Roka Akor

I am kinda torn on this review. I’ve been thinking about it for a while. We came in for lunch during the week and the place is very nice, hip atmosphere. I am pregnant, so didn’t know exactly what to order on the menu, but found something that would work. The Bento lunch, which I thought would be served in like a box, like most are, but it comes in courses instead. Which, honestly, doesn’t really work for lunch. I am on a time table when I come in for lunch. I don’t have time to sit and relax for over an hour. The food, was really amazing. I do have to say. The seaweed salad, tempura roll, dumplings, and skirt steak. Our server was hard to track down, he was preoccupied serving the people behind us wine non stop, which is totally fine, but we were in a bit of a hurry and could have used a little more focus. The food was really just too slow to come out for lunch, bottom line. Everything else was great. Maybe I’d go back for dinner, but probably can’t swing it for lunch unless I have nothing else going on!

Excellent food & service! We asked the waitress to recommend us a variety of sushi, nigiris and makis. Tasteful, well presented and original food. Highly recommended!

Came here for dinner and ordered all the Roka favorites including the Wagyu A5 beef, cod, sashimi, mushroom rice, scallops and escolar tataki. Overall the food was good.
Negatives were the place was too loud, and I was confused as to why sake was served in wine glasses. My friend ordered a cappuccino and our waiter said they couldn’t make it but he would try. He came back with cappuccinos that were lukewarm and later brought complimentary hot ones to replace it.
Overall an a-​ok experience. Glad I tried it but not sure I’d go out of my way to go back.

Enjoyed a great birthday celebration here.
Service, cuisine, ambience, presentation was all excellent! Apps: Maki, Hamachi rolls, dumplings were delicious. salmon, cod, steak entrees all very good. Grilled bok choy & sweet potatoes fair. Rice hot pot with crab was really good.
Only wish waitress would’ve acknowledged my daughter’s birthday as we did mention it upon check in. No complimentary dessert like many other fine dining restaurants either which was disappointing, especially with such a large tab.
Would’ve been such a nice touch.

I had the beef fillet steak which was fantastic! The Chilean seabass was great too and the rib eye. We also had rock shrimp which was nice and the tempura veggies were good. The virgin white peach margarita was a little on the sour side.
The lost star was generally on overall experience and ambiance. Music was more disturbing than necessary. The service was substandard because they forgot half our appetizers and they were served after our entrees. Same with the drinks they came at different times.
Finally its definitely not a place to bring kids, really it was our own mistake. At first they didn’t allow the stroller inside so i parked it at the entrance, my child was sleeping in it. It was parked inside the restaurant. However that was not sufficient for the management and they were afraid of any liability *roll eyes* so we were forced to wake up my son. The high chair they brought really is for infants not for a toddler who is 2. So that did affect our experience because we were really glad he was sleeping because we knew we would have enjoyed our meal more. Anyhow next time it would be great if all these warnings were given at time of our reservation where we specified we were bringing kids.
Anyhow we would definitely come in again, just not bringing kids which we should have done in the first place.

2 more trips in 2016, and Roka still stands out as the best food I’ve had in Chicago. Excellent chefs and staff, preparing beautiful and scrumptious palatables. View my photos for lots of deliciousness. Some of the recent ice cream/​sorbet flavors include: lemongrass, caramelized red bean, apricot, pear, ube, match green tea. Also the Japanese Grade A5 Wagyu Beef looks amazing, the fat and meat form an amazing marbling of the cut (but with a price tag, most recently $ 35 per oz with 3 oz minimum)

