Exceptional in every way. We were celebrating a 40th birthday. Our guest was offered birthday wishes by the hostess, the waiter and other staff along with a specially printed menu. We were seated with a fabulous view of the kitchen which felt like ‘dinner and a show’. Our waiter Christopher had a friendly, informative and in-depth knowledge of the entire menu and made some amazing recommendations. His service was stelllar. The servers that brought out sushi were versed in every aspect of the ingredients and construction of each item. The manager, Hoon, stopped by the table for a quick and courteous check on our experience and the entire kitchen staff signed our menu. Momotaro is more than a restaurant, it’s an experience that does not disappoint!

Giving 3 stars for the service alone. Food is absolutely most important to me on almost all levels, but tonight felt different. It was my birthday and no matter how good the sashimi, Dungeness crab appetizer, etc could have possibly been, the service embarrassed me and quite frankly made me feel like crap. I work in the hospitality industry and am happy almost every restaurant I visit as long as the food is good; but the service felt worse than the food. Our server felt negligent after we got our first course of our meal. We requested the freshly grated wasabi and did not get it until after our second round of sushi came out. We saw at least 3-5 tables around us get turned over before our second course. We were then ignored the entire night. We asked to speak to the manager and he gave us dessert and a $25 gift card to make up for the past hour and a half of bad service. We felt insulted. Food is good, but step it up in you service department.

The menu had changed and so was not as good. Service was spotty. I was disappointed this time

AMAZING! This place has great food, ambiance and service.

Wow! This was recommended by a co-worker and I couldn't wait to thank him. It was Amazing! The sushi is NOT your normal rolls/ordinary sushi menu. But once you figure out what you want (the waiters are very helpful in deciphering the menu), it is awesome. In addition to sushi, we split the cod and salmon as well as the skirt steak and chicken thighs. Amazing!

Amazing food, amazing service. They brought us out champagne on the house for our anniversary. The wagyu beef skewer was literally the best piece of meat I have ever tasted.

We were seated upstairs, which is quieter and a different feel then the rest of the restaurant. Our server told us there was 45 mins for sushi to come out so we ordered everything quickly only to have the sushi come out first and quickly. The way food was brought to the table was too fast in my opinion, not spaced out at all. We had a late reservation and our server was clearly annoyed we were taking awhile to eat, she kept coming back every 5 mins to see if we were still eating. Which we were, we were enjoying our food and conversations. The service didn't feel like a $700 meal.

We could not have asked for a more wonderful dinner experience! The staff was incredibly friendly and helpful - my girlfriend received a separate vegetarian menu right as she was sitting down. Our waiter James was incredibly kind and helpful, navigating us through the menu and making some delicious suggestions. We are definitely looking forward to our next visit to Momotaro.

Overall, great food and service. One highlight was the Sendai beef ($12). One of the best bites of food.

The one negative - one person in our group of four was a vegetarian and her food was really pretty mediocre. Not sure if she ordered the wrong things or if the vegetarian food just isn't as inspired as the rest of the menu. Put a bit of a damper that while the meat eaters all loved our food, we felt bad the vegetarian didn't have the same special experience. Maybe they should trim down or rethink the vegetarian menu to make it more special.

We made a reservation for our anniversary and will be coming back. Was pleased with every dish we had 7 total). The standouts were the Chahan Rice, Shashimi platter, Wagushyu, and the Momotaro tartare. A great cocktail menu a good service as well.

The quality has gone down drastically. So disappointing!

We celebrated my birthday at Momotaro and had a lovely experience. They printed a special menu for me and I was wished a “happy birthday” by every staff member who passed by. The food and service was outstanding.

Loved it. I already said I loved it. I don’t feel like writing more. Is this 50 characters yet?

The best part of the meal was the sushi--outstanding. The sushi is the reason we tried the restaurant, so we were very satisfied. The agedake tofu and the shirt miso soup were both good, but nothing special. The ambience was not in a Japanese style, which was to be expected. We came early so initially it was not noisy, but the noise level increased during the evening. We'll go back, primarily for the sushi. Highly recommended for that alone.

