A bounty of Japanese favorites await at Lake Zurich's Ai Hana
Interest in Asian cuisine has grown steadily in recent years, and the trend continues as new Japanese sushi restaurants and steakhouses, in particular, seem to be springing up in every suburban town.
Ai Hana/Ron Café opened for business last July in Lake Zurich, a town already home to two other similar establishments.
Ai Hana occupies an attractively remodeled space that previously housed J.J. Twiggs Pizza and Pub. Customers can sit at tables and high-tops in the sprawling dining area or they can park themselves at the sushi bar for a close-up view of the chefs demonstrating their culinary skills. Adding to the ambience, recorded music plays softly in the background. An outdoor patio accommodates additional diners during warm-weather months.
If you'd like to start your meal with a libation, the bar serves 10 different wines by the glass, hot and cold sake, domestic and imported beer and specialty cocktails.
Hot moistened hand towels were a warm welcome to our meal. However, service during a recent Saturday night visit was slow — even though at 6:30 p.m. there were barely a dozen customers present.
But takoyaki, the appetizer we ordered, was worth the wait. This made-from-scratch dumpling-like snack, one of the most popular street foods in Japan, was full of flavor. It consisted of five round pan-fried balls made from a wheat flour-based batter filled with minced octopus, crispy scraps of tempura, green onions and pickled red ginger.
Among other traditional starters were gyoza and shumai (pan-fried and steamed dumplings, respectively); fried soft-shell crab; and various tempura dishes featuring calamari, shrimp and vegetables.
Seafood in many guises figures prominently on the menu. One can pick and choose from an assortment of nigiri, the type of sushi in which a slice of raw fish is pressed over vinegared rice, or sashimi, with slices of fresh fish or meat served raw on a bed of shredded daikon radish.
Signature maki rolls, spicy and not so spicy, are another popular option. Some 70 different rolls are available, including the eight-piece Dragon roll we sampled. This crowd-pleaser starred eel over shrimp tempura, cucumber, avocado and cucumber.
Hankering for a noodle dish? Consider nabeyaki udon, a mild broth with thick noodles keeping company with a few shrimp, plus chicken, spinach and surimi (imitation crab). The flavors complemented one another, but be advised: consuming the soup, especially with its unwieldy noodles, can require one's best slurping skills.
Other entree options include tonkatsu (fried pork served with steamed rice and cabbage); sukiyaki (a hot pot dish with vegetables, mushrooms, sliced beef and tofu); and beef dolsot bibimbap (Korean-style beef with fried vegetables and various seasonings served over rice).
In addition, Ai Hana's kitchen offers hibachi dinners that come with soup, salad, vegetables and rice. Those communal dinners range in price from $14 for vegetable to $22 for filet mignon to $42 for a whole lobster.
Ron Café, a restaurant in a restaurant at Ai Hana, offers commuters to-go salads, various pastries, and fresh-brewed coffee and tea.
• Restaurant reviews are based on one anonymous visit. The Daily Herald does not publish reviews of restaurants it cannot recommend.
Ai Hana
405 N. Rand Road, Lake Zurich, (847) 847-1087, <a href="http://www.aihanajapan.com/">aihanajapan.com</a>
<b>Cuisine:</b> Japanese steak, seafood and sushi
<b>Setting:</b> Contemporary venue
<b>Prices:</b> Appetizers $4 to $13; entrees $12 to $24.50; maki rolls $5 to $16
<b>Hours:</b> Lunch: 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; dinner: 5 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 5 to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 4 to 9:30 p.m. Sunday. Ron Café: 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; 9 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
<b>Parking:</b> Free lot