Wanted to go try out another Robata bar in town, but they were closed for the holiday so I found myself checking out Roka Akor instead. I had a front row seat at the robata grill and they have an awesome setup with a wide open view.
The server recommended the robata grilled scallops, pork belly, and sweet corn, so I decided to take his word for it and ordered those to start. The grilled scallops were just ok. I still prefer my scallops seared in a hot cast iron pan so the outside is well caramelized but the inside still quite rare. I thought an authentic robata grill was supposed to get pretty hot, something like 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit hot, but these scallops just didn’t have the proper char on them in my opinion. Next up was the grilled pork belly, and those were pretty darn good. I think this was attributable more to the marinade and the meat itself than the grill, because not only was it tender, it was very sweet and succulent and complemented the richness of the pork belly with harmony. I would reorder these in a heart beat. Then came out the sweet corn. I read somewhere (Zagat?) that they were supposedly one of the best items on the Roka menu. I thought they were buttery and decent, but nothing mind blowing. I think this restaurant uses the binchotan charcoal imported from Japan, which is why I was looking for robata in the first place, but honestly I couldn’t detect the unique taste this type of charcoal was supposed to deliver. Moreover, I saw one of the robabta cooks dump black charcoal into the grill pit. Binchotan is supposed to be white, so I’m not sure if this restaurant is even using binchotan.
I then decided to venture off on my own and ordered the chicken yakitori, beef tataki with shaved black truffle, and robata grilled crimini mushrooms. The beef tataki was straightforward enough, wrapped around a piece of cucumber with a shaved truffle on top. I was only barely able to smell the truffle, and it literally did nothing for the sliced raw beef. It sounded like it would be good, but it was just average. The crimini mushrooms were just your regular olé grilled mushrooms brushed with butter. Again, nothing spectacular or out of this world.
I was going to try the A5 wagyu, but then I reminded myself usually these «luxury» items are often huge rip-​offs for the money, so I didn’t get them. Instead, I was curious to find out how their tempura «game» was, so I decided to take a chance. The tempura was presented beautifully, with a piece of shiso leaf lightly battered on one side. The taste, on the other hand, fell short. The batter was seemingly too heavy, especially on the shrimp, so much that you predominantly taste the batter and not the shrimp itself. This was even more true with the mushrooms, eggplant, and red bell peppers, as these delicate vegetables tend to absorb grease more readily. On the plus side, the asparagus and sliced carrot were much better. I couldn’t care for the butterfish, as it was quite dry and insipid.
Well, that was the food portion of the experience. My server was very attentive and explained the menu well. I thought his recommendations were pretty good, at least it was much better compared to when I was left to my own device. The atmosphere here is upscale, but never once did I sense any air of superiority from the service staff. It was a very friendly and professional environment, and everyone from the host to the server to the busboys were polite.
I wouldn’t go out of my way to return, but I certainly wouldn’t hesitate to come back here again if someone else invited me. This is a solid 4 star restaurant and nothing less.

Roka Akor is a very good restaurant. I give them between 4 and 4.5 stars!
The space has modern décor and it’s very clean all around, from the dining area to the washrooms. It has a professional feel. Many people are dressed up, but it’s also a casual dining experience.
The food was excellent. The fish was cooked perfectly, nice white and flaky. The rolls are excellent. I especially enjoy the Spicy Tuna Rolls. Our servers have always been polite, professional, and attentive. They even gave us a free fish sampler for being return customers! We were pleasantly surprised!
The Miso Soup appetizers are great! I recommend the Spicy Red Miso with Lobster. It was delicious.
This place is expensive, but you get what you pay for. It’s a nice date location for someone you know well or for a special treat.

My wife and i celebrated our 10 year anniversary here and could not have experienced a better meal. The ambiance, the service and most importantly the meal was extremely delicious. We first started to think about which entrees to eat but our server David, who by the way was legit, suggested we go for the Omakase menu that was about 100 bucks per person, since we wanted to try a bit of everything and go yolo.
Every single dish we received was catered to our needs, we had some dietary restrictions (no pork) and they did a good job serving up all the meals with that attention to detail. The sashimi cuts and fish items were as fresh as I could imagine outside the Tsujiki Fish Market in Tokyo.
The prime beef was deliciously made on a robata grill and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
The dessert platter was amazing with one of the most delicious molten chocolate cakes I have tried to date!
Very impressed and I cannot wait to go back again!

The sushi and rolls here are fresh, they taste special and nice. The favors mixed very well in my mouth. I would give six stars for their sushi and rolls, GREAT!
We also ordered their lamb and steak plates. Disappointed. The roasted lamb ribs probably
above average. Then, our one order of medium rare steak and another medium order came together nearly well done! The taste of steak and sauce are just average.