Krim

Delicious sushi! Momotaro is super recommendable. Nice ambient.

The entire meal was excellent, beginning with the drink menu. Highly recommend the Mists of Miyada if you are a regular bourbon drinker. All the food was outstanding but what truly made the dinner and the entire evening excellent was our server, James. He was engaging without being overbearing and was extremely helpful in selecting our food. We basically let him order the things he thought were the best. Shishito, Raibu Kani, Bamboo Beef Chahan, Una-kyu, Negi toro, Momomaki and then the Strawberry Hoji Parfait for dessert. James was the key to it all. He suggested items that fit well together and was clear about the proportions erring on the side of too little than too much (which means he wasn't trying to just run up the bill on us). James was great and really made the night more fun for my wife and me. The food is outstanding and while expensive, it is not exorbitant for a high quality Japanese restaurant. The only bummer was that they ran out of the bamboo wrapped cod by about 8:30pm, they shouldn't run out of it that early on a Saturday night. Very minor detail which must mean that it's excellent.

Another excellent dinner at Momotaro. All dishes were again at a high standard and very authentic. The only comment would be that it was a Saturday night and they were absolutely FULL with a 45' wait for sushi to be delivered to the table. The service remained very professional and attentive despite this, but all in all I would recommend to visit earlier in the week for a slightly less frantic experience. Also, I felt the sushi dishes tasted a little better first time around - perhaps due to them being made in a less hectic atmosphere.

Amazing, very attentive and special experience

Great food!

Our waiter helped us order a balanced set of dishes, and was really helpful with all of our questions. We at the chicken oysters and the kumamoto beef roll, both were absolutely delicious. The salad was perfectly dressed in a super yummy miso dressing. Vegetarian rolls were really good. Unagi bowl was full of toasted sesame seeds and topped with teeny, fresh green onions, fantastic. For dessert we had the red bean brownie with strawberry icecream and sesame crackers. I loved how it was creamy, crunchy, and chewy all at once, and perfectly sweetened.

Great birthday night out with girlfriend!

Excellent, though service was a bit spotty.

Johnathan was our waiter, and he was outstanding. After our first couple of small-bites orders, he had figured us out and suggested that he make some choices for us. We agreed, and everything was fantastic. He did a great job. We'll ask for him again !

I was blown away my first time here, but this time I took my sister and I feel less enthusiastic. Service is usually perfect, but this time we were taking our time finishing a couple of the small plates, and staff kept coming back every 5 minutes trying to take plates that still had food on them, at least five times. These are small plates with very little food, and we weren't about to waste it! Just wanted to savor it and not feel rushed to wolf them down. It was irritating and disruptive. Perhaps the server sensed that and brought us an extra free dish of Negima Yaki. I was already full, but ate what I could, a nice gesture.

A couple favorite items like the gomae ae were gone from the menu and I didn't like the substitutions as much. I still like this place a lot, but because it's hard to spend less than $140, I'll probably wait more than a couple months for next time.

Everyone was very knowledgeable! A great place for an intimate date.

Great food but the server forgot items we ordered,

Great experience at Momotaro for my birthday! Great food and service. Will definitely be coming back.

Just wonderful! Everything we ate from the miso soup to the eel donburi was extraordinary. My favorite was the cod wrapped in a bamboo leaf- The best cod I’ve ever eaten!

