Do you love Japanese food? Do you crave something better than the average supermarket sushi? Or maybe you’d prefer a great steak grilled over mesquite. Either way, Roka Akor is definitely worth a visit – if you have a pretty healthy budget for dining out. There are two locations, one downtown at the corner of Illinois and Clark in Chicago and one at the Old Orchard Mall in Skokie. (There are also locations in Scottsdale AZ and San Francisco CA.) Roka was named the best sushi restaurant in the US by Travel and Leisure Magazine and also won Crain’s Steakhouse Award among other awards in both categories. How do raw fish and grilled meat come together so happily in one place? Read on…
The heart of Roka’s kitchen is a Robata Grill. This is a Japanese-designed grill fired with binchotan charcoal from Japan. Binchotan is a lump charcoal made from oak trees in the Wakayama Prefecture in Japan. It burns at a very steady temperature, giving the chef great control while cooking. At Roka, fish, meat and vegetables are all cooked over binchotan charcoal until almost done, then placed over mesquite wood in a separate part of the grill. A little time over mesquite gives a subtle, but unmistakable, extra bit of flavor.
These days, it’s not hard to find places that feature wagyu beef, the heavily marbled, meltingly tender steaks cut from certain breeds of Japanese cows. The most famous of these is Kobe beef. True Kobe beef comes from a specific breed of cow, raised in a specific region in Japan and fed a specific diet. In American restaurants, you will see “Wagyu” and even “Kobe” beef on the menu, but it is almost never true Kobe beef. Most often, it is American or Australian raised wagyu cattle, and these have often been cross-bred with other breeds. A good restaurant will be able to tell you exactly where the beef came from and whether it was produced from pure-bred or cross-bred cows.
Having said that, I will add that beef does not have to be 100% pure-bred Wagyu from Japan to be excellent. A lot of truly wonderful beef is being produced in the US and Australia using pure-bred or cross-bred Wagyu varieties. It’s just important that the restaurant knows what it is serving and it honest about it – describing and pricing the products appropriately. Roka sources some of the very best Japanese Wagyu as well as Wagyu from the US or Australia. They also offer “regular old” USDA Prime, the traditional pride of great steakhouses and still an absolutely wonderful product. (Truth be told, even supermarket USDA Choice beef is generally a great product at a fraction of the cost of these ultra-premium varieties.) Roka lists each beef choice on the menu and, while the Wagyu products, like lobster, are generally listed as “market price,” they waiter usually announces the prices up front.
On the sushi side, it goes without saying that they select the best parts of the best fish for their sashimi and sushi dishes. The very best of the very best is saved for the Decadent Omakase, “omakase” being the Japanese word for “chef’s tasting menu”. Roka offers a “Signature” Omakase for $98 and a “Decadent” Omakase for $128 (prices will vary, of course, with location and what ingredients are available that night). The idea is to sit back and put yourself in the chef’s hands. That is how we usually roll at Roka.
The first course in the Decadent Omakase this time was Foie Gras Wontons:
Foie gras is not a traditional Japanese ingredient, but I have no problem with chefs who like to mix and match ingredients and techniques from various cuisines to create something new. Here, the rich foie played very nicely with the perfectly steamed wonton wrappers and the light soy-based sauce. The fish roe (trout, I think) added a nice additional texture and burst of flavor.
A word about my approach to ordering wine in a Japanese restaurant. Japanese cuisine was not developed with wine, at least Western wines, in mind. It does work well with sake (rice wine). There is a pretty wide range of styles of sake with varying degrees of sweetness, alcohol levels and flavors, but the range is not nearly as great as with grape wines, so sake gets a little old for me before a meal is done. Beer can work well, but I have never developed a taste for beer.
So, what to drink in a Japanese restaurant? One option a good, medium-to-full-bodied Champagne. Roka usually has a good one on the wine list and we chose the Henriot Brut Rosé this time. Sparkling wines from outside of Champagne work well, too (Prosecco, anyone?) I am not suggesting it is a perfect match for every dish, but it is unlikely clash with anything and is certainly a terrific palate refresher. I sometimes turn to an off-dry Alsatian Gewürztraminer or German Riesling as alternatives.
Back to the food. The second course took us firmly back into Japanese cuisine: Butterfish and Tuna Tataki.
“Tataki” can mean one of two ways of preparing meat or fish. The word literally means “hit into pieces,” like the familiar beef or tuna tartare that is found on many menus. In Japan, the chopped up fish would be seasoned with traditional ingredients like ginger, garlic, green onions and a splash of soy. Nowadays a wide variety of chiles, herbs and other seasonings might be used.