Food is fantastic, quite a busy place, but very friendly staff. Bar people are a bit slow due to the big crowd in this bar.

The fantastic meal that was created for us was out of this world !
If you are able to, go with the Omakase Decadent
It was a variety of beautiful dishes! The flavors were unbelievable and was such a treat!
Definitely will crave this treat again!

Overall, pretty underwhelmed. Unless you eat like a bird, be prepared to spend a mint for dinner. I’m not against spending money for good food but it wasn’t more than average. I made a reservation because I wasn’t sure how busy it would be on a weeknight. I really didn’t need to make one and they gave me a seat against the window. It was a nice spot but it was terribly cold. In winter, you’d probably have to wear your coat.
I asked about the omakase because I was very interested. I was disappointed to learn that basically there was no sushi /​sashimi in the omakase. It was appetizers, steak, some seafood, and dessert :(It’s also $ 98 per person which is fine and dandy but pretty highly priced for Chicago. You can get way better fish in Las Vegas or really any other large city.
They also don’t have a chef selection nigiri which was super irritating. In the end, I started off with the chef’s selection sashimi for $ 22 and the 6 traditional nigiri for $ 22. The fish was fresh, sure. But it was the cheapest fish– salmon, tuna, yellowtail. The sashimi was only like 6 pieces and I’m talking teeny tiny pieces. Soooo small. The nigiri were also on the microscopic side. The wasabi was sloppily placed and the server spilled soy sauce onto my dish and didn’t apologize. The general manager saw it happen and came over only to offer a misogynistic remark ‘oh, he gets flustered around pretty girls’.
The sashimi and nigiri didn’t fill me up at all. I got the salmon avocado roll which was average at best and the rock shrimp tempura which was good. I had a few cocktails that were tasty but lacked any punch. All that set me back about $ 150. I got back to my hotel and ate some dessert because literally I felt like I had not eaten barely anything.

We had a very nice dinner here, fresh sashimi, good wine, dumplings, tempura… I really enjoyied the california maki that I particulary recommand
Of course, be prepared to put the price, but I pean this is not the kind of restaurant you go to eat a lot to to eat well, right?

This place was SO GOOD– definitely a 4.5 for higher end sushi.
We started with shishito peppers and edamame. The edamame were piping hot and perfectly salted. They tasted really fresh. We got the peppers at the suggestion of the waitress and they were good but I wasn’t blown away– no real noticeable flavored besides char. Continuing with appetizers the group got the beef dumplings that came stuffed with finely shredded beef and a delicious dipping sauce– comes with 5 dumplings per order. We also had the beef tataki (comes wrapped with asparagus spears) and it was such a delicious little bite.
We tried a whole plethora of rolls. The hamachi and scallop dynamite were both amazing — simple and fresh. That was a overall theme — minimalistic and FRESH (no fried /​heavy mayo rolls on this menu).
They were able to accommodate a group of 8 walk in on a Tuesday night and it was greatly appreciated!

Unreal amounts of deliciousness!!! I came here with a bunch of co workers on a recommendation from the hostess at my hotel and we really felt like we got the true Chicago foodie dining experience.
We tried many dishes at our table but for me, the standout was the tartare with a quail egg and caviar. Perfection. Even though this place seems to be popular for their sushi, this is also a stellar place to order a steak. All steaks are grilled and cut before they are served making them easy to share and easy to eat with chopsticks. The presentation of each dish was beautiful to look at but even more beautiful to eat.
Our waiter was professional and extremely knowledgeable and even gave us recommendations of where to hang out afterward.

