Kamehachi

The food at Kamehachi is very good. It’s one of the best restaurants in Old Town.

Okay, this isn’t a complaint for this restaurant but just like, why do restaurants serve you ice water when it’s below freezing outside?
«Hi — I’m cold -«
“Here is ice water»
Anyways our waiter told us this was the oldest Japanese restaurant in Chicago. cool. we didnt order sushi
we did order sukiyaki and zaru soba. my zaru soba was pretty average all things considered, don’t waste your time. dunno, soba can be pretty hit or miss. it’s just like, well, do they just buy the ones from trader joe’s and boil it? or do they make it? hm.
the sukiyaki was good! sukiyaki’s always a nice thing. came in a nice bowl.
we ordered some appetizers. i only remember the octopus yuzu one. it was okay. just order sukiyaki and probably spicy tuna roll
This place was very dark and the waitstaff were friendly.

At 10 pm on a Sunday night there aren’t many trendy places to choose from for dinner. Luckily we found this place for a last minute late night Valentine’s Day celebration.
The front looks like a bar but once you step inside you’ll seating for dinner towards the back and additional seating upstairs on busy nights.
My favorite was the tempura rock fish appetizer which comes as a lightly breaded shrimp with yummy sauce. I ate it with a side of steamed rice and barely had any interest in trying anything else.
The blazing red dragon roll was also a hit.

First, the beef kakiniku was impossible to chew on. I was surprised how chewy it was and really impossible to eat. I tried only one piece and ended up going to the restroom to get rid of it lol. Did not finish this appetizer needless to say. I made polite of mention to the waiter of my dissatisfaction but never heard back. Also, the sashimi platter while very good in terms of freshness, the pieces were definitely below average in terms of size. Not a horrible experience by an means but I won’t be back.
Thanks for your reply. The server never mentioned removing it from the bill. If he did I appreciate that. Someone else paid the bill and I did not review it.

After having been to all of the big name sushi joints in Chicago, this is clearly the standout. We ordered a bunch of nigiri and each piece was so fresh and melt-​in-​your-​mouth delicious. We also had a few maki rolls including the Summer and Spicy Tuna Deluxe Deluxe rolls. Glad we found this gem hidden in Old Town

Pretty sure I found my top sushi bar in Chicago! After trying quite a few different spots, this landed as my favorite, reasonably priced sushi.
The best part was how you could taste the quality of the fish, everything tasted very fresh. Lots of flavor, great roll selection, funky looking restaurant. I highly recommend it!

Bottle cork fees are $ 20 a bottle, food takes a long time to arrive, and service is spotty. Food is pretty good, but better elsewhere in the city.

This is the most disgusting sushi I ever had in Chicago. Simply the fishes are not fresh at all (even though we got today’s specials, too!), soft shell crab was fried at least couple hours ago, instant seaweed on miso soup
The manager guy claimed that they import fish from Japan, but whatever. fish is very dry and doesn’t taste as fresh as it should. Another fake sushi place

One of the best Japanese restaurants you will find in Chicago! Food is incredibly fresh and authentic. The service is great and the atmosphere is very cool and vibrant. We love going there and everything that we have tried on the menu has been fantastic!

This was our third stop on the Gold Coast & Old Town Food Tour so I got to try sushi at Kamehachi. The inside of this sushi place is really nice and very well decorated. They have two floors that are quite different from one another. The first floor has a nice long bar that is more lively. The second floor is probably more quiet for those that don’t like too much noise while they are having dinner. But this is just what i felt when I first stepped it. I got sat upstairs and it was really quiet, but this could be because it’s early in the morning and part of a food tour.
Anyways, since this is part of a food tour, I did not to experience dining in, the service, or a variety of food. So this review is solely based on the few pieces of sushi that I had which was one piece from the tuna roll and another piece i believe was called the Shiitake roll (mushroom and avocado inside). The two peieces weren’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. The sushi just tasted average, and nothing quite special.
Overall, I feel that the sushi here is only decent and not as great compared to many other sushi places. I do not think I would ever come back for sushi here, but then again, I did not get to try other dishes. So this will be my review until then…

Late reviews! There was our first time to eat there, food is fresh, a fancy restaurant, it’s good for dating

Excellent surroundings. Authentic Japanese food. Great, attentive staff… especially Nova. He’s always great.
Local awesome place. Beautiful interior

We needed a dinner after a weary day of architecture touring for Open House, and this place appealed by name and appearance. The front bar is nicely decorated with lamps, and turtles greet you on the way to the back room, which i more dim and moody. The service was a touch on the slow side but we were not in a big rush, requiring a lot of sitting and rest. The food was filling – the noodle dishes are quite large! So much we didn’t have room for the interesting desserts. This is a standout in Old Town and hope to visit again.

I‘m going to start my review by being forthcoming and stating that I do not eat raw fish (feel free to skip on down to the next review if that makes this irrelevant to your sushi hunt). That being said, i LOVE Kamehachi. Very few places offer me choices as a vegetarian for sushi rolls, however there were multiple for me to choose from (my favorites being the Veggie Crunch Roll & the AAC). Additionally, all of my dining companions who eat real sushi always enjoy their meals as well so it’s a best of both worlds scenario. The atmosphere is cute for either a date or a dinner with friends, the location is central old town, and they take reservations. Every time I have gone the service has been quick and the drinks have been delicious. I definitely recommend this place and will be back again and again!

