Happi Sushi

Updated to 3 stars because a rating is required to write a time-​stamped update. It’s under new ownership since my original. I’m not going to rush back and try it, but keep that in mind as you peruse reviews.

Super Solid Sushi. If you have been here before… I strongly recommend that you go again. Excellent value and excellent service. All fish is fresh as can be and rolls are certainly not lacking in any way. Deliciousness awaits! Please go and support an establishment that wants to thrive. You will not be disappointed. Without reservation… A 5 star recommendation! Super creative sushi awaits!

I have been to this place 5 – 6 times and absolutely love it. It is family owned, and the service is beyond excellent. I have had many of the rolls and appetizers and all are delicious. I am no newbie to sushi, having grown up in Seattle thinking it was the champion of sushi, I was indeed wrong. The rolls are original and beautifully constructed, they have a great Saki selection too! Plus you get a nice orange and mochi desert at the end for free, nice touch! This place is an 11 out of 10.

I first visited here couple months ago after visiting the botanic garden and fell in love. I live maybe 15 minutes away from here and I’ve been ordering their carry out ever since. Compared to other sushi carry outs, they are on the faster side and the quality of the fish is just outstanding. Soup and salad included in their carry outs as well as dine-​in. Friendly waiter and waitress and most definitely worth the visit. Can’t wait to go back

My 5 year old daughter and I come here regularly and always enjoy it. We both love the sashimi and individual sushi pieces and it’s always fresh and delicious. The place is very clean and the people who work here are friendly and helpful. Just ask for the kid’s chopsticks if you’re here with young ones.

Terrible sushi. The spicy tuna was ground up so fine and very fishy. The tuna in my other rolls were very tough and so fishy I couldn’t eat it. Will not be returning.

New owners and no longer any good. Every roll has an upcharge for ‘free’ miso and ginger salad.

To the reviewer who missed the Mango Tango roll… it is BACK… and it is delicious! Our family just had a great experience there. While at first we thought the prices were more that what was around, it actually is reasonable. The differences are that soup and salad come with every roll, you don’t pay extra. The rolls are also HUGE! While the waitress was a little lacking, the gentleman making the sushi more than made up for it. He was friendly, sent over extra edamame because he thought it was taking too long (we didn’t). We will be going back.

New Owner = Great Sushi!
Wow, so glad there is new ownership here and they’ve nailed it. The sushi is really really good.
The crispy rice spicy tuna appetizer is money — I think it’s the best thing on the menu and its incredible.
As for the other rolls, unlike the old (un) Happy Sushi, these rolls have a lot of fish and everything is fresh, with not too much rice.
All meals come with salad and soup, which is a nice plus too.
All in all, Happy has moved into a new class that stacks up well compared to most north shore suburban sushi spots.
Well done!!!

I have heard about this place because of a friend who lives nearby!
All I need to say about Happi Sushi is amazing. They have a great service and the food is unquestionably amazing.
I personally love chef special hand roll. I love the fact that they put a lot of ingredients and the rice wasn’t overpowering. In my point of view, it is difficult to find a good sushi place that does not put huge amount of rice and use good quality of fish. Their price is moderate as the other sushi place, but man, you will leave this place with a full stomach.
Definitely a place that you should try. Because I will definitely go back!

Happi Sushi has been a favorite of ours for years. Now under new management and went there last night to see how it compared to the previous stellar management. The new décor was warm and friendly and an improvement. There’s an extensive new menu with the personalized favorites like Mango Tango and Kyle of course missing. What we had (we don’t do raw): edamame, miso soup, California rolls, gouza, etc. was good and comparable. The service was OK but not as friendly as when Kim and family were there. I trust as diners get to know them this will improve.
The one disconcerting thing came when we received our check. All checks include, as noted on the check, a «mandatory» 18% tip with the final credit card bill having another line for an additional tip if one wished to do so. This is very presumptive and not a good business practice. Traditionally, we usually tip 20+% at restaurants where we receive good service; however, we reserve the right to give more for especially good service OR less if we feel the service was not to our liking. I hope that as time goes on that they will realize this is a bad practice and discontinue it. I’ve already mentioned it to several people who immediately said that they would not dine here.
Opening a new business has its own learning curve and we wish them well as they proceed on that curve. The Ravinia Business District needs good staple restaurants and we very much want Happi Sushi to continue to be one of those.

Very nice atmosphere and NEW OWNERSHIP.
They have a nice normal selection of fish, nothing exotic but as sushi snob I was pleased to note that the fish was not pre-​cut YEAH!
Ok all I can say is the fish is WOW fresh and the rice is FAR FAR FAR SUPERIOR TO THE PRIOR OWNERSHIPS. I loved the old places owner and chef, he was very friendly BUT he used really marginal rice for negiri and to me this is the mark of a bad place. Now, the rice here seemed perfectly cooked al dente — not chewy but not mush and it ads with Japanese or Californian rice as opposed to Chinese rice. Whomever thought the food was flavorless before must have had a hankering for Americanized sauces and was talking about rolls as opposed to what I am more concerned with — which is the subtle flavor of a well seasoned rice with a melt in your mouth fresh tasting fish.
The place while it didn’t have my favorite (UNI) it did have good fresh toro and I also tried the chefs favorite which was the akami or big eye tuna.

