AJI — Restaurant in Lake View Township

It breaks my heart not to leave a 5 🌟 review, but I just want to be realistic about a place to which I went with extremely high expectations. First and foremost the good things: The chefs are very friendly and engaging, the food is delicious (especially a couple of courses that really stood out) and the drinks are good. I particularly loved the yuzu margarita. It was out of this world for me! However having tried omakazes in several major cities and this one being priced and reviewed as a top tier one I did find a few shortcomings: They use commercially processed Wasabi that is more spicy and horseradishy than real freshly ground Wasabi root, which should be used in a high end omakase like this one. I found the rice to be ever so slightly mushy. It was by no means bad, just not as perfect as I expected for this level of place. Being the base ingredient for every single course they should strive to make it the perfect consistency. I might be guilty of having a salty palate but felt almost all the nigiris lacking a bit of flavor. This is in contrast to another review that mentioned that they used too much soy sauce. Perhaps they overcorrected? I felt they all could use a bit more salt whether it be soy sauce, salt or any other dressing they are using in order to bring out more the different flavor of each fish. While I did love the yuzu margarita and would recommend it to anyone who loves margaritas, yuzu or both like me, I found the lychee martini to be too sour. Interestingly enough it was more sour than the margarita. I believe a good lychee martini should highlight the lychee flavor and only have a hint of lemon to balance it out. Finally as I said everyone was very friendly and engaging. However, while Christian (I believe the manager) is also friendly, engaging and very professional he did come across to me as being tense or stressed. I may have misread the situation, but I especially noticed this when one of the chefs dropped one nigiri. He did not seem happy about it. But that was just my personal perception and I might be wrong. As I said, he was still friendly and engaging, even addressing me by first name which I found very thoughtful and I appreciated. All in all this is a very good place that I would still recommend but would love at some point to come back and found they have achieved excellence in the points...

$150 omakase with : Toro, Wagyu, Truffle, Caviar & Gold Flakes?

Thank you Kristian & Arnold for an incredible evening, celebrated my boyfriend' s birthday with the most unique , approachable, & intimate omakase I've seen so far ✨

✔️ Super intimate: 2 seatings per weekday (6/8pm) 3 on weekends (5/7/9pm) ✔️ Very cozy & chill, each seating is 2 hours ✔️ HUGE bites no skimping! ✔️ Rare & unique fish + meat + pairings imported from Japan, Korea like Shortspine Thornhead, Okinawa Sea Grape, Yuzu Pearls ✔️ Nice menu on the wall that switches each dish, so you know what you're eating ✔️ Perfect for celebrations: We celebrated 3 birthdays!🎉

🍸Lychee Martini $15 (most popular) 🍹Smoking Fresh $14 - mezcal, watermelon, + lime (exec chef's favorite)

15 courses: 🍣Hirame fluke 🇰🇷 - ingawa , sea salt & lime zest brushed with 🍣 Ika squid - flew seared with light soy and grape mustard 🍣 Kampachi - amberjack, soy, yuzu pearls, hibiscus salt 🍣 ✨ Madai 🇯🇵- sea bream, soy, lemon zest, kombu salt 🍣 Hon suzuki - striped bass - soy, umeboshi (plum), dried Shiso 🍣 Kin media - Golden eye snapper, soy & honey pearls 🍣 Unagi - fresh water eel - flame seared with shiso butter 🍣 Horse Mackerel - smoked soy, grated ginger, chives 🍣 Hotate 🇯🇵 scallops from Hokkaido - soy, smoked trout roe, yuzu aiolo 🍣 Kinki - Short spine thornhead , soy, and poached garlic (seasonal, hard to find) 🍣✨Ama Ebi - sweet shrimp with soy, lemon, Okinawa sea grape 🍣Escolar - white tuna- lemon, truffle butter, kombu salt, soy . Sashimi course with 4 pieces + (just brought it back) 🍣✨Toro uni gunkan - blue fin tuna belly, soy, Santa Barbara sea urchin , golden Kaluga caviar , compressed caviar shaved (Bessy best piece) 🍣✨A5 Japanese Wagyu 🇯🇵 - soy, golden Kaluga caviar, sea salt, black truffle 🍨Vanilla ice cream - bubu arare, black sesame, freeze dried raspberry, mandarin orange, & wakamomo peaches

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On August 10, 2023 6pm reservation. my boyfriend and I were excited about our anniversary omakase dinner at Aji. We found the place on Google, which had good reviews, so we had high hopes.

The meal began with tasty Nigiri, but by the fourth course, we realized that every dish was more Nigiri. This surprised us, as we've had omakase before with a mix of different dishes.

When we asked the server, they explained that all 14 courses were going to be Nigiri. This was unusual for us, especially since it cost $150. They said it was the chef's style, but it didn't match our previous experiences. It felt like the term "omakase" was more of a title for the restaurant rather than a true omakase experience.

What disappointed us even more was that every piece tasted pretty much the same. The chef had put a lot of soy sauce on each one, so the flavors didn't stand out. Plus, we noticed that all the pieces were already cut, which took away from the usual omakase experience where the chef prepares each piece fresh.

Feeling a bit let down, we decided to leave after the fifth course. The bill, including a bottle of sake, came to a total of $450 plus tip. Paying that much money for what we got felt like being robbed. It was unfortunate that we had to pay the full price even though we didn't finish the meal. We felt that the restaurant could have been more considerate in this aspect.

I'm sharing this so others, especially those who have never had omakase before, know what to expect. If you're looking for a true omakase experience, this might not be it. Spending that much money and not getting the variety and quality we hoped for was disappointing. I hope this feedback helps others decide and maybe even helps the...