Sake Zake

I ordered delivery at 5:30 PM on a Friday which I’m sure is a busy time. They said 25 minutes, totally acceptable and I’m 5 minutes away. At almost 7, food still didn’t arrive. I called and a guy told me that it didn’t leave yet and the manager decides when they deliver, not him. He said they were leaving with the food now (1.5hrs after I ordered by this point). I said ok, otherwise I’m canceling the order. At 7:30 still no food! My husband calls, pretty sure he talks to the same guy who of course is now the manager and they said our warm food is in the fridge. He said we could warm it in the microwave and the food would be free. Who the hell wants to warm up their food? Keep your cold food and shove it! Then we are told they already charged my credit card which I didn’t even sign to authorize! Horrible service… All they had to do was say delivery wasn’t doable and asked me to pick it up. This place is a joke!!! Not to mention this was also my kids dinner so that really pissed me off. No more sake Zake for me!

We got the groupon for Sake Zake and really enjoyed everything! The food was very flavorful. Loved our sushi. It’s nice to have good sushi so close to home! Would definitely recommend and will be returning!

So this spot doesn’t close till 10 right? So they’ve most likely have been closed since 9 since they don’t answer. Way to go!

Have used the groupons offered by sakezake on several occasions. I’ve enjoyed the sushi and the staff are very nice. I’m surprised to always see it so empty inside.

This was our first time here and we are pretty new to sushi so I’m not rating on food quality. I gave a low rating because of the service and my perceived health/​safety issues.
There were two other tables seated aside from my party of three. The restaurant does takeout as well, but our service was reallllllly slow.
To be fair, we were seated quickly, got our water quickly, and our server appeared to be in training because she was being shadowed. We also took quite a long time (~15−20 mins) review the menu because we are definitely not sushi connesours! We were Googling things since the server didn’t come back at all. Maybe they saw us on our phones and assumed we were being rude and texting or something.
We ordered 3 plates of food and it took over 45 minutes in this empty place! The wait was exasperated by the fact that the 3 servers on duty were all huddled by the bar talking and never came to check on us. My boyfriend got up and went to the chatty servers and asked for more water since all three of us finished our glasses.
I could clearly see them making the sushi behind the bar so they were certainly working, but they were pretty slow. Then I saw one of the guys go get a drink for himself, wipe his mouth with his hand/​wrist, then come back and start making more food! He didn’t wash them at all! :(
Then they gave us our check so quickly. We were thinking about ordering dessert but since they didn’t ask and just have us the check, we went to Culver’s next door!
We still gave a decent 20% tip for our $ 50 bill, and we’ll give this place another shot, but if the service is still poor then we won’t go back.

I’ve been to Sake Zake several times and have always enjoyed the food. I generally get the crunchy flower, the sake zake roll, or the sake zake wrap (appetizer) — all of which are delicious!
The restaurant is in a strip mall so from the outside it doesn’t look like much, but the interior is decorated beautifully and is clean.
It doesn’t tend to be busy so we often go for a girls night to chat/​catch up and have never felt rushed. The servers have always been attentive, but do not make me feel like we need to clear out for the next group to sit down.
There is often a groupon available for Sake Zake which helps because they are quite pricey compared to other sushi places in the area and the portions aren’t huge for what you pay. That’s the only reason I give 4 stars rather than 5.

The sushi was very very good and was fresh! We got the grenade sushi rolls which were excellent as well as the sushi combo. The service was good but slow. Slightly pricey for the smaller portions you get. Use the groupon!

This place is amazing! I really don’t understand why other people rate /​review low. The food is fresh and the service is excellent. Give Sake Zake a try and I’m sure you’ll agree. Looking forward to our next time. Try the Lion King!

Sushi so so. Prices ok. Service is not slow. selection was decent. this is good for Grayslake. waitress was really good but food not up to par. Go elsewhere for your sushi fix.

Never again!!! Went here for dinner and ordered sashimi and they put the order in for sushi… when I said they gave me the wrong meal, they took the dish back and took the fish off of the rice and put it on some greens! Are you kidding me!!! You better check your bill… they also tried to over charge us for the sashimi! Not to mention that the service was also horrible!