Happi Sushi Under NEW Management January 2015
Happi Sushi Ravinia has been our excellent neighborhood weekday dinner place for almost 7 years, we were very surprised to see a «Closed. New Management.» sign outside suddenly in December 2014, I had always LOVED the food and the super friendly owners, but wished they would renovate. I got my renovation wish (it’s beautiful inside now), however, miss everything else about the old Happi Sushi.
The cost of the food has gone WAY up while the flavors have marginalized and gone more American. They are trying to be very fancy, which I love fancy, but the taste is missing the authentic mark.
The positives to the new Happi Sushi: great quality, large shrimp, great décor, fun upbeat pop music, yummy complimentary orange for dessert with whipped cream and chocolate sauce! Beautifully renovated.
The negatives: Bento box costs $ 20 and did not include rice (but did have giant shrimp and good quality steak), no veggie bento box option available, veggie tempura was $ 11 for 1 onion slice, 1 broccoli floweret, 2 slices sweet potato, 2 large green beans. Very small portions for cost! The sushi missed the mark for us (crunch muffy roll ($ 14) was very fancy/​downtown Chicago looking, but had no flavor & a too spicy mango roll ($ 13) was nothing special). Adult beverage list still very minimal. Service was not the greatest, just kinda ok.
Worst of all: NO MANGO TANGO roll! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE bring back the Mango Tango roll (Mango, avocado, tuna (?), spicy mayo sauce, rice/​seaweed roll)! I would take down this review if you bring back the Mango Tango roll. PLEASE! I will be your best customer – I am addicted to those rolls.
I do not typically go out of my way to write bad reviews for the sake of being mean. I just want to give the owners feedback so they 1. Stay in business, after all Ravinia Business District needs good restaurants, 2. I clearly have an addiction to spice mayo sauce, 3. There needs to be more than a 3 good restaurants in Ravinia (Abigail’s, Merlot’s, and Perios).
Overall, it was a $ 70 bill and we left kind of disappointed because the experience missed the mark. I would literally go back to the tacky 1979 décor for the amazing food and friendly owners of the old Happi Sushi. James and Kim please come back!

I didn’t try the sushi here, but I’m here to let you know they also have great teriyaki! Try it! This is the place to go if you don’t like sushi, but your friends love it. You will all be happy. The interior is a little small, but very welcoming. I’m a fan. I don’t go here often enough at all.

Such a great place. The staff is stellar! James the sushi master is so warm and accommodating! He has offered to make special sushi for my son who is not a sushi lover. He will go out of his way to please. This place is comfortable like an old shoe.

The restaurant is small but cozy. The staff is polite and friendly. Unfortunately, an order of sushi is only one piece, rather than two. The saki is quite warm. The atmosphere is somewhat dark and could be a bit lighter.
The service was a bit slow, especially because besides one other table we were the only people at the restaurant.
This was compensated for, however, by the fact that the sushi was superb and not to be missed!

I don’t know if I was «Happi» but I was full.
I popped over w the dog one weeknight on a whim. Unbeknownst to us it was 15 minutes before closing. I asked what was good and a man behind the bar yelled «sushi!» I was in the mood for soup and requested feedback on them and went with the woman’s murmured suggestion. After I slight wait I was home with my soup.
She gave me the Veggie Yaki Udon.
I had mentioned I wanted a chicken soup but I think due to the time they were out of chicken. It was a large portion and very hot :) temperature! But I gotta say for the ~price point~ $ 9 plus tax and tip it was a disappointment. The base was very miso taste and just bland. There was only 4 kinds of veggie whuch were sparse and flavorless. The looong noodles were gummy texture. A giant bowl of Snoresville.
Besides the price and taste.
The atmosphere of the place is odd and tables close together. I also think at that look and location they should be a BYOB joint. It is typical and casual.
However, the service was good (though not informative about the soup contents). They let me bring in my doggie since no one was there and we’re supernice to little man.
I would go again to try something different. The Twister Roll and Evergreen Rolls sound rad. I guess that’s why it’s called «Happi Sushi» not «Happi Soup.» I should have listened the shouting guy.

This is one of two Highland Park/​Highwood sushi places I would consider going to; this restaurant is a 15-​minute walk from my house, so eating out with friends get that much easier. The restaurant is cozy and traditionally decorated. The staff is fast, helpful, and kind. I always have ordered the Happi roll, with sweet potato tempura and avocado, and for $ 10 I get about 10 large pieces! Plus, the sauce added to the rolls amps up the flavor and the pieces all hold together even when I overload them with ginger and wasabi.

My wife and I hit Happi Sushi on a whim when in the area a few weeks ago. A homey and very mom-​n-​pop vibe welcomed us as we were the first customers of the day.
Hot green tea was welcome on this chilly day. Unfortunately the tea was much warmer than the miso soup which was barely lukewarm. Boo. I had a maki lunch combo that arrived promptly, but contained some of the smallest maki I’ve ever seen. I guess it would have been one thing if this was a serious ‘quality over quantity’ proposition, but these were just plain old tuna, salmon and California maki pieces, only smaller.
I’ve probably hit 50 different places in and around Chicago for sushi and sadly this place hits the low end of that list, especially at an elevated North Shore price point. Maybe just a bad day for Happi, but there’s just too many great sushi joints around to risk a return visit.

After a doctor’s appointment, my husband and I thought this would be a good place to grab lunch and then head back to work. I was in the mood for sushi and we were near Highland Park. We were the first customers in the restaurant. The deco was typical Japanese. The table was comfortable.
I ordered the Korean BBQ lunch box, which came with tempura veggies, a California role, cucumbers and rice. Since it was a cold day, we ordered miso soup too (that was additional).
The soup arrived luke-​warm, not hot. The meal arrived luke-​warm as well. The California role was fresh, but the Korean BBQ beef was a bit fatty. Everything else was fine. And they added a nice touch by giving us a sliced apple at the end of the meal.
However, for the price of the lunchbox and the additional charge for soup, I don’t think this meal was worth it. I’ve had better sushi meals elsewhere, so I doubt I’ll be going back to Happi Sushi.