TenGoku Aburiya — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

I went for their Saturday brunch special. This was a limited summer offering for an all you can eat brunch which included a limited menu of sushi and skewers. I'm not sure if they have offered this previously or plan to continue this.

Background: Price: $45 and then a auto included 20% service charge Menu: from what I remember, there was sushi (salmon and hamachi nigiri, salmon avocado and spicy tuna maki, ikura), kushiyaki (mushrooms, tomatoes, chicken thighs, chicken breast), Korean fried chicken, gyoza, potato salad, yakisoba, seaweed salad, miso soup, orange slices, chocolate pudding cups

Reviews: Food: Pretty underwhelming. The hot foods didn't have a warmer so they were all cold (all the kushiyaki, fried chicken, gyoza, etc). Even when I got the food right as they were bringing it out, it was still cold. The sushi was the most disappointing to me. I was excited to try it because I know they have an omakase menu, but I found this sushi to be significantly worse than average. Perhaps it's a different chef, I'm not sure, but the hamachi was inedible. It's one of my favorite fish for sushi and it had this very matte, dull appearance and tasted weirdly sour and bitter. The ikura was another one I was looking forward too because it's another sushi favorite of mine and it was also inedible. It was very salty, sweet, and sour all at once. I know ikura can be pretty salty, but something tangy was going on there and I don't know what, but I did not like it. And lastly the salmon was middling. The fish itself was very lean and did not have a melt in your mouth texture. It tasted like someone cut a slab of salmon and stuck it on rice. I know it's buffet sushi, but it's also a supposedly higher end and they have an omakase so I thought it would at least be better than going to one of the many affordable AYCE sushi in Chicago, but the salmon was on par with that. The hamachi and ikura, while not common offerings at AYCE, was worse than what I can get from an Asian grocery store. The rice was also not my favorite. I know it's a personal preference, but I found their rice to have way too much salt and umami. I had to keep drinking water.

Service: They were very nice. Filled up water and cleared plates quickly.

Atmosphere: I didn't like the layout. I also got there ~20 min after opening and they were still setting up, but also letting us get food? Which is fine, but then there weren't enough tongs so I had to use the same tongs across all the sushi and the person behind me was just awkwardly waiting. They fixed it eventually but I thought it was strange to not have that already set up since they seem to be going for a...

Updating my review - as they updated their menu post-Covid.

We have been coming here about once every two weeks for the past 6 months. It's our favorite restaurant in Chicago right now.

Their previous menu had some truly authentic Izakaya classics, and transported us back to Japan in the heart of COVID.

Their new menu keeps some of the classics, but shifts things more towards complimenting their new star of the show: Sushi.

This place is like some kind of life hack. While at the high end of the price range at $5-10 per Nigiri, they manage to make every bite taste like it's worth double the cost. With clearly the same sourcing as their One Michelin star Omakase restaurant next door - Omakase Yume - this is an unbelievably unique opportunity to get world class Sushi al a cart.

The ambiance is more casual, so it's hard to get into the mindset of ultra-luxury - but if you close your eyes - it's just as good.

Their specials - while always expensive - are also always worth it. I've had some truly life changing bites on the weekends when Chef gets to take the kid gloves off.

While the sushi is the star, the Kushiyaki can't be ignored. Some of our favorites include the Negima, Tteokgalbi, Unagi, and Shiitake.

While they have us hook-line-and-sinker already, I would love if they brought back a few of the authentic Izakaya classics - namely the pickled vegetables (with rice), and the whole vegetable tempura.

The menu is in need of some more vinegar or veggie options to balance out the plethora of fried and heavy foods.

Then again - maybe that's their trick to get us to just order more sushi - if so - then it's working - and we're not upset.

Come here. Throw your budget out the window and go big. While you can definitely get in and out of Tengoku on a budget - you should spend at least $40-60 per person on sushi alone and get a nice bottle of sake to top it off.

Amazing place with great service, food, and value for the...

Mixed feelings about my experience at TenGoku. First to start with the positives - the atmosphere, staff, and food are fantastic. The decor has a lot of seemingly traditional Japanese influence (except for the musak, which is fine), the staff was very pleasant and informative (with one exception to address later), and the food was truly delicious, bravo to the chef.

The downsides are that the food portions are incredibly small, and the prices then become quite high. Skewers are some of their staple kitchen items, and instead of chunks of meat, you merely get 3-4 very thin, small slices, at $4-$12 per skewer. I had 2 ($16 worth) and still made myself a full dinner when I got home because I was so hungry after. My boyfriend got a $20 maki that only had 6 pieces and was similarly hungry afterwards. I'd have expected larger or more pieces on the skewer and 8-10 pieces for the maki at those prices.

I also have severe gluten and dairy allergies, which always complicates things. I don't expect every restaurant to have options for me, and on their kitchen menu, there were maybe 2 GF items I could have.

Again though, I don't hold this against the restaurant. I do, however, hold it against the staff member I spoke with when making the reservation and asked if they have GF items, he said yes absolutely. Technically that was true, of course, but practically, not really. I wish they had been more upfront about the limitations of the menu.

Overall there is a positive experience to be had at TenGoku if you have a lot of money to spend on a meal, but that, and the allergy restrictions, were not the expectations I walked in with. So I left...