After reading a hyped up article on Matthias Merges’ new yakitori inspired restaurant, Yusho, in Chicago, I knew a had to hit it up. On Yusho’s site, the restaurant claims to be a “no glamour required”, street food inspired joint. Being a big fan of grilled meat on a stick (that’s what she said….), just the idea of an “authentic” yakitori place in Chitown had me drooling over my keyboard. Located in Logan Square, expect to hunt for a parking spot on the streets. Upon entrance of the restaurant, I could already tell that this was not going to be as “no glamour required” and “simple” as the article and site claimed to be. But desperate for a good yakitori meal, we venture further into the restaurant where a friendly staff in a Yusho T-shirt opens the door for us. The staff explained to us that since we did not make reservations (glamour free??), we could either dine in their “lounge” aka waiting area or wait one hour. No problem. We opted for the “lounge”. After ordering the type of water we wanted (“still or sparkling?”), our waitress informed us that we were able to sit at the bar. Awesome! We decided to go all out on this yakitori joint.
Our first two dishes came in unison…
Duck Leg: Duck with wasabi sweet onions and spicy almonds. The only thing good about this was the sweet onion and almonds. Duck was cold and dry. Bummer..
Chicken Wing: Paired with a wedge of lime and bonito salt. This was very mediocre.
Waited a little while and then there were more….
Chicken Skin: If things weren't dissapointing enough, this did the job. For $6, you get a hair of chicken skin...that is chewy in a bad way and can really use a pinch of salt.
Sea Urchin: I'm a major sucker for sea urchin. I wish this dish just came with the sea urchin alone. Instead it came as two tiny springrolls filled with waterchestnuts(?) which were a bit on the greasy side. The sea urchin was fresh and delicious, but what sea urchin isn't?
As we start to get a little hopeless, this gem revived our taste buds.
Pork Belly! This was actually legit. The softness of the pork belly fat was balanced off with the crunchy crispness of the crosnes and kimchi. Perfection. This was a dish to get your panties in a bunch over, but mind you, still not quite the streetfood yakitori I so longingly hoped for.
We were obviously still hangry (hungry + angry) after these “yakitori’s” so we ordered the 2x Fried Chicken. We didn’t even bother to take a picture of it, but it came in 3 pieces alongside a spicy dipping sauce. Good, but can’t say it was bomdiggity. The owner did share his own brew of seasonal chuhai with us which was awesome. Very grapefruitty and dangerous for girls that can’t drink real beer. Our bill came in a cute little sardine can. How cute.
No matter how cute this was, it did not make me feel better about the bill.
Overall, we had a very fun time. Will we go back? Most likely not. Although the staff was nice, the food was overpriced and definitely a disappointment if you’re looking for “real” yakitori. Unfortunately, I felt that Yusho was another example of how messing with the basics just ruins the beauty of the original. In this case – grilled meat on a stick.
kamansense 