Bob San

I had heard about Bob San for quite some time and after all the hype I was very excited to try a restaurant that might be a contender for the Toro throne as best sushi in Chicago. Unfortunately it was not to be. The menu was completely uninspired. With the exception of the "Uni Shooter", the menu pretty much seemed boilerplate from any other sushi restaurant. When the most exciting roll is "Crabby Dragon", a dragon roll using soft shell crab instead of shrimp tempura, I find myself begging for a little creativity.

For what its worth I didn't try the Uni Shooter, but that is because the description of it made it sound like a waste of perfectly good uni (sea urchin). While we're on the uni, let me say this. It was phenomenal. That and the super white tuna were the shining stars of an otherwise disappointing meal.

The spicy white tuna roll had embarrassingly little fish. The sea bass with shizo sounded promising, but the shizo overwhelmed the tiny portion of fish. The dragon roll was drenched in teriyaki sauce rather than eel sauce and that killed any flavor of the fish. The negi beef was also drenched in teriyaki sauce which was far too sweet.

The creamy scallop hand roll was quite tasty, but nothing to write home about. The anago nigiri tasted stale. The salmon nigiri was average and the yellowtail mediocre.

The spider roll was actually quite delicious, so delicious that we had to order two. As far as rolls go this was the highlight.

One more mention for the Uni because it really was very exemplary. This was some of the best uni I've ever had and the portion of it was very generous. The chef kindly pointed out that they had just received the shipment that day and in fact I was the first person to order it that night. I'm not sure if it is consistently that good.

All in all I would grade Bob San a C, which reflects some of the best Uni I've ever had.

DOES NOT MAKE THE LIST

Bob San
1805 W. Division St.
Chicago IL, 60622