Blue Sushi Sake Grill — Restaurant in Naperville

I have been to this restaurant several times. My experience has been hit or miss. I came this summer with a good friend to celebrate her birthday. I told the staff when making the reservation that it was her birthday. I also told the staff about the birthday at check in. The waitress never acknowledged her birthday until I told her. There was also nothing offered in recognition of her birthday. I have eaten at numerous fine dining restaurants and never encountered such disregard for a celebration. In fact, I was never asked when I made the reservation if we were celebrating anything. I had to bring it up. Again, my experience is that this is a standard question at most fine dining restaurants. I did talk to the manager the next day and shared my experience. While he did listen, he only made some feeble excuses and did not do anything more to make up for the experience. I was back at this restaurant this past weekend to celebrate my niece's birthday. I believe staff were told up front about the birthday but again the server did not know until we told him. Again, very poor communication on the part of front end staff. Makes me feel like the manager I spoke with completely disregarded the information I provided to him. The server this weekend provided free dessert for the table. Is that because we had a party of 8 and a bigger bill? When I came with my friend there were only 2 of us. In either case, both celebrations were important and both should have been recognized. I am extremely disappointed. I enjoy the food and may return but not as often as if I received better customer service. I must say our waiter this past weekend was excellent. He was much better than our waitress in August (wish I remembered names). This waiter was very attentive and extremely personable. He was very knowledgeable re: the menu and answered many questions which helped us make the best choices for our meal. He made the dining experience a pleasure. And his recognition of my niece's birthday was greatly appreciated and just what I was looking for. He even made sure the dessert was vegan since my nieces are all vegan. I also want to mention I got an order of the crunchy LA rolls to go since I enjoyed them so much. I refrigerated them when I got home and had them the next day. I even left them out to get to room temperature before eating. They were not good! If they had tasted like that at the restaurant, I would have never returned. They were extremely dry and lacked any flavor. I threw most of it away- a complete waste of money! If there are some instructions for sushi preparation for leftovers; that should be provided with the order. If there are some types of sushi that don't work well as leftovers- that should again be communicated to the customer. Very disappointing. If people take food home, give them the information needed so they can enjoy the food there as well. Based on my experience, I would NEVER order food from here for carry out or catering. So mixed reviews on this restaurant. I feel like dining here is a hit or miss experience. This may or may not be the place for your next...

TLDR; friendly service, excruciatingly long wait times between dishes, very lack luster food for the price point.

The food was 1 star but the great service bumbed my rating up to 3.

We came in fairly hungry walking around as it was a beautiful night. We were on a week night date and came in a little earlier than our reservation. They accomodated us which was great! But everything else about the experience kind of went down hill from there.

Since we came in a little earlier we were seated at the sushi bar, which we were more than happy to. Some of our greatest experiences were seated at the sushi bar. Our waitress was great, she was friendly and walked us through the menu as it was our first time. Our rating has nothing to do with the service or accomodation - it is 40% the wait time and 60% the food. I order a miso soup, edamame, calamari to share before our main course. The miso soup's shiitake mushroom tasted very undercooked, I've had a fair share of miso soups and feel like its pretty hard to miss the mark, but mine had minimal tofu and raw shiitake. Which was pretty disappointing. The edamame was fine, it was just edamame. The calamari was probably the highlight, but it had barely any big pieces - the plate consisted of mostly crumbs and tiny pieces of calamari and undercooked tempura sweet potatoes.

The wait time between each of our dishes were excruiciating. We heard the waiter apologize to the guest at the sushi bar next to us, so we were expecting some delay but not to this extent.

We ordered the godzilla bomb, the thriller and some nigiris. It's very hard to paint you a picture but for a lack of better explanation the fish tasted very overworked and did not taste very fresh. The rolls tasted tired, and very one note. Even when our waitress said the godzilla bomb was the most popular one and that it was a good choice, it was probably the biggest let down for me. We tried to finish everything but couldn't bring ourselves to. Our waitress was so nice we didn't have the heart to say we probably liked the cucumber water the most this meal since it was nice...

Really a 4.5 out of 5 stars ⭐️🫶! It won’t let me half it! Sooo close and here is why!

We started with two drinks, I had the China Doll and my boyfriend had the Hapa highball. For the China Doll you could taste the orange flavor with the pomegranate. I enjoyed all the flavors and it complimented each other nicely! My boyfriend had the Hapa highball and I thought that one was really good as well! It came across really fresh with the yuzu flavor coming through!

Next we had our appetizer which we had the dipping crab.. and I thought it had some good flavors in the moment but it was the least memorable part of the dinner . It was okay unfortunately it is not pictured here. There was only a couple pieces of crab and to me it was an extremely small portion, however I did like the little cucumber slaw that came with it I thought it added a nice brightness/ freshness to the deep fried crab.

We got some new drinks before the sushi arrived and I got the cucumber jalapeño margarita (I really liked this one) , and he got the joto one cup sake. (Not my favorite but it was his lol). The margarita for me was my favorite I think it was the perfect amount of spice with the jalapeño and freshness with the cucumber was chefs kiss especially with the salt rim! The sake was in my opinion meh but that’s just my opinion!

To the main event!!!! If you are still here thanks for reading! Starting at the top was the rainbow roll, next was the spicy tekka (tuna ) and then spicy tako (octopus), next was Spanish fly, Crunchy LA. Then we had crunchy blue and the last one Thriller!

All I gotta say is WOW!!! These in my opinion was the best sushi we have tried thus far! The flavor mixed with texture and the sauce on top was just amazing! My favorite was the Crunchy LA and Thriller! His favorite was the Cruncy Blue!

Also, forgot to mention our server was amazing I forgot to check for her name but she was very attentive and...