OK… you can guess when I start with a disclaimer I am conflicted.

On one hand Katsu seems to me to be the most Japanese restaurant that I’ve been to in the city of Chicago… bearing in mind I have not yet been to Japan. Their flavors and scents are different from any of the other sushi places I’ve been to. Their hot menu items seemed unusual and very appealing. Maybe I should go back for Japanese food. Maybe I made a mistake when I got all revved up to go to Katsu for sushi.

Because on the other hand Katsu is expensive. Even for sushi places… It’s on Peterson and I just got caught flat-footed. The last sushi place I tried and pigged at was Kaze and this bounce house for sale priced out the same. Pieces are gigantic and are $4 each. Special pieces cost more. Rolls start at $6 and balloon to $15 or so (I’ll check my takeout menu)… I got a nice sampling of 3 glasses of sake for $9 and had a wonderful kiss fish tempura appetizer.

All in all we got 3 rolls and 6 pieces of fish, the sake sampler, kiss-fish appetizer for $90. Very interesting but not worth the money.

Our rolls were white tuna and scallions that was very good. I am a fan of white tuna pieces but not as much in this form. The others were conventional spicy tuna and shrimp tempura. The spicy tuna was very spicy and not something I was totally digging. *Do bear in mind LOTS of folks LOVE this place… my platemate dug them… so you are likely to DIG this stuff! more than I did at least… The shrimp tempura roll was delicious. The shrimp tasted the way I remember a good bite of shrimp tasting.

The blue fin tuna was different and very good but the salmon was almost too good. It was overwhelming. Maybe there’s another level of sushi that I am not able to get to yet. But I’m trying… The yellowtail had the same thing going for it. Perhaps the pieces were too big… perhaps they were hard to eat and sort of messy… perhaps I was freakin over the buco buckos… but the planets did not align for me that night and I DID not DIG Katsu.

All that said I will go back for hot food and a taste of uni and a piece of something unique perhaps but I don’t think I’ll be heading over for a straight-up sushi evening anytime soon.

It’s too rich for my blood.