Friends Sushi on Rush — Restaurant in Chicago

Overrated Place

We heard this is one of the good sushi place so my friends and I decided to give it a try. My friend even came here directly from the airport, However, we're actually very disappointed... it's not a must go place in Chicago.

After reviewing the reviews and photos, we ordered Scallop Butteryaki for appetizer. it's very delicious and the scallop is very big and mushroom is very tasty. The photo on yelp was showing 4 pieces but it came 3 pieces only. I guess we forgot to check when they took the pictures compared with the current market price...lol

Main dishes we ordered Yakuza, Friends, Salmon Zen, Alaskan, Philly, Fire Dragon and Veggie Angel. To be honest, it's very just okay, non of the maki we ordered is very special or made you tasted that this is one of the best sushi place in Chicago. It makes us very disappointed and thinks why we even rush to be here.

The only things we like is dinning environments and drinks. We ordered lychee martini, Asian Pear tini, Maitai...etc, It's very good. I think this place is cool as a cocktail bar with some appetizers. It's a very cozy place with too many waitresses. They're all standing at the end right next to the restroom. It makes this place even smaller...lol the chair I sit is one of foot parts missing and it can't be balance, so I fall one side all the time when I'm having my dinner.

At the end, our waitress even came to our table and asked for more tips. First, tips is only a suggestion base the way you served and food and the dinning environment, second, we tipped you over 14% to made the integer number so we are easy to split the bill, she came back and said we only paid 10% tips, not sure what's in your mind or you are bad with number? Third, base on our experiences above, 14% tips is VERY generous.

Running a restaurant is hard, you are not only need to focus on your food/menu, store cleanliness/design/environment, but also provide decent service. In general, I gave 2 stars as our dinning experience for table of 5.

I will suggest you go for drinks but you might want to think twice when you decide to go...

I'm a sushi roll lover so I couldn't leave my visit to Chicago without trying a place. My friend settled on this one from reading reviews. The place is small but cute and stylish. The seats were surprisingly comfortable and almost felt like you were at a modern home.

We started with some waters. I really feel like water should always come with lemon! Takes away the tap watery flavor and the water here definitely had that taste.

We reviewed the menu over and over trying to finalize our choices and landed on three:

Fire Wing roll to start with. It sounded great on the menu but it was so basic--not worth the price. I wouldn't get it again. Lacked combination of flavors that I look for in a roll.

Big Friends was next. This one was very delicious. Had a great combination of flavors and texture. I would get this one again and highly recommend to others.

Can You Handle It? was our final roll we shared. I love spicy food and this was a spicy roll. I liked it but not too much. I would say if someone sounds intrigued by it from reading it on the menu then you should try it. If i come here again I probably wouldn't get it again.

There were other rolls that I would try if I could fit more down my belly. I noticed that a lot of rolls included cream cheese which I'm not keen on much of that.

The service was interesting, I couldn't really understand the girl that was serving us. I wanted to ask questions but that wouldn't have gone smoothly. It seems fairly popular as it started to fill up on a Tuesday evening after people were getting off work. Also the weather was perfect...

I had a really disappointing experience at Friends recently.

After doing some shopping at Nordstrom Rack, I decided to grab lunch & it was a really nice day so after arriving and greeting the hostess/server I told her would like to be seated outside. There were only two parties in their outdoor space which I saw as I was walking up.

As she was looking over my shoulder, another male server behind her said “no” repeatedly but he did not address me directly. The female server then said “no, there’s no more space outside” and lead me to a table inside.

About 5 mins later as I’m looking over the menu, a white woman walks in & says shes waiting for her friend but could they sit outside, that same male server said sure and proceeded to prepare glasses of water. I was right by the bar area and saw all of this take place.

Shortly after, I asked both servers why they allowed the other patron to sit outside and declined when I requested, they proceeded to gaslight me and said thats not what happened.

What they wouldn’t admit was they racially profiled me and refused to let me sit outside due to their bias. I left shortly after and will not be spending any money...