not rude, but sometimes they look too busy), but I will just let it pass because I don't have expectation for the service as high as for the food. Â Looks like I will be a regular as long as I live around here.
ROACHES. ROACHES. ROACHES!!!!! Â I am completely traumatized as I write this. Â In my 30 plus years of life on this earth I have NEVER been more disgusted by a restaurant experience. Â Tonight as we unpacked our delivery of Thai Fried rice & other goodies...a full grown ROACH emerged from the take-out bag and darted across our kitchen counter! Â Talk about special delivery. Â My husband killed the thing & I ran to the phone to call the manager...in complete hysterics. Â When I got Kung (manager) on the phone, this woman not only tells me that she is fully aware of the insect problem, but that every restaurant in Chicago has roaches! Â The nerve. Â If you value your health, money, and sanity DO. NOT. EAT. HERE. Â I never will again. Giving one star b/c: Â a) I can't give a skull & crossbones and, b) because they offered a refund. Â Now who's going to pay for my therapy?
Review Source:This review is based on service.
1. The server did not speak English.
2. He did not know the difference between Nigiri and Sashimi. I had ordered ala carte Sashimi pieces and was given Nigiri. When I told him I had ordered Sashimi, he argued with me and said I did not know what I ordered.
3. At no point during my dining experience was I asked if I wanted another beer, refill of water, or the plates to be cleared off.
This place was good. I'm used to all you can eat sushi, so this place was a nice change from buffet style sushi. I'm glad I came here. I spent about as much as I would for a buffet and had less sushi but the quality of the sushi was better.
My friend and I ordered the godzilla and it was delicious. The pieces could not fit in my mouth and I had to eat it in 2 bites vs. the standard 1 bite.
I also ordered  the Phili, that was just as good. And I ordered the Spicy Scallop, and of course that was good as well.
I was still hungry at the end of it all, and we ordered the sampling platter which consisted of chicken satay, spring roll, gyoza, and shumai. This was amazing. I had a mad craving for gyoza and wanted to try everything on this platter so I went forth with it and ordered it.
I recommend this place. Minus the 1 star for the ambiance of the place, seems a little off and creepy.
When I write my reviews, I tend to be detailed by category.
Atmosphere: Small, dark, unappealing. I've been to a lot nicer sushi places...but whatever, we'll still give it a chance.
Food: The water, the only thing we received (you'll see why), tasted like water that has been stored through corroded pipes for several years. It was served room temperate with a few small melted ice cubes floating in the middle. Obviously came out of the sink warm. Tasted like well-water which is bizarre because this is the city.
Service: My friends and I ( three of us) had visited Tatsu for a Wednesday out to grab some sushi and drinks. Â We arrived at about 8:00pm to find only about two tables seated inside. We didn't even get a greeting or "Hi". Way to welcome customers. *applauds* Â We were shuffled over to a half-table/half-booth by the wall and were given some water. We looked through the menu for about 3 or 4 minutes and we were ready to order drinks, appetizers, sushi, and noodle dishes.
We noticed NO ONE was approaching our table for about ten minutes. I'm not even sure who our waitress was. We were seated by some girl and given water from her who I'm sure was a waitress because she had an apron and notepad on her.
Hmm..We thought maybe it was because we had our menus up and were still looking at them? We put them down on the table and waited five more minutes for someone to walk by and take our orders, or at least take DRINK orders! I was facing the waitresses and made eye contact with them several times and they just walked on like our table didn't even exist.
We then tried seeing for about five minutes if we had our menus completely closed, set on the table, and if we all looked up and made eye contact with the waitresses if they would finally approach our table.
...nothing.
I'm not the type to yell a waitress down in a calm setting/small atmosphere just to initially take my order in the first place. That's just pathetic on their end.
After about 15-20 minutes (this is no exaggeration) of no one seeming to care our table was there we were fed up and left.
I could honestly see if the place was busy and the waitresses were rushing around trying to get everything out, or if we were a large group. Definitely not the case. We were 1 of 3 tables in there and the staff seemed to be casually walking around and chatting with the sushi chefs about nonsense instead of worrying about their guests.
Conclusion: The poor service was such a turn-off and we will never return again. We ended up at the Signature Room at the John Hancock building instead which was an excellent turnaround for the night. We'll either try the sushi place down the street, or go to Taylor street strictly for Mario's Italian Lemonade/ Ice or Italian food.
