Kamehachi

Went here on a little date with the bf and had a lovely time. Sushi was yummy or at least as good as sushi can get. If you like tea, they were very tentative as to when you needed refills-​little things like that stands out to me. Nothing negative-​ambience is great! Nice place for sushi lovers!

There is a severe lack of good sushi near my office so I was really hoping that this place would not let me down. I had been to the old town location several times and been pleased so I had high hopes.
I came in for lunch and was surprised at how big the place is. I really liked the décor. I felt very serene. They were pretty slow for a Friday at lunch but I assume that they fill up for dinner.
Our service was slow at best but I was in no hurry. The miso was standard but I never expect much from miso soup. I loved the Alaskan roll — anything with crab usually gets my vote and they did this roll very well. I also ordered the hotategai (scallop) nigiri which was amazing, literally melts in your mouth.
I will definitely come back here but make sure that I don’t have to rush back to the office. I see a lot of lunch take out in my future once it’s warm enough to eat outside.

This used to be one of my favorite places for sushi in the city. I still love the delicious rolls and the location… but my last few experiences have turned me off a little. It seems like the rolls are getting smaller, and last time they gave us a tiny dab of wasabi and tried to charge us for extra! Ridiculous. I’ll still go back if we’re in the area, but it’s not a place I’ll make a special trip for anymore.
P. S. Try the peach martini, it’s awesome!

A BIG MISTAKE!!!
I am amazed at folks who are giving great reviews for this restaurant.
Here is our story: I went to Kamehachi (240 E Ontario) with a bunch of friends two of whom were Japanese. We read the reviews and picked this restaurant because it was supposed to offer «traditional Japanese food.» Our Japanese friends were delighted to see the names of traditional Japanese foods in the menu but when they ordered them, they found out that they were actually not that traditional. Not only their traditional food was bad, their sushi was the tiniest rolls I have ever seen and really expensive. A combo was not enough for one person!
Not only their food was expensive, their service sucked. One of my friends asked for an additional bowl when the waitress brought his food. The waitress could not explain that the food he ordered comes with a bowl of rice and she will get him another empty bowl shortly.
Here comes the fun part. Few people have mentioned they overcharge. I had a funny incident: I asked the waitress if the combo was enough for two people to share. She said it was not enough. I then told her I do not want a combo and I ordered bunch of individual rolls. When the order came, everything was in one plate, the rolls were small and I ate them all. In the bill I was surprised to see that they had charged me for the combo. I was even more surprised that two people could eat a whole combo and two dozen rolls. I was the most surprised by the attitude of the waitress: when I told her that we had not ordered the combo she tried to argue we did. When she could not argue anymore, she told us to wait and left, she came back shortly after and gave us the bill in which she had removed the combo and angrily told us,“even though you ate the combo, I will have to pay for it now!” It was never my intention to not pay for it but I still wanted to clarify that we had not ordered it. But that attitude ruined the evening.
At the end, we paid $ 50 instead of $ 80. But their food is not worth the price. There are many good sushi restaurants in Chicago. This is not one of them.
Thumbs up:
1. Ambiance
Thumbs down:
1. Service
2. Portions (smallest sushi rolls)
3. Expensive

By far the best sushi in Chicago! 37 pieces, 2 salads, and two large Sapporo later we finally called it quits. The most noteworthy items:
Spicy tuna deluxe roll — VERY tasty
Super white tuna — Recommended by our server and worth every penny!
Hotategai (scallop) — the best I’ve ever had. Melts in your mouth.
Chicago crazy roll — So many different excellent flavors, I can’t even describe them!
Everything we had was phenomenal, with additional kudos for the über-​fresh Hiyashi Wakame (seaweed salad)!
The service is crazy good, and everyone is always so very nice. The Manager always remembers us and comes by to say hello and chat, even though we can only get into town 2~3 times a year. It’s unbelievable food in a great atmosphere!

