The Izakaya at Momotaro

Went to this place first with a friend and took my wife back a few days later. Phenomenal food and service, and an authentic Japanese vibe. Will be back after lockdown 2.0 is over.

Just FYI when we went to Izakaya, they had the Momotaro menu (probably because of decreased seating in the main restaurant because of COVID?).
Anyways, I went with my fiancee, and we had a great experience. First of all, they are following the restrictions to the best of their availability which we always appreciate. In regards to the food...
Tako - probably my least favorite dish. Not bad and would probably order again if I was in the mood for octopus. Remember to put on the lemon as it adds to the flavor.
Tsukune - oh my goodness such savory chicken morsels. The sauce with it is just delightful adding just a little bit of sweetness. The egg is always a welcomed addition.
Spaghetti - favorite dish! Spicy, had that classic curry flavor. Pasta cooked to perfect consistency.
Negi Toro - quality fatty tuna roll!
Aburi beni toro - good/interesting combination of flavors and textures
Edomae Anago - great eel nigiri! I think the nitsume sauce was key.
For dessert, we got a Japanese raspberry cheese cake. The consistency of the cake was light and fluffy. Definitely worth a try!

Great experience as always and our server was fantastic recommending items new on the Menu.

Momotaro offered a wonderful food and drink selection, and even given the current Covid situation the staff provided amazing service and a keen eye to detail in hospitality, cuisine, and liquor.

Love the small dish style of food here. The fish quality of the sushi is amazing but there's also so many hot and cold apps to choose from. The burger is particularly good if you're looking for something larger.

Server took a while to take our order. Food was good. The shrimp pasta only had like two pieces of shrimp tho lol, and the sushi at arami is slightly better

Great food, but dang pricey.

Amazing experience!!!

IF YOU WANT TO DINE:

Go wait upstairs for Momotaro. Don't wait or reserve here in order to not wait. There's no real 'server'. The bartender was on double duty but was on the computer the whole time. Of course, he was extremely apologetic after we requested the manager to be seated upstairs for lack of service.

Non-exaggerated timeline:

seated - then 30min of no service/taking order - then 40min of waiting for food.

Waiting for food is acceptable but 30min of wait time to place our drink/food order? Lucky we had much to talk about that 30min flew by until we noticed, but that speaks volumes about the restaurant's merits. To be fair, the manager really made sure that we were regularly checked in and schlepped around the less than ideal bartender/server. Boka is truly lucky to have her as the manager, but until everyone gets it together we will continue to wonder why Izakaya shouldn't be an extra dining floor for Momotaro with much more streamlined operation.

Food was amazing and our server Damen was the best!

My boyfriend and I love going to the Izakaya because of their burger. We both agree that they have one of the best burgers in Chicago and so we made a reservation for 5 pm and arrived exactly at that time. Before you enter the building they have a staff member outside to check you in and take your temperature. We have no problem with these measures as we understand the times we are in. What ruined our experience was having to wait outside for 22 minutes before we could even get seated. The restaurant opens at 5 and we went on a Monday knowing that the place is usually not busy. The employee just kept telling us that “they were still getting things ready” and thanked us for our patience. Finally we were told we could head inside to find out that only one other table in the Izakaya was taken and there were two other hostesses that could have seated us. In other words, there were plenty of employees that could have seated us within a reasonable time. We could not understand why we had to wait for so long. To top it off, while we had been waiting outside we saw other people that got there after us get seated in the upper level restaurant. It just didn’t make sense to us how the busier upper level had people being seated faster than the lower level which was almost completely empty. During our wait we noticed two other women that got there shortly after us were trying to meet their party that was already seated at the Izakaya. They were totally compliant about getting their temps taken and were still asked to wait until someone could seat them. After about 15 minutes someone from their party came up and told the host that they were there to join him and the host still didn’t want to let them down, stating that another host would show them to their seats shortly. This system does not make sense and it makes patrons want to not return. There’s no reason why in a business that had so many employees visibly free to make their paying customers wait for so long.

Great service. Great food. Great drinks!

We came here for a birthday family dinner and brought our baby with us. We were seated promptly and given a great area where the baby had plenty of space and was comfortable. Food was delicious and our questions were promptly answered.

The sushi was very fresh and the food that we got was amazing. Every bite blew us away and we will not hesitate to come back. Our favorite dishes were the Jidori Chicken Oysters and the Alaskan King Crab. Our server David recommended the cocktail "Monk's Journey Continued " and it was amazing.

Great food and service, really friendly and helpful. Food was amazing. Ambiance was really nice in the Izakaya, very on-theme. COVID protocols were top notch, and enforced. Will definitely go back.

We are frequent visitors of Izakaya. We had a reservation for our anniversary and drove all the way over to the restaurant to find that it had closed two days prior. The staff didn't even have the decency to call us and notify us about this closing. I simple message would have sufficed so that we wouldn't have to waste so much time.

