Makisu Sushi Lounge & Grill

Its been a family tradition of ours to go out to eat here for the major occasions for 4 years now. Ever since we permanently moved to the Chicago suburbs, when we get bored of cooking at home, and want to have a family dining and fun experience out on the town, but not downtown, this is where we go. My mom and sister and I love sushi, and we as a family have traveled a lot around the world as well as the U.S. and experienced sushi at various restaurants and sushi specialized dining spots. But Makisu has won our hearts from the first time we went there to give it a try. First of all, if you are planning a romantic getaway dinner and want to just have quiet and joyful experience one on one experience, I would recommend calling ahead and putting in a reservation, but make sure to ask whether its going to be busy or quiet in the evening, the place is usually packed on the weekend, and I don’t blame them, the food (if you’re not into sushi so much) is seriously mouthwatering and fills you up. The New York Strip with sauteed mushrooms and grilled veggies and hot sweet potatoes is a winner like no other. The thin noodles with grilled chicken will change the way you love chicken. Overall, its the Chicago suburbs’ best kept sushi spot secret, and I am only sharing this because I have personally witnessed this place be so much more than just a restaurant, it attracts crowds of all kinds. Me and my family throughout the times we dined out here, have witnessed multiple fascinating moments from guy’s going on one knee to propose to their long time loves’ of their lifes’ to parents celebrating their kids’ college graduation, to lifetime in love couples celebrating their anniversaries here. And the best are the birthdays, because the dessert menu here beats your friends and family getting the ingredients wrong on your surprise birthday cake haha. Overall, its a one of a kind place, the staff here by the way is amazing, that’s what I think I love most about this place, aside from the food, they all are very professional and organized and knowledgeable about the menu and will describe you everything on the menu as it is. The food is always fresh and I think that’s because it tends to get so busy at this place, that the food just flies off the chef’s shelves so to speak. The bar is a great spot to grab a drink with a friend after work, or celebrate closing a big business deal. Overall, we love it as a family and we strongly reccommend it

Simply The Best… Better than all the rest.

My friend and I were staying at the nearby Holiday Inn for a boards review course. We were getting a little sick of hotel food, so we looked on Unilocal for nearby restaurants. To our surprise, we found Makisu. We were a little worried about what Japanese food would be like in Skokie, but we thought we’d take our chances. The restaurant is clean, well kept and the service was pretty good. We must have been really hungry, because we ordered a large amount of food — various appetizers, a couple of sushi rolls, and a couple of entrees. The food was pretty good and the sushi was fresh. Definitely a surprising find in Skokie.

Like its decorations. This restaurant is really warm and serves good. Foods are tasty and amazing!

Solid small business nestled in between big chain stores and restaurants at the Village Crossing in Skokie. Came here before catching a movie at the nearby theater. Made a reservation through open table and my guest and I were given a pretty nice booth.
Drinks were OK– guest had one of their house Martinis and I had a pint of Sapporo. We shared the tempura vegetable entrée, a house salad and miso soup, and two speciality maki rolls– the spicy Mercy and the Tataki. Everything was delicious. The diameter of the sushi was smaller than average which contributed to a smaller portion size, but when combining that with the appetizers, we left feeling full and satisfied. Excellent and friendly service.

I came to this place with my fiancé and it wasn’t the best sushi place I’ve ever been too… It was a beautiful place to eat and sit at but the sushi rolls were falling apart and you could taste the fishy taste of the fish when you eat the sushi. I would go back again if they gave me a better deal and made my sushi taste way better! Maybe would go again

This place is my favorite sushi place in the area. I love their spicy mayo and I can’t eat any piece of sushi without it! They also have very good fried rice that is only $ 5 and good kalbi short ribs with rice, but they could have added a little more meat! Also good chicken teriyaki! The sushi rolls are also very reasonably priced, ($ 5 – 8) so you get a very good meal without breaking the bank.

I’m rounding up to 4 stars on Makisu because they are an oasis in an area filled with suburban chain restaurants. Tucked into the strip mall at Touhy and Carpenter, Makisu is a stylish, classy little independent sushi restaurant.
The bar and service were excellent — our host, server and bartender were all welcoming and appropriately attentive. We tried both the sushi and the yakisoba — both were quite good. The sushi is a bit overpriced with my black dragon roll (8 pieces) coming in at $ 15.00 and the yakisoba about the same. While I prefer rolls without minced fish, the roll was innovative and very tasty. There were a few more on the menu that I am looking forward to trying.
In this location, I would definitely recommend Makisu. I wouldn’t make it a dining destination, but its proximity to the AMC Theaters will keep us coming back.

Although nothing tasted bad, none of the rolls except the Black Dragon Roll and the Ahi Poki were that great.
Godzilla Roll wasn’t crunchy, fresh or that tasty.
Service was excellent and the ambiance and décor were very pleasant. There are many worse places you could eat and many better sushi spots.

