Review Yusho - Chicago

Lovely place. I love the trout. Now I want to go back and try all the other dishes too!

Small portions but very tasty menu! Really cool space with a great vibe. Highly recommend.

I came alone last night and had a great experience sitting at the bar. Ordered the daily cocktail with the pig/chicken/salmon skins right off. For a lightweight like me, the cocktail alone nearly pushed me across the fine line between buzzed and tipsy, but I recovered as the meal progressed. I ordered the spicy tofu bun next, and it was essentially like a dumpling taco. The tofu was rich and creamy with a ricotta cheese-like texture. Loved it. For the main course, I had a half portion of the oft-raved about fried chicken. The sauce was sweet with a subtle spiciness that takes a while to bite. The texture and breading on the chicken was great, and I do not feel that I was let down by this dish. I would wholeheartedly recommend coming here for the chicken alone. To finish I had the 5-spice chocolate soft serve ice cream, which was better than I expected. The raspberry sauce complemented the spices in the ice cream quite nicely. The flavors they offer change seasonally, so don't be too disappointed if they have something different when you come here. Ended up spending $50+ by myself, but so worth it. I'll bring some friends next time and really delve into the bar offerings.

The restaurant itself has a great vibe and the staff were amazing. Everyone was extremely nice and accommodating. We were craving ramen again and decided to check this place out. I will say it wasn't the best I have had in the city (a little too much salt) but it was still very tasty. The chicken skins and 2x fried chicken was also pretty good. Definitely go with friends who are willing to share so you can try a ton of different things. The koyo front cocktail was also really good. We tried this Spanish wine my friend had heard about and the description of it being "funky" could not be more spot on but it was worth trying. Overall, we had a great meal and I would go back to possibly try the Sunday Noodles special.

The decor here is great, and the food matches. Not you average Japanese place, but not just "fusion", either. While the vegetarian options are a bit limited, there are enough to keep you full. I really enjoyed the maitake mushrooms. The cocktails here are good as well to make for a really enjoyable experience.

Recommend the various interesting skewers and sake guava cocktails! Lychee ice cream and the Tokyo Black beer is also a bitter sweet tasty combination worth trying out. Would love to try the ramen next time! The waitress was spread too thin when we were there, so we had to wait in turn to get her attention. Hire more people!

This is one of my favorite restaurants in Chicago right now. The food is season very well and that is one of the ways that I rate a restaurant. If your going to take hours to prep something and not season it properly, why bother making the food at all. the atmosphere of the restaurant is nice as well, with and open kitchen next to the bar you get to see all the chefs work, which is great, plus they are all really friendly. Chef Merges knows his way around a kitchen, I have been here several times now and the food just keeps getting better. Not to mention that the drinks they make are delicious. I like my G&T (gin and tonics) and the house made tonic water makes the drink very smooth. The sweat breads and foie are always a must when going here, also the skin platter consisting of pork, chicken, and salmon skins are crisped to perfection. This is a great place for several friends to hang out for a couple of hours and just drink and eat until your heart is content.

Very creative menu. We had a travelzoo voucher for a five course meal with a cocktail and it was totally worth the money. The drinks are beautifully crafted. The highlight of the meal was right in the middle with the Octopus over a jicama papaya salad. The octopus was so intensely seasoned and delicious and the salad very refreshing. The meal started with a plate of pickles and ended with an angostura bitters ice cream. Both of those were delicious and at the same time flawed. The quail eggs and parsnips were perfect in the pickles, but the cucumbers were overpowering. The ice cream was great, but there was too much of it leaving an intense aftertaste of the bitters. Overall a fantastic meal.

Yusho is a Logan Square hot spot located slightly off the beaten path. It shines as a 'hidden gem' just blocks away from home. Yusho has a super urban chic vibe and serves up modern asian cuisine. Definitely not the fusion you may be used to, you'll be impressed by the creative and complex flavors presented in every one of their offerings. Cocktails are solid and all have a one-off Yusho quality to them. I've been lucky enough to enjoy things here that I've never had (or heard of) elsewhere. While the sit down experience is great, I highly recommend climbing up a bar stool to enjoy a bar seat above all of the action. The kitchen staff and bartenders are constantly moving and there seems never to be a dull moment as everything is pulled together beautifully before your very eyes. Another recommendation is to save room for dessert. The house made ice cream is always outstanding and if you're lucky there are unique and limited-time-only dessert options available. I'm a huge fan of Yusho even if it can be a little bit pricey.

Friends of mine recommended this place to my boyfriend and I a couple of months ago and ever since we've been by at least once a month. I LOVE IT. The food and drinks are killer, the ambiance is perfect and the service is top notch. Everything is delicious and I would tell you all my favorites but it changes so often I doubt it would be helpful. Usually we just ask the waiters to recommend what's best and share a few different plates. Can't wait for my next trip.

Awesome food! I was there for Ramen Battle, it was EPIC! Creative and full of flavour, they also have those awesome drinks, perfect for a long warm summer night! The ambiance is electric, the kind of place you will remember for a long time!!