The second type of “tatami” is the one served here. The meat is seared briefly (which you can see around the edges in the picture), then fresh ginger is pounded into a paste (“hit into pieces”) and served with the meat, again with a splash of soy or vinegar. Either way, with sushi-grade fish and a balance of seasonings, it’s a classic, delicious Japanese dish.
The third dish is, for Valeria and I, the real star of the menu, even though there are many tasty courses to follow.
When people think of Japanese cuisine, I suspect most think of “raw fish”—sashimi (thinly sliced raw fish), Nigiri Sushi (raw fish served on seasoned rice) and Maki Sushi (raw fish served rolled in seasoned rice often in a seaweed wrapper). Sushi aficionados, I realize I am oversimplifying here and there are many variations and types of sushi, but I’ll leave it to the reader to explore further if interested.
The important point is the wide variety of impeccably fresh and delicious fish that Roka serves on the sushi platter. The exact list will vary with what is best on the day you order, but is likely to include butterfish, salmon, otoro (the fatty belly of tuna), oysters and more. Of course there will be soy sauce and freshly grated, real wasabi. If you are the type who thinks of raw fish as “bait,” you will not want to get anywhere near this dish. On the other hand, sushi lovers (and cats) will be in heaven.
For those of you who prefer your food cooked, hold on—things are about to get very interesting for you. First, grilled sea bass in a delicious miso-mushroom broth.
This was a delicious piece of fish nicely grilled and served with a great broth. It is easy to overcook or undercook fish, but this was perfect.
Nest up, Madagascar Prawn Tempura.
This is one of my personal favorites. A giant Madagascar prawn is cut into bite-size pieces, dipped in a delicate tempura batter, fried and served with a sweet chili aioli. On different nights this dish may be made with lobster or prawns or shrimp and the sauces vary depending, I suppose, on what ingredients are available and the mood of the chef. None of the variations I have tried have been less than excellent. The lobster version is, I suppose, the most decadent, but the Madagascar prawn was delicious.
Tempura batter is one of those culinary staples that, on the surface, is very simple, but, in fact, generates lots of discussion and different recipes. At it’s simplest, tempura batter is just all-purpose flour, cold water and an egg or egg white mixed as little as possible and kept thin to produce a light, crunchy coating when fried. There are many variations on this basic formula, however, adding corn starch in various proportions, using cake flour, using seltzer water, adding baking powder and on and on. Just Google “tempura batter” and you’ll see what I mean.
Vegetables get as much respect as proteins here. Broccolini sees some time on the Robata grill and, I think, a little time over Mesquite—at least I thought I got a hint of that smoky flavor.
The green was dressed lightly in a ginger-shallot dressing. I would have cooked them a little longer, but the whole “how long should vegetables be cooked” debate has been argued by far wiser culinary minds than mine for decades with no end in sight.
Next up: Steamed Mussels.
In Western cooking, mussels are, at their simplest, steamed in white wine with butter and shallots and perhaps some parsley or other herb. The mussels release their juices into the steaming liquid to make a delicious sauce that is traditionally soaked up with crusty bread.
Roka has given this a Japanese spin, using sake and ponzu [a Japanese sauce made with citrus, rice wine, rice vinegar, bonito (tuna) flakes and seaweed] as the steaming liquid and adding plenty of Japanese mushrooms. The sauce is as perfect with the mussels as the traditional western version and the mushrooms add another layer of texture and flavor.
Most supermarket ponzu sauces are not that great, but you can make a darn good one easily enough. Finding true Japanese citrus fruits is a challenge, but lemon and lime can be used instead as in this recipe for ponzu shoyu—a ponzu–soy sauce combo that makes a great dipping sauce.
As I have said, Roka is arguably the best steak house in a city full of great steak houses. The Decadent Omakase includes grilled US Prime NY Strip Steak. There is a supplemental charge for American Wagyu and an even larger supplement for Japanese Wagyu when available. On this occasion we opted for US Prime which, frankly, is really, really good beef.
The combination of the high heat of the Robata grill to give the meat a great sear and the Mesquite grill to give a little of that unique smoky flavor makes for a delicious steak. The garlic aioli adds another layer of flavor and texture, as do the mushrooms. The meat certainly stands on its own, but you can mix and match the flavors of the condiments as you like.
