Sagano Sushi

Best sushi in oak park and I’ve eaten at every sushi place around. I get take out at least once a week and the staff are super friendly. Can’t go wrong here. get the emergency role!

I’m a huge fan of sushi, and after moving here I was really hoping to find a great go to sushi joint. This is exactly what I was looking for. Unilocal has it rated as «$$» but it was well worth the money. The sumo roll was incredible.

This place is a gem in a desert of restaurants. Small but intimate and the food is wonderful, fresh and tasty. I’ve eaten a lot of sushi and love it. The execution here is great and lots of vegetarian options for my partner. Lovely outdoor space when weather permits.

Good place with great food. The service was great. My favorite selection they have is the Godzilla roll and my second choice would be the fire dragon. One of the best sushi places in Chicago. Very conveniently located. I recommend to try it out.

Good quality even better creative rolls. Just became my favorite sushi place on my area.

Really great sushi! Nice staff. Small, intimate restaurant. Very reasonably priced. Try the Tarantula & Plum wine#

Love this place! I order lunch specials all the time. Sushi rolls are fresh, delicious and rather large.

The waitress was not as attentive as before, it wasn’t busy, and they had two other tables to serve. Still delicious!

Great food and a caring staff. But they play pop/​rock/​metal (?) music in there, so I prefer to get takeout. I highly recommend their tuna teriyaki. It’s even better than at Bandera in the city.

Its all about the spicy scallop. Total fat mayo siracha heaven. The sushi came on a decorative boat. Cool! Special roll with mango and cilantro was yummy as were the rest of our rolls. Little rice heavy, the edamame needed salt, service was a little off that night, but the food was pretty tasty. Recommended!

I visit this place 3 to 4 times a week. Can’t beat the fresh food and $ 9.00 lunch special. I tried the millennia roll for the first time didn’t particularly like the smell or taste of the blow torch searing on the white fish. But never the less the food quality, price and atmosphere is superb!

One year pass, I am still eating the snow white rolls. My wife still love their dragon rolls. Sagano is a place for people who love sushi and enjoy good quality, fresh sushi. The price is not cheap but not expensive. We have been coming for a year now and love it. Every bite is fresh and well made. If you want a cheap low quality sushi, Sagano is not for you. Try Chinese buffet of Jewel instead and you will see why I keep coming back here. If not, I suggest you stop eating sushi.

My husband and I came here for dinner on a Friday night. It wasn’t too busy and it was around 8pm. We got to seat whereever we wanted. It is pretty small, but there is outdoor seating in the summer time.
My husband and I ordered 4 rolls and few orders of nigiris. We had the alaskan roll which was okay, spicy scallop which was also okay, the fire dragon which was okay, and another signature roll that my husband ordered and that was okay. The two signature rolls we ordered are very similar, so we couldve ordered something different. They were different fishes but topped with unagi sauce. The nigiri pieces we ordered were good. I really enjoyed the salmon and the yellowtail chunk was big.
We took some sushi home since we had leftovers and they turned out decent the next morning when we ate it. Overall decent sushi. Price is on par with every other sushi restaurants (we thought it would be cheaper, but not really). Easy to get to.