This was a horrid experience. The restaurant came up on my Grubhub delivery results list, so we placed an order. After 1 hour they called and demanded that we pay $ 3 extra because we are out of their zone (but wait, what about the delivery results list? Hmm.) Since they said they were 5 – 10 minutes away from my house I agreed to the extra charge even though they admitted it was their mistake. They showed up more than an hour later (after we called again) and the food was cold, soggy, and disgusting. They forgot the sauce for one of the dishes, but we didn’t bother calling for it because we didn’t want to wait for another hour to eat. It was a disappointing and gross experience. Yuck.

Awesome sushi! I was still a little full from brunch earlier in the morning, but all was still well. I found my favorite beer in the entire world here, so I can not thank this place enough for existing.

I have been to Kamehachi a couple of times over the years and to their location in Northbrook. Our experience in Old Town was definitely «meh.» Positives were the atmostphere — really lovely new location and a front section that opens to the sidewalk — and presentation. All the plates were beautiful. For the prices, I’d rather go elsewhere for good Japanese. The service was just okay. We wandered around the front of the restaurant for almost 5 minutes before someone approached us and told us it was fine to sit at one of the front tables. It was almost another 10 before the waitress came to even take drink orders. Service was intermittent throughout; however, the server did quickly change out my cold sake when I said I didn’t care for her original recommendation.
For appetizers we had beef asparagus rolls and chicken yakitori. The beef rolls were bland with too much sauce. The chicken yakitori was probably the best dish of the evening — great flavor and the cuts of chicken were good. The veggies on the skewers seemed fresh. My boyfrind had the gyoza. He said they were as good as he could get at a Japanese grocery store.
For dinner, I ordered the spicy salmon deluxe, the tasmanian salmon and a sushi toro trio special — over $ 40 in sushi. Literally every piece of fish I put in my mouth was sinewy and I had to pick the parts that I couldn’t chew out of my mouth and leave them on my plate. This almost never happens with fresh salmon. I didn’t find the quality of the fish great and the spicy salmon deluxe was bland. My boyfriend had the ton katsu — he said the panko crumbs were just like heavy breading… not light and crispy the way they are supposed to be, and the cutlet itself was not pounded thin enough. Even though the presentation looked nice, we decided that overall, the ingredients did not seem particularly fresh — from my fish to the cabbage on the side of the his plate.
All in all, there so many other restaurants in the neighborhood, this one won’t be a destination for us.

To start, the atmosphere is really nice — outside seating, bar seating and sit down seating and they’re all decorated nicely. I got the Nabeyaki udon soup which was incredible. The noodles were great, tempura shrimp was excellent, basically everything was awesome and my friends who got the soup also agreed.
My friends who got the sushi ate it all but didn’t think it was anything special — they said they wished they ordered the soup instead. I can’t speak to the sushi, so I guess you’ll have to go and try yourself. Definitely recommended.

Three of us stopped here for dinner on a Friday night around 7pm. We were seated immediately. The place is a far cry from the usual sterile Japanese restaurant; it is beautiful with its high ceilings, exposed brick walls, low flattering lightening and unobtrusive music. We sat at a high top table parallel to the front door and were able to people watch. The whole wall opens so it is like eating outside but we weren’t. Which is good because it was raining.
Service was good and the bathroom is co– love the copper tile detail.
We started with the edamame which has an unusual preparation– rock salt, a little spicy and some butter. Very very good and addictive. We went through 3 bowls! We had rock shrimp, salmon sashimi, rainbow roll, California roll, mushroom roll, and eel nagiri. All was delicious! I would return and order the same things!

I’m super shocked I havnt written this review yet. This is a review from about 2012!
I love this place! I used to work just down the street and would come after work or even before (It was a wine bar.) the vibe was amazing, fast and informative service, and of course very fresh sushi!
My sister tried her first sushi here! Now she loves it and eats it like a pro! Thanks to the versatility of Kamahachis menu, she was able to try something she really liked and is a sushi convert!

Great place to grab cocktails and sake with Japanese appetizers. Staff was busy but friendly and attentive.
Food is just ok.
— rock shrimp tempura was good but I feel there was a tad too much batter.
— spider roll — worst roll of the night. Too much rice and not enough crab at all. Too bland. Not worth it
— spicy salmon deluxe was tasty
— the 1^st one on the specialty rolls were was pretty good. Not sure if it was worth the price
— summer roll — best roll of the night.
I didn’t like the migi-​tini — had a soapy taste. The whiskey cocktail and the dragon martini was good. Hot sake was great to share throughout dinner.

We had dinner last month on a Saturday night at 7:30 pm and the food and service were excellent. My only regret is the restaurant was so loud in the dining area that I could barely here my friends at our table for 4 people. I’ve been in busy restaurants before were it was loud, but this was exceptionally loud in my opinion.
The food was truly worth trying again, so I would definitely go back. I’ve been in the upstairs dining area before and we did not have this issue. If you have a large group, the space upstairs is perfect!