Hamachi Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Rogers Park Township

Disclaimer: If you are craving a traditional Japanese food, this is not the place.

Now onto the service and food.

If I could give them 11 stars on the service, I would. Very lively, polite, totally make you feel comfortable and at home. They really should be extremely proud of that. Made me believe again that there are places in the US that can and do provide fantastic service making you feel at home without having to give an arm and a leg (and that too for a roboticly superficial good service).

We came here with the intention of having good Japanese food. Please keep in mind that was our yard stick. As I mentioned in the disclaimer, if you are looking for traditional and authentic Japanese food, this is not the place for you this go round. But if you have patience and are willing to try something with an open mind, you may enjoy the food.

The one thing they certainly have going for them is vegetarian. Unlike a lot of the traditional Japanese restaurants out there (BTW, I have yet to find a truly authentic one with authentic flavors in the US), their rolls are filled with a lot of veggies. The only thing that could be done differently is along with the veggies, you gotta have some of the Japanese pickle inside the rolls. That will elevate the rolls to a different level.

I had the El Nino frankly after reading the word 'habanero.' I was expecting a good chunk of heat but there wasn't any. It was a good roll though.

We also ordered the vegetable tempura appetizer. Great veggies. Again, not traditional tempura (not the traditional batter, etc.) The sauces that came with it though were really really good.

Also ordered a plate of the vegetarian harumaki which I thought was probably the least favorite part of the meal. If you have ever eaten a harumaki, you know the cover is super thin and crispy. Knowing at that point that this was not a traditional Japanese joint, I still feel the harumaki could have been better. It seemed like a miniature version of an egg roll you would get a bad Chinese restaurant.

The only other thing I think they can do better is the rolling of the sushil rolls. They almost fell apart every time.

I intend to visit the place again but without expecting any traditional Japanese food. I can't talk enough about the friendliness and service guys. Maybe I'm old but these folks really made me want to come back again just to be...

We have eaten there in the past and ordered a sushi tray for a birthday party yesterday. In short - outstanding food! The tray became an edible "centerpiece" on the dinner table and the guests were much less interested in my homemade food than they usually are :) If you want to impress your guests and make sure they will not go hungry this beautifully decorated, delicious and pretty reasonable priced sushi tray is the way to go! As a bonus - the food is kosher. So if you keep kosher you probably have heard of this place already and it's time to try it for yourself. Even if you don't keep kosher but plan to invite some people over who do - it's a yummy option in comparison to other pricey kosher establishments. Whether you keep kosher or not, this is some damn good sushi! (The credit for the line above goes to my teenage daughter, who enjoyed this sushi at her birthday party...

The experience here was horrible.Lived in the area for over a year and always wanted to try even waited until they remodeled. Finally got a chance to go in and it was like they never seen people before we were stared at like they did not want to serve us but had no choice..So finally we get a server that did not even say hello she brought us 2 waters that were very warm and gross .We sat for 5 minutes and no one asked what we wanted or even offered any menus..Now this is a kosher place and the majority of patrons are Jewish..so because I'm not me and my girlfriend were treated like scum.Let me say I will never eat here and will definitely spread the word in the Jewish community on how judgmental and prejudiced...