Japonais by Morimoto

I’m soooo sad to see this place go! I visited the blue room here and dined in the upstairs restaurant and I loved the food! Especially the iceberg salad with quinoa and calamari! Yummers! Please come back!

had a truly amazing meal here last year, so sad to see them close. looking forward to visiting his other restaurants, especially in NYC.

This was my favorite restaurant in Chicago; I even had my birthday party here in 2014. I was not happy when Japonais brought on Morimoto as the menu changed and key items like the hot rock Kobe Beef and lobster teriyaki were removed. Nonetheless, I continued to patronize as the ambiance was unmatched. So sad to hear of the closing. I will miss the ahi tuna pizza, chili fusion crab legs, and rock shrimp. I hope your business resurfaces at another location. Until then, goodbye Japonais!

Soothing low lights… White linen décor. Couches with pillows… The Glare of the Michigan River. Overall a very nice classy place to enjoy some drinks and dinner. I had edamame for appetizer then ordered Calamari with Quinoa Salad and white sparkling wine. It was all great and server was attentive. Prices are reasonable. For $ 12 they have Valet available.

Great experience at Japonais. I went there for four times, everytime there is a surprise. Japanese food lovers, this is the place I would recommend :)

I was here with my family … The sushi I ordered it was delicious and pretty fresh. And all the stuff pretty friendly and sweet.

I dined here for the first time this past weekend with my husband to celebrate my birthday. As long as Japonais has been on my list, I’d never been.
Overall we thought the food was outstanding. The service was spotty, albeit friendly, but it definitely took away from our experience.
We arrived at 8:25 for our 8:30 reservation and were made to go downstairs to the lounge to wait at the bar for our table. No big deal. Except we had to be seated at a separate table with a separate server to order a cocktail despite open seats at the bar. Our drinks came and after about 20 minutes we were notified our table for dinner was ready. However our server had disappeared and we were unable to cash out with him for more than 10 minutes. The atmosphere was lovely and we had fun, but it just seemed to be a very disjointed and odd process.
We were seated in the back (right next to the patio that is apparently used for smokers) and were greeted and received water. It was an exceptionally long wait until we saw a server or manager again — we were debating how soon we should just walk out. Alas, a manager appeared to take our wine and appetizer order.
We started with the shishito peppers, smoked chicken sausage and octopus, and 2 maki rolls — spicy hamachi and eel and avocado. Everything was spectacular. The house-​made chicken sausage was delicious, octopus was perfectly cooked, and the fish was so fresh.
Along the way we were introduced to our actual server who apparently got tied up and was unable to come to our table for the first 30+ minutes we were seated. It happens, and it explains our excessive wait to order. However I think this also caused our meal to be quite disjointed. We waited close to an hour after our appetizers before we received our sea bass entrees. The sea bass was perfectly cooked and just exquisite, so the wait was almost forgiven because it was worth it.
The service could have ruined our dining experience at Japonais. Luckily the food was good enough to make us almost forget.
Also worth noting — the crowd is a mixed bag. There was a screaming baby there at 10pm. The gentlemen dining next to us were chugging Jack faster than you could bong a beer and dropping silverware on the floor.

The appetizers are amazing, the rock shrimp and crab legs and soup really good.
The Wagyu on the rock was okay very salty and so was the rice so salty I could not eat it…
The dessert was okay, the chocolate tart was the best, hello kitty and mango was okay.
I would go back but for appetizer tapas style

This used to be my go to sushi restaurant and slowly throughout the years the quality of the food started declining. It’s been over 2 years since I have been to this restaurant and I decided to give it another go. I was extremely impressed. The restaurant has been taken over by Morimoto and the quality of food improved a lot. Love sushi, and this is definitely back on my top list.
We started the night with a fantastic bottle of sake. We ordered the miso, edamame, and the rock shrimp tempura to start the night with. From there we decided to order sashimi; salmon, fatty tuna, tuna, and the yellowtail. Everything was amazing! I was very impressed with the transformation of the food and the service was outstanding, not to mention that the restaurant is extremely beautiful.
I’m happy that I made a return visit and did not give up on this restaurant.

