Sozai Banzai — Restaurant in Elk Grove Township

It's a small quaint little place in Arlington Heights. It's somewhat hidden away but it seemed to me that the locals were well aware of its presence.

Before I get into the actual food - the only reason I gave this 4 stars and not 5 is the complexity of the menu ordering. Upon arrival I explained it was our first time, we were handed a confusing menu that had a lot of items on it and some sozai and ramen on the menu as well. We asked if there was a sushi menu which there was.

Eventually we ended up ordering off 3 different menus and there was another changing menu on the wall that had more items!

We came here to try small Japanese plates but were overwhelmed by the confusing manner of ordering. If you have too many options that are not segmented you confuse customers especially those that aren't familiar with the experience.

We reverted to the comfort of other Japanese delights which we were most accustomed to.

The food:

We had a sushi fire roll I believe - it was delicious and a notable part of our meal. The pieces were bite sized and not overly stuffed with rice. Overall we thought it was notable.

Garlic Ramen - The broth was good, very garlicky but not overwhelming. The ramen noodle here is thinner and lighter, we both agreed it was good.

I got the rice and beef dish. I've had this before at other Japanese restaurants and overall it was good. Reminiscent of a classic.

Overall I'd go for the sushi and some of the soazi or ramen. When we walked out I found a paper menu that was much easier to read and they even had more ramen that wasn't on the other ramen menu?! Again very confusing... they should use a number system for the sozai. That must...

This has been on my list for awhile and one day I decided to try. It’s located in a strip mall with lots of parking. When you go inside, they have a sufficient amount of tables to sit at, but it wasn’t very busy on a Saturday night. You order at the register and he brings it out to you. You’ll have to be patient, they don’t have a lot of staff. We ordered tako karaage (fried octopus), croquettes, Taiwan style tonkotsu ramen with 2 pieces of chashu, and the deluxe bento with butashoga (ginger pork). I had a bite of the pork and it was delicious. Ginger was not overpowering. Tender meat. Prices were very affordable and cheap. Service was great and he brought out our food hot and freshly made. I would definitely come back and try other items.

-tako karaage 5 - it had a nice little chew and was not overly fried. Great taste. -croquettes 5 - I loved these. When you bite into them, they’re soft. Flavorful, savory filling inside. I should have gotten more of these. -Taiwan style tonkotsu ramen 5 - noodles were chewy. Bountiful amount of ground pork. The two chashu pieces were tender and easy to break apart. Broth was not heavy, it...

If you are in the mood for Japanese food, you'd do much better going elsewhere. Especially as there are some really good places not event 10 minutes away from this location.

Nothing here stood out nor left an impression. Generally with so many dishes on the table, there is bound to be something that one can call delicious or really good, but sadly, that's not the case here. I was particularly disappointed with the karaage. I was not expecting world class, of course, but what I got was small, tiny pieces of chicken coated in a lot of batter. Most of the bite was batter, not chicken. Again, I know that this is the case for some deep fried foods, but I assure that in the vicinity you'll find karaage that'll leave you really impressed. The miso was generic and not even the rice was able to redeem the overall impression I had of the food.

Save your money....