Ive been coming here since they first opened in the early 2000s when I was in my early 20s. Much of the neighborhood has changed since then, but Gen hasnt. The food and attention to detail is super high quality, and the price reasonable. Now we bring our children here, the next GEN-eration, and they love it as much as we do. Thank you, Gen!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Daniel Nenart
My wife and I have lived in the neighborhood for years and this was our first time trying Gen. We had a wonderful time. The karage was amazing and the sushi was so fresh. Best part? We asked to take some of our mains home with us, we open the bag and there’s a surprise can of the Sake we ordered during our meal. Incredible experience, incredible staff. Can’t wait to come back for some more delicious Japanese food.
gochisousama deshita!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Kelly Oden
An old standby that is absolutely one of the best sushi restaurants in the neighborhood! Unbelievable and *affordable* omakase, low key some of the best ramen in BK, wonderful daily specials. Staff is incredibly nice. Don’t miss!
Been coming here for 6 years. Consistently excellent. Really nice service, very fresh fish, cute but chill atmosphere. Secretly some of the best ramen in the neighborhood. A lot of staff, especially kitchen, have been there for years, which means they probably treat their employees well. Japanese breakfast, bento lunch, omakase dinner - I’ve tried it all. I’ve been lucky enough to visit Japan several times and this place would be successful in Tokyo. We’re lucky to have it in Prospect Heights.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Sushi Omakase Platter
Alexa
Amazing food, vibes and service. We got the Otoro Aburi special and it was incredible!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Jeka Calle
Valentine's Day special 🥰💐🍷🍻 it's amazing
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Amanda Wong
My favorite! Ayako is a gem and everything we have ordered there is top notch, authentic, fresh. Highly recommend the tempura udon and the agedashi tofu especially.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Agedashi Tofu, Tempura Udon
James
I've been going here for years, and I ordered for four people (delivery). The food was horrible, the chicken for example was dry and tasteless, go to KFC instead. Rice was flavorless too. The sauce was in micro container with perhaps a teaspoon of sauce and again tasteless. Everyone else's food was awful. We ended up throwing it in the garbage and ordered somewhere else.
Four people, 180$. Stay away.
Food: 1
Service: 1
Recommended dishes: Katsu Curry & Rice, Katsu
David Leibovic
Gen is my favorite restaurant in the neighborhood. The omakase is great and the fish they include with it is always changing. The waiters are very knowledgeable and friendly. In particular the young Asian waiter (Daniel?) is very good!
Gen has been serving the best sushi since forever. It's a great neighborhood place but it's also better than a neighborhood place. I'm so glad it's hung around -- their fish is so fresh, even their most basic rolls feel stand-out. Go Gen go!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Tuna, Sushi for Two
Cozylay883 Brightest
The food is so amazing. The location interiors are so astonishing. The only thing that my friends and I don't like is that the Japanese server lady is taking too long to take orders from us. And we can hear the lady arguing with other servers. It is disturbing, although the food is delicious.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 5
Service: 3
Tiger Li
I've been really excited to try this place, but unfortunately this experience was overall quite disappointing. Starting off, we went on a Thursday evening, and the restaurant was empty. Nevertheless, it took us forever to get our entrees, though our appetizers came out more or less within a reasonable timeframe. Our server was personable enough, but disappeared for like 40 minutes while we were waiting for our entree and i ended up having to find them to get the check at the end as well. That's whatever, I work food service so I know that's how it goes sometimes, but I would have at least appreciated a checkin about the status of our food because my date and I were about to ask the kitchen to cancel our order by the time it finally arrived. Again, its not the end of world, and if had been busy, I would have understood, but that wasn't the case at all.
The most disappointing thing about this meal was ultimately the meal itself. We started off with a salmon belly avocado roll (I can't remember the name of the roll and their website is down). It was mostly rice, and the rice was noticeably unpleasant and unbalanced in flavor, being aggressively sour. The salmon itself was just as lackluster and the avocado was on the underripe side. I wouldn't complain about this if it was like a 15 or even a 17$ roll, but this was 22$, and I've had grocery store rolls that were on par with it.
We also tried the hijiki tempura, which was fortunately reasonably priced at $7, but the tempura overwhelmed the flavor of the seaweed completely. It really just tasted like used fryer oil, evoking all too vividly the flavor of country fair funnel cake.
I got the ramen, and I was underwhelmed. There were a decent amount of toppings, which is were a lot of ramen spots fall short, but the chashu pork belly was ice cold. I understand that is something prepped in advance then reheated by the individual serving, so there wasn't any danger of food poisoning or anything like that, but it detracted heavily from the dish. I would have asked our server to heat it up, but they were nowhere to be found as mentioned previously. The broth was also noticeably bad, lacking any sort of richness or depth, and tasting strongly of bouillon powder, which I can only imagine they used instead of the more expensive dashi stock. Again, I wouldn't be writing this if the prices were a bit more reasonable, but don't charge luxury prices and offer mediocre food.