We love Momotaro - and we have been to many Izakaya in Japan. But during Pandemic 2020, Izakaya is just an overthrow room for Momotaro. It does not have any indpendent culture nor does it have the activity that you normally associate with an Izakaya. That said, we were very grateful to have the table for our celebration when the outdoor and main dining rooms were full.

Went for a friend's birthday! had great service and great value. Loved the ambiance as well - would highly recommend!

Super cool spot. Comfortable atmosphere with really excellent variety of small plates from adventurous to familiar.

Experience was excellent from top to bottom. Our server was attentive, knowledgeable and fun. Will definitely be back!

Izakaya at Momotoro has the best burger that I've ever had!

We had a really lovely time at The Izakaya. Every dish was delicious and our server helped guide us with great recommendations.

The food is really good. We didn’t have a bad dish. The portions are very small though and the restaurant is quite expensive. Our meal for 2, which only included 2 drinks cost $235 (includes tax and tip). That ain’t cheap, ya feel me?

Went for restaurant week

Total deal for Restaurant Week 2020! Our favorites were the duck breast and of course, the Momo Crunch. Hated our seating though - it was off in the side room and we were on these low stools kind of in the middle. Wasn't comfortable and felt awkward, especially if you're male, there is no leg room. Other than that, the night went off without a hitch!

We went for restaurant week and had to wait for 40 minutes after our reservation which was disappointing. Food was delicious despite the service chalenges.

Went doing restaurant week...the menu was decent but it was lacking uniqueness..the most memorable item was the custard tofu which was great but all else seemed like anything we could have ordered from any other sushi/Asian menu. overall kinda disappointed with the taste and options upside staff was AWESOME however there was confusion over booking on the upper level and lower level...wtf is that all about??

I always love coming here for restaurant week! We brought our friends this time and they loved the food and the atmosphere! We were warmly welcomed back when we checked in and were gifted extra desserts and another ramen for all of us to share. I highly recommend the skirt steak robata, the pork belly that was on the restaurant week menu, and the kamo (duck). We will be back as always.

We had heard great things and this place did not disappoint! I highly recommend the uni deviled eggs and the beef tsukune "slider". Two people in our party ordered the Momotaro sake flight and loved it. The ambiance is very fun, dark, and intimate. We will definitely be heading back soon!

Great value for restaurant week. Food was amazing. One of my top 5 in Chicago!

Went with a friend for restaurant week. The food was great and a good value. I was disappointed by the service. We waited about 10 mins before our waiter took our order. Finished my cocktail and wanted another but by the time they came again the meal was almost done. Four of the five courses took 2 hrs, at which point we asked for the dessert to go because it took so long. Overall would return for the food but the service left a lot to be desired.

Great food, and vibes!
Most of the menu you can order, and you will have amazing food !

Perfect place to go out with that special someone!

Some of the food was fantastic! Some was disappointing, even at the discounted price.
Unfortunately, I think it’s too loud for me to eat there and talk to someone, much less relax a little. Which is too bad because I love Japanese food so much, and 2 of the dishes we had were fantastic.
IF they had late night hours, it is a place I would go often with friends and industry people in the neighborhood. But it was significantly less busy by 1130, and we were given our check before being asked if we wanted another beer or anything else.

Food was excellent! Our waitress was excellent! Issue we had was we were seated late and then rushed to leave when we were done.

So this is my first review in OpenTable. In short, food sucks, at least for the restruant week dinner. I've been to Momotaro before, 4 person $300, it is over priced but I mean....I dont like it, I dont hate it.

I reserved in Chicago Restruant week for this place again since I thought it should be good value. Appetizers is fine, besides the Japanese fried chicken is dry but whatever.

Then the main entree is a disaster. I ordered Sutadon, it was over cooked, the beef slice is super dry and they put excess ammount of very sweet-salty sauce on them, it was almost uneatable.

I didn't call the waiter nor the cheif since I dont want to make it hard for the waiter and I just want to get out of the place.

It was not worth it, trust me.

We were there for restaurant week. Food was unhealthier than we expected. Fried chicken, sweet potato fries, fatty pork belly. The ramen was also very spicy and we were not warned about it beforehand. Will not go back.

Did restaurant week. The food was okay. Some were good but some were okay, nothing impressive. I had better Izakaya experiences. Cocktails were good but also had better at other places around the city. I think it’s overpriced for what you get. The service was great though.

Amazing food. Went for the first time during restaurant week - very busy, the seating was behind the reservation, about 30 minutes, however the staff kept us updated. Will definitely be returning.

Everything is above average and I'd recommend friends to go and try it, but portion was smaller than I thought (even for 'small plates') which made them feel more expensive than they should have been.