Umami Sushi

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  Umami Sushi is awesome...Service is great and sushi even better. Good selection of delicious rolls.
  
  Best all you can eat sushi place in this area! I go there with my girls at least once in two weeks and recommend it to every sushi lover.

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  Posted on 03.12.13 Maria K.

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  Umams is pretty good stuff, first time I ever had sushi and was not disappointed.  Kind of a longer wait, but went on the Friday after opening weekend which was kind of busy so to be expected. 18.99 for all you can eat, stuffed my face until my pants didn't fit anymore.  Was going to get a rainbow roll but apparently Michelle S. cleaned them out the night before.  Heard she got booted for asking if they gave "happy endings" there...
  
  Recommend it though, pretty good place!

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  Posted on 03.08.13 A W.

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  Delicious , the sushi is fresh the service is outstanding, im so glad there is a sushi restaurant so tasty in this neighborhood finally.

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  Posted on 02.22.13 Christine B.

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  My boyfriend and I went there for dinner the other night.  Price is awesome.  Service a little slow.  It seemed like we waited forever to get our rolls, but we were starving.
  
  We started with the pot stickers and the got two different types of sushi each.  
  
  Pretty tasty.  Def will be going back.
  
  Didnt have anyone staring at us.  But we did clean the plates.  :)

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  Posted on 02.22.13 Victoria M.

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  The food was great! Nice to have a Sushi restaurant in the neighborhood....  The place is nice although I would dim the lights a little if I were the owner to give it a nicer ambiance.  Additionally, maybe a BYOB fluorescent sign in the window.  We forgot to bring our wine!  Hope the owners read these recommendations...

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  Posted on 02.21.13 Wil V.

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  This place is great!  My husband and I went on Friday night.  We did not bring our 2 year old with.  However, there were 6 tables with small children.  This place was packed!  Good sign.
  
  We both ordered the $18.99 all you can eat sushi.  We strategically chose rolls as to not overlap each other.  Our first round of rolls were around 6 in total.  It took about 20 minutes.  Not bad.  When we were done with those, we ordered a couple more and got them in a couple minutes.  There was no one staring at us while we ate either like another person mentioned.  We loved the service and our entire experience.
  
  Some of the rolls we ordered were spider, dynamite, golden, spicy crab, philly, boston....all were good.  The golden roll was my favorite.  I never had this before.  They deep fried the roll....yummy!  We also ordered the calamari- a little weird.  There were stringy bands in it.  Why?  I have a feeling they were not real.  Instead some kind of imitation squid product??  I don't know, but they were a little strange.
  
  Overall, I really really liked this place.  Good sushi two minutes from my house.  We will be going back.

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  Posted on 02.17.13 Jen A.

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  My husband and I came in recently for all you can eat at around 3pm.  It was our first time there, and as soon as we walked in, we could tell it was going to be a good experience.  Our server was very friendly, helpful, and patient.  He always had a smile on his face, was ready to answer any questions we had, and was very accommodating - making sure we had all we needed and took away what dishes we didn't.  The kitchen staff was also very friendly and had a pleasant demeanor.  It seems Umami has gathered some nice staff.  
  
  Together, before tip, our bill amounted to $35.
  
  We both enjoy maki rolls and mostly cooked sushi, so I can't comment on the sashimi here.  We ordered miso soup, gyoza, yakitori, Japanese fried chicken for starters and for the sushi, we had the spider roll, california roll, and chicken teriyaki roll.  
  
  The miso soup was good, with seaweed and small bits of tofu.  It was quite tasty and a nice start.  The gyoza were also good, clearly fresh, and ever so slightly browned to lend a bit of flavor.  I normally like them a little darker, but these were good - we even ordered a second plate of them!  The sauce also complemented them nicely.  The yakitori were presented well (very cute!) and tasted great.  The sauce on it was delicious too!  My husband really enjoyed the Japanese fried chicken.  I am not a big fan of breaded chicken, but he likes that sort of thing and appreciated Umami's take.  It came with what he described a barbecue-type sauce (which he liked).
  
  As for the sushi, the spider roll was amazing.  I try to order it at every sushi restaurant I visit, and this was one of the best, maybe even THE best.  If you like crab tempura, definitely give this one a try.  The california roll was about what we expected, but you could tell the ingredients were very fresh.  The avocado especially tasted fresh (I love avocado, and if you do too, you can tell if it's been sitting out).  The teriyaki chicken roll was a sort of strange pick of my husband's, but it turned out to be a very tasty surprise!  If we hadn't been stuffed already, we might have gotten another one of those. :)
  
  We didn't splurge on drinks, but I noticed they had "Japanese soda" on the menu, and I definitely would want to try that.  Both of us lamented that they didn't have any bubble/pearl teas.  We tend to each get one whenever we have Japanese, so that's an easy $10 they could have made on us if they had tapioca pearls and a blender! :)  For dessert, they had mochi available, but we were too full to even consider dessert.
  
