Last day in Chicago

Carrotpancakes
The last day was just brunch in Wicker Park at Prasino.  Lots of options for brunch.  Jessica had an amazing "hippie" omelette.  I had the carrot pancakes.  Not sure why I chose this.  They were good but really a tad too sweet for my breakfast palate. Afterward we drove around Bucktown to see what it was all about. 

The rest of the day was spent back in the hotel watching Jessica do another photo shoot.  Then we just chilled out.  For dinner we went Arami.  Located on a vacant street driving towards Wicker Park.  What a find.  The food was amazing.  An adorable woman waited on us who had just became certified as a sake expert.  She really knew her stuff.  We let her order for us. 

Tunabite
The menu is extensive from robata, donburi, noodles, sushi, sashimi etc.  We took the lead from the woman who was waiting on us on how to curate our meal.  We began with the "cold" and had the tuna bites.  Chopped up tuna with chives and a little dollop of caviar on top.  Perfect start to the meal.

Unitshot
Uni shooter.  Tobiko, diced cucumber, shiso leaf and the house special soy sauce.  On the bottom is a piece of uni and ths rest is poured on top.  Incredible.  Even for non-uni fans.  The special soy sauce is amazing.

Spicy octopus
Spicy Tako springroll.  Spicy octopus with cilantro, crispy mixed greens wrapped in rice paper.  So many flavors happening here and with a serious kick.  Amazing.

Mushroomsalad
A mixture of enoki, shimeji, shitake and eringi mushrooms warmed with a meyer lemon sesame dressing.  A nice light salad.

Secret hamachi
Special sashimi.  This is called secret hamachi.  Sliced yellowtail nicely presented over a rock with a bit of chopped mushrooms on top and a little bit of truffle oil.  We ordered it again.

Sushi
We each got a mixture of sushi.  Super fresh and flavorful.  Not sure where they are bringing this fish in from but incredible.  I love how they gave me the deep fried head with the sweet shrimp.

Kingcrabwrap
King crab wrapped with marinated tuna and toasted sliced almonds on top.  A really interesting combination of flavors.  I reall loved the presentation too.

Uni
A piece of sublime uni.

Hiramespicytako
Special maki.  Spicy octopus with fluke, ginger and tiny slices of apples on top and a ginger fuji apple dressing.  Wow wow wow.

Hamachiehandroll
Hamachi handroll.  We kept ordering!

Duck
We ended up with donburi.  Roasted duck over warm rice with ginger and thinly sliced plums. 

Mochi
Had to have some mochi.  The food here is amazing.  If I was in Chicago another night, I might just return. 

Comments (Archived):

  1. CCjudy

    What is wonderful about sushi and just fish is that it is light eating and you can continue to enjoy it

  2. mattjames01

    So glad you found Arami… it’s definitely one of the best sushi spots in Chicago

    1. Gotham Gal

      still dreaming of it.

  3. Carrie Pryor

    My youngest daughter is visiting in Chicago right now and I emailed her your post. She’s a foodie who loves Japanese so thank you for writing about the restaurant!

  4. ellen

    what is bucktown?

    1. Gotham Gal

      the area next to wicker park is called bucktown. essentially a neighborhood

  5. Wavelengths

    This is a serious question: How do you choose a restaurant? Of course, if you’re in your own hometown, you’ll have seen reviews or heard from friends. But do you also drive down and street and look for something that catches your eye? If so, what is it?BTW, I’m a huge uni fan. I’d like to fly to Chi town just to have your meal! 🙂

    1. Gotham Gal

      i do research. eater is the best resource for restaurants in major cities. i never go to a town unprepared. unless you are one at the bar, in most cities it isn’t easy to just walk in and get a seat at least to the places i want to check out.

  6. LE

    Photos came out nice. Love the depth of field. The hippie omlette looks great.Pass along to Jessica if she needs to experiment with lighting small objects, to try ordinary mag lites. I had a customer that offered a complete mini lighting studio build on mag lites. I don’t think he ended up selling many but it seemed like a good idea.