Hot Woks Cool Sushi

Not sure how this place consistently lands on «best» lists. The food was average and the service, while friendly and polite, was glacial at best. It was later in the evening and the waitstaff seemed more focused on closing preparations than serving diners. I noticed our plate of sushi sitting on the counter waiting to be delivered for at least ten minutes while waitresses walked obliviously past it over and over. The atmosphere was lacking as well. They’re ventilation system needs an overhaul as the entire place reeked of frying oil. It was absolutely freezing in the tiny dining area. We had to wear our coats — and it was a balmy 45 degree February evening. This place is pretty close to my home and that’s why I went there and not to Coast or Matsuya — far superior restaurants. Nothing about this experience makes me want to go back.

Food is good, delivery service isn’t. I’ve ordered delivery here for years & it’s a gamble. When calling over the phone there were a few mistakes in orders so I started doing their online ordering system. Of the 3 last orders I put in only one was a positive experience, because it was what I ordered delivered in about 1hr. The other time I put in an order & over 1 ½hrs later called to see why it still hadn’t arrived. They said they tried to call & were out of one of the ingredients. Rather than trying to call back or email via the email on the order they just neglected to try contacting me or delivering my food at all. Two hours after I ordered I got my food with substitutions.
An hour after my last order I realized my work number was on the order instead of my cell (lesson learned). So to prevent the same thing from happening again I called the restaurant at 3pm (not a busy time one would assume on a Monday) & said I’d ordered online & had listed the wrong phone number. That I was just calling to check to make sure everything was ok. She put me on hold, & while I was on hold the food was delivered. I called back so she wasn’t needlessly asking around about the order and when she picked up I said sorry you’d had me on hold checking on my order and it was just delivered, thank you. She hung up on me.
Pick up and dine in seem to be much better as I’ve done both, but the delivery and phone manners are not a consistently good experience.

Sushi very good. Patai was very delicious, they serve you good portion. Spring rolls we’re very good too.

Amazing sushi!!! Can’t say enough. Our whole table loved what we each ordered. I even ordered vegetarian sushi and it had so much flavor! They have about 8 parking spaces which helps and seating is limited so make sure your party is small 2 – 4 people. Very good service and its BYOB… So we brought bottles of wine with.

I must say this place is very average. I got the tempura udon and shrimp in lobster sauce. First, the tempura udon was something you can buy at the market. The udon was just the noodles, soup, and a little green onion. The tempura was very bland and wasn’t good. Also, it was lukewarm? Never had lukewarm udon before. Very disappointed. Don’t waste your money on this. The shrimp in lobster sauce was mediocre. I was very confused on what it was supposed to be. The flavor was nice and salty to eat with rice.
Overall, I don’t think I would come here unless there was nothing to eat in the area.

Great sushi. I’ve seen this place hundreds of times but normally drive by because the parking situation is sketchy. I made it inside on a date night recently and was very impressed. Excellent food and service, very fresh sushi, good smoothies too!

Love this place! We usually pickup or go for the lunch special and the quality is always really consistent. The lunch special we opt for is something like $ 10.95 for 3 rolls and a miso soup. There is also a special for the Thai food. Favorite rolls are Akira and Crunchy Spicy Tuna. Byob.

Very best go-​to in our area for fresh, delicious Chinese cuisine and sushi. Prices are reasonable and the food is exceptional. I especially enjoy the crab rangoons and spring rolls. Best I’ve had in Chicago, including the much more expensive restaurants!

I had the lunch special which included the edamame and panang curry with noodles and tofu. The edamame were ok and noodles were a bit greasy. The miso soup was good but not warm enough. Overall, the food is ok and the service is ok.

Yummy yummy yummy
They have great spring rolls and miso soup.
My wife loves the bento boxes which are a good deal.
I like the fried rice — it is super good and a bit greasy.
The bob is fine as there is a Walgreens near by.
All and all well worth it.

Decent sushi with awesome lunch specials that keep me coming back! The outdoor seating is beautiful which helps distract from the noisy street. The parking situation is typical for the city with about four free parking spots in front and a few free parking in the street. The décor inside is nice and modern, very clean.
The staff is usually friendly but service is typically slow and the seating on the first level is super cramped! Don’t come here unless you’re okay with becoming friends with your neighbor.
The upstairs is nice but i’ve never been seated there. I try not to go to the bathroom here because there are so many steps to get to the second level.

If there was a way to give negative stars I would! Not that I can even comment on the food because my experience didn’t even allow me to get that far before leaving this place.
WORST SERVICE EVER!!!
Walked in on a Friday evening around 7pm with my boyfriend. As we entered we were excited to try this place out as it’s walking distance from his place and we are always looking for something new and delicious close to home. As we enter, the staff is crowed by the door, backs facing us, chatting to themselves for a minute before one turns around and greets us and hurriedly takes us to a table. Served us water promptly and set the table for us and gave us menus to browse over. (As we had already looked at the menu online we had an idea of what we wanted pretty fast), closed our menus and chatted as we waited for our order to be taken… and waited… and waited… and waters were filled again and we waited some more.
There was only 3 other couples in the place and one had already paid the check. We asked the water guy for our server as we were ready to order, for it had been 10 minutes since we has been seated and no one other than him had checked on us. He grabbed a server who went to the table next to ours to deliver their check and ignored us. The boyfriend and I exchanged glances, and I put my hand up to grab her attention but she was off and around the corner too fast.
As we looked around, even the other couples were looking at us as we sat there with nothing but water and chopsticks in front of us. Another 2 minutes go by before we decided to get up to leave, and yet still no one even paid attention to us leaving. No goodbyes, no thank you for coming, no I’m sorry we were busy… nothing. SILENCE!
Now I’d like to think it was because they were so busy, but they weren’t, or they were short staffed, but they weren’t as we saw 3 servers as we walked in just talking to each other. I have a feeling as sad as it is, is because my boyfriend is black. All the other patrons in this establishment were middle-​aged white folks who had no issues getting service right away, even when they weren’t the ones that asked for it! Maybe, maybe not, either way this is NO way to treat customers no matter the situation.
You folks here will never get my service, my boyfriends service or any of our friends service ever again. Thanks for nothing.