I came here for Restaurant Week with my boyfriend and my parents and we will definitely be coming back! We started off appetizers with one of each: the Unagi Maguro Maki, the Yellowtail Sashimi with garlic ponzu, and the Rock Shrimp Tempura with Sweet Chili Aioli. The fish in all three dishes were incredibly fresh (especially for being in the middle of Chicago winter). The portions were also the perfect size and you definitely got the bang for your buck.
For our second courses, we got the yuzu miso marinated black cod and the NY strip loin. The black cod came in a very unique presentation, with the fish tucked inside a giant leaf. The NY strip was cooked a perfect temperature and the soy butter added a fun Asian flair.
Finally, for dessert, we had a warm chocolate cake with coffee ice cream. The chocolate cake was cute with the Roka Akor label resting on top and it had a delicious chocolatey-​lava-​like center.
Overall, great atmosphere, great food, great service! The waiter was very knowledgeable about the menu and the service was quick!

I always pass Roka Akor in the city and decided to finally try it out. The place has cool décor and the staff is extremely friendly. Definitely a cute place for a date or maybe a celebration dinner.
I came for lunch and the waiter recommended a bento box. I ordered the Chicken Teriyaki and my friend got the Maki set. The bento box style lunches all come with the Crispy Butterfish Maki, White Miso Soup and Wagyu Dumplings so you get to try a little bit of everything. The Crispy Butterfish Maki was nice and fresh but nothing special. The White Miso Soup was also pretty good and consisted of quality mushrooms. The Wagyu Dumplings were also good but a little salty. The Chicken Teriyaki was cooked perfectly and was really tender.
The reason I would give this place a 3 star is because I didn’t really care for the flavors. It was a bit too bland for me since I am a huge fan of flavor and spice. I will say the food there is excellent quality and the service is great as well as the ambiance. Unfortunately the food just didn’t hit the spot for me.

I went here for my friend’s birthday. We started with complimentary Tuna Tataki. A great start to the meal. We also shared edamame and ordered cocktails. I remembered a whiskey drink I ordered at the Skokie location, but didn’t see it on the menu so I asked our friendly server if it was available. Sadly it wasn’t, but he suggested something similar called Honor & Glory and I was very pleased!
I ordered the Butterfish Tataki and Wagyu Beef and Kimchi Dumplings. I also tried the Crispy Brussels Sprouts, Dynamite Scallop Maki and Seared Wagyu Beef Maki. We finished the meal with Chocolate Cake, Cheesecake and Ube Pot de Crème. My friend absolutely LOVED the ube pot de crème. All their food is consistently well executed, beautifully plated and delicious. I’m never disappointed when I eat at one of their locations.
Definitely a great restaurant to go to for a special occasion!

Oh my god. I love this place. Their decadent omakase is the BEST THING EVER. I’ve been to plenty of Michelin start restaurants including Alinea, and I have to say I actually prefer this place to those fancy places who are lost on the journey of making everything a big show of presentation and the most cutting-​edge molecular gastronomy experiment. Roka Akor does it right. They actually focus on making things taste fantastic.
It’s also great to not really know what’s going to come next. Then they never fail to impress us, every single time.
We started with some beef tataki, seafood dumplings, and tuna tare tare. Everything was good but not particularly impressive. It only gets better though.
Soon enough the «real deal» came on. It was a giant boat of assorted sashimi and nigiri. And REAL WASABI. Real wasabi from the root that tastes a zillion times better than the fake synthetic wasabi you get 99.9% of the time. My friend didn’t even like wasabi (the fake kind) but now she’s a fan. All of the fish was also so fresh, so soft, so… I can’t even. I thought I was good with words.
Then we had a few hot dishes, such as a perfectly seared piece seabass, some fried lobster pieces with an awesome wasabi sauce, and giant spicy shrimp pieces. Then we had a hot pot of basically risotto which was a little bit too filling, but they very kindly packed most of it for us.
THEN we had this giant piece of wagyu steak. So tender. So rare. So delicious. So beefy… my friend actually immediately decided that we should come here again even just for this.
And when we thought this couldn’t get any better, we were proven to be wrong. The dessert was another giant giant bowl filled with fruits, 3 different types of sorbet that all taste like an explosion of fruit flavors in my mouth, chocolate cake, mocha pudding, and a sweet potato pudding that is a perfect mix of sweet, savory, and aroma.
I wish I could write more about this if I weren’t in such a food coma…

Großartiges Japanisches Lokal in Downtown Chicago. Eher hochpreisig aber sein Geld wert. Omakase ist super.