Sushi Café is a small sushi restaurant located in South Elgin. The overall feel of the restaurant was something that you would expect at a typical Japanese restaurant; small yet comfy, and a bar with all of the sushi and specials of the day waiting for you right when you enter. The only problem with the restaurant is the location which is very confusing to go to for the first time. Sushi Café is located at the end of a strip mall that can be quite hard to find if you don’t know where you are looking. Overall, the feel of the restaurant was nice opposed to the actual location of the store; the atmosphere of the restaurant receives 3.5 out of 5 stars.

We decided to go at lunch time and were surprised to find it empty. However, the reason for that might have been due to the cold and rainy weather. Although, we have noticed in the past that the parking lot right in front of the store is always crowded, so that is a very good sign to the business of the restaurant.

After we waited for a little bit, we started with a hot towel, a common practice among many sushi restaurants to clean your hands and prepare for the meal. To order the sushi, you are given a list that contains all the fish they offer, with some rolls or some specialty dishes. We ordered some standard staples, such as salmon, tuna and shrimp as well as the spicy tuna rolls.

The inside of the spicy tuna tempura rolls was pretty standard. However, unlike basic, raw sushi, this tuna was cooked and it was amazing. For this reviewer, being the first time that I have been to a sushi restaurant, this was amazing and calmed my nerves that I initially felt about trying such dishes. The dish was served with a spicy roll, green onions scattered among the inside of the roll and a mild flavored house sauce on top that was mild and really calmed down the heat. Overall, this is something you should get if you are trying sushi for the first time and at the lower price of $9.95, I would for sure check this little dish out: 4 out of 5 stars.

The salmon was delicate, buttery and melted in your mouth. It tasted extremely fresh; a very positive sign for the rest of the meal. Traditionally, you should consume the fish lightest to darkest in color, but in an informal setting like this, it doesn’t really matter. Next, we moved on to the shrimp, cooked as per standard American sushi. The shrimp was shrimp; it’s very hard to go wrong with it and is a good beginning point for new sushi-goers. If it’s bad, you will know immediately. Moving on to the tuna, which is a staple but, will either be amazing or awful. This time around it tasted fresh, had a firm texture and tasted like it was definitely a recent caught fish in its prime. The spicy tuna rolls had a delightful heat and nice sauce that didn’t over power the taste of the fish or the cucumber inside the roll.

After our experience at Sushi Café, we can fully recommend this restaurant to anyone that likes tastey but cheap sushi. We give Sushi Café 4 out of 5 stars.