  The venue itself is charming.  It is a corner of a strip mall across from a nice condo complex on Cumberland.  There are several little boutique shops side-by-side, such as a bakery and a Polish pierogi place.  I could definitely see coming to Umami for lunch or dinner and stopping by for some cookies, pastries, or pierogi to take home.  The location of the restaurant itself used to be a Blockbuster video, and I was amazed at what the owners did with the place.  
  
  When you first walk in, the foyer is really spacious and feels kind of refreshing.  Inside the restaurant, we didn't even have to wait a minute, as our server was very attentive and greeted/took us right away.  There were a very few patrons there, maybe one or two other tables during the course of our meal, but it was about 3  p.m. on a weekday, so likely their off-time.  We were seated in a lovely, private booth.  The decor was very earthy, lots of dark wood colors that contrasted well with the huge open window space that let so much light in.  It gave me a sense of calm, personally.  
  
  The one thing I would maybe suggest is that the entrance to the kitchen was behind a room divider and a fabric curtain, which could easily be a long-type noren instead.  I've seen some restaurants do this - they take a noren (a type of sectioned, decorative curtain usually used in ramen shops) and use it for their kitchen entrance.  It still provides a bit of privacy for the back, while being very light, airy, functional, and of course decorative.  It might be comfortable than the room divider and (what looked like) heavy fabric drape/curtain.
  
  If the owner reads this, you should compliment your server(s) and chef because they were wonderful to us!
  
  As for us, the service, food, price, and location was top-notch, so we will definitely be coming back.  It is closer and nicer than Sushi Para (which was our go-to all-you-can-eat sushi place).  When we came home, my husband was already asking when we can go back! :)

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  Posted on 02.15.13 Monika H.

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  My friends and I came here last week. I got the $18 all you could eat sushi! I really liked everything that I got except for the sweet potatoes rolls. I guess I had a different expectation! It also took our waiter forever to get us water and napkins.  He was so sweet though and made it better when he gave all 8 of us our own bills without us asking to split it! I loved that! Try the dynamite roll! It's spicy but I loved it! Good sushi for a great price! I will definitely be back!

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  Posted on 02.07.13 Kassandra L.

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  For decent sushi close to home its fine. Other than that I wouldn't recommend going. Had the spicy tuna roll which turned out to taste better than the rainbow roll I ordered. The rainbow roll may have been the smallest and saddest lookin roll ive seen. No pot of gold at the end of that rainbow.

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  Posted on 02.06.13 Michelle S.

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  Whoa! All you can eat sushi,  now BYOB and two miles from my house? Winning! The sushi is good -not great, but $18 for decent all you can eat sushi is okay by me! Service was good and very fast!  Great if you need a sushi fix, but don't go expecting to get the best sushi in Chicago.  We also had the calimari tempura - not good at all.  Don't waste any room in  your belly with it!

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  Posted on 01.22.13 C. B.

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  Have we finally found our neighborhood sushi restaurant? Maybe so. We have been waiting for Umami to open for a few months. The bad sushi experiences in the area have made us lose hope that until Mariano's opens, we will be taking a drive for sushi.
  
  Both of us chose the all you can eat dinner special. The rice doesn't have the al dente consistency I like, a tad on the mushy side. The nigiri was pretty fresh but again the rice kinda ruined it for me.  The rolls weren't tightly rolled but the taste of the sushi was acceptable. The calamari was more tempura batter and didnt have much of a flavor.
  
  Maybe we came on an off night. I would probably give this place 3 and a half stars. Not mind numbing bad but not blow you out of the water good either.

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  Posted on 01.20.13 April P.

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  All you can eat sushi for lunch at 15.99 and all you can eat sushi dinner for 18.99.  The rolls are big with lots of meat (fish).  Many sushi joints skimp on the fish, and make huge rolls with mostly rice; as rice just fills you up and is cheap for restaurants.  This place serves a decent amount of fish in their rolls.  
  
  Staff is very prompt and courteous.  
  
  Besides sushi, they also have hibachi.

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  Posted on 01.15.13 Pajacara P.

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  I came here with 3 others as we had all been eyeing it's opening for quite some time.  We ordered from the All You Can Eat menu and left completely and utterly satisfied.  I can't even recall how many different rolls we shared, yet each was incredibly fresh and delicious.  We will definitely be back very soon to take advantage of the great deal and fresh rolls.

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  Posted on 01.08.13 Justyna K.

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  This place just opened.  Three and a half stars, but rounded up to four based on allowing for opening night quirks, offset by wonderful service.
  We decided to order sushi by the piece and also ordered a hot entree.  The miso soup was barely warm and the beef hibachi was very over cooked and it came with two mystery dipping sauces; one was tasted like mayo and the other like salt.
  The sushi was the high point and all tasted fresh and was plainly presented.  The white tuna was wonderful.  I would highly recommend the All You Can Eat, even if you dont plan to pig out, as my six pieces and a roll came to over $20
  Our server, Lauren was right on with her timing and pace.

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  Posted on 01.01.13 Ruby Q.

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