Always being on the hunt for a good sushi spot, I’ve started going around the OPRF area (oak park /​river forest) in search of the best ones.
Sagano Sushi is not on that list.
A word on the service: since they have outdoor seating (in extremely uncomfortable metal chairs), I thought it might be nice to ‘dine al fresco’ on a nice summer evening, so I told the hostess/​only waitress that we’d be sitting outside. She nodded in agreement, seemingly understanding of the situation. 5 minutes go by, still I’m sitting at an empty table… it’s approaching 10 minutes when I realize «she’s not coming out to give us table settings or wait on us at all.» There appeared to be only one lady waiting on customers, and she was anything but attentive. Once we sat inside, it still took longer than it should’ve to get menus and place a drink order. Even after that, service was spotty at best, and she rarely checked up on us. She completely forgot about my miso soup and needed reminding. Service: lousy.
²⁄₅
A word on the ambiance: it’s minimalist décor, save for a hideously-​patterned set of drapes by the front window and some hanging paper lanterns. They had music playing, but it was Top 40’s stuff coming from either someone’s iPod or Pandora account, and it was decidedly out-​of-​place. If a sushi place absolutely MUST have music on, it should be suitable for the environment – Kelly Clarkson feat. Pitbull does not belong in this group. Atmo: needs work.
³⁄₅
A word on the food:
I saw numerous other tables getting the sushi boat, which for $ 55 was a deluxe assortment of nigiri and hand rolls lined on a wooden ship. My sushi was a nigiri /​sashimi mix for $ 20, and I was expecting more for the money. A lot more, actually. Although the fish was fresh and well-​prepared, and the nigiri choice was their signature Sagano Roll (which was outstanding), I have a hard time justifying paying $ 20 for what really is $ 12 – 15 worth of sushi. I would like to return at some point to try their other specialty rolls that looked like fun. Dining: good, but not great, and not a terrific value.
³⁄₅
If I could give them 2 ½ stars, I would, but their specialty Sagano roll gives them the edge in this case. When I come back, I won’t even deal with the waitress; instead I’ll sit at the sushi counter and order directly from the sushi masters. Maybe then, Sagano can earn a fourth star from me. As it is now, I’m thoroughly nonplussed.

Decided to try something new. Absolutely loved this place! The maki is amazing and the rolls are pretty large. I couldn’t eat mine in one sitting. I ordered the Oak Park Roll and another one, and had to take them home. Service is fast and friendly.
Definitely recommend!

I did not order any sushi. I had the lunch special of shrimp tempura udon. It came with miso soup and salad which were delicious. The miso soup had tofu and more than enough miso, it was a very rich broth. The tempura was good, however the udon broth had a few stray noodles in this large broth that was not that great. I will return to see if their other items are as good as the salad and miso soup.

This sushi place is beyond amazing. The portion sizes of the rolls are HUGE– such an amazing surprise when you are a sushi fan. Service is great, food quality is superb, and restaurant has a clean and calming ambiance. Also, we tried the sake and it was very good not too sweet or overwhelming. I went here with my boyfriend on a Saturday night the day after Valentine’s Day and our waitress served us two chocolate hearts when she brought us our check. Overall, we were so blown away by the amazing sushi (variation of types and size of portions) and I can’t wait to revisit again soon.

I would have given 3.5, but the location of this place won out and here we are at 4-​stars. Let’s be real though… this is not a fancy, top of the line sushi place. I love a good value and here, you are not wasting your money, but you’re not having Kamehachi or Ra downtown. This place is a block from my home. I’ve tried a bunch of the different rolls, but I will say anything with eel sauce captures my heart. This is pretty much our go-​to when dinner is not being made that night and we want something good and reliable. What’s not to love about that?

Having never gone too far past the Greek restaurant that was close to the corner of Oak Park Avenue and Lake Street, I had missed seeing Sagano Sushi. So I happen to go a little farther east on Lake Street and what should my eyes behold?
Miso soup. Soft shell crab. Teriyaki chicken.
Miso soup is commonplace on Japanese menus, so it could have very well been pre-​made. But the soft shell crab was not pre-​made. It was fresh and ridiculously delicious. Instead of ordering sushi, I settled on teriyaki chicken. Although the chicken was not as tender as I imagined it would have been, it was not dry and, thus, still a treat.
I shall have to return in the future to see how their sushi chefs work magic.

I noticed a problem right before I entered the door. At night, this place is dark and dimly lit. While it provides for very relaxing atmosphere, from the outside, the place looks like it’s closed.
The dining area is very cramped and small. I visited late at night so there weren’t a lot of patrons, but there aren’t a lot of seating options. At least the service was prompt and appropriately attentive.
As recommended by other Unilocalers, the beef asparagus roll is indeed excellent. I was rather impressed with the elaborate presentation of a dragon roll that tasted as good as it looked. One thing that really stood out was something about the rice that I can’t quite adequately explain apart from that it had a certain richness and fluffiness that I don’t typically find in sushi.
Overall the experience was positive, although I would be concerned about coming here during the busy hours.