Sumi Robata Bar was a dinner that helped us end 2015 on a real high. We were traveling back to Wisconsin from Michigan and as my wife was driving i was as usual browsing for restaurants to pin on my wishlist. Since we were nearing onto Chicago i was browsing for restaurants in that area. It was around 6 pm and my search yielded in something that really got me excited. A robata bar in River North area of chicago. Sushi has always been the more popular when it comes to japanese food and recently ramen has also caught the fancy of a lot of foodies. However my only robata experience previously had been in Minneapolis. As i keep telling my friends there is so much more to Japanese food. I looked at the pictures and reviews of Sumi Robata Bar and i knew we had to eat there that night! We tried to make reservations and were lucky to find them for the evening. We quickly booked a hotel to spend the night in Chicago and i was grinning through the rest of the drive. I was surprised that Sumi Robata Bar had been around for a while too but it never had come up in any recommendations from friends or even in other Chicago related food media.

Sumi Robata Bar promised Robata Style grilling within an Izakaya setting. Robata is a charcoal grill and at Sumi Robata Bar we are told that it is powered by high quality robata charcoal from Japan. Izakaya means a casual seating and i compare it to tapas style sharing and small plates.

As we entered we realized we are in a beautiful restaurant, the robata grill featured right away at the entry. The star of our show, Chef Gene Kato could already be seen standing over his the robata immersed in grilling activity.

The decor has Japanese hints and is modern and minimalist. The wood highlights flow through the bar and we promptly requested if we could sit at the bar and from here we could watch the chef in action. The bar stools were also very neat and i found a place to keep my wife’s purse tucked away under the bar-stool itself!

The plate setting waiting for us was precise, minimal and beautiful just like our experience at Kajitsu earlier in the year. The plate holding the napkin and the chopstick was gorgeous and the chopstick rest seemed to reassemble or be made from charcoal, bringing harmony to the Robata Grill theme without being tacky.

We ordered a bunch of small plates and they start arriving as they are ready. The first to arrive were one of the crispest cool cucumbers i have eaten. Seasoned simply with togarashi which is a japaenese seven spice blend created around chili pepper. It even reminded me of summers back home where we would get quartered cucumbers with salt and red chili powder on them to beat the heat.

What arrived next made us instant fans of this place. My wife even commented that we should have ordered two of these. The cold set tofu is made in house and topped with caviar, mushrooms, scallions, mushrooms and crispy ginger. This dish is simple but genius. Even the touches like the small clay pot and the wooden spoon provided to eat this speak of harmony. The tofu is silken and creamy. It is like eating a savory custard and the briny caviar explodes with the crispy ginger providing a textural contrast as well as lifting up the flavors with the sharpness. The mushrooms bring the umami and you end up marveling at the balance of flavors. As the evening wore on we were amazed at the balance of some really complex flavors, textures and harmony with the setting, the serve-ware and the plating shines in almost every dish. No single ingredient in many of Sumi’s dishes feels out of place, an extra or feels manufactured. The dishes are minimal to what is required to enjoy something at its truly best, yet by contrast are very complex in the nature of flavor profiles and textural contrasts they bring out.

Burdock is a root very common to japanese cooking yet rarely found on japanese menus in usa. This was done superbly by braising it in Mirin, which is a rice wine and it brought some acidity and sweetness to the dish. It was again very perfectly flavored and the crisp fried shaving brought the textural fun to the dish.

Next we were served the chilled noodles. Again as sushi and ramen (hot) gather all the glamor i think what remains understated are the cold noodles. These were served on a bamboo mat over a plate i believe to let the water drain as they came with two ice cubes to keep the noodles cold.

We were provided with soy dashi broth on the side as well as a ginger scallion nori and wasabi salad. Chef urged us to mix in the salad with the noodles and then eat the noodles dipped into the dashi. The soy dashi was like essence of awesomeness very prominently featuring the salty, savory umami flavors. The chilled noodles enhanced this flavor and this will something to order again in summer. Chef mentioned they have an outdoor garden seating for summer and i can imagine a hot chicago day when this dish would just be even more heavenly sitting in the japanese style garden seating.