The sushi here is very good, service is a tad slow but I think the price is more a $$$ than a $$. Not my favorite in Grayslake, but if I need a fix and my go to down the road isn’t open I’ll stop here

Ordered Sashimi Combo — 21pcs premium cuts of fish platter $ 29. I stress PREMIUM CUTS of FISH. I have got one crab stick cut in half (counting as two pieces of premium cuts of fish!!!) WHAT? Also, clams are not a cuts of fish, they never have been a sashimi, it’s a shell fish! (I have got a clam cut in half). Some fish was a bit frozen… NEVER AGAIN! Shame since we live very close by and LOVE sushi…

Never again.
I live very close to here and I let that skew my perception for quite a while. But let’s face it, if you’re going to spend this kind of money — and trust me, this is overpriced — you expect a certain caliber of food and service.
First — the good. You can always get a seat. Always. They aren’t ever that busy. However, you’d think this would mean it would not be slow service. You’d be wrong.
The Sake Zake Wrap app is DELICIOUS. It’s expensive, but wonderful.
The rolls are rice-​heavy, and most of them taste the same. I’ve probably tried a dozen, and sometimes you can’t tell one from the other on the same plate.
The reason I’ll never go back again? I went most recently and a 20% gratuity was added (party of 2) because I used a Groupon. I pulled up my Groupon to see if it was in the fine print, and it was not. I inquired and the server explained that some people don’t tip on the pre-​coupon amount, so they added it for me, but could take it out if I liked. I liked.
This royally irked me because — 20% is my ‘going in’ tip. You earn more or less from there based on service, and the service was slow as usual, so I’d be leaning more toward 18%. But you add a gratuity and DON’T POINT IT OUT??? Unacceptable. I think that’s a shady business practice.
Frankly, neither the food nor the service is good enough for a $ 75 meal for two. I can go elsewhere and get better food and service… I just have to drive a little further, but that’s ok by me.

There is no consistency in their rolls. A dragon roll today will not look or taste like a dragon roll in 6 months. Rolls are watered down and packed with cucumbers to make the rolls appear to be huge in circumference and also makes the rolls lacking in flavor. The serving plates were chipped and cracked. I’ve tried this restaurant at least 4 times and have never been fully satisfied. Skip the groupon, it’s not worth it.

Service was awful, took forever to get all courses of food. Main dish was cold, they tried to auto add 20% gratuity because we used a groupon. Don’t waste your time. Food was mediocre at best

A fair sushi joint for those who prefer rolls with more veggies than fish.
My boyfriend and I love sushi, and we tried this place because of a Groupon. We weren’t jazzed about the strip mall atmosphere, but once you pass through the doors, the strip mall atmosphere transforms into a nicely decorated restaurant.
There is a small bar area, tables and booths, and a sushi bar, where you can watch the sushi being made. Trendy jazz music was playing.
We did not experience any service issues from the more recent reviews. Our server was attentive and easygoing; he smiled a lot and was always a step ahead for water and drink refills.
For dinner, we really enjoyed the Seaweed Salad appetizer — sweet, spicy, and savory all in one bowl. The three maki rolls we shared were larger and pricier than we are used to, but still decent. If you like spicy, the Buffalo Crab (great blend of spicy, sweet, creamy, crunchy veggies, and seafood) was by far the best balance of tastes and textures. The Ship Wreck was a bit bland — high on veggies, low on flavor. Same for the Jalapeño Tuna, which was made with a generous stuffing of cilantro (almost too much), and sprinkled with so much tempura crunch, the entire plate was covered with it (waaayy too much). So, here’s what I would rate each:
Seaweed salad: 5 stars
Buffalo Crab: 5 stars
Jalapeño Tuna: 3 stars
Ship Wreck: 2 stars
Although well designed and printed on interesting gold paper, I recommend they reprint their well worn and food-​stained menus.
I’ll give them a couple more visits, just to be fair.
3 stars
Last visit 9÷6÷13

We went here with a Groupon and I didn’t look at any reviews prior though I kind of wish we had. I was excited about the fact that it is super close to where we live and they deliver. We went and I was hoping for delicious sushi and happy that we had found a place so close. I was really disappointed.
All of the rolls we ordered tasted the same. We ordered 6 different kinds, and I could barely tell a difference from each. I mainly could only taste bland rice and cucumber. There was hardly any crab in the California rolls… cucumber took up half the roll! The fish was minimal in the other rolls too. I guess if you like tasteless rice, you could go here.
The service was SUPER slow. It was kind of busy but we noticed that certain tables were paid more attention to than others… our waiter spent at least 15 minutes talking to the table next to us! It was maybe 20 minutes after we sat down that we ordered, 45 minutes for the sushi to arrive, and we weren’t checked on at all after that. Once we were able to finally flag someone down for the check, that arrived promptly, go figure. They include the gratuity in the bill, which is probably a good thing because I wasn’t planning on tipping the service was that bad.
All in all, it was a very disappointing experience and we definitely won’t be returning. I am giving it two stars because I did like the edamame and the hostess was nice and at least tried to be attentive, I had to ask her how we paid because after the bill was dropped off everyone disappeared…
tl;dr Bland sushi, slow service, ²⁄₅ would not recommend.