Pretty expensive, $ 42 for lunch for 2 people.
Dinner prices = Lunch prices, quite strange. Nothing extraordinary, but wasn’t bad either.
I got it for take out, so I can’t say how the service is, the place is small and was pretty quiet when I was there.

Fish so nice, I ate here twice.
Once because the nice Swedish concierge at the hotel told us to.
Second because she was right.
It’s F to the R to the E to the SH

I’ve never had a bad experience here. I don’t ask much from my sushi places, and Kamehachi meets my simple requests:
–Fresh seafood
–Clean (not greasy) and decently authentic bento boxes
–Reliable service
–Relaxed atmosphere
–More inexpensive than expensive
Can’t go wrong here.

This is THE worst Japanese restaurant we’ve been to in Chicago. My bf ordered the sashimi/​shushi combo (don’t remember since it was several months ago) – the fish was not fresh, and the portion was smaller compared to other Japanese places. I was craving oysters so I also ordered some oysters. BIG MISTAKE! It was the most horrible/​nasty/​disgusting oysters I’ve seen at a decent restaurant. I ate one and almost threw up. I mean I do understand a Japanese restaurant is probably not the typical place to order fresh oysters, but I never expected to be served inedible oysters!
To summarize, granted I haven’t tried their teriyaki dishes, but what’s good with a Japanese restaurant if it doesn’t have fresh food to serve the customers?!

Kamehachi introduced sushi to Chicago way back. They used to be across the street from Second City about 4 blocks north of where they are now. I remember my 1^st sushi experience, my sister Jeanine and I went in and tried different things. It all tasted like bait to me. After that I went back with a more experienced sushi eater, Monte Rueb, owner of the giant indoor headshop mall Bizarre Bazaar, he taught me the right way to eat sushi. It’s hard to believe there was a time where sushi was foreign and weird. Now U.S. kids grow up with it.
The current Kamehachi is owned by the same family, different generation. They have a dark, romantic upstairs that you might miss if you don’t know it is there.
We still eat here all of the time. It’s always good. We also order carry-​out. They have plenty of options for non sushi eaters too.

I’ve had sushi from here countless times and it’s always been great so I’m surprised at the number of not so pleasant reviews.
This location is right around the corner from me and it’s been my «go to» place for sushi for 3+ years now. I like their Sushi Combo plates, the Kamehachi Combo is what I get most of the time.
Is there sushi a tad smaller than other places? Ya. A tad expensive? Ya. But nothing over the top, and the quality, taste, etc. has always been superb. Their Unagi is my fav.
They deliver too which I take full advantage of in the winter time. Although one of the girls who takes orders on the phone is a bit of a ditz so be sure to make them read your order back to you to be sure they got it right.

Finally got a chance to use my «about to expire» Groupon at Kamehachi night before last. I’d only ever been for lunch and when I was still eating fish, so I wanted to check out their veg options. It was surprisingly hopping for a Sunday night.
The funniest part of the evening was when the hostess sat us next to a group and told us while we were walking to the table, «I’m going to seat you next to them. It’s OK, they’re Japanese…» Say wha? What does that even mean?
Anyway, on to the food:
Apps: We started with a tempura appetizer and a vegetarian spring roll. I’m not a huge tempura fan, but I really liked the spring roll, which came wrapped in slightly disconcerting pastel colored rice paper.
Entrees: I ordered a futomaki roll (good to eat, not very pretty as you attempt to shove a too large disc of food in your gullet) and a shitake maki (can’t ever get enough!) My companion got the salmon skin maki and the spicy tuna deluxe, which he enjoyed more. The verdict was that the salmon skin was a bit on the salty side.
Dessert: I almost never save room for dessert, but we saw the mochi and had to give it a go, so we ordered 2 green tea mochi. The perfect size for that post-​sushi throwdown.
The atmosphere was comfortable, the service was swift and attentive. All in all, our meal plus 2 small sakes ran us about $ 15 over budget, but it was a really nice way to spend a normally dreary Sunday-​end-​of-​the-​weekend evening.

