I’ve been to so many omakase spots in Chicago, and this is by far the best. Otto, our chef, was amazing—so talented and so sweet. We loved everything and will definitely be back.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Allie Hartman Moslow
Absolutely incredible experience. Indescribable. Chef is so kind - casual yet elegant vibe, friendly atmosphere, so unique and so much talent. Amazing.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Ceciletravelinfo
A high-end omakase experience that spotlights exquisite rice and fish.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Jeanne W.
Absolutely satisfying and wine pairing complimented everything. Delicious!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Joe Levitch
Never been there
Joseph Kowalski
This was a wildly delicious meal. Inventive but also traditional. The food itself was the star, but every other aspect of the meal was also great. It felt like a dinner party at friend’s house. The atmosphere was convivial with the chef explaining the food and answering questions from the diners with everyone in the room being able to hear. The single waiter, Jose, was also a delight. I would return here in a heartbeat despite the price tag.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Drew Doran
I used to live and work in Tokyo. This is the first real Japanese restaurant that I’ve been to since I’ve been back. So authentic. Everything was amazing. I highly recommend.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Cindy Stuch
Had an incredible time in January. The best fish and Thursday night I have ever had.
Pravin Lewis
The best place in Chicago for Omakase. There were several courses of the freshest fish many of them from Japan. We left feeling full and enjoyed every one of the courses. It was expensive but you get what you pay for. It was very competitive in my mind even to good Omakase places in Japan.
Joe Graf
One of the best sushi restaurants in the US. Really exceptional food and drink pairings
Last evening at Kyōten was enchanted. The bar seats eight people. And there is only a single seating per night at 6:30. The base price on a Friday/weekend is $490 + tax, and my bill was $557 with one delicious sake.
Chef Otto Phan is Vietnamese-American, and he’s obsessed with Japanese ingredients and flavors. He doesn’t do anything that steps afoul of Japanese traditions, but he’s also not constrained by them. Phan is a wunderkind with close relationships built with mentors and purveyors in Tokyo, who he visits twice annually and texts daily. Like an investor on the phone with a trader on the exchange floor, the fish traders on the floor of Tokyo’s bustling fish markets text Phan daily updates about what looks extraordinary, and so Phan’s menu is seasonal, based on the market’s best daily offering, and features only wild-caught fish. This, and the fact that Phan personally prepares every bite dispelled my concern that the cost of dinner was gratuitous. After dining and understanding the premium Phan pays for his ingredients, the cost makes sense.
Everything tasted delicious. There was one course I couldn’t eat, monkfish liver, but I did have the slightest nibble and it was buttery, mild, and delicious, and I loved its ginger teriyaki bath. As a wildlife disease epidemiology researcher, I’m essentially a parasitologist. And once I interact with a research specimen in the field, my ability to eat a clean version of that thing raw in the future is done. It’s why raw proteins are nearly impossible for me in general. I put my rules and prejudices aside and ate course after course of Phan’s transportingly delicious fish painted with sauces, glistening, sliced, pinched, sometimes packed over delicious rice, and often concealing a poultice of wasabi, citrus zest, horseradish, ginger, or other complementary aromatics taking each bite to the next level. Some courses I enjoyed with my eyes closed to focus on the flavors, not caring that I may have looked weird. The two tempura courses, lobster with its roe, and beltfish, were my favorites.
Another protein that I generally don’t enjoy raw is beef. Phan’s wagyu nigiri looks extremely rare, but it spends four hours in the sous vide and its fats and juices melt in your mouth. My enjoyment of this wagyu was in contrast to wagyu I was served last week at a different restaurant’s tasting menu where a nearly fist-sized rose-shaped wad of too much wagyu to serve in one bite made me channel my inner Khaleesi as I imagined myself as Daenerys Targaryen trying to choke down a whole horse heart. Phan’s wagyu course, like all of his courses, I truly enjoyed.
Phan is an artist, and watching his passion and giftedness was thrilling. His hands squeezing the rice or shaping the fish and the gleam in his eyes made me think of the Japanese aesthetic principle of wabi-sabi, which embraces imperfection, transience, and connection to nature. Here is this beautiful young chef in his absolute prime, with extraordinary fish that he instructs you to eat the moment he places it on your plate not waiting for the diner next to you to receive theirs, and we’re tasting the fruits of our oceans, which are in a race against time both literally with a short window on their peak freshness, and also figuratively as our oceans are warming.
I fell in love last night.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Erik Swanson
Spectacular sushi, the best in Chicago and world class. After 10+ visits I want to keep coming back.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Adam Radulovic
You won't find sushi like this anywhere else in Chicago including the two Michelin stared ones. Most of the fish will be either cuts of fish you have never had in a way you have never tried. Enjoy!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Joshua Wood
Amazing dinner, Chef Otto is great.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
William Brigode
Excellent meal, great pairing. No frills just good food and drink. It’s clear Otto knows how to play with opposites (hot and cold, acid and fat). He doesn’t just take the expected selections, he makes some unexpected choices and makes them work.
