Akai Hana - Wilmette

We arrived around 7:45 for dinner because we didn't know they closed at 8 pm on a Friday. Still, they were kind to seat us and had our order out pretty quickly. They brought us complimentary bowls of miso soup. We tried the pork gyoza, which was prepared perfectly with the right amount of crunch and chewy texture. I will say, I generally do not like to eat sushi, but the food was decent. I enjoyed the Louisiana roll and the greedy shrimp roll.

Good lunch spot. My hubby and I were very pleased with the portions for the price and you get to try a lot of variety. The interior is a little dated. They have the sushi bar area blocked off for employees only.

I get lunch here several times a year... so not exactly a regular, but I 've been around enough to see the menu evolve and stay the same. It 's a nice plaza-style restaurant. Yes, as others have pointed out, parking can be a little tight (it was worse pre-pandemic when the lot seemed to be under repair all the time). I am not a good judge of authentic or not... but it is certainly a little more classical in its approach. Yes, there are some non-standard dishes and rolls, but they aren 't as crazy as new age stuff out there. We often get the bento box lunches, which is a fair amount of food... a soup, crab salad, entree, and a cali roll. I 'm also a fan of the udon, which seems a little more no-frills. I can see service being a little inconsistent, but I 've always been a little sympathetic since it 's been very hard to fully staff up.

Haven't been here in a long time. This place is still good. The servers and the host are very attentive. There's lotz to choose from on the menu. We went during the week and it wasn't extremely busy. I wanted the sea bass teriyaki but they didn't have any. So I ordered the orange roughy teriyaki combo. It was delicious. Then my b4 ordered the sashimi dinner. We ordered extra pieces of salmon, tuna and uni sushi. They also had toro sushi which is fatty tuna. It was delicious. I'll ordered more of that. I never had uni before so I tried it. It wasn't for me. He loved it so he could eat mine anytime. It's far for us but we will come back when in the area.

Very good lunch specials I have been coming here for years and it's just as good as ever! The bento boxes always come with so many options. We ordered sushi this time and did not disappoint.