For a strip mall sushi place, this is amazing. I ordered sashimi and a roll and it was delicious and fresh. Service was nice and the atmosphere was comfortable. Prices are good and the menu is extensive for sushi and non-​sushi eaters. Presentation is excellent.

Tucked away in an unassuming little strip mall is a wonderful little Japanese restaurant called Makisu.
Stylish and trendy interior leads you to believe you’ve walked into a classy restaurant in LA.
The staff warmly greets you with professionalism and genuinely cares about your dining experience.
The sushi is very fresh, beautifully presented and they offer some very creative maki rolls that are delicious! Don’t exclude the kitchen menu which also has some inviting selections and most include soup and salad. Overall it’s a great value compared my favorite Japanese restaurants out West and I always look forward to dining here.
The wine list has some very respectable selections that will please just about every palate.
I’m happy to have found this restaurant which is located in a sea of corporate restaurants in the area. Not to be missed!

My sister and I came to Makisu one day for lunch to celebrate my birthday. We arrived just before they opened. They saw us waiting and unlocked the door a couple minutes early, ready to seat us. It was our first time at the restaurant and it was such a pleasant experience! The atmosphere was very modern and trendy — a great place for a lunch or dinner date. Our waiter was as sweet as can be! I ordered a beer to drink. After he checked my ID and saw that my birthday was a couple days away, he brought me the beer and said it was on him! What a kind gesture! For a meal, I ordered miso soup and a fire cracker roll. The miso soup was absolutely delicious — quite honestly the best I’ve had (and I order it fairly often)! The fire cracker roll was also fantastic (per their menu: lightly battered spicy tuna, cream cheese, avocado, aspragus, shiitake mushroom, and tobiko, wrapped in a soybean sheet and drizzled with creamy wasabi and sweet soy). I would most definitely order it again! I can’t wait to go back!

Makisu has never disappointed!
I am not really a raw sushi kind of person but I love sushi with cooked meat. Every dish I tried at Makisu was delicious and you can truly notice that the chefs pay attention to detail when assembling the items on the plates.
I highly recommend Makisu if you are looking for good quality sushi.
The interior of the restaurant is very nice as well!

So, there I was, wanting to go out for dinner for my birthday, and a co-​worker had told me about Makisu. I go to this mall a few times every month, but I’ve never been in. He said it was the freshest sashimi he’s had in Chicago, so it sounded a good choice.
The décor is sleek, minimalist modern, which the night we went was accompanied by 90s pop tunes. (Odd combo, but interesting.)
Hubby and I got there early, right when they opened for dinner. We sat down and ordered drinks, which were good, but not spectacular. My sister, her husband and kids, and our friend got a table together.
I ordered the Combo Sunomono for starters, a roll of shrimp, octopus, & crab wrapped in cucumber. It was excellent! I just had to share and everyone in the party liked it, even my small nieces! Next I had the 15 piece variety sashimi plate. When it arrived, I was astounded. I really wish I’d taken a picture, because the presentation was so gorgeous. I really had a hard time making myself dig in. (The nieces helped with that. They liked the apple slices, and daikon, carrot and beet shavings.) The quality of the fish was even more outstanding than the garnish. Extremely fresh and delicious! I also ordered some individual pieces of green Tobiko (wasabi marinated flying fish roe) and Tako (blanched octopus). They were incredible.
I tried some of my hubby’s Snow White roll (Tuna & snow crab) and I thought it was great too. My sister ordered a salad, and it was the most lush and beautiful one I have ever seen. The nieces enjoyed their miso soup, edamame and suhi rolls. We had some house sake and beers and everyone had a good time.
Since it was my birthday, I got some green tea ice cream which was presented in a particularly eye-​catching way, in a bowl of made of a tortilla-​sized rice-​flour noodle, lightly fried. (Check out Makisu’s menu for pix). Again, it tasted as good as it looked.
The only criticism I have is that our orders seemed to take a while in coming, but then, once I saw the luxurious garnishes, that made a bit more sense. The waiter was great about splitting the bill three ways (and even did not charge us the gratuity for a large party, as a result.) Also, I should mention that both my nieces, who are under 7, got a little rambunctious, but there weren’t even any raised eyebrows. We were made to feel at home. After my sis took the family home, my hubby, our friend and I stayed and chatted at the table for 2 hours, and there were no attempts to chivvy us out the door. (We were too full to order anything more).
It would be a great place to bring your date.

Places such as this joint give credence to the notion that sushi is one of the few cuisines that can be done just as well in the suburbs as in the city. The same can be said for VERY few other foods!
The interior and décor here are tasteful, despite being located in the middle of a strip mall in sprawl-​ridden suburbia. The staff is friendly and attentive. For appetizers, their version of tuna tartare as well as the tempura were both good. The star of the show here is the King Kong roll, hands down. One of the best specialty rolls I’ve ever had, complete with many different types of fish, fried avocado, plus crunched up shoestring potatoes and a delectable sauce on top. Spicy tuna roll was fresh and tasty, too.
Our waitress was a bit odd; calling out my manhood for not ordering a large format beer is not exactly the best way to earn a tip… Surely she was kidding, but it just didn’t resonate. However, she made up for it with complimentary ice cream to cap off the meal. Should my friends from out here want us to meet closer to their house instead of in the city, I would not hesitate to do so again.