Conveniently located directly across my condo in River North, I brought my girlfriend here on a first date. The ambient mood lighting created a very intimate setting and we were seated comfortably where we could not hear conversations from other tables. We started with the gyoza, and led into the entrees with eel avocado, spicy tuna, and shrimp tempura maki, braised cod, and duck confit fried rice. The food was excellent and presentation was on point. Our wait staff was excellent and very helpful on deciding choice menu items. Only steps away from my living quarters, I will certainly be back.
Best,
Charlie

Lovely atmosphere and great view of the lake! These two things alone make Japonais a great place to come for drinks or a date.
We got the calamari and quinoa appetizer, wagyu beef slices, and sea bass. Everything satisfied my tummy! I also got a lychee and rosewater infused cocktail — very girl friendly :)

I’ve been to Japonais a number of times before the restaurant was re-​done with Morimoto. I’m also a HUGE Morimoto fan (I road-​tripped to his restaurant in Philly years back and it was my first tasting and omakase ever!). Our meal was tasty, but there were a few things lacking to make this a really refined dining experience that I think Morimoto’s name deserves. My review is pretty hard, but looking at it through the lens of what I expected from a Morimoto restaurant
Menu — First off, there are way too many things on this menu and it’s not organized in very well — especially the appetizer page. The server addressed it and made some reco’s but it hard to navigate.
Food/​Plating — The food was tasty (more details below) but the dinner ware did not match the tables. We had 4 people in a small round table. The menu is meant to be eaten family style, but the plates are SO large and cumbersome you are not able to really have multiple dishes to eat family style. We only had 2 entrees on our table at one point and they could barely fit. They need either bigger tables or smaller plates. It was very hard to share.
Service — friendly but a little clumsy. Some questions asked they didn’t have answers too. Also when they brought the very large plates our previous plates hadn’t been cleared. They also weren’t able to fit the new plates on the existing table and were not skilled at moving and arranging the table to accommodate. Lastly, if dishes are meant to be shared they should always coming with serving silverware. Multiple times we had to ask for utensils. One of them was when we get the «ramen» in tonkatsu broth and no one had a spoon to try the broth!
DISHES:
SUSHI — The sushi was a highlight. Both the spicy tuna roll and chirashi were a delight.
BRUSSEL SPROUTS — Very unique, loved the kim chi flavor (not too acidic)
PORKBELLY RAMEN — Tasty but server reco’d this to share and this was hard to share
HAMACHI — Tasty, but not standout
COD — SO tasty and tender. Some of the best cod I’ve had — definintely a highlight
ANGRY CHICKEN — Very well cooked, good sauces
DUCK FAT FRIED RICE — Just ok.
Overall it was good food but would love to see the rest of the service and experience to be elevated to what even Japonais was when it first opened!

This is certainly one of the better sushi restaurants in Chicago, although it perhaps can’t live up to the prestigious name attached to it. The décor and vibe of the place is top notch, from the downstairs bar (the Blue Room) to the upstairs dining rooms.
The food features many of the items you’ll find at Morimoto in New York City and as far as I could recall they were nearly identical. Fish quality is, of course, excellent.
We had the multi course omakase, which is a bit different than other omakases in that you can pretty much pick your own items, so it’s just a way of bundling the items you’re interested in, at a reasonable price of $ 130 per person. Portion sizes were large, and we definitely left feeling well stuffed with sushi!
The best item we tried was the hamachi crudo, thin strips alternating with pimentos. The hamachi tacos were also quite good.
A few of the specialties didn’t live up to expectations, including the Caesar salad, which just was voted best salad in Chicago, but seemed rather pedestrian to me. Perhaps it’s just that I don’t like Caesars that are served deconstructed, leaving the prep work to me.
The vaunted Duck Duck Duck was also a bit lackluster, although there was nothing wrong with any of the (more than 3) duck preparations on the plate.
We also had octopus, both raw (supposedly live, but I think the octopus would disagree) and cooked, beets, a large platter of sashimi, and spicy crab legs.
The trio of sorbets was a nice light way to end the meal.
The wine list is extensive, and there is a nice selection of Champagnes, the perfect match for sashimi.
Service was friendly and attentive, although several times during the meal there was an attempt to deliver two dishes at once, a physical impossibility on such small tables and with such large dishes. This is apparently caused by them having three kitchen and no coordination between them, which seems very odd for a restaurant of this caliber.
Overall I enjoyed the meal, thought it was reasonably priced for what it was, and would go back. But I’m still looking for a truly great Chicago sushi restaurant.

