Umaiya

As of today, Umaiya is no longer at 1605 Montrose. I don’t know if it moved but there is a sign for a vegan restaurant which will be opening in the space. I will miss Umaiya’s sweet waitress and cute sushi guy who always arranged my sushi into attractive shapes!
Note: if you’re looking for another sushi/​thai combo place Roong Petch is close by. The sushi isn’t as good as at Umaiya but it’s serviceable and the thai food is good:
Or for sushi Grand Katachi is up on Damen and Lawrence:

I am kind of sad to see the low ratings Umaiya has received this year, and because I have eaten there consistently (about once a month) I feel I can give an accurate review.
I’ve been to little sushi shops all over the place, but Umaiya remains one of my favorites. The décor or atmosphere in the shop definitely isn’t what won me as a regular customer, it’s the effort they put in to making their dishes. The sushi presentation is always better than every other place I’ve been, even places that boast being the best in Chicago or have high prices. This little shop takes care to garnish the plate, or make your sushi resemble the shape of a flower, and it tastes frickin good too.
The terriyaki combos can’t be beat, the steak always tastes so damn good, like right off the grill and perfectly cooked; it’s like that every time for me. With the combo you get three pieces of sushi, california maki, soup, salad, and of course rice. How can that be beat? They also have some great daily lunch specials.
I think their sushi is consistently good, always the perfect temperature and made well. I have also order pad thai and fried rice from them with no problems. Umaiya has always delivered to me quickly (I live 5 blocks away).
The prices, noticeable effort, and quality of the food keep me going back. I haven’t found another little place that does it quite as well.

Writing a brief for my legal writing class (may it rot in hell) at 10 p.m. on a Sunday night was not my favorite thing. BUT I was in Lakeview, not at home, and there were several sushi places delivering via GrubHub. Score, right? Maybe– if I’d chosen somewhere other than Umaiya.
At first, I was pleased. There was a minimum for delivery, but I only had to order $ 10 worth of food to reach it, and then the delivery itself was another $ 2 or $ 3. AND they had specials! I got the vegetarian special, which was avocado maki, veggie maki, and veggie tempura appetizer, plus miso soup, for $ 9. Not bad, not bad. To get up to the $ 10 minimum, I threw in an order of hamachi nigiri.
Delivery took an hour and a half. That was after a 45 minute estimate, but I don’t know whether to blame that on GrubHub or Umaiya. Then, the guy finally got there, and we buzzed him in… but he didn’t come up in the elevator. I waited seven or eight minutes before I finally headed downstairs, and then the guy barely spoke enough English to ask me if I was the girl who’d ordered. Luckily, I speak Spanish, so I won’t hold that against Umaiya. Whatever. I was STARVING.
Avocado roll– fine, if a bit underripe. Veggie roll– fine. Somewhat unimaginative. Miso soup– very good! Lots of tofu and fabulous flavor… mmm. Veggie tempura appetizer– pathetically tiny. Two small, undercooked slices of sweet potato and three green beans. And… what’s this? My hamachi was ONE PIECE. It didn’t specify this on the menu, and paying $ 3 for one miniscule piece of nigiri seems pretty ridiculous to me– but then again, I’m coming from LA, where cheap sushi is on every street corner.
Anyway, I would have forgiven Umaiya for all of the above… but when I bit into my hamachi, I cut my mouth on a bone. Not your typical pin «oh, they didn’t check this quite carefully enough!» bone, but a sharp, blade-​shaped bone. FAIL, Umaiya. Oh, little yellowtail, you died in vain! I couldn’t even enjoy you!

Wow. There isn’t anything wrong with the food but the staff is a bit unscrupulous. As you can see above, they have a buy one get one half price special. The special is also printed on a piece of paper posted on the on or near the front door.
As we sit down and look at the menu, we wanted to clarify if the special applied to all of the rolls or to a limited selection. In response, the waitress conferred with the guys behind the counter and then told us it was on carryout only. So no special for us.
I know the amount of money I would have saved isn’t a down payment on a condo or any large amount, it’s the principle of the situation. Why take advantage of your customers if you want to generate repeat business. And by the fact that we were the only 2 people dining at the restaurant, I’m not surprised that they don’t care about repeat business.
I only gave it two stars because the presentation of the sushi was much nicer than I would have expected for a hole in the wall sushi joint

This place is such a gem. The Mexican roll is amazing. For what it is, a little neighborhood joint great for take out, it is perfect. I don’t think that the prices are that high at all… granted, I am a recent transplant from the Northeast (I used to pay 30% more for sushi back east, and I don’t think tasted as good) but there was no price that I even blinked at for a second.
Most importantly though, I want to give them HUGE props for their immediate customer feedback survey thet you get when you order online. Stuff happens and you can have a bad experience, but something about the way the whole transaction went down made me think that they are strivng for excellence.
I’m a fan. Nicely done, Umaiya.

