Oba Contemporary Japanese

Such a cute place. Sushi was amazing, fresh and the prices were great. The service was also super friendly. I feel like this will be a «once a week» type of place for me :) highly recommend.

The sushi that my wife and I eat here is better than any sushi that we have eaten anywhere. It is fresh, delicious, and they have a way of breaking the norm of what is offered everywhere else. Their selections are original with tastes that are not typically put together. I could eat here every night.
When we have been here we’ve only seen one waitress but she is fast, attentive, intuitional, and gets the job done better than places that have a wait staff «waiting around».
I put pictures of what we eat and will put more up as we continue to patronize this exceptional establishment. But to just add another complement, the plate presentation of the food makes it visually stunning. They are artists here. Where else do you get so much attention to how the selections look when they arrive on your table? A: Noplace!
While the menu might seem slightly expensive (it did to us anyway) our overall bill was about ten bucks less than we usually pay at the Yu Yu Floating Sushi Bar across the street (even though we like that place too).

Favorite place by far!!! I always come here for sushi and will drive out of my way to get it. Great fresh fish and flavorful sauces. Lots of little complimentary items that add the perfect touch to a fantastic meal. Sue is always super friendly and makes amazing drinks. And the chef (David) is always on point. David makes all the rolls quick and flawless. I recommend it to anyone! Especially the Kiss of fire roll. Bomb.

Since I am vegetarian my choices are limited. Only tried their spacey fried tofu and vegetarian sushi /​California rolls. They were delicious!

Love this place! They always serve fresh and tasty rolls. They have great rolls, a big selection and are very flavorful. Any order comes with soup and salad without an extra charge. Love dining and take out at Oba.

This place was superb! From the free bite of specially spiced tofu to the tasty salad dressing to the care put in the sushi even the general boring rolls I usually get were beautifully arranged and tasted awesome. The whit tuna and yellowtail sashimi platter was amazing fresh and melt in your mouth heaven. We tried a roll that was wrapped in pink soy paper and had some tasty veggies in it and it was so interesting. Overall super super tasty. Can’t wait to come back. Seriously their sushi presentation is a work of Art.

Quiet atmosphere, very pleasant service. The green tea was the best I’ve had with a string nutty flavor. Chirashi bowl was beautifully presented with good portions of fresh fish and delicious

The food was very tasty… Flavor was on point. Care went into the preparation. Seafood seemed fresh. Sauces didn’t overwhelm. Place seemed clean. The setup was on point, it definitely serves as a hidden away sushi joint (in a good way).
— No real sushi or seafood restaurant should serve fake crab. PERIOD.
— BYOB ($ 10, for party of 4. Should really be $ 2 fee per person)
— The filet mignon appetizer was very good.
— The fried tofu was very, very, tasty but the portion was small, especially for lightweight tofu. In comparison to other restaurants, many others give extremely bigger /​heavier pieces or more (it is only tofu, a proper portion is only fair).
— The rice and temperature of the rice on the sushi was very good.
— The sushi was very tasty but again the portions were small. Salmon, tuna, etc. are inexpensive so there’s no reason to have lightweight rolls. They were very tasty but should have been more full, more heavy of a roll.
— Mochi ice cream was excellent (but they may be reusing the sugar decoration from customer to customer, instead of throwing it away and creating a new one… This can be very unsanitary, since it is touched by multiple people and moved around. It was not tossed with dirty plates but instead was recovered by the server).
An unexpected issue arose:
The menu states that one will be served a soup and salad with three orders of Nigiri or more, which means you will receive soup and salad with the order, right? Well yes but they end up telling you it is only for the «first order» of three. To explain, when one orders 3 more orders after the first order of 3 than they no longer are allowed to receive the soup and salad for any future orders of 3.
Meaning any further orders of 3 or more exempts one from being served the soup and salad again.
This makes no sense and should be changed on the menu.
In any restaurant when a menu states that your meal comes with soup and salad it doesn’t matter how many times a person orders the meal, they are rightfully suppose to receive their soup and salad, unless they don’t want it.
If the table orders 3 orders of Nigiri… Than they should receive 1 soup and salad, based on what the menu states.
What if another person on the table orders 3 orders of Nigiri than of course they should still get served a soup and salad, right? …Well, according to them they can not have a soup and salad.
They said that the soup and salad is complimentary «only for the first order of 3» and all other orders of 3 are exempt of soup and salad. Yet their own menu says otherwise.
Very confusing.
The solution is to take, «Served with soup and salad, if 3 or more ordered» completely off of the menu and just ask everyone one when they are seated if they would like a complimentary soup and salad (fair enough).
*Pic of that part of the menu will be posted
*Tip to restaurant:
It is very important for any restaurant to earn and then keep the respect of their customers. Since the menu makes it clear that orders of 3 or more orders of Nigiri come w/​salad & soup than it should have been brought. It is not worth losing the respect of a customer over the restaurants own mistake. It should have still been brought, an apology made, then fix the menu to avoid future complications.
It is common sense. It is common courtesy.
A business can easily lose sales over low stars on Unilocal and even eventually, over time, have to close. There are many competitors and many people opening up sushi restaurants… All your business can do to work is keep people returning and have 4 or 5 stars on Unilocal.
Overall…
A lot of the portions are very small (has to change) in comparison to many sushi restaurants in Illinois and elsewhere throughout the U.S. but it definitely has potential to work and could be a great restaurant if customer advice is considered, regarded, and then implemented. If this is done it can be almost guaranteed that people will return and remain as loyal customers.
*It is worth a return but if the changes aren’t fixed /​made than it is not worth returning to and would result in the next review definitely being a lower rating. Also, if the changes aren’t made and people find out that another sushi spot nearby offers better for ones $ than they will likely shift elsewhere.
If the changes are made it would definitely be a 4 or 5 star restaurant.