The food was delish. The ambience and view of the Chicago River breath taking. The service and attentiveness of the entire staff was something to be shared
With the world. I look forward to returning again and again.

Holly cow… Their food is absolutely delicious and beautifully plated! I’ve never even dreamed a beet salad could be so exciting. Yes, Japonais was a dream come true. Everything except for their nigiri sushi* was everything I’d expect from Iron Chef pedigree.
Highly recommend doing family style. Some of my faborites:
+Beet salad (!) a work of art made of 5 kinds of beets, goat cheese and accents of clear vanilla jelly
+Braised octopus artully served with fried edamame, squid ink sauce and parmesan foam
+Fresh tofu made tableside served with both housemade kimchi sauce and dashi soy sauce
+Chirashi sushi had lots of fresh sashimi and good flavors
+Chilean Sea Bass glazed and served on chard
Also, you MUST save room for dessert. Their homemade sorbets were phenomenal with unique flavors like tangerine plum wine and coconut green tea.
*The nigiri sushi was not bad but I’ve had better for cheaper… I guess i recommend mostly getting other stuff and some sushi or skipping it entirely and getting some steak instead.

I was really excited to try this place for a long time so I decided to give it a shot durning restaurant week. Restaurant week’s menu gives you an opportunity to try lots of different stuff for a good value. I then decided to bring a group of 10 friends to join for the dinner.
First, the service is not bad, but I don’t like how the server tired to push us away from getting the restaurant week menus. It was obvious he just wanted more tips from us rather than being honest about the portion of the food. The portion was definitely filling enough, which he ‘stressed’ that it was not enough.
My first course was the rock beef. Rare beef seared on a hot stone. It was definitely delicious and perfect show stopper with some sweet soy sauce on the side. A cool dish, but definitely not $ 20.00 worth of an appetizer.
Next up, sushi platter… these sushi are SO NOT WORTH THE MONEY! I can’t believe these sushi are from a Morimoto restaurant. I had way better sushi for way better price. I can’t believe Morimoto would approve these nigiri being served because they’re definitely not the quality you would expect out of an iron chef.
Last plate up, dessert. I had the tofu cheese cake with foam moose. It was perfect sweetness and lightness. I think the dessert was the best dish over all.
I also tried the shrimp, which was nothing special at all. It was basically fried sweet with different types of sauces. You can easily get this dish at any other Chinese restaurant. Another dish that I tried was the lamb dish, which was good, but not the best I had. I had better lamb dish at Lazy Dog Café for way cheaper price.
Tip: $ 25.00 reservation fee per person for no-​shows. Need to reserve 2 weeks advance.

Good times at Japonais. I enjoyed their salmon dish (it was awhile ago so I think it was salmon?) as well as their crab leg appetizer. Had one of their drinks as well which was nice. Serving drinks in the old style champagne glasses seems to be the trend these days. I remember telling my mom to throw hers out or give them away about 5 years ago. Clearly I didn’t know better.
One negative is that my brother in law ordered a platter of sushi a la carte, and when those came out, the pieces did not look fresh at all. Sent the whole plate back and didn’t want to order a different set, so we had them take it off the menu.
Downstairs has a nice lounge/​bar area, and service was friendly. A classy establishment overall.