Umai-​lordy this place is good!
Here’s the deal: this place is a hidden little gem, although recently the menu has changed (mneh), the prices have gone up a bit (crap) and the overall vibe feels a little different. I don’t know if they’re cutting back on costs or have a new owner or what.
BUT — and a big but here — all that being said, this is still one of my fav Asian joints in the city. The rating above is based on great Thai food with the bonus of pretty good sushi as well, not the other way around. There are obviously better place to go if you’re specifically searching for sushi, but these guys do a great job too.
The place that really makes this jump from 3 stars to 4 is the delicious Thai food. And the thing that really sets theirs apart is the quality of the noodles. Our waitress told us that they get a shipment of fresh noodles from Chinatown everyday and you can really taste the quality. Mmm, noodles.
So come check it out and compare it to your fav Thai place… I doubt you’ll be dissapointed!

What a little gem! This place is only 3 blocks from me so I hit up there lunch special. My friend got the dragon roll and inhaled it in like 2 min. Clearly, he loved it. I got the kee mow (spicy basil noodles) that had a perfect amount of spice to it. Now I feel good sushi and thai good is not hard to find in a big enough city. I loved the fact that this place gives you metal chopsticks and not the crappy wood ones and that when you order tea you get an entire pot not just one mug. I’m a sucker for the details. The waitress was very attentive, not letting our drinks get half way empty. The food came quickly and hot. It’s a very small space so I wouldn’t go in with a huge group but it makes for a cozy date spot. I def. Will be back in soon.

Note: Average does not mean BAD.
I wanted sushi. Badly. I decided to try Umaiya, which isn’t in my neighborhood but convenient enough (the 78 Montrose bus stops right across the street). It was a Thursday night, thus a little slow. The service itself was extremely slow. I really need to use a timer, because it is unacceptable to be the only customers in the restaurant and have to wait more than 10 minutes to order. The food, including the sushi, was so-​so. The red curry was a little bland, but it was spicy enough. I ordered tamago, masago, seaweed salad, and vegetable tempura (not panko-​crusted) and they were all standard. I’ve had much worse, but I’ve had much better. The prices are average too. Umaiya is your typical Thai/​Japanese restaurant in Chicago.

I went here for lunch with a friend and had a nice, laid-​back meal. The location is right across from the park and offers nice people-​watching. The service was good and I would definitely go back. But next time I would be sure to ask for my curry to be «mild» — the way it came was a bit too spicy for me (but I am a total spiciness wimp, so take that with a grain of salt).

Wow. I really jinxed myself there.
My most recent order came out to a lot more than I was used to seeing and was accompanied with a new menu where, to my horror, I saw that they’d substantially raised their prices.
Bad form.

Finding good yakisoba in Chicago is not easy. I’m giving Umaiya 4 stars because they have the best yakisoba I’ve eaten since I was in Japan, where yakisoba is cheap, delicious, and plentiful. Also wonderful were the pumpkin Thai custard and weird, gooey, FREE dessert that consisted of corn, coconut cream, and tapioca.
Big points for online ordering and temperature/​packaging of food. We picked up our carry out order and walked about 2 miles to see the 3^rd of July fireworks. When we arrived 25 minutes later, the food was still piping hot.
One star deduction for really gross veggie gyoza. Next time I go back, I’m trying the meat gyoza.

I’ve never eaten inside, but my mom brought home a Dragon Roll for me.
The car ride home was rocky apparently, because the maki rolls were completely lubricated and «sliding around» in
TOO.
MUCH.
MAYO.

Time for an update. My fiancée and I went here for a cute BYOB Valentines Day date last night, and everything was awesome.
The sushi here is now vastly, vastly improved. For an appetizer, we had the Winter Roll. This roll looked absolutely beautiful and tasted even better. I liked the creative mix of ingredients: white tuna, salmon, bean sprouts, black tobiko and wasabi mayo. Bean sprouts are my new favorite maki ingredient — IMO, a tastier, healthier source of crunch than tempura. For $ 9, the Winter roll is a pretty generous size too.
We followed that up with red curry for me and basil chicken for him. We both reported that our mouths were on fire when we finished eating. We both agreed that’s a good thing. The tofu is good — firm, well cooked and flavorful. I hate when I order curry and my tofu hunks are kind of mushy and raw. Ick. Not the case here. Veggies are also good. Thai eggplant features prominently, which is a good thing in my opinion.
Umaiya has limited dessert options, but we had a bit of wine left to drink and wanted something sweet, so we tried the pumpkin custard. This was just OK, not mind blowing. It’s only $ 3 for a portion that’s definitely big enough to share, so it’s worth a try for something a little different. Basically it’s a little dish of warm, sweet pudding with gelatinous strips of pumpkin in it. That didn’t sound very appetizing, but I liked it nonetheless.
Service is great — attentive but unobtrusive. We never had empty water glasses; we never felt pressured to rush out the door.
All told, we got out of there for less than $ 30, and we had a super fun time sitting in a cozy corner at watching Montrose Ave go by outside. Another little reason to love living in Ravenswood!

