Manee Thai

Last night, we had dinner at Manee Thai on N Pulaski Rd between Addison St and Eddy St in Irving Park. They have a huge menu offering Thai and Japanese cuisine.

It's BYOB, and we brought a bottle of wine. There is no corkage fee, which is nice.

We ordered the Crab Rangoon to start, which is crab meat, cream cheese, and celery wrapped in a thin pastry shell and fried to golden brown. It was good, and the portion was generous.



For our meal, we went with sushi, and split 3 rolls between the 2 of us. We had the Spicy Tuna, which is tuna, scallion, and spicy mayo, Crunchy Salmon Lover, which is salmon, avocado, cream cheese, oba, and spicy mayo deep fried, and Tarantula, which is softshell crab, shrimp tempura, cream cheese, scallions, avocado, and tempura crumbs topped with black tobiko and unagi sauce. The sushi was just okay. We were very full when we left.







The food was served quickly, and in the order in which it was ready rather than all at once. There's salt, pepper, soy sauce, and sweet chili sauce on the table.

We may return and try out some Thai dishes next time.

E Wok Cafe

Tonight, we had dinner at E Wok Cafe on W Irving Park between Leclaire Ave and Lawler Ave in Portage Park.

We started with Crab Rangoon, which were 6 small pieces, and very crabby. They had an interesting flavor, and we think it's because there was a lot of crab. They were good. We also started with Vegetable Tempura, which was a mix of carrot, zucchini, and broccoli.

Then we ordered sushi. We ordered 3 rolls: House Deep Fried Roll (spicy assorted fish, tempura, avocado, cilantro, chef's special sauce, and unagi sauce) - We both liked it, Geisha (soft shell crab, cream cheese, tempura, avocado, crabmeat, masago, green onion, and unagi sauce) - The pieces were very large, too large, and Crunchy Spicy Tuna - I was told it was very sweet.



Overall, it's some of the better sushi we've had in Chicago. The restaurant is a hole in the wall, which we tend to like. The menu has lots of offerings. We may come back.

Yuki Hana

The sushi quest continued with lunch at Yuki Hana on N Clark between Surf and Oakdale in Lakeview. We ordered a Spicy Miso Soup and Crab Rangoon to start, and ordered the Rock N Roll, Chicago Fire, and Arizona Summer rolls from the Happy Hour menu. Nothing was great or even stood out, but the total bill was less than $20, which is a real bargain. We may be back just for the great prices.

Sushi O Sushi

In our hunt for our sushi place, we tried Sushi O Sushi on W Armitage between N Sedgwick and N Orleans. The chef is fantastically happy and outgoing. Our table of 4 received complimentary sake from the chef. I don't particularly like sake, but I appreciated the gesture! To start, between the 4 of us, we ordered 2 bowls of Miso Soup, and 2 Crab Rangoon appetizers, which each came with 5 small pieces. Both were okay. We ordered 6 rolls to share. My favorites were Lover (cream cheese, scallions, crunch, and masago on top of a California Roll) and Crispy (crab stick, cream cheese, avocado, eel, and white fish, deep fried). The chef and the atmosphere were top grade, but altogether, our hunt for our sushi place wages on.

Blue Fin Sushi

Blue Fin Sushi at North and Winchester was our latest experiment to find "our sushi place". It was good, but we still don't have our place. The vibe in the restaurant was cool. The 2 of us used a Groupon. She ordered Miso Soup, and I ordered Vege Tempura. The Miso was fine. The tempura was squash, potato, and onion, so not a lot of variety, but we were served more than 5 pieces, which is what the menu said.

We ordered 3 rolls to split. We got the Delta Force Roll (tempura maki, snow crabmeat, cream cheese, and avocado inside, unagi sauce, masago, and wasabi mayo), Tornado Roll (deep fried maki; crabmeat, spicy tuna, avocado wrapped in mamenori and potato with masago, scallion, spicy sauce, and unagi sauce), and Green Dragon Roll (shrimp tempura, masago and cucumber inside, covered by avocado, wasabi tobiko and spicy mayo). I liked the Tornado Roll best, and she liked the Green Dragon best, which I liked least.

The rolls here can be weirdly triangular instead of round. I don't consider myself to be rookie chopstick holder, but the triangular rolls weren't the easiest to manage.

Sake Hana

Last week, I visited my mom. I grew up a lot closer to Philly, but she now lives in a suburb near the south edge of Pennsylvania. We went out to Sake Hana in Avondale, PA with some of the family, who've all come to like the place a lot.

The table shared the Golden Bag appetizer, which is basically crab rangoon, and the Beef Negimaki appetizer, which is basically a steak roll. It's thin slices of sirloin steak grilled with scallions, smothered in teriyaki sauce. Both were good!

My partner and I split the Rock'N Roll, which is shrimp tempura with cucumbers inside, topped with spicy tuna, spicy salmon, crunchy masago and sesame seeds, as well as the Double Happiness Roll, which is spicy crab meat and cream cheese topped with shrimp, avocado, and spicy mayo. Both were good, and we particularly enjoyed the Double Happiness Roll.

The service was nice, but felt slow since we've grown so used to accelerated city lives, but it actually probably wasn't, and slowing down for a week probably did us some good.

Zoku Sushi and Asian Contemporary Cuisine

Zoku Sushi and Asian Contemporary Cuisine on N Kedzie between W Wabansia and W North was another shot at finding "our sushi place" in Chicago. We grabbed a Groupon and tried it out. The service was fast and very nice. We started with Crab Rangoon and Miso Soup. Both were fine. The crab rangoon was small, and it's 5 pieces. Odd numbers in appetizers always bother me, but I know that's silly. We ordered 3 rolls: Spicy Tuna, BLT, and Domo. The Domo roll was my favorite, and I would order that again. They have a few other rolls I'd like to try, but all in all, the search for "our sushi place" in Chicago soldiers on.