Came for dinner during Chef’s week. The food, service and atmosphere were excellent! Loved everything about it.
1. Attentive service from the staff. Great explanations of the ingredients and preparation of the food.
2. Nice cocktails
3. The Chef’s week 4-​course dinner menu was delicious and a great deal for $ 44 per person. The two of us ordered different items for each course and enjoyed trying and sharing food. enjoyed every single item and really looking forward to coming again to try other dishes.
Appetizer: hamachi tacos (taco shells were made out of fried dumpling skins, really crispy and inventive! gotta try this at home) and The Rock (cool presentation and awesome yuzu mustard and gochujang dipping sauces for the meat)
2^nd course: spicy tuna and spicy yellowtail rolls
3^rd course: lamb shank (tender fall off the bone lamb, crispy risotto on the bottom was an interesting texture) and crispy fried whole fish (the bones and head are deep fried too and we ate those! yes load up on calcium!)
4^th course: mango mousse and sorbet

Mundane menu. Overpriced and outdated entrees ($ 26 to market price). Korean dish available. Great service!
LOBSTER MISO SOUP — the soup easily became room temp when lid was taken off. 3 real lobster in a dumpling. Barley at the bottom of soup was difficult to scoop.
MONK FISH — wrapped with house made pancetta reminds you of the fading fad of bacon wrapped dates. French dishes are known for petit veggies that are tastier and pricey. Regular sized kale was used. Portion was great. No brown bag needed.
MANGO PUDDING — the best part of the meal. Homage to gastronomy. I want more!
FATTY TUNA (OH TURO) — fresh and delicious. You are paying for impressive presentation.
RISHI GINGER TURMERIC TEA — the perfect tea for the cold weather that is beneficial for your health. The taste is light yet flavorful. The extended seep time does not ruin the taste at all. Hot water quickly became room temp as well.

Contemporary décor and nice ambiance. We were seated in a private table which was really nice. Very attentive service. I was a frequent patron prior to the name change and enjoyed dining/​drinking in the riverside lounge area and the food. After Morimoto took over, the menu retained most of the more authentic dishes. We decided to go all raw because of the prestige and assuming that it would be top notch fresh nigiri/​sashimi. OH yes, there is a difference in average vs amazing raw fish.
The presentation was very beautiful and picture worthy. However the food was quite disappointing where it was just average and forgettable. The nigiri and sashimi were fresh, but it could be better. For the reputaton and price, i would expect more in quality. The oysters were okay and beautifully presented. Beef carpaccio was good, but typical for decent beef carpaccio. I really enjoyed the dessert because it was beautifully decorated. I dont remember the name of the dessert, but the photo speaks for it. The dessert was decent, but not amazingly great. For the spiked price, you might as well go to reputable japanese joint for fresh sashimi/​nigiri. This would be the place to take a date because of the service and the ambiance.

The restaurant ambiance is beautiful and a bit mysterious/​dark when you first enter. Reservation process was easy and we were led to our seats.
We ordered the Kakuni first as appetizer (pork belly rice congee) and loved it! The flavors were rich yet balanced with the congee. I wish there was an entrée size of this dish! Would definitely come back again to have this again.
Iron Chef Chick Noodle Soup was delicious and highly recommended. It is more refined with the use of vermicelli noodles. Was able to split and share between 2 people.
Pork Chop and Applesauce was fine but not fantastic. It seemed more western food than a fusion. Portion is large.
Braised Black Cod was also ok. It was a little more salty than I would have prefered. Portions were excellent and I was not left hungry.
Duck Confit Fried rice was very delicious! You could definitely taste the duck meat/​flavor in the dish. Nicely seasoned!
Service was prompt and water was always refilled when needed without prompting.
The mango pudding dessert dessert was so unique in taste and in texture. The plating was beautiful.
I would return again to try other dishes.

