SUSHI DOKKU Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

This review is for both what we had in the dining room upstairs and the drinks and snacks that we had in the speak easy bar downstairs, Booze Box.

For dinner appetizers, we started off with the usual: Edamame and Miso Soup, which uses White Miso, Tofu, Green Onion and Wakame

I know it's a little strange that we ordered mashed potatoes at a Japanese restaurant, but this is probably one of the best mashed potatoes I've had: Jagaimo, which is Whipped Potatoes with Cucumber, Carrot, Egg & Japanese Mayo. Pretty sure that Japanese mayo might have crack in it.

$1 oyster happy hour from 5-7pm: They have East and West Coast oysters. For me...it's West Coast all the way! They were these tiny little sweet morsels of delectable ocean-y goodness. Not too brine-y.

Oh, try the fried oysters too. It's deep fried in a light batter and some other good stuff. Just try it!

For those of you who know me, you know that I LOVE UNI!~ So, of course, I tried the Uni nigiri, which was phenomenal. I've missed uni so much...

Here are the rolls in order of favs:

Hot Daisy Roll: Albacore · Masago · Spicy Mayo · Cucumber · Soy Paper · Lime Ecaudor Roll: Maguro · Hamachi · Flying Fish Roe · Cilantro · Wasabi Mayo · Jalapeño Northern California Roll: Fresh and Soft Shell Crab · Onion · Masago · Avocado Now, for the fun! The bar downstairs is super duper dark, and exactly what you would want in a speak-easy. There are no signs about any sort of bar downstairs, so you really have to know about it. They offer some GREAT snacks that go with your drinks, and the service is awesome. The manager, Linda, really wants to ensure that everyone has a great experience...thanks for taking care of us so well, Linda!

We got a few of the specials -- Shot and Beer: Evan Williams whiskey and your choice of beer. We chose Kirin Lite to chase our whiskey. That always equals fun times! I also tried their whiskey sour, which was nice and sour. I love sour!

Here are the bites in order of favs:

Pork belly -- this comes with a poached egg on top, so when you break that yolk. OMG food egg porn!!~ This dish is rather savory, so make sure you maybe order something pickled on the side. Drowning Tako -- Octopus, vinegar, olive oil, lime, garlic, pickles. This dish comes out with each portion separately, so it's actually a perfect dish to enjoy with your drink. Chicken Karaage: Japanese fried chicken, rosemary & sage. This was very crispy but juicy on the inside. I think it might have had a little too much ginger for my taste. But for those of you who love ginger, go for it! Okonomiyaki: Japanese pancake with cabbage, green onion, katsu sauce, and wasabi mayo. I like my pancakes pretty thin and crispy, and since this one wasn't as crispy as I would like, I would have to put this at the bottom of my list of favs. Altho the flavors were...

Had a fairly disappointing experience at SushiDokku, when visiting for Restaurant week. Several members of our party had been before so we came in with high expectations, excited to sample the wide menu offered with the prixe fixe deal. Reservation was made weeks in advance after seeing the menu offered- this is important as it came up during our visit.

Right off the bat, we notified the server that a member of our group had a shellfish allergy- so she was hoping to do the vegetarian menu, or sub in veggie items for the two dishes (oyster shooter and seared scallop) that she could not eat. I would have understood (albeit begrudgingly) if they told us you can only have veggie items if you stuck to that entire prixe fixe, but we were told that "the chef is not ready for the vegetarian menu. He won't be doing it until about half way through restaurant week". This seems wildly unprofessional, especially for somewhere with such a high price tag- the vegetarian restaurant week menu was listed WEEKS before, they were designated as a vegetarian friendly option and after checking, it was ON THE SUHIDOKKU WEBSITE as we sat there and were told it was not an option.

Our waitress on the other hand, was lovely and went back to the kitchen several times to negotiate an option that would work for us. Second time she came back and said they would let the one person order a la carte (dont see how this is a modification) and then the third time she returned and said that we could sum the value of the two allergy triggering items, and have something off the menu at equal or lesser value. Major kudos to her for finding a solution, but we got the sense that the chef or manager or someone else up the food chain was making it really difficult for her to find an accomodation.

As for the food - the nigiri was pretty amazing, very fresh and delicious. They did mess up 2/3 of our nigiri orders but we had picked point blank and decided not to make a fuss about that, after finally getting an accomodation for the allergy. The soba noodles were kind of uninspired and I really didnt like the seared scallop in plum/apple sauce- texture was just off and the tastes didn't blend for me. The maki rolls only came in 5 pieces and were nowhere near the quality for the price. At the end of the meal, group consensus was next time we are...

I am not even going to sugar coat this one. This has to be the worst sushi place in West Loop. You essentially pay West Loop prices for rural America quality seafood. If you want to eat Sushi in this part of town, skip this spot and go to the next closest spot when you google “West Loop Sushi”. You’ll have a much more positive experience.

Starting with the drinks, they taste like they have the most minimal amount of alcohol in each glass, yet their selections indicate you are getting something “top shelf” or “one of a kind”. The only thing that is “one of a kind” about their bartending is that the staff will question you if you try to bring up the weakness of the drink. I have never encountered a place that questions this sort of thing, if I decide to bring it up…which is almost never!!

Moving to the apps, we ordered oysters and shishito peppers. Peppers were great, no complaints there (those should be impossible to mess up). For the oysters, I felt like I was eating oysters that were meant for another table earlier in the night and sat out in the prep station in the kitchen until we happened to order them. The raw ones tasted warm, slimy, and generally not fresh, while the dressed ones are just covered in salty soy sauce and cheap imitation wasabi. Avoid the oysters at all costs.

For the entree: at this point my brain has already decided to move on from this experience, so I don’t fully remember the order. I’ll tell you this much: it’s fine. Happily ate everything at our table, but the prices and quantity of rolls were NOT worth the price we paid. I would rather have paid for an “all you can eat” sushi experience for $37.99 with the same atmosphere, then pay $22 for several 6-piece dishes of blatantly sub-par fish.

I understand you sometimes pay for the area you are in for dining, but West Loop dining standards are NOT upkept at Sushi Dokku. In fact, this was the first time I have questioned a dining experience in West Loop. I will not be planning on returning. I almost never write these sort of reviews, but this absolutely needs to be out there in the world of reviews. At minimum I can dissuade just one person from eating here. Don’t believe me? Go in for yourself, you will find out shortly.

Rant over. Sushi...