Kyoten

2507 W. Armitage, Chicago, IL, 60647 , Logan Square
Price: $$$$$
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Cuisines

Sushi

Seafood

Japanese


Raw Bar

Reservations Recommended

Kyoten

Kyoten - Chicago

There are sushi bars and there are sushi bars…and then there’s Kyōten, which shows that even in a market saturated with so many seafood options, there’s still room for a truly exceptional practitioner of the sushi arts to shine.

There are sushi bars and there are sushi bars…and then there’s Kyōten, which shows that even in a market saturated with so many seafood options, there’s still room for a truly exceptional practitioner of the sushi arts to shine.

With one less seat than Jiro Ono’s place in Tokyo (made famous in “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”), Otto Phan’s Logan Square sushi bar has just seven seats and two seatings every night. For a little over $200, you get an omakase presentation of twenty miraculous bites. The focus here is on fish preserved and served in many imaginative and layered presentations, so calling it “sushi” may be generically descriptive but not quite accurate. Unless you’ve spent a lot of time in Japan, Kyoten offers a window on the perfection of a craft we’ve not often seen in Chicago.

Aside from the fish, there’s a Homeric amount of attention paid to the rice, intensely seasoned with aged red wine vinegar. Different preparations of the grain are synchronized with different kinds of fish. This extreme attention to detail, the mindfulness of the chef, and the drive to achieve perfection with even the simplest ingredients, makes Kyōten stand apart from all the others.

Reservations are essential. The experience, unforgettable.

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