YUM! Was looking for somewhere to get dinner with a friend and we knew we wanted sushi. We originally were going to go to a place off Halsted but they had a wedding reception so we came to Tatsu as a backup. So glad we did!! Delicious. I really enjoyed it. The atmosphere is very dark and quiet. It was a very small place. The waitress was nice but not very helpful. We asked for recommendations and her answer was everything. I like when waitstaff promotes their best stuff. You want return customers you have to let us know whats good if we are new.
The rolls are HUGE. They don't fit in your mouth. And although it's nice to have all that delicious food I don't really like that they cant fit in your mouth. Not only that but when you try to bite them in half you make a HUGE mess. Definitely not somewhere to go if you're trying to look smooth and not have sushi falling out of your mouth ha. It was genuinely DELICIOUS though. I loved the Godzilla. So good. I liked it without the spicy mayo which they took off for us. I'm not much of a spicy girl. Another thing we asked our waitress if it was really spicy or just mild and she said not bad at all so I was thinking I could take it. My friend knew better and said lets just not get it and have it on the side. Well the waitress was wrong it was really spicy. If we would have listened to her I would not have been able to enjoy it.
I will definitely go back because the food was so good!!
Old roomie and I went here for a Saturday night dinner. The restaurant was empty except for us and like 3-4 other tables. That should have been writing on the wall for us. I ordered a raspberry sake drink. It came back blue (aren't raspberries red?) and uber sweet with zero alcohol. I sent it back. I like sweet drinks, but with alcohol and not teeth aching sweet.
The chicken satay tasted rotten. We didn't send it back, because i felt slightly guilty about the drink issue. But we stopped eating it. I do not think it was the chicken itself, but the sauce they coated it with was rancid.
The roll we both ordered was OK but nothing to go back for. Just very pedestrian for a Japanese restaurant. I def expect a lot better from a Chicago eatery.
Overall, I would not bother going there.
My friend and I were in search of sushi close to the Medical District when we visited. Out of the 3, one was closed and one had lesser reviews than Tatsu, so we chose Tatsu. DEEE-LICIOUS! We were greeted when we walked in and seated right away.
We had a great meal. We highly recommend the Godzilla and Seaweed Salad. We liked it so much that after a long day sightseeing and too tired to walk, we ordered in and it was delivered fast! They said 45 minutes and it arrived in half that time! Two thumbs up for Tatsu! :D
So I went here one night last week and I must say it was just eh. Â I ordered the Sashimi sampler and it came with white tuna, tuna, salmon, and yellow tail. Â As i was eating it i felt like the fish could of been much fresher. Â It didn't taste bad or spoiled or anything, but it did taste like it might have been kept in a freezer or very cold refridgerator. Â My freind ordered a shrimp appetizer and I tried some. Â It was not very well prepared. Â It reminded me of what shrimp would taste like if I got it in a bar. Â The dish was too oily. Â I wasn't expecting a whole lot from this restaurant based on it's location in little italy right by uic. Â But i did not think the value was there either. Â The sushi sampler was $20 and did not meet my expectations for the price. Â
I do want to say that the service was very good. Â Attentive but not overly attentive. Â We were seated right away and greeted when we arrived with a smile. Â I might go back to Tatsu, but not for sushi. Â In reading some of the other reviews I think I would try the lunch special or something with Noodles. Â If only i looked at yelp before I ordered on my first visit. Â Darn.
Tatsu is a good place to go if ur living on UIC campus. Was there mid-summer when most students wr off campus, sitting by the st. n we're the only table at that time, yet the service is kinda slow. when a chicago tribune photographer came doing a random shooting, one of the servers quickly brought a butterfly garnish on the plate. Lol...
maki rolls are good tasting, but just an ok sushi place in Chicago.
I was first introduced to Tatsu by a foodie-friend of mine, so I automatically knew this place was going to be a winner! Â
Tatsu has an extensive sake menu which was pretty awesome, but what made me fall in love with this place is the sushi!! Â I'm from California, so it's hard for me to love sushi out here, but this place did it! Â The DDT roll was to die for, as was the Crunchy roll. Â I also think the seaweed salad is a great way to start the meal off. Â Â
I've always had great service when I dine in. Â Now that I live closer, I'll be ordering out quite often!