I always see this restaurant when I am coming off the highway but never really thought about going here until a friend recommended this place. Parking is tricky, they had a parking lot but it’s very small so we ended up having to park on the main street. At first look, it’s a small restaurant but I then saw that they also had patio seating and also they have a big upstairs to accommodate more people. Service was great and they didn’t rush us even though we got there an hour before they closed. We got 4 rolls and 2 noodle dishes and I have zero complaints. It was the best pad see eiw that I’ve had in a long time. I will definitely be returning here again.

Had a good sushi lunch today…
Hot Woks Cool Sushi has a lunch special which includes miso soup, a California or spicy tuna roll, and several nigiri. All for 13 bucks. We also split a Mega Vega roll. A couple of my pieces fell apart, and the spicy tuna roll was not the best of the best, but everything was still quite tasty.
If you are more of a «hot wok» person, they have a lunch special with your choice of appetizer and entrée. I can’t recall the price, but it also looked to be quite a nice deal.
It was a little warm in there… I wondered if the AC was broken. It cooled off after awhile, though. The bathroom was much nicer than I expected, even though I am not sure what I expected (if that makes sense…). But parking seems to be on the minimal side, unless I missed something in the back. However, I wouldn’t hesitate to come back to this location, or try one of the others.
3.5 stars bumped to 4.

I absolutely love their salmon skin bacon salad and the dressing it comes with! I love it so much that I ordered it for lunch yesterday online and had my friend pick it up. On the «special instructions» part, I specifically asked them not to forget the dressing for the salad and to please provide eating utensils… And of course, what did they forget? My freaking salad dressing. Grrr that is super annoying especially since I wrote it on there!!! They should double check orders and especially check the «special instructions» comments! I understand everyone makes mistakes, but seriously?! I had to eat my salad plain, dry, and flavorless. I felt like a damn rabbit. On top of that, before getting my food, I tipped $ 5 for a PICK UP order on an $ 8 salad. :.PISSED.:

After many years of being a loyal customer I’m sorry to say that I can no longer give this hot woks my service.
I remember when the place first opened several years ago. It was so nice to have a good sushi restaurant near my house, however the quality has deteriorated over the years.
The crab Rangoon is always either overcooked or undercooked and winds up being a half hard and half gloppy mush.
The sushi ranges from mediocre to god awful. Today there was bone in my spicy tuna rolls and didn’t taste fresh. It was all spice, no fish. For this I’d say hit or miss because I’ve had great STR from this hot woks. But today was so bad I don’t think I’ll be taking the risk to get a winner again.
My last order took nearly 2 hours to arrive despite the place being only 2 miles away. My hot food has been delivered cold. My cold food has been delivered lukewarm.
I don’t know if the ownership has changed or what but this has been a truly disappointing experience. Hot woks used to be my go to place. I’ve ordered from them 30+ times in the last couple of years alone, but I can’t keep shelling out for a steady decline in quality. I’m sorry hot woks cool sushi, but we need to break up. This time it’s permanent.

I can’t believe this place makes sushi.
I kid you not, even Mariano’s and Jewel has much, much better sushi.
I ordered a spicy salmon roll and tom yum soup. The sushi was mushy and extremely messy, and it was just bland. The soup was way too salty. For those that like the food, that’s good, considering the fact that there’s really no sushi spot in the Irving Park area, but I’m definitely not coming back here.

Dine in experience– nothing too grand. Good service.
Delivery to someone down the street… Undeniable incompetence on their part. For all the times I have ordered delivery and hoped they would get my order right and on time at that. Fail fail fail. First and second on their part last on mine. Will not frequent nor order food from here. If you must get from here eat inside.

I like the chain Hot Woks Cool Sushi for their hot bowls and cool maki rolls. This one is in walking distance from my place, so my son and I popped in here over New Year’s. It’s small. And not nearly as nice as the ones downtown. The parking lot is tiny.
Staff is super friendly and fast. I like the Mega Vega rolls the best– vegetarian Maki with sweet potatoes, beets, avocado, even my son liked it! We also tried the Akira rolls, which were HUGE. I’ve had better rolls. I do like their Obama-​Nami rolls (which I forget and call ObamaMama).
I’m sure I’ll order Delivery from them frequently and be back soon.

Hot Wok!!! Good Sushi and the entrees are really good. Champagne garlic chicken is where it is at! Dine in or delivery is always spot on. Expansive menu is great. Only complaint is the bathrooms are up a huge flight of stairs.
Mmmm hot tea.