The Japanese concept of omakase—essentially putting the progression and content of your meal completely under the creative control of the chef—certainly isn’t foreign to Chicago. But there is a relative dearth of ultra-high-end Japanese fine dining on which to blow whole paychecks for a few captive hours. That shortage is not only relative to Tokyo, but also to Los Angeles and New York, which both have higher populations of Japanese expats and therefore are able to support exorbitantly priced prix fixe Japanese restaurants such as Urusawa and Masa, respectively.
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In some ways the timing for such a place couldn’t be better. Culinary Japanophilia is at an all-time high after the release of Jiro Dreams of Sushi, about Tokyo’s legendarily uncompromising itamae Jiro Ono, and the opening last month of Next‘s Kyoto kaiseki menu. You may have missed out on tickets to the latter, but at the moment you can easily spend just as much money on dinner at Masaki and find yourself in a fairly empty room.
While set menus are antithetical to the idea of omakase, in which the diner’s full trust is given to chef and his abilities with the products he has on hand, Han’s multicourse menus look nothing like the pro forma selections of sashimi, nigiri, and silly signature rolls pushed at any of the hundreds of middling raw-fish peddlers across the city (see Blue Ocean). It’s omakase in name only, but Han’s menus display a wide diversity of raw fish and cooked creations not seen anywhere in the city—even at its current highest points, such as at Katsu, or more recently, Arami.
More fish followed: another composed arrangement of red snapper, flounder, and amberjack sashimi in light ponzu, set before a fan of sliced apples that could have been less soft and mealy given the season, and a few slices of flash-torched tuna belly dressed in a citrusy yuzu vinaigrette.
But Masaki shows potential. It may not yet be Chicago’s answer to Sukiyabashi Jiro, but there’s really nothing like it in Streeterville, or anywhere else in town.
990 N. Mies van der Rohe Way 312-280-9100masakisushi.com