I had a decently yummy experience at Kamehachi this Valentine’s Day Eve. The atmosphere is nice. Nothing super creative, but you know, nice. Randomly, I’m pretty sure I heard a parrot in the back when I was heading to the bathroom, but that could also have been a small child. They have a few private rooms in the back that you can reserve, but it costs $ 10 extra according to OpenTable (which I think is a little ridiculous if you only want a 2-​person room).
What I remember most is that I had a really nice cocktail. I forget what it was called exactly, but it was some sort of green tea mojito. Mojitos are my favorite, so this immediately gave Kamehachi a-​ok status in my books.
I ordered the Combination Dinner (chicken teriyaki, mixed tempura, rice, miso soup, California roll). Now, this comment may be partially influenced by my visit to Hot Doug’s a mere 4 hours before, but it was a lot of food — especially the tempura. In fact, there was even bonus food in the form of a pile of cooked spinach with peanut sauce, which wasn’t mentioned in the menu. It was yummy, but there were two weird things about my meal: the tempura shrimp tasted oddly fishy, and the chicken looked a little too «perfect». It sounds weird, but it looked like it had been purchased with pre-​made grill lines on it and then steamed or something. It tasted fine — really nice actually, but the look of it put me off a bit. Overall, I really enjoyed my meal, but I’ve had equally delicious bentos for 5, even 10 dollars less (Vancouver FTW).
My boyfriend enjoyed his Kamehachi Combo (4 assorted sushi pieces, spicy tuna roll, California roll, miso soup). It wasn’t really anything special, though. Just good, solid, sushi.
Kamehachi is a pretty decent place. Not cheap, and it’s not going to blow you away, but enjoyable enough for me to return sometime when I’m in the neighborhood and try some of their interesting-​sounding rolls. If I could, I’d give it a 3.5.

I was deprived of good ol’ Asian food the three weeks that I was in the East Coast — Let’s face it, Cleveland is not exactly a center of delightful culinary diversity (and even the «non-​ethnic» food that they served up manage to be forgettable at best), so on the weekend that I was in Chicago halfway through my 3-​week trip, I was specifically looking for authentic Asian cuisine of any kind, and being car-​less for the weekend limits the option to around the downtown Chicago area.
I stumbled Kamehachi (Japanese for eight turtles), which, from the outside looked like a decent and respectable Japanese restaurant. A quick scan of the menu suggests a run-​of-​the-​mill Japanese restaurant: breaded deep-​fried goodness of tempura and katsu, teriyaki, and some basic rolls. I settled for tempura udon, which was agreeable although I am not quite sure how badly affected my standard was by the lack of Asian food in the past couple of weeks. Everything else was good enough, nothing really offended me.
Yet a similar quality food in the Bay Area would not warrant my second glance.

We made an 8pm reservation on Open Table on Saturday night. We were running a bit late and called ahead to let them know… the hostess says «sure, no problem.» But when we got there we were told our table wasn’t ready and it would be a 15 – 20 min wait. I was mildly annoyed, but we headed over to the bar for drinks and waited for our table.
Now, I must admit that the only reason we went to this location (I’ve been to the one in Old Town a few times), was because of the Groupon. We we ordered about three rolls, hamachi, salmon, masgo, unagi, and albacore. While the rolls were simply okay (although we never went for the really expensive ones), I must say that the nigiri here was surprisingly very good. Now, I should have realized this because the Old Town location has never let me down as far a quality is concerned, but I had my doubts here because its about 20 times larger than the Old Town spot and seems like its overrun with tourists. That said, I would definitely return for some fresh sushi and although its a bit overpriced, I can’t really think of another location that in this area that I would prefer.
Although the service was a bit slow at first, our server was great and we ended up getting two of the sake flights, which I highly recommend.
Bottom line: above average sushi, good service, and yummy sake flights. In an area of the city deprived of good sushi restaurants, this Kamehachi is a stand out.

