Ikigai Sushi & Izakaya — Restaurant in Chicago

Wonderful find. A brand new restaurant with a pleasant vibe on the inside. The quality from their food to their service to their decor was a great first impression for such a new restaurant. Though they could use a boost to their drinks menu, their food is an absolute must try for anyone wanting great Japanese food. The nigiri omakase had some of the most beautiful tasting nigiri I've had. Every piece had a wonderfully delicate taste that you'd expect from high quality fresh sushi. It was a wonderful experience of unique textures and subtle flavors. Some stand out pieces from the omakase was the uni/octopus nigiri (I think it was octopus I don't have the great memory) which had a playful texture and flavor to it and the sardine nigiri which pleasantly surprised me on how much depth of flavor it had when charred a bit. $69 for the nigiri omakase is well worth the price so I would recommend for anyone coming in! Besides the amazing sushi, there's plenty of other non-sushi related items you can choose from! The chicken skewers had an amazing sweet sauce on it that paired nicely with the grilled sweet pepper skewers it came with. The bonito flakes were a nice add-on for the sweet peppers but could probably use a little more salt, delicious nonetheless. Can't wait to make this my new regular, I'll absolutely have to try the other items on the menu although the sushi will always be tempting to go back to. A great discovery and I'm looking forward to making this place my new go-to...

went for restaurant week and sad to say that our experience was underwhelming. service was understandably not the best - it seemed like the restaurant was understaffed with only one server for the whole restaurant, but the food unfortunately did not make up for this

we tried: • drinks: yuzu sake bomb • course #1: shishito pepper, hamachi crudo, karaage • course #2: chili hotate, tsurai sake, butabura, harami • course #3: doteyaki, chicken katsu entree, chirashi donburi • dessert: yuzu cheesecake, mochi • extras (happy hour): sake avocado roll, amai roll

the hamachi crudo and karaage were honestly quite good. hamachi crudo had citrus flavors, and karaage had lime flavor added, which made them interesting. everything else was just okay, and even their happy hour pricing seemed high ($8 for a basic roll of sushi). i wouldn’t say that i’d never come back again, but i don’t think i would come back...

Walked in on a whim at 530 because I was in the area and I wasn’t disappointed. Ordered a variety of kushi yaki and it landed at the table first and they were amazing! Chicken hearts are hard to find in the city and they gave a lot per order. The Gyutan was juicy and pork belly was flavor. Would come back to try more of the skewers. Afterwards the don came out with the quail egg on top. I would recommend adding a little soy to mix together depending on your saltiness levels. The sushi rice in the don was high quality and seasoned well. Lastly the maki and sashimi came out and it was the perfect amount of food. The Fuyu roll is everything I look for in a roll: shrimp tempura, torched salmon and fish eggs. YUM. The iwashi sashimi was well balanced and cured perfectly. Overall great food and friendly service. I will be coming...