Food quality is excellent… Air quality not so much. The place is right next to a tire store so it smells like I’m eating sushi at Pep Boys.
Ice cream at the end of the meal is a nice touch. I’ll be back, but will take the food to go next time.

This place has delicious sushi. It’s always fresh, & the service has been excellent whenever I have been here. I highly recommend it.

Maybe I am a little west coast brat and there are much better options here. Needed a place to have dinner before heading to the airport and found this on Unilocal.Their food was OK, friendly staff and I can see why this was highly rated for people in the area. If you are looking for high quality, authentic Japanese food though, it’s just an okay place.
They do have a happy hour menu and some dishes are cheaper, but not by much.

special combo took only 7 mins
two waiter came over 8 times to make sure everything’s ok
spicy roll is really good
surprised to get icecream when checking the bill

The quality of fish used is fresh and very good. I’ve never had a cut of sashimi as big as the ones served here. It was fantastic! I’d come back just for that alone. I almost feel like maybe they gave us a bigger cut because it was later on a Saturday night and we were their last patrons. Only way to find out is to come back for more!
Prices are on par for a typical sushi joint in the city, which is kind of high for a strip mall suburb restaurant. Quality or skill of the rolls itself were okay, not your 5 star roll in terms of consistency, shape, or assembly but flavor was always great. They were generous in portions too, which makes up for the price. This is a perfect place for fresh, filling, and flavorful sushi. Probably one of the best suburban sushi joints that I’ve tried so far!

This is a very nice place to have dinner. A lot of great pluses
1. Normal prices for sushi
2. We got 2 regular sushi and 1 speciality sushi rolls and we received
— Free salad (the ginger sauce was fresh)
— Free miso soup
— Free 2 piece of fried tofu (Yum!)
3. Drinks are competitevely priced
— I had a Japanese Midori drink which was a full glass for $ 7
— My husband had a beer $ 4 for a small and $ 7 for a large
— $ 1 for hot green tea
4. At the end we both got a small strawberry ice cream each (w/​real strawberry pieces each)
5. Sushi itself was average. Fish seemed fresh but the soy sauce was too overpowering. The flavor was not unique enough.
Overall, Service was GREAT. Very friendly and prompt!!!
Would come back again.

Great hidden sushi place! I’m usually pretty picky about sushi. This place has a great atmosphere, food, and service. I’ll be back for sure.

Introduction was an empty Restaraunt at 8:30 pm. What does this mean, who knows. Each roll is served with miso and a salad which is nice. Some decent signature rolls which are all between $ 10-​$ 15 per. As for qualify it was good. Not delicious as I had hoped but if your in a pinch and on the road this will do!

One of the best sushi places I’ve been, on par with nice places in the city! What makes this sushi great is 1) fresh fish and 2) THE RICE. Some sushi places have very bland rice that does not complement the fish at all, but Oba’s is wonderful. We had salmon nigiri, super white tuna nigiri, salmon maki, yellowtail/​scallion maki, the full house roll (sushi, cilantro, wrapped in rice paper… Oh so good!), and the spider roll. All excellent, with very appealing plating presentations (see other reviewers’ pictures). This is the first time in a long time that we happily kept spending money just to taste more food.
As a bonus, they serve you complementary miso soup and a salad with delicious creamy ginger dressing. After the meal, they serve you a complementary scoop of ice cream.
We can’t wait to go back! Great food, good ambience, good service.

This place is amazing, atmosfer is very warm, peaceful, and quiet, quality of food is very good for all sushi lovers ! ;) big menu for choosing, and I recommend this place for all.

I give this place 5 starts for their food and service and 3 stars for wine selection and bar. I didn’t want to give 4 stars because we rate the sushi here :) and I can’t say anything bad about it.
Food was delicious, full of flavor, fresh and generous portions. Presentation really beautiful.
You have to try the Cadillac, dragon and the flaming roll (I forgot the name), appetizer crab cake was really good too.
Service was very nice and fast.
My only complain is the wine selection. They have only one brand of wine to offer which is not my favorite. They definitely should extend the selection and also add some bubbly too. They offer few cocktails but very limited. Definitely few martinis should be added.
Overall this place is really hidden gem!

I figured it was time for an update. As you can see, this place still gets a 5 star review and I would give them 5 more if I could. Oba has set the standard by which I measure all other sushi places, and even restaurants in general, in terms of value. I cannot believe all the good food you can get for the price, and the inclusion of the fried tofu starter, soup, salad, and little dessert at the end adds so much to the meal. The staff is always friendly and very accommodating. For instance, my sister and I only wanted teriyaki vegetables (no meat) which is not necessarily on the menu, but they made it work and because we are regulars they have even memorized the fact that my sister will need a fork by the end because the chopsticks don’t cut it once she’s slathered the rice in teriyaki sauce.
Another thing I enjoy about this place is their eclectic taste in music. Especially the cheesy stuff like 90’s music and j/​k-​pop. The interior is very nice, contrary to the strip mall exterior. There is sushi bar seating, booths, and a couple tables that can be put together for a larger group. If you live in the area and have not been here yet you are tragically missing out.