Thursday, July 2, 2009

Sushi in the suburbs

After eating at Bistro Wasabi in Lake in the Hills last night, I've decided I want to become a sushi connoisseur.

I've never been hugely into fish in general, but somehow I took a liking to sushi a few years ago. Unfortunately, I still haven't tried a lot of it and I don't really know what I'm doing, so a group of my co-workers kind of just giggled at me as I fumbled around with my chopsticks.

Despite what I'll call a "fancy" ambiance at Bistro, I felt surprisingly comfortable being the outcast and was never met with sushi snobbery. At first, I thought I was walking into some sort of West Coast mirage, as Bistro Wasabi is confusingly set in the middle of a strip mall at 4590 W. Algonquin Rd. (there's also a Hoffman Estates location, I'm told).

But the intimate table settings and dim lighting were a warm welcome, as well as the friendly and helpful servers. They explained what was in each roll, and came out with new plates promptly.

Our group of six ordered edamame as an appetizer (deliciously warmed with a hint of salt), then split a variety of rolls we handpicked from the menu. We had a little bit of everything, but my favorites were the Avocado roll and Alaskan roll.

One of my friends best described the food at this place as "like butter" before we ventured there. And he was right. The sushi was exceptionally fresh, and I could've kept eating past my eight to 10 rolls.

Although the prices on the menu are a bit intimidating at first, you get a lot more than you expect. The rolls are huge, and you get a few for each separate order. For the six of us including 18 percent gratuity already added, it came out to a little under $20 each. Note: most of us did drink only water, so if you plan to imbibe in sake or other cocktails, it'll cost a bit more.

I will definitely be back here again for some more samplings. It was an exciting meal, and we each enjoyed trying new things and talking about our food.

Now, I'm ready to try a new place and keep on truckin' on my sushi journey through the suburbs. If you've got any suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comment section below!

2 comments:

that girl said...

Mmmm, sushi. Love it.

I have heard that Kaminari, also in LITH, is good.

I personally love Swordfish in Batavia (they also have outposts in Arlington Heights and Deerfield as Wildfish).

Amber said...

I've never heard of Swordfish/Wildfish. Next time I'm out further eat I'll have to try one of those, though!

In the meantime, I plan on getting over to Kaminari as soon as possible. I've seen nothing but good stuff on Yelp about it.