This was a fun restaurant with great decor, and our servers were all incredibly friendly. However, I was seated about 10 minutes later than my reservation time even though I'd made a reservation nearly two weeks before, and the hostess did not give us an update about timing until I asked. My boyfriend and I are both vegan, and Momotaro provides a vegetarian/vegan menu, which was very helpful. However, the selection on the menu was extremely small, which was rather disappointing, since there are so many veggie sushi and vegetable dishes in Japanese cuisine! I ordered the Momotaro soda with pineapple-togarashi, which was delicious. For food, we tried the five-piece vegetable nigiri, the age dashi tofu (which we got with a side of rice), the kampyo roll, and a salad in the beginning. Everything tasted pretty good – the dressing in the salad was a bit too salty for my taste and of the vegetable nigiri I only really enjoyed the eggplant one, although my boyfriend liked the mushroom, tofu, and asparagus as well. The age dashi tofu was a VERY interesting dish and I enjoyed it a lot, but I would definitely order it with a side of rice because the broth it came with was delicious and the only way I could really enjoy it was on rice, since I didn't want to drink the broth on its own (too salty). The kampyo roll was very small and simplistic and tasted fine, but there was nothing about it that was particularly special. Overall, I would say that the food was well-made, came on time, and everyone was very nice for the most part, but the food was overpriced and portions were small, and if you're vegan or vegetarian, you won't have a lot of options here.

Possibly trying too hard to distinguish themselves, at the expense of traditional sushi expectations. Still, great kitchen, well trained and motivated servers with deep knowledge of the bar and menu. Creative (though noisy) interior.

As always, Momotaro lives up to the hype. Both food and service were on point.

Things to try -
The bacon and eggs skewer - I know, not something you would expect, but you won't regret it
The waygu style beef - worth the price, perfect for sharing

Things to skip -
Its easy to get caught up in the front of the menu - and while the appetizers are all good in my experience, they aren't as good as the back of the menu. Focus your budget and appetite on the sushi and sashimi

Portions were undersized

There are some dishes that are valuable by the price but some others are quite expensive for the size that comes to your plate

The food used to be better. It tasted salty and less flavorful in the past. The atmosphere still looks great.

I had high expectations and was not disappointed. Everything was delicious! Definitely a destination for Japanese cuisine lovers. Save some space for a desert, it worth it!

Excellent Menu, Creative. The server on our most recent visit was a bit too eclectic for my taste, but it does not come close to impacting my decision to visit again.

We wanted a specific cold dish with tuna but they didn't have it. Our waiter gave us some great tuna nigiri on the house to make up for it. Awesome service.

Loved this restaurant. I went for my birthday and they made it very special for me. I got a menu with my name on it and an amazing dessert that wasn’t available on the menu. Also, we had no idea what to order and our waitress, Kimberly I believe, ordered our meal and it was perfect. Great food worth the money.

This is a must for anyone who wants to enjoy the best Japanese dishes with exceptional service. Every dish was beautiful and tasted amazing.

TLDR: Decent food does not forgive terrible service and management.

We were told upon arriving that the restaurant was running 25-30 minutes behind, and that they would need to demote us to a bar seat in order to get us in.

This was a 9:30 reservation and to tell a patron that their reservation will be demoted at the 3rd dinner seating is unacceptable.

We were then told that the kitchen was 50-60 minutes behind on negiri and sashimi, and were advised not to order it, which cut the dinner menu down to about 25% of what is listed.

Several times throughout the meal, my date and I were left waiting for more than 10 minutes with empty glasses, when we were more than ready to order our next round of cocktails.

I had been told this was the best sushi in Chicago, and having been around the country trying some of the best sushi, I was excited(still at this point in the meal) to add another member to the list of my favorite restaurants which include KYU in Miami, Masa and Nagasaki in New York, and Nobu in LA.

THE MAKI WAS SUB-PAR. In fact, I had better maki the night before at sushi-san, and that was a casual meal out.

For a restaurant that is supposed to be the top sushi restaurant in Chicago, this establishment is a disgrace.

At the end of the meal, the waittress finally delivered us 2 pieces of negiri each (about a 90 minute wait time). They were the two most delicious pieces of negiri I have ever had in my life.

I tipped the waittress a full 25% despite my dissappointment in her service and left feeling like I had $300 stolen by the restaurant.

I will reiterate the TLDR: GOOD FOOD DOES NOT EXCUSE HORRENDOUS SERVICE, especially when the service is so terrible it prohibits you from ordering the only food worth getting.