If you want pretentious - don't come here!!! This is a very relaxed, easy going team that serves some of the highest quality gastronomical enjoyment in Chicago. It's modern, it's comfortable, and I have yet to find anything other than delicious. The Sake selection is remarkable and the staff is just as remarkable with great suggestions and formidable Sake knowledge. If you have a inkling for a cocktail before you start, check out the mixologist special of the day and your surely to be delighted. This place is great for a date, entertaining clients, or having a get together with friends.

I'm thrilled to have this place as my next door neighbor. The menu has a huge range of offerings that always seem to be updated. The cocktails are some of the best in the city, and the staff will take you on a guided tour through their proud collection of sake. No stone has been left unturned with your experience here, and is well worth the visit off the beaten path for those a bit further east.

They were so close to a five star review and they fumbled a bit on the dessert. Still my experience at Yusho was great enough that I would gladly return. We had about a five minute wait for our table to be ready but that is nothing for me to get super upset about. For dinner, I ended up starting with the steamed buns. I have very mixed feelings about the steamed buns because even though they were delicious, the price point makes you do a bit of a doubletake. The tofu steamed bun was great and was so tasty that even someone that was carnivorous enough to order four other meat dishes, enjoyed the bite of that little steamed bun. It was aggressively seasoned and slightly spicy and was the kind of food that makes you think, yeah I could do this vegetarian thing... That is until you taste the chicken. The chicken skin was nice and crisp and delightful. It has the texture of a potato chip and is probably one of the best values on the menu. With the slightly sweet yet sharp beer sauce made this quite the treat to get you ready for the meal. The scallops were something that I couldn't pass up but if I had to do one of those top chef over critical criticisms, it doesn't really belong on a skewer. Though that aside it was perfectly cooked and what more could you want in this triple threat dish. Bacon + Foie Gras + Scallop = Amazing. I think that maybe I have had pork belly too much lately, but this one was just ok. I think after the other two dishes, the bar was so high that this one was not as memorable even though it was quite tasty. Also here's an inside tip, if you're trying to decide between the chicken drummies and a half order of the twice fried chicken, go with the twice fried chicken. Not only is the portion size much larger, but the combination of the kanzuri sauce with the bit of matcha and lime is amazing. A note on Kanzuri: Naturally grown Kanzuri Chili peppers are harvested from August - November in Japan's Niigata, prefecture. The fully ripe red peppers are layered with sea salt then stored till temperatures drop. Between January - March the peppers are laid on snow for 3 to 4 days per batch. The snow is believed to reduce the pepper's heat and increase sweetness. The peppers are then washed with warm well water and mixed with yuzu juice and Koji (a fungi also used to make sake, miso, and soy sauce). Over the next three years the barrels of fermenting Kanzuri are moved to maintain a consistent temperature. Before Kanzuri paste is finished the barrels will spend their fourth winter buried in snow. A sauce that is that hard to create can't help but taste amazing, and I was tempted to pay $30 for just three ounces of this hard to find sauce after I left here, but the l talked myself into my senses. The ramen, I wasn't a huge fan of, but it had a moderate miso base and I'm not a huge fan of miso so take that for what it's worth. For dessert, we went with the funnel cake and it was pretty much half raw. We sent it back and they made up for it with a soft serve ice cream while they remade the funnel cake. Both desserts ended up being amazing in the end. They also recognized their mistake and were very nice and apologetic about it. (Soft serve was just a hair better than the remade funnel cake if you're wondering). It was a wonderful experience. So great that now that I think about I'll be a softy and toss them 5 stars.

We have an awesome date night here. The food was just right, the staff was knowledgeable and friendly and the Sochu flight was informative. I'd never had it before and am an instant fan. We went on a Tuesday and it wasn't very busy. The ice cream was delicious.

Yusho has the finest Japanese Whiskey menu of any restaurant. It has remarkable breadth and depth. But the sake list has a little bit of everything too - both their own canned sake and bottles of some harder to find Junmai Daiginsho - reservations are best but walk in are possible when there are seats at the bar. Noodles are the focus here but don't ignore the pickles and vegetables.

The manager, Timothy, was with out a doubt a wonderful host at the bar when friends and I came in this week. We shared the Prawns, 2xFried Chicken, Lamb Tskune, Fried Chicken Steam Buns, Himachi Poke, before settling in on some Ramen as a main course. My friend swears by the Spicy Chicken, but I went lighter on the spice with the Pork and the broth was out of this world. Each dish has its own unique flavors accented perfectly by the different textures textures. All of this would of have been great but the Sake selection made our night the best time I have had in Chigaco area in a long time. Its also worth noting that Timothy and the entire staff where friendly and inviting but the best part was their extensive knowledge of every dish and its pairings. I could not of had a better time.

Amazing food-- one of my best meals in a while. Everything was good, but my favorites included the octopus salad w/ fermented yuzu and enoki mushrooms, the duck breast wrapped around mushrooms and grilled, the twice-fried chicken (spicy, intense, more reminiscent of a katsu in the breading style), and the ramen with soft egg and crispy pig tail. The house tonic in a gin & tonic was also excellent, as was the selection of fernets, and a cocktail including tequila and roasted kombu.