I came here with a friend who had purchased a groupon. The waitress already knew we had a groupon when we placed the folded piece of paper on the table. She was prepared. We were seated promptly and our waitress attended to us immediately. Service here is excellent. The food is good as well. My friend ordered the tuna roll and the tempura soba noodles. I ordered the dragon roll and the spicy california roll. The dragon roll was outstanding! The spicy california roll was only ok. I am not a raw fish person so I really appreciated that their menu noted which sushi rolls had no raw fish. The ambiance was good and although the prices ran on the high side, I wouldnt mind coming back here again.

Today’s lunch consisted of Kamehachi take out which was decent for sushi to go but not amazing. I was rather disappointed since I am big on making my sushi spicy using sriracha hot sauce (a lot of people call it rooster sauce because of the label). Anyways, I asked for some to be included but when I got there to pick it up they said they were all out. They also forgot to include chopsticks which is not the end of the world but was rather disappointing.
The sushi was mediocre, nothing to rave about but not the worst sushi I have ever had either. I have never really eaten fish eggs on top of my sushi (I always pick them off) but my sister kept telling me they were good, which I knew meant that they weren’t by her tone of voice. Needless to say I ended up trying the fish eggs at the end of the meal and just like I thought, they were pretty gross in my opinion.
Overall the fish was not the freshest I have ever had, I have gone to the Kamehachi on Wells once before and gotten take out from there and the fish was much better so maybe it was just a bad day for this Kamehachi, I am not sure. The rolls were nothing to special to make me come back here necessarily, there are so many other good sushi places that there is no need to waste a meal on second rate sushi in my opinion.

Went here to grab some sushi before the boy caught his plane home, so we were pretty pushed for time, but I have to say I’d probably come back here to have a ‘proper’ dinner. It was very early so there were only 2 other people in the (huge) restaurant. I was a bit scared when 8 small children turned up at a neighbpuring table but even the children here were quiet and refined… (if you’d tried to feed me sushi when I was 8, there’d have been a riot, how times have changed. or i was just a brat).
Everything was delicious. The sushi was really fresh and although the portions were small, the flavour was unmuddied and perfect which is a lot better than a big roll of too-​many-​ingredients mushed together. My boyfriend had the cold soba noodle dish which did taste exactly like they did in Japan and made him most happy as he apparently used to live on them as a refreshing summer dish. I’ll be back for it over summer. The shumai and gyoza were lovely and tempura broccoli — probably not terribly authentic — was amazing. I will be tempura-​ing (is that a verb?) all my broccoli in the future.
Perhaps a place for an occasion as the interior is so well done and it feels kind of ‘special’, and it’s not the kind of place you can order tons of rolls and leave with a bill under $ 50, but it’s worth it.

Best sushi, boring atmosphere.
This is the best sushi we’ve discovered in Chicago since moving back in 2006. We’ve dined in, carried out, and had them deliver party trays we customized for home parties. ALWAYS first class sushi. Always well presented.
Their space is large, which hurts the intimacy many sushi restaurants present. And it’s often not crowded, so service is good but atmosphere is nonexistent. Ordering takeout is as slow as ordering sushi when dining in, so if you want takeout, either call ahead or plan to wait 20+ minutes for your order.
But still great sushi.

I thought this place was worthy of 4 Chicago stars until I went to Sushi Wabi. Service was quick and polite. Fish was fresh but the rolls were uninspiring. They have avocado in almost all their rolls, and it really doesn’t belong there.
I thought the cooked food was pretty tasty, and perhaps of better quality than their rolls. I recommend the agedashi tofu more than the beef and asparagus.
Great value — we ordered 5 rolls, 2 appetizers, & a salad — and we only paid $ 30 each.