Note: Hours listed on Unilocal are incorrect. They certainly are open Sundays. From their site:
Lunch
Monday — Friday: 11:30am — 2:30pm
Dinner
Sunday — Wednesday: 5:00pm — 10:00pm
Thursday: 5:00pm — 11:00pm
Friday — Saturday: 5:00pm — 11:30pm
I held my Sweet Sixteen here. This restaurant is a veritable beauty. I haven’t come across any other spot quite so peculiarly yet elegantly designed. Nothing stifling. Everything is fluid. The atmosphere is sophisticated yet playful.
I would come back just to look at the chairs and décor, but luckily I have another reason: the food is unmatched. The sushi melts in your mouth. But the duck is the star of this show. I had duck for the first time here and it has sabotaged every subsequent experience with duck. It is so juicy, soft, and savory. It falls off the knife like warm butter. I thought duck was made like this everywhere and asked myself why I had never tried it earlier. Sadly, this is not the case. I have had duck cooked all kinds of ways many times afterwards, chasing the dream I had at Japonais, and I have yet to encounter anything the same (though Korean duck bbq comes close).
I took my boyfriend here for his birthday. Even better than I remembered.
The phenomenal: the service (everyone is friendly and organized and well-​coordinated), pork belly with ramen pasta appetizer. I was hesitant to get it because I had a lot of pork belly just a few days ago– I made the right choice though because this was nothing like any pork belly I’ve ever had in my life. It was unbelievably delicious. The ramen was too salty but yummy nonetheless. Other standout pieces: Nardis cocktail (white truffle, pear, grapefruit, vodka). Best cocktail I’ve ever had, hands down. Very fragrant and truly delicious. The truffle flavor worked more than well.
The great: Whip the Mule cocktail (rendition of Moscow Mule; the roasted rosemary was tasty), Japanese coffee grains whiskey (I don’t like whiskey so for whiskey lovers, this is probably more than great), Morimoto cheesecake (the coffee foam was way more substantial tasting than I expected. It was savory and lovely. The cheesecake was not heavy or too sweet), the Riverwalk (intimate and breezy)
The good: sea bass entre (interesting flavors), wagyu fat fried rice, Toro tartare
The bad: only the bathroom x)
When I come back, I’m just going to order 10 rounds of pork belly and Nardis cocktails :).

This was my first time coming to Japonais. I wouldn’t know how it was before Morimoto owned it, but you know if he puts his name on a restaurant, it’s gonna be some legit Japanese cuisine!
I really need to stop procrastinating with my Unilocal reviews, because I can’t even remember all the dishes that our table ordered! Well, we came here with a rather large group and ended up sort of «splitting» the table in half and ordering family style accordingly. We ordered the Chef’s Combination, which comes out with a variety of sushi nigiri and cut rolls.
The toro tartare was interesting in presentation: it comes out on a flat, clear plate and presented to look like it’s «on ice» or something. They have these tiny little «paddles» that you use to scrape off some of the tuna to enjoy. I kinda wish they made it a little easier to eat, but it was still fun and interesting.
My favorite dish of the night was actually a side dish: duck confit fried rice with organic farm egg on top. WOW, the flavors were amazing, and that farm egg on top was cooked to perfection. I’m so glad that we ordered this!
Oh yeah, we did order the tofu tableside. It’s cool, because it’s actually not tofu when they bring it… but by the time you’re done with your appetizers, the server will come around to open it up and voila! It’s tofu! I don’t know if there’s any difference in how awesome tofu can be. To me, tofu is tofu. So while it was good, you really can’t fancy up tofu too much, besides the presentation that they offered… so points for that I guess.
We also ordered one of those hot rock dishes. It’s cool to cook your meat on a hot rock. Another inventive and interesting dish here, but I can’t say that it makes the food taste any different.
Overall, I feel like a lot of the dishes are kind of gimick-​y and interesting in presentation, but it doesn’t necessarily make any extra difference to the quality or taste of the food. It was a wonderful meal, and fun to experience the way the dishes were presented. I would come again for a special occasion, since it’s kind of expensive.

First time coming back since they partnered with morimoto. The menu is same idea but with very different items. Overall I think it’s better. Of note: for a morimoto restaurant this place has a very reasonable price point, I was pleasantly surprised.
Overall the food is on point. Recommend everything nothing was bad. A5 wagyu hands down. Side sauce is amazing. Sushi platter as well. They have a truffle infused pear vodka… seriously. I got it straight martini style. I love trying something new and it was good.
The chilean seabass was good… However I REALLY miss the old dish. It was my favorite! I literally used to come here just for that. So I’m a little heart broken.
Environment is about the same. They did some mild remodeling downstairs.