I’ve been to so many omakase spots in Chicago, and this is by far the best. Otto, our chef, was amazing—so talented and so sweet. We loved everything and will definitely be back.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Absolutely incredible experience. Indescribable. Chef is so kind - casual yet elegant vibe, friendly atmosphere, so unique and so much talent. Amazing.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
A high-end omakase experience that spotlights exquisite rice and fish.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Absolutely satisfying and wine pairing complimented everything. Delicious!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Never been there
This was a wildly delicious meal. Inventive but also traditional. The food itself was the star, but every other aspect of the meal was also great. It felt like a dinner party at friend’s house. The atmosphere was convivial with the chef explaining the food and answering questions from the diners with everyone in the room being able to hear. The single waiter, Jose, was also a delight. I would return here in a heartbeat despite the price tag.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
I used to live and work in Tokyo. This is the first real Japanese restaurant that I’ve been to since I’ve been back. So authentic. Everything was amazing. I highly recommend.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Had an incredible time in January. The best fish and Thursday night I have ever had.
The best place in Chicago for Omakase. There were several courses of the freshest fish many of them from Japan. We left feeling full and enjoyed every one of the courses. It was expensive but you get what you pay for. It was very competitive in my mind even to good Omakase places in Japan.
One of the best sushi restaurants in the US. Really exceptional food and drink pairings
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Restaurantji Recommends
Last evening at Kyōten was enchanted. The bar seats eight people. And there is only a single seating per night at 6:30. The base price on a Friday/weekend is $490 + tax, and my bill was $557 with one delicious sake.
Chef Otto Phan is Vietnamese-American, and he’s obsessed with Japanese ingredients and flavors. He doesn’t do anything that steps afoul of Japanese traditions, but he’s also not constrained by them. Phan is a wunderkind with close relationships built with mentors and purveyors in Tokyo, who he visits twice annually and texts daily. Like an investor on the phone with a trader on the exchange floor, the fish traders on the floor of Tokyo’s bustling fish markets text Phan daily updates about what looks extraordinary, and so Phan’s menu is seasonal, based on the market’s best daily offering, and features only wild-caught fish. This, and the fact that Phan personally prepares every bite dispelled my concern that the cost of dinner was gratuitous. After dining and understanding the premium Phan pays for his ingredients, the cost makes sense.
Everything tasted delicious. There was one course I couldn’t eat, monkfish liver, but I did have the slightest nibble and it was buttery, mild, and delicious, and I loved its ginger teriyaki bath. As a wildlife disease epidemiology researcher, I’m essentially a parasitologist. And once I interact with a research specimen in the field, my ability to eat a clean version of that thing raw in the future is done. It’s why raw proteins are nearly impossible for me in general. I put my rules and prejudices aside and ate course after course of Phan’s transportingly delicious fish painted with sauces, glistening, sliced, pinched, sometimes packed over delicious rice, and often concealing a poultice of wasabi, citrus zest, horseradish, ginger, or other complementary aromatics taking each bite to the next level. Some courses I enjoyed with my eyes closed to focus on the flavors, not caring that I may have looked weird. The two tempura courses, lobster with its roe, and beltfish, were my favorites.
Another protein that I generally don’t enjoy raw is beef. Phan’s wagyu nigiri looks extremely rare, but it spends four hours in the sous vide and its fats and juices melt in your mouth. My enjoyment of this wagyu was in contrast to wagyu I was served last week at a different restaurant’s tasting menu where a nearly fist-sized rose-shaped wad of too much wagyu to serve in one bite made me channel my inner Khaleesi as I imagined myself as Daenerys Targaryen trying to choke down a whole horse heart. Phan’s wagyu course, like all of his courses, I truly enjoyed.
Phan is an artist, and watching his passion and giftedness was thrilling. His hands squeezing the rice or shaping the fish and the gleam in his eyes made me think of the Japanese aesthetic principle of wabi-sabi, which embraces imperfection, transience, and connection to nature. Here is this beautiful young chef in his absolute prime, with extraordinary fish that he instructs you to eat the moment he places it on your plate not waiting for the diner next to you to receive theirs, and we’re tasting the fruits of our oceans, which are in a race against time both literally with a short window on their peak freshness, and also figuratively as our oceans are warming.
I fell in love last night.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Spectacular sushi, the best in Chicago and world class. After 10+ visits I want to keep coming back.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
You won't find sushi like this anywhere else in Chicago including the two Michelin stared ones. Most of the fish will be either cuts of fish you have never had in a way you have never tried. Enjoy!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Amazing dinner, Chef Otto is great.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Excellent meal, great pairing. No frills just good food and drink. It’s clear Otto knows how to play with opposites (hot and cold, acid and fat). He doesn’t just take the expected selections, he makes some unexpected choices and makes them work.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Loading...