The Sit Down Cafe & Sushi Bar

I love coming here. Excellent food and great service. I usually get the sushi and highly recommend it. One of the best places for lunch or dinner in Hyde Park!

Slightly overpriced, but the highest quality sushi in Hyde Park. The $ 16 dinner combos are a good deal, and enough food for 2. The other menu items like sandwiches and pizza are overpriced and mediocre.

I’m never, ever disappointed. My go to for sushi and drinks. I adore the martinis; I’ve had almost all of them. The plum is my favorite! Anything eel is gold because of my shellfish allergy. I love the atmosphere, music, and the staff are really laid back.

Excellent service and sushi. I went here and tried the Drunken Tiger and Volcano. The Volcano was by far the best! I order my food made to go and it only took 10 minutes. Highly recommend this yummy restaurant that will leave you pleasantly full!

So this is the perfect place for your quick Friday night after work dinner and drinks or perfect Saturday afternoon in the sun drinks on the patio. The martini’s are out of this world, the basil martini is my favorite, always perfectly made. The sushi is real good too. Don’t forget to order grandmas brownies, yummy yummy yummy…
Service is always on point.
The owner has been doing something right his been here a while …
If you in the area try it out if not still come and try it out …

Overall good place. Now their menu is very eclectic. It is more than you would ever expect. At times, I shun away from places that try to be everything to everyone. However, this place just does all their food, good enough. Great service and located right in the middle of Hyde Park.
I usually get a roll or two. The simple classics are my favorites here such as the Philli or the Veggie maki. However, at times I’ll go for the 52^nd or the Chicago Fire. I also normally go for the pizza when I’m there. It is very light and thing and airy. It’s perfect.
I would suggest you try it out for yourself. It’s worth it. Especially for a quick lunch date.

Came in here for a quick lunch, service was fast and friendly, food had variety and was tasty. Nothing to write home about, but a solid Hyde Park staple that you can’t go wrong with.
Had the lunch special of a Jambalaya Stew and Tuna/​Avacado Bruschetta; well priced for the portions, and food was good, exactly what I expected. Service was always ready with the water/​whatever else we needed.
Their menu has something for everyone, from sushi to quick bites, and I recommend you check this place out if you’re for a good bite to eat.

All right as a sushi bar. It IS a bit pricey for what it offers, but beggars cannot be choosers so I chose to eat here. I may update my review if I come back here to eat something else. Service is mediocre, but the servers are very polite and friendly. I’d hesitate to recommend this place to anyone especially with Pepe’s right next door.

All-​in-​all a solid restaurant, nothing particularly stood out to me when I came. Pretty standard pricing and food was decent. I ordered the Japanese Ginger Salad, Jambalaya, and the Volcano Roll when I came. I will say that this place does have an interesting menu as it sells some western cuisine and Japanese fare.
There’s few a seating outside and it’s actually pretty spacious inside, more than you’d imagine. Food came out quick, but I did come at an off hour.

The service was great but the spicy tuna roll I got wasn’t. The chicken pizza was decent but I’ve had better.

Summary: cute restaurant with good food, but slow service and comparatively high prices.
I got three pieces of salmon sahimi and a steak sandwich when I came here. Sashimi was super THIN cut… was not impressed.
The steak sandwich came with a choice of side (veggie chips, fruit, or berries). I got the berries and it was literally 3 raspberries, 1 chopped up strawberry, and 6 blueberries in a bowl. The steak sandwich was very flavorful, and quite light. My friend got the veggie chips in a bowl, and it was literally less than a handful. Pretty meager portions if you ask me…
The sushi rolls are not my type. They’re kind of expensive for what you get… you could get much better rolls for the same price at other Chicago restaurants.
Service is very slow, even when the restaurant doesn’t look that busy. It took ages before someone even came to take our order, and then again when we were waiting for our food. I saw much sashimi just sitting on the counter for 15 minutes, since it seemed they wanted to bring it over with the rest of our food.

I’ve been here once before years ago and I’ve been dying to get back ever since. I finally went back today and was very happy I did. I ordered the Blue Apple salad. I requested some ingredient changes and was easily accommodated. The salad was delish. I may have to go back again tomorrow since I will be in the area. In the past, I ordered the Chicken Pesto sandwich with Veggie Chips. The veggie chips are super flavorful. I think I also had the sushi and it was great. All of the food is affordable especially given the quality. I highly recommend this restaurant. Two thumbs way up!