My date's soba was also underwhelming. The dipping sauce was unbalanced, lacking depth and richness, while being overly salty, and the tempura toppings were oil-logged like the hijiki. The presentation was nice, but was not enough to make up for the meager portion of condiments. Daikon radish is dirt cheap, you can served more than a teaspoon with a $22 plate of plain noodles.
Overall, this was a very disappointing experience. The restaurant is beautiful, and years of good reviews lead me to believe this is a recent, and hopefully correctable, trend of mediocre food and poor service. I'm sure that number of our issues with the food could have been alleviated if our server had checked in, and I wouldn't have minded the absentee server if they had offered up an acknowledgement of the long wait times, if there had been more than 10 people total in the restaurant, or if the food was anywhere near the quality that the pricepoint would suggest.
Our tab was just shy of $100 after tip for 2 people not drinking. Next time, we'll take that money to Geido down the street.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 3
joshua kampa
Incredible long-lived gem of the neighborhood. We eat here more often than our budget would like- Gen has become our default treat after a rough day. Omekase is casual style; all the servings on a board at once rather than course by course, which allows for a more idiosyncratic exploration of the menu. Ala carte offers lots of solid choices- the hamachi, saba, and toro here are notable in their consistent distinct quality. Seaweed salad is rustic and a must have start to any dinner, agedashi tofu is superb and the house dashi is ?, I always ask for more. Sake menu is solid, we tend to default to the Narutotai but there’s lots to love across the list. Service is mixed, seems to be a good bit of FOH turnover so hard to find servers that are fully seasoned with the menus and overall fine dining schema, but the vibe is always good regardless and the prices are from 2018 (pls don’t raise them lol) 10/10 PH/CH banger ?
Love this spot so much. The sake is fantastic. The fish is incredible. Me and my partner have started coming here once a week because we just can't get enough. I'll jokingly say "well, maybe we should go to Gen" and then we both know it is going to happen because we are so thrilled. Get the "on draft" sake. The sake toro is incredible. Agedashi tofu is unmatched. Underpriced for the quality.
Great pork gyoza. Fatty tuna roll hit the spot.
Ive been coming here since they first opened in the early 2000s when I was in my early 20s. Much of the neighborhood has changed since then, but Gen hasnt. The food and attention to detail is super high quality, and the price reasonable. Now we bring our children here, the next GEN-eration, and they love it as much as we do. Thank you, Gen!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
My wife and I have lived in the neighborhood for years and this was our first time trying Gen. We had a wonderful time. The karage was amazing and the sushi was so fresh. Best part? We asked to take some of our mains home with us, we open the bag and there’s a surprise can of the Sake we ordered during our meal. Incredible experience, incredible staff. Can’t wait to come back for some more delicious Japanese food.
gochisousama deshita!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
An old standby that is absolutely one of the best sushi restaurants in the neighborhood! Unbelievable and *affordable* omakase, low key some of the best ramen in BK, wonderful daily specials. Staff is incredibly nice. Don’t miss!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Sushi Omakase Platter, Sushi for Two, Edamame, Bento, Spicy Miso Ramen, Toro
Been coming here for 6 years. Consistently excellent. Really nice service, very fresh fish, cute but chill atmosphere. Secretly some of the best ramen in the neighborhood. A lot of staff, especially kitchen, have been there for years, which means they probably treat their employees well.
Japanese breakfast, bento lunch, omakase dinner - I’ve tried it all. I’ve been lucky enough to visit Japan several times and this place would be successful in Tokyo. We’re lucky to have it in Prospect Heights.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Sushi Omakase Platter
Amazing food, vibes and service. We got the Otoro Aburi special and it was incredible!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Valentine's Day special 🥰💐🍷🍻 it's amazing
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
My favorite! Ayako is a gem and everything we have ordered there is top notch, authentic, fresh. Highly recommend the tempura udon and the agedashi tofu especially.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Agedashi Tofu, Tempura Udon
I've been going here for years, and I ordered for four people (delivery). The food was horrible, the chicken for example was dry and tasteless, go to KFC instead. Rice was flavorless too. The sauce was in micro container with perhaps a teaspoon of sauce and again tasteless. Everyone else's food was awful. We ended up throwing it in the garbage and ordered somewhere else.
Four people, 180$. Stay away.