Tatsu is the place for sushi on Taylor Street. Â I am a huge fan of their UIC roll, although it is $10 dollars. Â If I'm not in a sushi mood, the chicken teriyaki is good as well. Â They do have lunch specials though, which are very reasonably priced.
The staff is always extremely nice and accommodating. Â I think they started to recognize me because there was a time I was going once a week.
The vibe inside is interesting, but alright. Â They play techno music, but not an obnoxious level, just fun to hear in the background. Â Its small, but not suffocating.
Let me preface with: CRUNCHY!
OK, i got that out of the way. This place is phenomenal when it comes to sushi and mochi. You must get the crunchy when you go. At a whopping $7 it is completely worth it. The waitresses and blonde waiter are wonderful but when it's busy the service is slow - as most places are. The wonderful delights of Tatsu include a wide variety of maki sushi, traditional and non-traditional sushi and all that that entails.
If we're talking sushi - Crunchy is amazing. Simply amazing. The sauce is sweet and unique along with a slight spice that will satisfy any kind of "tooth" you have. The Hamachi is very different and fresh and contains some cilantro which is unique to any sushi i've tasted before. Classics like the Spicy Tuna and Salmon are always good along with the Philly. The Ebi Temp is awesome at $5 and delicious.
If we're talking meals - the Curry entree is delish but a little sweet for curry. The Teriaki Salmon and Chicken are nothing short of classic and the Tom Yum soup always cures a cold and the cost is very very reasonable.
I come here for the sushi and love the two sour apple tootsie rolls you get once you pay your bill. The happy-go-lucky chefs are always smiling and will greet you with a Japanese saying as you enter.
You won't be disappointed with the sushi or service. The techno music is a little weird and annoying at times but I'm way to busy focusing on how much i love the food. Favorite sushi place to go to by far and i even went there on my 21st birthday.
Tatsu, Tatsu, let me down with their horrible spring rolls that were tiny and over priced. And their sushi was not making me feel good after I ate a few pieces. Their Thai food was sub-par.
It doesn't make me want to return for another try, and I think they need to do a better job with the fresh spring rolls or the price of it.
There are 3 sushi restaurants on the taylor street: osaka 2, ichiban cafe, and tatsu. I'm a big sushi fan and sometime I get bad sushi cravings that I need to have sushi. I tried all 3 restaurants' food, and I think tatsu is the best out of three. Maybe I would think differently if I visit the actual restaurant because all the previous reviews said that inside kind of sucks.
Anyways, my friend and I made the delivery of lunch chicken teriyaki, summer roll, spider roll, and tempura combination appetizer. And I'm pretty impressed on the summer and spider roll. I got spider roll from osaka 2, and it really sucked. But tatsu used real soft shell crab that you can see the legs and stuff. The chicken teriyaki was okay, I wish there were vegetables too. The tempura combination was not that good, it wasn't crispy but rather wilty.
Overall, if i really want to get some sushi on taylor street, I would choose tatsu.
I am going to go ahead and say it's an all right place. Three stars for sure. Yes, it needs some fixing but it's relatively minor. The music is a little too club in Ibiza/foam party but that's a pretty small complaint. I have read about some of the bad service but I don't really have a complaint about it too much. Our waitress was okay, especially for an asian place. The service in such places can be pretty bad, the service here is fairly attentive and pretty friendly.
The food was pretty good, I like how they present the spicy rolls with a dollop of spicy sauce on top of each roll, instead of built in it. Interesting enough that I wanted to bring it up and taste wish actually makes things fairly even. The Godzilla maki was pretty good, really huge but still having a good amount of flavor.
We got the ice cream all flavors and each was pretty good, and fairly large pieces, each pretty good. The mango being the best one actually. I'd go back and since I'm in the area once a week I just might.
This place is my home base. As a UIC student, I'm almost always a couple blocks away from Tatsu, and this distance makes it difficult to stay away from their sushi. Tatsu is responsible for my first proper introduction to sushi, so I suppose it will always have a place in my heart for that reason ... but it also has a lot to do with their Sweet Potato rolls. I visit Tatsu for their Sweet Potato rolls so regularly that one of the waiters and one of the sushi chefs both know my "regular" takeout order by heart: a California Roll and a Sweet Potato roll.
