How does the menu here change month to month? How does the perception of quality and value, when one no longer approaches Phan’s work with the romanticism of a “special occasion” splurge, change with it?
Japanese
Kumiko is another one of those places (like Obélix) that feels so familiar it can be hard to write about critically. At the same time, it is a place that remains so uncompromising in its vision it can sometimes perplex and polarize segments of its audience.
Kyōten has nothing left to prove, yet it remains a mystery for many Chicagoans who have misgivings about a pricey restaurant missing Michelin’s endorsement. What is this “chef of the year” up to at the moment?
Without any novelty factor from the food hall setting to help round its rough edges, Valhalla “2.0” must deliver across every dimension: reflecting the lessons learned and dreams dreamt during the prior iteration…
After spending time with two concepts that tickled the national press in 2023, you turn your attention to a restaurant that—having opened at the tail end of last year—seems poised to do the same in 2024.
Jinsei Motto forms a valuable addition to Chicago’s sushi scene. It is the approachable, irreverent entry point to the genre, and one that—with such a clear, undeluded sense of self—you find rather refreshing.
Chicagoans need to beware that the experience offered at Sushi by Scratch Restaurants today is a pale facsimile of the version Phillip Frankland Lee put on at opening, but there is still some fun to be had.
With LEYE’s luxe sushi spot recently celebrating its first birthday, the time seems ripe for you to pay the concept a visit and test its intention of being “the best omakase in Chicago.”
With your hundredth visit looming in early 2023, the time seems ripe to step back, reflect, and review the creative output that has flowed ceaselessly from Ada Street’s colossus of seasonal American cuisine.
Kyōten “2.0” is a restaurant of the very highest caliber that, as an ever-evolving human drama rooted in the rhythm of nature, can rightfully be labelled “art.”