Food: 1
Service: 1
Recommended dishes: Katsu Curry & Rice, Katsu
Gen is my favorite restaurant in the neighborhood. The omakase is great and the fish they include with it is always changing. The waiters are very knowledgeable and friendly. In particular the young Asian waiter (Daniel?) is very good!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Restaurantji Recommends
Gen has been serving the best sushi since forever. It's a great neighborhood place but it's also better than a neighborhood place. I'm so glad it's hung around -- their fish is so fresh, even their most basic rolls feel stand-out. Go Gen go!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Tuna, Sushi for Two
The food is so amazing. The location interiors are so astonishing. The only thing that my friends and I don't like is that the Japanese server lady is taking too long to take orders from us. And we can hear the lady arguing with other servers. It is disturbing, although the food is delicious.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 5
Service: 3
I've been really excited to try this place, but unfortunately this experience was overall quite disappointing. Starting off, we went on a Thursday evening, and the restaurant was empty. Nevertheless, it took us forever to get our entrees, though our appetizers came out more or less within a reasonable timeframe. Our server was personable enough, but disappeared for like 40 minutes while we were waiting for our entree and i ended up having to find them to get the check at the end as well. That's whatever, I work food service so I know that's how it goes sometimes, but I would have at least appreciated a checkin about the status of our food because my date and I were about to ask the kitchen to cancel our order by the time it finally arrived. Again, its not the end of world, and if had been busy, I would have understood, but that wasn't the case at all.
The most disappointing thing about this meal was ultimately the meal itself. We started off with a salmon belly avocado roll (I can't remember the name of the roll and their website is down). It was mostly rice, and the rice was noticeably unpleasant and unbalanced in flavor, being aggressively sour. The salmon itself was just as lackluster and the avocado was on the underripe side. I wouldn't complain about this if it was like a 15 or even a 17$ roll, but this was 22$, and I've had grocery store rolls that were on par with it.
We also tried the hijiki tempura, which was fortunately reasonably priced at $7, but the tempura overwhelmed the flavor of the seaweed completely. It really just tasted like used fryer oil, evoking all too vividly the flavor of country fair funnel cake.
I got the ramen, and I was underwhelmed. There were a decent amount of toppings, which is were a lot of ramen spots fall short, but the chashu pork belly was ice cold. I understand that is something prepped in advance then reheated by the individual serving, so there wasn't any danger of food poisoning or anything like that, but it detracted heavily from the dish. I would have asked our server to heat it up, but they were nowhere to be found as mentioned previously. The broth was also noticeably bad, lacking any sort of richness or depth, and tasting strongly of bouillon powder, which I can only imagine they used instead of the more expensive dashi stock. Again, I wouldn't be writing this if the prices were a bit more reasonable, but don't charge luxury prices and offer mediocre food.
My date's soba was also underwhelming. The dipping sauce was unbalanced, lacking depth and richness, while being overly salty, and the tempura toppings were oil-logged like the hijiki. The presentation was nice, but was not enough to make up for the meager portion of condiments. Daikon radish is dirt cheap, you can served more than a teaspoon with a $22 plate of plain noodles.
Overall, this was a very disappointing experience. The restaurant is beautiful, and years of good reviews lead me to believe this is a recent, and hopefully correctable, trend of mediocre food and poor service. I'm sure that number of our issues with the food could have been alleviated if our server had checked in, and I wouldn't have minded the absentee server if they had offered up an acknowledgement of the long wait times, if there had been more than 10 people total in the restaurant, or if the food was anywhere near the quality that the pricepoint would suggest.
Our tab was just shy of $100 after tip for 2 people not drinking. Next time, we'll take that money to Geido down the street.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 3
Incredible long-lived gem of the neighborhood. We eat here more often than our budget would like- Gen has become our default treat after a rough day. Omekase is casual style; all the servings on a board at once rather than course by course, which allows for a more idiosyncratic exploration of the menu. Ala carte offers lots of solid choices- the hamachi, saba, and toro here are notable in their consistent distinct quality. Seaweed salad is rustic and a must have start to any dinner, agedashi tofu is superb and the house dashi is ?, I always ask for more. Sake menu is solid, we tend to default to the Narutotai but there’s lots to love across the list. Service is mixed, seems to be a good bit of FOH turnover so hard to find servers that are fully seasoned with the menus and overall fine dining schema, but the vibe is always good regardless and the prices are from 2018 (pls don’t raise them lol) 10/10 PH/CH banger ?
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 3
Recommended dishes: Agedashi Tofu, Tuna, Seaweed Salad, Omakase
Love this spot so much. The sake is fantastic. The fish is incredible. Me and my partner have started coming here once a week because we just can't get enough. I'll jokingly say "well, maybe we should go to Gen" and then we both know it is going to happen because we are so thrilled. Get the "on draft" sake. The sake toro is incredible. Agedashi tofu is unmatched. Underpriced for the quality.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Agedashi Tofu, Tuna, Seaweed Salad
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