Welcome to the 2025 Chicago Omakase List, brought to you by Ledge Headwear
Note: Ledge Headwear is a new high-quality baseball cap company I founded (yes I have a life outside this blog). Designed it here in NYC, made in Italy at a generational, family-run factory. Visually stunning, fits like a million bucks and stitched to last. Something for nights out and the office mornings after. If you’ve ever enjoyed this content, I’d appreciate if you checked it out. Link here.
Back to the blog.
Between you and me, I’m a little concerned about the Chicago sushi scene. In researching this checklist/boondoggle, I realized like 25% of the city’s omakase-focused sushiya had closed. Ruh roh. Now, I haven’t been to ‘The Windy City’ in a decade but what I hear is that (a) sushiya are closing and (b) Caleb Williams may be a bust. Bad news, so let’s just say I’m considering boots on the ground.
Some guidelines to avoid the angry deluge of emails: the courses are approximate and can change nightly based on a host of factors. Prices that include gratuity are marked with an *, though that’s the exception rather than the norm (so tip generously). And to qualify, a restaurant has to offer an Omakase AND it must have some nigiri. Now, “Omakase” translates loosely as “leave it to you”, so some people will try and tell you sushi doesn’t have to be included. My response to that is: my list, my rules. Go enjoy your Ice Cream Omakase at Morgenstern’s (a real, very scary thing) and gold foil sushi without me.
Cheers as always.
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