Arami, West Town

Arami
1829 West Chicago
Chicago

Date of Last Visit: Friday January 21, 2011

The Victims: Santanu, Christina

The Damage: About $60 each

The Background:  It’s a good thing that Santanu left London! Because he moved back to Chicago, went to a party, and met Christina. And now they’re married! Sadly though due to one of those, “It’s the economy, stupid,” type things, she spends most of her time in Ohio every month, as a professor of Spanish literature. So Santanu is more often than not alone.

Not this weekend though! They were both in town and despite the frigid temperatures, we made plans for dinner at Arami.

After polishing off some sake at the bar, we treated ourselves to a very lovely bottle of Silk Deluxe. It was almost too easy to drink. Too smooth. Very deceptive. Dangerous.

I felt our hamachi collar was slightly overcooked. It was just too dry. This didn’t stop us from finishing it, but it just wasn’t as nice as I think it could have been.

Our chef’s selection of sashimi was one of the most beautiful things I’ve experienced in a restaurant. Sadly, despite taking about 10 photos of this, I managed to cut the orchid out of the tops of ALL the photos. For $30, I thought this was an EXCELLENT value particularly when compared to what I’ve been trying out in my omakase challenges. I wish I could tell you exactly what was in it, but I can’t for the life of me recall. (Blame the sake.) I can tell you that there was a huge variety of fish.

I wish I could tell you what this was for certain. Seriously…too much sake. I think it might have been Hamachi Maguro Ebi…yellow tail, tuna, scallion, jalapeno, shrimp, spicy mayo. Whatever it was, it was spicy. We like things spicy.

I thought the braised short rib was good, but I’ve never been a big fan of braised meats. It’s a texture thing.

The Hirami Spicy Tako was FUN. Spicy octopus, fluke, ginger apple dressing. We liked the sweetness of the little apple slices contrasting with the heat of this roll. Different.

And then there was our Suki Yaki. I should have taken a before photo, before we had mixed up the egg and stirred everything up. I could see having this for lunch, but having this at the end of our meal was perhaps a poor choice. By this point, I was stuffed to the gills and was not in the mood for soup.

The Verdict: I liked Arami, despite what you might think. I would go back again for the sushi and sashimi. Or for some of the soups, but I wouldn’t go back for all of that together.