Super-fresh sushi gets Sushi Naper off to a promising start
If it's super-fresh sushi that you're craving, then consider visiting the two-month-old Sushi Naper off Route 59 in north Naperville. Bring your appetite, especially if you plan on tackling the all-you-can-eat dinner. Don't worry though, you can still order sushi, maki, makimono and more by the roll or pieces.
And if you're not into sushi, the restaurant helmed by owner Ray Zhang offers various udon noodle dishes and dinner entrees, such as chicken, steak or salmon teriyaki, plus pork or chicken katsu.
Upon walking into the nicely redecorated space on a recent Saturday night, we noticed how open and airy the restaurant feels. The light yellow walls, black lacquer tables and booths and sparse, modern design create a pleasant atmosphere.
The hostess greeted us warmly as she ushered us to a booth on the far side of the expansive space. She began with a brief overview of the extensive menu, and then explained that the restaurant is currently BYOB (this would have been nice to know ahead of time - the website doesn't mention it) as the restaurant is going for a liquor license.
About that all-you-can-eat dinner for $21.99: The hostess gave everyone in our party a blue order form from which we could choose a variety of appetizers including miso soup, edamame, gyoza, crab rangoon and more, plus sushi, makimono (rolled sushi) and house special maki. The catch is that you can order all you want, but as it specifies on the form, you have to eat all that you order or pay for any leftover food. With some trepidation, we went this route for three of us in our four-person party.
In trying to decide what to order, we had an easy time with the appetizers of miso soup and fried scallops. The miso soup came out piping hot. The lightly coated scallops arrived shortly after. They were soft and tender and devoured immediately.
Where we ran into some menu translation trouble was with the makimono. The blue order form only gave partial descriptions of some (not all) of the rolls. So, we had to go back and forth with the regular menu to figure out what to order. Also adding to our confusion was we had four different waitstaff waiting on us in fits and starts throughout the meal (it took a long time between when the hostess left and a waiter came to our table). The waiter who took our order didn't understand our question about one of the makimono - instead, he kept trying to get us to order the Torched Dragon roll, which we weren't interested in.
We finally decided on a few pieces of sushi - maguro (tuna), saku (super white tuna) and albacore (white tuna) - and makimono - rainbow maki, Philadelphia maki, Boston maki and hamachi cucumber maki.
Being a pasta lover, my daughter decided to order the chicken yaki udon instead. Her steaming bowl of thick noodles mixed with chicken, onions, carrots and zucchini came out first. She dug in to the super fresh dish and declared that the chicken was really tasty (she's not a fan of chicken, so that's saying something). She thought the portion looked small at first. But looks were deceiving as she was only able to eat about half of it. My other daughter came to the rescue and finished the bowl.
While we were waiting for the sushi to arrive, a friendly waitress came by to see what we were missing. My husband asked for wasabi, thinking she would bring some fresh wasabi to the table. She handed him a packet of wasabi, which doesn't really cut it when you're paying a decent amount for sushi. We did get fresh later.
A different waiter brought over the freshly made sushi and makimono all at once, which was fine, except that he abruptly left after setting down the beautifully arranged plate, leaving us to wonder what was what.
The sushi was definitely fresh - the varying pink hues of tuna covering the white rice gave evidence of that. But the real stars were the makimono. The Philadelphia maki (salmon, avocado, cucumber and cream cheese) was my favorite. The rolls had a perfect ratio of fish to accompanying ingredients, none overwhelming the others. The rainbow maki (eight pieces of California roll topped with salmon, tuna, a white fish and avocado) was also quite tasty and filling. The Boston maki (salmon, avocado, cucumber and lettuce) ended up being more of the same, really. Fresh wasabi and ginger accompanied the sushi, thankfully.
We wanted to try one more maki, so we put in an order for the hamachi (yellow tail) cucumber. We should have left well enough alone though, as the wait for the last maki took a long time. And while it, too, was delicious, we felt we had to finish it so as not to pay extra. The bottom line is, I would suggest forgoing the all-you-can-eat option, unless you're super hungry.
Sushi Naper has a lot of potential, and the sushi was quite good, but the small waitstaff may have been a little overwhelmed during our visit. At times, it seemed like there was one waitress covering the entire restaurant. I hope this will improve as the restaurant settles in.
<i>Restaurant reviews are based on one anonymous visit. The Daily Herald does not publish reviews of restaurants it cannot recommend.</i>
Sushi Naper
1320 N. Route 59 #158, Naperville, (630) 566-8126,
Cuisine: Japanese, sushi
Setting: Modern, airy restaurant
Prices: Sushi (per piece): $1.75-$2.50; sashimi (three pieces): $5.25-$7.50; makimono: $3.55-$8.25; special maki: $5.25-$15.95; entrees: $11.95-$16.50
Hours: 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Friday; and noon to 10:30 p.m. Saturday