At some point you will find yourself wondering — is there decent sushi someplace in Hyde Park? The purpose of this review (and arguably the purpose of this restaurant) is to allow you to answer that question «yes.» The Sit Down Café is in Hyde Park. It serves sushi. The sushi is decent and quite reasonably priced. They also have a menu full of salads and sandwiches and other things, so I guess it’s also the right place if you’re undecided between sushi and a chicken pesto sandwich.

I love this place! This is definitely my go to spot for sushi in Hyde park. The prices aren’t bad and they have a great variety and great quality sushi. Also they do take out! Also they have great pizza.

The food is pretty good here. I really like their pizza and they have a good variety of sushi combinations. I’ve never had a wait here and the atmosphere and service is very nice and friendly.

The Sit Down’s menu is expansive, and features everything from sushi to pizza. I don’t think it would be fitting to call this Italian/​Japanese fusion, more like half Italian, half Japanese with a healthy dose of American influence thrown in!
Big Bang maki had salmon and three types of tuna, all of which tasted fresh. The maguro added a nice fattiness to the roll.
The Super Crunchy was filled with fat tempuraa shrimp paired with avocado and a nice drizzle of jalapeño sauce.
It’s not exactly cheap for the amount of sushi you get and the rolls aren’t anything too creative, but still a solid choice for Hyde Park.

This is a great spot in hyde park. The small restaurant has some good items on the menu. I have tried several of the ebi tempura rolls. The place is clean and it’s typically moderate on the noise. They lost a star with the staff dress. In the summer the wait staff wear some raunchy clothes. I see camisoles as shirt, booty shorts, skin tights, etc. It’s inappropriate and disgusting to look at while you eat. Feels worse than hooters. The only thing that keeps me coming back is the great food.

It’s not just Japanese. It’s not just Italian. It’s not even Japanese-​Italian fusion. What is it then? It’s a menu with half sushi/​Japanese and half Italian. What? That’s preposterous. It somehow works out in the end. If you’re in a group and can’t decide what type of food to get, you can come here where there are many options.
I ordered miso soup, a salmon skin hand roll, and an unagi roll. All were okay. I mean, what can you expect for sushi in Hyde Park? I didn’t want to get «fresh» fish because well, how fresh can it be?
Others ordered tempura shrimp, sandwiches, jambalaya, and other rolls. No one seemed to dislike their orders.
The people inside were very nice since we had such a large party (15 people). Service was fast, and water was continuously refilled.
Food is okay, but for the situation, I think it was a good fit. Also 10% off for UChicago students :)

I always passed by this place and told myself I’d make a stop!
So one fine Thursday, I finally did pop in with a friend. I got the Super Crunchy, whereas she got the Hyde Park. The Super Crunchy really wasn’t special, I’ve gotten similar rolls at chain sushi places in the Loop for half the price. I didn’t try the Hyde Park, but it certainly looked different (in a good way) but my friend didn’t look moved.
The customer service was wonderful though!
I don’t think I’ll be stopping by again anytime soon, though.

I stopped at Sit Down Café the other day when I was in the area, and I think I would definitely stop back if I was nearby again. For gluten free in Hyde Park, they are A-​OK in my book!
First of all, the menu is AMAZING for gluten free options. They have everything from gluten free pizza to bruschetta and sandwiches. I opted for the chicken pesto sandwich, and it was great! The bread was toasted, which masked the fact that it was gluten free, and the pesto, artichoke, tomato, and chicken combined to make a warm sandwich that is BY FAR the best I’ve had in all my gluten free days. My one complaint was that the sandwich was a little oily — as I tried to eat it, oil was dripping all over me! Afterwards, I felt the oil kind of sit in my stomach in that «I’m so stuffed and feel sort of ill» way, but I don’t think that was enough of a negative to not come back for another. Also, each sandwich came with a side of berries, fruit, or chips. The berries were a nice, healthy complement to a tasty sandwich, and they were so fresh!
For gluten free in Hyde Park (and anyone visiting the University of Chicago Celiac Center!) I would definitely recommend stopping here to check out the gluten free sandwiches.