Whenever I drop by to pick up an order, which is a LOT, everyone there is very friendly. Every time I have dined in at the restaurant, service has been efficient and the food is always fresh. Sure, the techno music isn't what I'd PREFER to listen to while eating dinner, but the sushi rolls are so great that it doesn't bother me too much -- I'm usually picking up rolls to go, anyway.
I do have to admit the sushi is really the only thing I've tried there -- although I did try their miso soup, and it was delicious. I'm here all the time; the affordable price and close distance to home and school makes it perfect for my sushi craving life.
I struggled with whether to give this restaurant two or three stars, but in the end.. it just didn't deserve three.
I came here under the pretense that we were going to a Thai place, not a sushi or "Pan-Asian" place, so I was surprised to see that some basic things, such as the Green Curry or mochi ice cream, were fairly pricey compared to your average restaurant. I thought that it was extremely strange that when a friend asked for mochi ice cream for desert, she got a plate back with one small mochi ball cut in four. Those are actually tiny, and apparently sold separately at 1.50 each.
Anyway, I ended up getting the Panang Curry, which was surprisingly  generous- and pretty good. My only problem with my dish was how long it took me to get it. Overall, I'd have to say the only competent service we got was with our refills of water. After sitting down, they didn't get our order for about twenty minutes. After they finally did, they asked if we wanted silverware (I understand many use chopsticks, as I often do, but seriously? I just ordered a gravy-like curry dish. I NEED a spoon). We then waited about forty-five minutes for our food (meanwhile three tables, all who came after us, all got appetizers and entrees way before us.. curry, pad thai, and fried rice do NOT take that long). Once our food was served, we waited another couple minutes for our silverware. I received a fork, not a spoon. When I turned to ask the waiter, he had disappeared, so I made do.
I'd have to say that the annoyingly slow and inattentive service will not have me coming back to Tatsu. I do feel a little bit bad for the waiter, as a few of the girls I was with do not have much patience and don't mind letting their irritation show. He seemed to be pretty nervous around us when it was clear we were not thrilled.. I'm even wondering if he was new. However, he barely came to check on us the whole time, never gave us a reason or apology for our long wait, and was just NOT a very good waiter. I'm not in the area too often, but I noticed another Thai place very close.. next time, if I must have Thai and am by UIC, I will be skipping out on Tatsu and checking out the other restaurant.
Did we go on a "way-off" night?
I was excited to finally make it to Tatsu after merely having passed it a gazillion times in my neighborhood for months --- only to find myself heavily disappointed at order after order. Â I'm not a sushi person per se, so I only sampled my dining company's selections (which, btw, wasn't so bad). Â My food, however, royally sucked. Â The chicken satay and its peanut sauce were a greater tragedy than Puccini's Turandot: dry, tasteless, and appetite-curving. Â The "seafood" sunomono was pathetic at best with its fake crab meats and a tiny piece of defrosted, flavorless octopus lying ungracefully atop a mound of seaweed over-marinated in vinegar. Â
The only positive of the meal was the mango mochi icecream dessert - which, I presume, was store-bought. Â If it hadn't been for my entertaining dining companion, I think I might've cried. Â Really.
One of my favorite Sushi places in the city. Â I used to gush over Kamehachi's, but this neighborhood spot is more accessible and economically priced. Â The sushi chef always greets everyone coming in which is quirky and polite. Â
Their rolls are original and delicious. Â Fish is always fresh tasting. Â Warm Sake and Summer Rolls are my faves.
This was my second time going to Tatsu and I was impressed the second time around. I went with a friend and we were the only ones there around 4:00pm. It has a nice, dim lit atmosphere with a good amount of seating. It also has outside seating.
We ordered the Rock and Roll Chef Special, a Unagi Roll and a roll that had Shrimp tempura and mayo. The Rock and Roll roll was fantastic. It had a good "explosion" of taste in your mouth. I'm usually not a fan of cream cheese in sushi, but this roll had the right amount in it. The Unagi roll was also very good as for the shrimp tempura roll. Also, having a nice Soporro with all of this is great.
Overall a nice atmosphere, not too expensive, sushi restaurant!
Pretty good! Â I normally would not think anything outside of italian and your run-of-the-mill fast food joints would be above average in the Little Italy area, but this sushi spot is alright!