I ordered a beef salad and beef green curry for takeout. I couldn’t put the beef salad down, it was delicious and spicy enough to make my nose run (I asked for it to be medium); however, it lacked in greens. The green curry was also good. Umaiya also serves sushi and I did have a taste for it, but I made a vow that I no longer was going to order sushi from a restaurant ever again, not when there’s LFM.

It was OK.
No crowd, BYOB, and VERY quick service.
The sushi was so-​so, but the crab rangoons were yummy.

In my world, there are two kinds of sushi — lunch/​take out sushi and dinner sushi.
Umaiya is lunch/​take out sushi. Its not too expensive. Convenient (in my case, right around the corner from my condo). It easily satisfies a sushi craving. All good things.
To me ‘dinner sushi’ is more of an experience rather than just the sushi. You need a few friends and some drinks. You order mass quantities of sushi, and sometimes, several rounds. You feel no pressure to get up and leave bc you are having stimulating conversation. THAT is dinner sushi.
Umaiya is not dinner sushi. Umaiya is ‘staying in on a Friday night’ sushi. Or, ‘coming home from the gym on Saturday afternoon and need to pick up lunch’ sushi. But, its still tasty and fresh, as sushi should be.

Love this place! I called about 45 minutes ahead to ask for a table for 6. Small, yes. But the décor is really modern, sleek and comfortable. Except for a few people coming in for carry-​out, we were the only customers. The service was very good.
I could go on and on about the food and service. Basically, I love this place because the people are so nice; the food is fresh and delicious! With so many Thai and sushi restaurants around, give this one a try.
The best part — as we left, and passed by the front window, all three employees smiled and waved at us. Love this place!!!

When previous reviewers mentioned that this place was tiny, they weren’t kidding! Not that size really matters; I was just a little surprised that they could fit seating for 16 or 18 people in such a small space.
I picked this place for my birthday dinner based on the glowing reviews and the fact that its a new joint, just down the street from me. Neither my boyfriend nor I were impressed with Umaiya. Really, the only things we liked were the metal chopsticks and that its BYOB with no corkage fee.
I ordered two veggie maki rolls, which were really nothing special. I also had a bowl of tom kha soup that was pretty good, but nothing great. My boyfriend ordered the mussaman curry with vegetables. The waitress advised against only getting vegetables and told him tofu would be better because the only veggies they put in it are onions and semi-​cooked potatoes. I was a little surprised that even though they had lots of other veggies on hand, they couldn’t accommodate his request. He ate it, but slowly. and coming from someone who inhales his food, that’s saying something.
The presentation of my plate was really cute though. They had made snowmen out of rice and small pieces of avocado, cabbage and fish. As a vegetarian though (this came up when ordering), it would have been nice to know that the fish was indeed fish BEFORE putting it in my mouth. Oh well. now I know what raw fish tastes like. blood.
I might order take out from here some day, but given the number of other (better!) places in the neighborhood, I know I won’t be back any time soon.

Really great little neighborhood sushi joint… staff was friendly/​attentive, though didn’t offer much in way of explanation with some of the rolls.
Very cheap for the quality, all of the rolls we got were very fresh and well prepared/​presented. We had the spicy tuna, philadelphia, california, some veggie rolls and something with a lot of avocado on it… also had the edamame and miso soup, all were very good.
Seating area is small, but comfy… BYOB! No corkage fee. (I think it is supposed to be $ 3). There is a liquor store kitty corner…
Great stop, I will try them for takeout too… support local business and quality sushi, check it out! :)

This place rocks in the creative sushi roll department. Besides the normal sushi rolls, you can expect to find some very delicious and unusual selections. My two favorites are the Winter Roll and the Thailand Roll. F**in’ awesome. The Winter has white tuna and salmon, with this awesome mayo and covered in black tobiko. The Thailand one has coconut shrimp in it and is covered in toasted coconut, yum! There’s also the Mexican Roll, it has yellowtail with cilantro and jalapeos etc. Its so nice to have such different selections when you eat sushi.
Their website is a little hard to find. So being the nice person that I am here it is:

This place isn’t that big so its not good for a big group, but you can always order take out. Just beware that on busy nights they sometimes under estimate how long it will take them to have your food ready. Its happened to me and my friends a couple times. I still say its worth the wait, but nonetheless annoying if you’re hungry.
If you do decide to eat there it is BYOB. They didn’t charge us a corkage fee which is always a plus.