Coast

Food

As expected, the food here was pretty dope. I’ve had friends rave about this place but couldn’t get my lazy ass to Bucktown since I have about five great sushi joints right outside my door. Thankfully I had a bday dinner to attend there (shout out to Broder).

We had our minds made up on what to order until hearing the specials which sounded way better than anything on the menu. I had the appetizer special which was hamachi (yellow tail) with olive oil dressing and jalapenos. Yum. Next, I had the White Dragon, one of their signature rolls, which included pretty much every item you could stick in a roll: shrimp tempura, wasabi tobiko, cream cheese, avocado, scallion, spicy sauce, wasabi, eel sauce, crumbs. RIDIC.  Another special on the menu that night was the pumpkin maki with smoked salmon which was pretty delic. I wish the pumpkin had been softer, but the flavor was awesome. We got some regular maki rolls to which were pretty good but nothing that blew my mind.

Assorted Sushi and Sashimi

Assorted Maki...featuring the double White Dragon!!

The Special: Smoked Salmon and Pumpkin Maki

Atmosphere & Crowd

The vibe at Coast is pretty chill. From the outside it looks pretty dark and scary but the inside is romantic and sexy. Orange lighting and candles give the space a healthy glow while the dark brown woods and red accents make it feel warm and cozy.

For a Sunday night (although it was MLK weekend), the crowd was pretty jumpin’. From daters, big groups of friends, and families, Coast really seemed to cater to all size groups.

The one thing I didn’t love was that we were cramped in a really small table in the back, apparently because they didn’t have our reservation (see service below), but I pity the foo’ who’s got to sit at that table even with having a reservation. There were about 12 inches between us and the next table. I pretty much could hear everything they were saying and I’m pretty sure I sneezed on someone’s food once.

Very short distance between two tables...girl in green shirt NOT with us

Sidenote, my booth side of the table was pretty comfy, but my friends on the other side were saying their ass checks were poking through the holes in the weird chairs.

Service & Management

We checked in at the front desk and apparently they didn’t have our reservation. Knowing how anal my friends are about shit, I can pretty much guarantee that the reservation was made. So that kinda sucked. Accordingly, we were dumped in this shitty-ass table (see above).

Our waitress, Debbie, was super nice. She was willing to give opinions and gave us some good suggestions, although she steered us away from a few that I had wanted to try. She was a little flighty at times, however. Half way through the meal, we mentioned it was our friend’s birthday, and she exclaimed “Hooray, we’ll have to do dessert!”. We assumed that she would either bring us some bday dessert or ask us about it later. She fucked up our order leaving out two rolls but quickly recovered by bringing out the forgotten two and one White Dragon. We thought the extra roll was an “apology roll” or perhaps a “birthday roll”, but neither was the case. She revealed that she fucked up again (she thought we ordered two more White Dragons instead of one), and she didn’t bring us dessert. So basically the extra roll was the birthday roll by default. That was kind of lame. And she scolded me for swearing. What the fuck is up with that.

Debbie

Bottom Line

The food here was delicious and I would definitely go back again, although with so many great sushi places in this town it might not be soon. It’s a great place for a birthday party or a date, just make sure to request a table towards the front of the restaurant or in the second room- you do NOT want to get stuck in the back by the bathrooms. Also, wait to choose your order until you hear the specials…they are definitely the way to go.

Facts

Address: 2045 N. Damen Ave, Chicago IL 60657
Phone: 773-235-5775
Website: www.coastsushibar.com
Neighborhood: Bucktown/Wicker Park
Hours: Mon-Sat: 4pm-midnight, Sun: 4pm-10pm
Parking: street, $10 valet
Cuisine: Sushi, Japanese
Meals Served: Dinner, Dessert
Spirits: BYOB. Beer & Wine only. You can only have one bottle of wine per two people. Not sure about beer…
Menu link: Menu
Open Since: March 2003