We ordered the UIC roll (very cleverly named), the godzilla, the summer and the sweet potato rolls. Â The sweet potatoes were not yet ripe so they were a bit too hard. Â The summer roll was good...a good combo of equal parts of ingredients. Â The godzilla was yummy (isnt' it always?) and they actually listened when I requested easy cream cheese! Â props for that... Â the UIC was very delicious too! Â Boo for not having chocolate [chip] or coffee mochi...they just had red bean, green tea and mango. Â
We also got a bottle of wine. Â Our waitress seemed to be pretty knowledgeable on the types of wines. Â Came in handy, because some of them we had never heard of! Â Would definitely be back if I was in the area.
I can still hear the techno beats from Tatsu. This was just really really odd. We went here for a farewell lunch for a colleague. I am unsure what to make of everything else because the volume of the music was stuck on 11 and wouldn't go down. I suppose I should share the blame of not asking them to tone it down.
The food was actually decent and priced right. I honestly cannot blame them for this. Our server was attentive and friendly. I am not sure what music the play (yes back to the music) during other hours but it took my all not to leap onto the table and get on with the dancing.
Floating somewhere between 3 and 4 stars.
I came her for lunch in between a class break.
I liked the calmness and quietness of this place.
I had an extra empty table next to me where I spread out some paperwork that needed to be done.
The sushi was a bit above average, but nothing too exciting.
The staff were attentive and Japanese friendly (smiling).
Probably wouldn't go out of my way to come here, but if you're on Taylor street and yearning for sushi, Â you might want to pop in.
I love this place, I have dined-in and carried out and the food is always great. I've tried several of their items but my favorites are the spicy rolls and the spicy noodle entree.
The service is friendly, you'll always get a table, and the food is reasonably priced. It's a great place for a nice dinner or even a quick lunch. If you live nearby Taylor street you must visit here!
I am totally basing this review on delivery only.
First, my delivery came super fast. I ordered it at 8 and it was here at 8:20. Â Second, the delivery guy was super hot, so hot that even my boyfriend said "Thank God I was home because you totally would have left me for that guy!" Hilarious, seriously.
Second, the food was hot and fresh. Â We ordered an Avacado roll (the boyfriend is a wuss about fish) and a Spicy Shrimp roll with their "Crispy Platter" sampler appetizer which had two shrimp rolls, two egg rolls, 2 Crab Rangoon and 2 gyoza (pan fried chicken dumplings). Â
Both sushi rolls were very tasty and pretty cheap. Â The "Crispy Platter" was interesting. Â I really enjoyed the shrimp rolls which were wrapped and fried like Vietnamese egg rolls I get at Joy Yee Noodle and came with the same spicy sauce. Â The egg rolls were a little bland and tasted mostly like celery but the Crab Rangoon and the gyoza were fine.
All in all I think I'm giving this place four stars just for being close, delivering fast and not giving me food poisoning. Â I've had better sushi but those places don't deliver to me because I live in the "horror" that is living below 16th street.
Thanks Tatsu for being there, when other places wouldn't!
The sushi is okay here. Â
I have to say I liked it a lot better before they remodeled it, for several reasons.
One of those reasons is that I am among the group that hates the "electro/dance muzak" Â ..of course there are exceptions to everything in life, and once I SWEAR they played a Thievery Corporation song while I was waiting for takeout...but I digress.
Sushi restaurants have always been associated with a calm, relaxing atmosphere for me, and the Thunk thunk weee-o weee-o of sub par electronica destroys that calm.
 The second reason, is that, post remodeling, they no longer provide miso soup with takeout orders. I'd gladly give up one of their stylish bamboo-stalk wall features in return for my humble bowl of miso.
But enough complaining, the staff is nice and the service swift, whether delivery, take-out, or at the restaurant. I'd recommend them for a lunch outing when you can't shake a sushi/tempura craving but you're low on funds.
Loved this place. Â They offer the standard rolls, plus a few unique ones. Â The White Dragon & the Godzilla rolls were especially good, and their edemame was steamed to perfection. Â I found the fish to be very fresh. Â I was very surprised how empty the place was, although I did go on a weeknight.
Update: Still great. Â And still pretty quiet. Â We've gotten takeout a couple of times, always accurate and fast.
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