The BEST Japanese restaurant I have been to!
From the elegant/​modern décor, to the prompt, and courteous staff, to the fabulous food, this place is easily one of my favorite!
I have tried their bento boxes, which are two meals in one. They are packed with the most delicious fried rice ever, and I am a fried rice connoisseur (in my own right ha). They also come with a salad, their home made addicting miso dressing, miso soup, choice of meat, and vegetables. All of this food for under $ 10 during lunch time.
All of their meals are made to order, everything is always so fresh, so tasty, filled with tons of flavor.
The sushi is not only great, but beautifully presented as well. If you sit at the bar you can see the sushi itamae’s (sushi chef’s) prepare the food in front of you.
When you walk into the restaurant the itamae’s greet you with a hello. Everyone there just looks happy!
The restaurant is in a strip mall tucked away on a side that is not very seen by shoppers, because there’s not much going on on that side.
The parking is plentiful.
If you would like a great bite during lunch or dinner pick Mikasu, you will be hooked!
If you are looking for a night bite, you can order food until 9:45pm, that’s when the kitchen closes.

Hubby and I went again for date night and had martinis, and we told the waitress we wanted calamari and our favorite grilled chicken salad for our appetizers. This salad is mixed greens, shaved beets and carrots, tossed in a delicious ginger dressing, with fruit garnish… strawberries, yum! The calamari is very good here, and our only complaint was that the three rolls we ordered came out before the salad. The waitress said due to the grilled chicken that the salad takes longer, so we explained to her about timing! She said she didn’t want us sitting there waiting long for it after the calamari, but we had our cocktails, we were still enjoying the calamari, and we reminded her that appetizers are just that. She offered to take the rolls back and have them redone after the salad, but we weren’t going to go through that. She was very apologetic so we didn’t fuss. She actually apologized again later, which we appreciated.
We had the Crunchy California, the Dragon, and the King Kong rolls. We love that the snow crab is real crab, not the artificial stuff like some other places use.
Again, my husband noticed the loseness of one of the rolls! Yet they are always fresh, beautifully presented, and delicious, so this is minor.
We had an early reservation and there were a few tables open, yet by the time we were done the place was packed. We know why. We love that Makisu is in our neighborhood and everyone who works there is nice and friendly. We’ve never had a bad experience so we keep going back.

I must have gone on an off night.
I started with some shu mai (shrimp), which were pretty good, and so was the soy sauce they came with. My friend then joined me and we ordered. Our waitress was nice overall, and the décor was very cool! It’s too bad the food wasn’t good.
My friend got thick soba noodles and didn’t like them. For what it’s worth, I tried some and definitely did. She thought they were too creamy… divided table over those ;). I got the caterpillar roll, which was pretty good (crab and avocado on top!). The white dragon roll was horrendous, though. Every bite of the white tuna on top of the roll tasted almost rancid, just not right… at all. I could barely eat much of it. They were nice enough to get me steamed gyoza instead. I ate it and, by then, did NOT want to make another big deal out of the food… but it was pretty bad. The meat inside of it (beef) almost tasted undercooked, like it might’ve been still raw. Once again, more than a bit off.
It’s always unfortunate when a sushi restaurant does fine with cooked rolls but cannot get raw proteins right. I hate to say it’s «their job,» since there are many specialities in sushi… but isn’t raw fish one of them? Isn’t it important to make sure it tastes OK?
Something else I don’t get is the restaurant’s near-​obsession with putting tiny, thin, fried potato strips on everything — sushi rolls, gyoza, my friend’s noodle dish. It has nothing to do with sushi. It doesn’t have to be totally authentic, but why is this PF Chang’s-esque addition on literally every item??? It’s too weird, just like a lot of the «twists» we experienced here food-​wise.

Overpriced is probaby the most fitting word. Venue and servers are nice, but the food isn’t worth the trip or money.
We ordered the black dragon some other specialty roll as well as a spicy tuna. The specialty rolls are around $ 14 each and it’s really not anything spectacular flavor-​wise.
We also ordered a yakisoba with thick noodles which is probably the only thing I would come back for.

Was visiting a friend in Skokie and she said this was one of her favorite sushi places. We had no reservations, but we were find since we got there right at opening. It did start filling up shortly after. The décor of this place is really cute.
For an appetizer we got the sweet potato tempura. I’m beginning to see each sushi place makes this very differently. These came in rolls, but I must say I prefer when it fried better.
Our meals were pretty tasty and reasonably priced. We ordered the Fire cracker maki specialty rolls (love anything with avocado and spicy) and the shrimp tempura rolls. I wouldn’t necessarily drive from the city to visit this place, but if your in the area it’s a good place to go for affordable sushi.