As I have written in the past, I don’t really believe in lists that pronounce anything “the best”—especially anything as subjective as food. You can get outstanding steaks all over Chicago and elsewhere, but the Robata-mesquite grill combo gives the steaks at Roka a distinctive flavor that I really enjoy.
Another vegetable that gets the grill treatment at Roka is Brussels Sprouts—the vegetable so many people love to hate.
Brussels Sprouts are a vegetable that can be easily abused and made to smell and taste awful. Like cabbage (which is a botanic relative, but Brussels Sprouts are not baby cabbages), Brussels Sprouts give off a very unpleasant smell when overcooked—especially when boiled. That is due to a sulfur compound in both vegetables, that, ironically, is thought to give these green guys their cancer-fighting ability. They are packed with vitamins and, when properly cooked, delicious. While polls consistently show Brussels sprouts are one of the most hated vegetables, I think many people would change their minds if they tried some really well prepared dishes.
Roka grills the sprouts until they are just tender and the outermost leaves char and crisp just a bit. This is the key to tasty Brussels Sprouts: don’t overcook them. Dry cooking is also better than a wet method. Here, the sprouts are tossed with a Japanese mustard vinaigrette and bonito (dried tuna) flakes which actually accentuates the sweetness of the sprouts.
If memory serves, each time we have ordered the Omakase menu it has included a Japanese Wild Mushroom Hot Pot or, if you will, Japanese Mushroom Risotto.
I have not asked if this is vegetarian or vegan, but their are no obvious meat or dairy products and it is the kind of dish that even the most dedicated carnivore can enjoy. The mushrooms and the rich broth—probably a mushroom-soy stock of some kind—give the dish that delicious umami (meaty) flavor and texture. It is creamy and very satisfying. It is served in a cast iron put with a wooden spoon to dish it out.
Finally, a dessert course of fruit, sorbets and/or ice creams and an obligatory bit of chocolate.
By this time most people will have eaten more than enough, but I guess it is impossible for a restaurant not to conclude a tasting menu with dessert. Japanese desserts are generally not so rich and sweet as Western desserts and are often made from various bean pastes that don’t scream “dessert” to us even when they are sweetened. Roka’s Decadent Omakase Dessert Platter on this night included a variety of fresh fruit. This, unfortunately, is almost always the weakest link in the whole meal. Fresh fruit for dessert is a great idea, but it has to be ripe and, all too often, it is not. The cantaloup and honeydew were more crunchy than sweet and that is not unusual.
The molten chocolate cake was delicious as was the Mango Ice Cream. The Green Tea Custard with Caramelized Banana, Chocolate, and a Vanilla-Banana Foam was also quite good, but everything together was just overwhelming. Dessert junkies will think me insane, but too many restaurants conclude a tasting menu with a too-long list of dessert courses. This huge platter for 2 people after a large meal is an example.
Nevertheless, given the excellence of the overall menu, I can heartily recommend Roka to anyone who loves Japanese cuisine or who is looking for a great steak prepared in a unique way relative to the other steakhouses in town. Service has always been excellent. It is a bit loud as the glass, wood and concrete that make up the floors and walls (beautifully decorated, I will add) let the sound of the music and conversation bounce around freely. However, you can still carry on a more-or-less normal conversation at a table for four.
Roka Akor – Downtown Chicago
Address: 456 North Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois 60654
Phone: (312) 477-7652
Reservations: opentable.com
Website: RokaAkor.com
Dress Code: Casual Elegant
Price Range: $50 and over
Lunch: Monday–Friday, 11:30am–2:30pm
Dinner: Sunday–Wednesday, 5:00pm–11:00pm
Thursday–Saturday, 5:00pm–12:00am
Bar: Sunday-Wednesday, 5:00pm-1:00am
Thursday-Friday, 5:00pm-2:00am
Saturday, 5:00pm-3am
Payment: AMEX, Diners Club, Discover, MasterCard, Visa
Chicago, IL 60654
Roka Akor – Old Orchard, Skokie
Address: 4999 Old Orchard Ctr, Skokie, IL 60077
Phone: (847) 329-7650
Reservations: opentable.com
Website: RokaAkor.com
Dress Code: Business Casual
Price Range: $31—$50
Lunch: Monday–Saturday, 11:30am–3:30pm
Brunch: Sunday, 11:00am—3:30pm
Dinner: Sunday, 3:30pm—9:30pm
Monday—Thursday, 3:30pm–10:00pm
Friday–Saturday, 3:30pm–11:00pm
Payment: AMEX, Diners Club, Discover, MasterCard, Visa
Skokie, IL 60077