The same flavorful dashi was featured in the next dish, this time warm! Tasting this right after the cold noodles allowed us to compare and contrast the changes with temperature. The presentation of the dish was so beautiful that it somehow reminded you of sea. An oyster shaped dish with the poached egg being the pearl and the soy dashi tasting like the sea. We were urged to break the soft poached egg and then using the hands slurp the delightful mixture. A particular way of eating a dish is also part of the experience and this was a perfect way to enjoy this dish as the creamy yolk coated the tongue.

We then moved onto the robata grill dishes and we saw chef lay an array of asparagus on skewers onto the grill. Watching chef through the evening is also a very educating and enjoyable experience. On the grill he concentrates over every skewer, every piece of meat. Glazing them seasoning them turning them just when the time is right. Moving them around the grill just where the heat is right for it. And his cooking happens in extremely well orchestrated quick yet extremely precise and calm motions. There’s an eerie lack of noise from cooking in this kitchen as Chef Kato goes about creating.

The asparagus once off the grill were simply salted and cut on a bias. How pretty can you make 4 asparagus look. That beautiful! The size of the plate also perfect for the plating. They are cut on the bias, the asymmetric plating and the few spots of charcoal burns were showed off proudly. When we tried a bite, they were warm and full of juices and flavor. I marveled at just how good these were when they were just asparagus grilled on charcoal and salted. I complemented chef and he humbly said, you need to have a good ingredient and then it is not that difficult.

The scallops were tender and juicy and fresh off the grill they were a delight with a squeeze of lemon.

It was again the simplicity with only the pointy tips of the pearl onions char grilled on the coal and the rest of the flesh was sweet and juicy. Sometimes we forget that vegetables can taste wonderful on a charcoal grill.

The chicken thigh was a thin strip and i was delighted to see a charred crispy skin on it. It was secured with a horizontal piece of scallion and i could feel the crunch of the skin against the juicy meat as i took a bite. A perfect portion to allow you to enjoy a lot of variety.

The special treat of the night was mochi. They came grilled from the robata so that the pounded rice cakes puffed up on the grill and gained a brown crispy exterior. The interior is hot and sticky and gooey. This is wrapped in nori and dipped into dashi when eating. It again is a marriage of flavors and textures and no wonder it is a very popular snack in Japan.

We were starting to get full and decided to go for the dessert. The first one silken tofu panna cotta. The yuzu curd added a citrusy delight and this was the most elegant dessert of the night, silky and cold and soothing with playful fruit and textural contrasts.

We had seen pictures of watermelon shaved ice and since my wife loves watermelon was hoping she gets to try it. However the flavor of the night was orange. Yet when we tried it we were not disappointed at all. It was fresh and again the texture of the shaved ice added a unique enjoyable touch. This was again contrasted with the different textures of the jellied orange and crisp slices.

The donatsu is a donut with the hole taken out. It is fried to perfection. It is light and filled with oozing chocolate. The matcha semifreddo is not overly sweet and complements the chocolatey donut.

It took me a while to start understanding and appreciating Japanese cuisine. However experience like the one at Sumi Robata Bar have made us fall in love with Japanese cuisine. There is a whole lot to offer in the cuisine than sushi and also a lot for vegetarians to enjoy. Chef Kato is a superstar for us and was extremely helpful in explaining nuances and we ended up having a very memorable evening. He is pursuing a special craft instead of a populist approach and places like Sumi Robata Bar deserve all the accolades that am sure will come their way. Do spread the word around because we think we have a gem here and it could be something new to experience and learn from for many of our friends here.

We can’t wait to go back to Sumi Robata Bar and try all our favorites again at Chef Kato’s bar. We really hope we can go there once every season at least and also maybe get him to teach us to make that delightful kinugoshi tofu.