Union Sushi and Barbeque Bar Review

Sashimi Cup – salmon, tuna, scallion, rice puffs, ponzu and wasabi avocado puree

Truffled Tuna – raw tuna served with avocado and truffle oil and wonton chips for scooping

Green Beans with oyster mushrooms, pesto, lemon and Parmesan

Mushroom Dumplings

Spicy Tuna Roll with black rice

Hokkaido

Roll – grilled scallop, avocado, roasted pepper, jalapeno, cilantro and garlic wrapped in soy paper

Old City Market Roll – spicy tuna, seared salmon, spicy ponzu, green onion, crispy onion wrapped in collard green

Tsukiji Market Roll – albacore tuna, salmon, red and green onion, burdock root, wasabi, ponzu sauce wrapped in radish

Prosciutto Wrapped Scallop

Chicken Thigh

Grilled Escolar

Cauliflower

House-made ice cream

Killer Yuzu Pie

Banana bread with banana ice cream

Yeah, that was a lot of food. So many of the dishes stood out. Among the starters, everyone went so nuts for the Truffled Tuna that our server brought out a second one. The velvety tuna with the earthiness of the truffle oil was amazing. We also loved the sashimi cup, which won the award for the best presentation of the night. Each person got her own sashimi cup served on a bed of ice. Beautiful! The green beans were also absolutely delicious. We all delighted to see such a humble ingredient bursting with flavor. (Another chef who does wonders with this humble legume is Stephanie Izard of Girl and the Goat.)

The sushi rolls were all beautiful to look at. I had never seen sushi made with black rice as was our Spicy Tuna Roll. So cool! According to our friends at Union Sushi, black rice is very popular for its firm texture and the fact that it is lower in carbs than white rice. The spicy tuna roll was delicious as was the Tsukiji Market Roll. We all loved the crisp radish wrap, which made the roll so light and refreshing, almost like a Vietnamese spring roll. We were less fond of the roll wrapped in collard green, which had a slightly bitter after-taste, but all of us agreed that it was cool to see sushi rolls wrapped in something other than rice, which can feel heavy.

We had certainly had plenty of food at that point but it would have been irresponsible of us as food bloggers not to try some of the grilled entrees. Of the ones we tried, the chicken thigh was the favorite. We were all amazed (again) at how Chef Chao, the Thai-born chef at Union Sushi, made such an ordinary ingredient extraordinarily flavorful. I also loved the grilled cauliflower, although some of it was a bit too charred for my taste.

Then it was time for dessert. As I mentioned above, dessert is not usually something to look forward to at a Japanese restaurant, but the desserts at Union Sushi are obviously made with as much care and creativity as everything else. The Killer Yuzu Pie was just that. For those of you who are not familiar with yuzu, it is an Asian citrus fruit that looks like a small grapefruit, but has a less bitter flavor. The yuzu pie had a lemony pucker but with complex herbal undertones. It was really something special. The homemade ice creams were also wonderful; we had a trio that included cantaloupe — probably my least favorite food, so I avoided that one — coco-rum and espresso, my personal favorite. The banana bread was yummy too, but not as special as the yuzu pie, which I am still thinking about.

Did I fail to mention the cocktails? There were a lot of cocktails. I started with the Surprise and Delight, a concoction of cucumber vodka, Pimms’, muddled lemongrass, strawberries, simple syrup and seltzer. It surprised me by being much less sweet than I had expected, so I was not exactly delighted. I am unapologetic about my fondness for sweet cocktails. I had better luck with the Yamato Sling: gin, sake, green tea syrup, lemon, cherry bark vanilla bitters and seltzer. Several of our party tried this cocktail and we all loved it. It was very refreshing and complemented the food well.

We were ensconced at one of the upstairs tables which was not exactly quiet — the soundtrack for our dinner was 90′s gangsta rap, which my husband would have loved, as it would have brought him back to his college days. But it was probably quieter than the downstairs, where there was quite a lively scene. Union Sushi is in a nightlife-heavy part of River North and it seemed to me that the restaurant was the first stop of the night for some of the chic singletons we saw at the downstairs bar area. We had one such chic singleton in our group, the adorable Maris of the In Good Taste blog. Alas, for us late 30-something suburban moms — and Marisa who was on East Coast time — Union Sushi was the only stop of the night. But what a great stop it was. Fabulous and innovative cuisine plus a table full of food bloggers talking shop — my kind of evening.