I had a $ 30 Groupon to this place and was almost contemplating not going based on the poor reviews. However, my boyfriend and I decided to go anyway.
I wasn’t totally disappointed and wouldn’t classify it as the «worst sushi» that I’ve ever had, but it definitely was toward the bottom of my list.
The rice definitely lacked vinegar and tasted too plain and was somewhat dry. We had a spicy tuna roll, spicy scallop roll, dragon and another one which I can’t remember. In my opinion, the spicy tuna one was pretty good. I liked the level of spice. However, the scallop one was a complete disappointment. The scallop was cold and mushy.
We spent $ 45 on four rolls, two miso soups, one beer and hot tea. The waitress was kind enough not to charge us for the edamame rolls because they didn’t come out at the start of our meal.
The service was good and the décor was warm, somewhat romantic and inviting.
However, bottom line was that the sushi was lacking and that we will not be returning. If you live in the area, I would suggest Sushi Kushi in either Vernon Hills, Highland Park or Lake Forest as a far better bet.

I’m disappointed that this place is somewhat of a dud when it comes to sushi.
My primary gripe about this place is the sushi roles themselves seem to be soggy and not rolled very well for they come apart really easy. When eating sushi, there is nothing worse than your roll falling apart as you pick it up with chopsticks.
Luckily, there are no shortages of sushi place in this area. See my list of favorite Sushi places in Grayslake for other suggested locations.

I went here for lunch yesterday. The supply of sushi restaurants up in the far north is scarce and I called 5 sushi places of which only 2 were open for lunch Saturday. This was one of the two and we chose it because it was a bit closer to my family member’s houses that I was going with. This was actually a fun experience for me because I took my Mom who has never tried sushi or even been to a Japanese restaurant! I also took my niece who had only tried California Rolls. I’ve become completely sushi obsessed so I enjoyed explaining everything to them.
We got there a little after noon and there was no one in there. Funny because my mom was worried about hitting the lunch rush! hehe Now when a place is completely empty, that always scares me. The guy was outside smoking so the sushi chef had to go get him to seat us. The waiter was very nice and accommodating throughout our whole meal. I did have to ask for a fork for my Mom and ask for more water for myself… so not preemptively good service but still good service.
I really like the décor here. Well from the outside, it’s inside of a stripmall (I’m adding a picture tomorrow) and there is a lot of parking. The inside is super cute and modern. It’s a decent sized place especially if you are the only table in there! :P Wooden tables and modern Asian accents make for a pleasant dining atmosphere.
I got a couple of basic rolls so my fam could try them — a philly roll and a spicy tuna roll. My mom ordered the tempura which was $ 16!!! Expensive. My niece ordered the Gokki roll and the Salmon & Avocado roll.
My philly roll only had 6 small pieces for $ 6. The spicy tuna at least had some normal sized pieces, still small but not miniature sized like the philly roll. The philly roll was decent… the salmon piece inside was so small… I’ve never had a philly roll with less fish and philly rolls are my staples. For 6 tiny pieces, 2 of the pieces were pretty sloppily rolled as well. The spicy tuna did have a lot of chopped up fish in it but it was the spiciest spicy tuna I’ve ever had! No complaints though, just needed a lot of water for my weak tastebuds. It was actually quite good! However, it was only 5 pieces instead of 6. sigh. My niece’s Gokki roll was a speciality roll and usually those have a bit more to them… well it did have 2 more pieces but wasn’t much bigger in size then our other standard rolls. My mama seemed to really enjoy her tempura. It came with miso soup & salad so she ended up having leftovers because of all the food. I tried one of her shrimps and I must say it was very good & tasted quite fresh to me. My mom ordered hot tea with her meal which they charged her $ 2.50 for… boo.
I paid $ 66 for the three of us for lunch… overpriced! And especially overpriced for the quality. This is a cute place but I can see why no one was there. Their prices are ridiculous for the location and what they are serving. I’m sorry to say I won’t be going back here and will definitely try the other sushi places in the area next time I’m up north.