Koi in Evanston

We received a menu from Koi.They offer Chinese,sushi and a sake bar.Has anyone tried them and if so what did you think?If I find the menu I will post more.The website is koievanston.com

i've been once. stopped in for a quick dinner on a weeknight (which, from the look and feel of the place, might be a totally different experience than on a fri. or sat. nite).

we had maki (can't remember what kinds, tho yellowtail and spicy tuna are staples for us) and mu shu vegetables. the portions were good sized, and the mu shu was good enough to spur me later that week to try my own hand at making a version of it. prices were decent, given that like-competition is less in evanston than in chicago.

i'd say if you're in, near, or going to evanston, it's a good choice. but, if you're further south in chicago, you can probably get similar (quality) fare in the city. i personally prefer sai cafe.

I like Koi. We went there first with some foodie friends who'd tried it before and sanctified it (her comment, last time I had them over to my place for dinner, was "I know you cook for your little friends and they tell you it's good, but we really know food, and this is good" - about an amuse bouche I copied from one I had at West Restaurant in Vancouver ... but that's another story).

I especially enjoyed the sake bar - a trend I heartily approve of (Dozika, right down the street from me, also does this well). I don't remember exactly what we had, but it was a mix of sushi and non-sushi items, and it was all better than I expected. It's definitely worth a visit.

We found the sushi to be not good. It was not bad, but not very good - it was quite dry. For sushi we prefer Kuni's on Main street. We haven't tried any of the hot food at Koi yet. Koi seems very popular, and it is a beautiful space, with white table cloths.

Koi didn't live up to expectations. Chinese selections on the menu were really standard, and the dishes I had were way too sweet. Wifey had sushi and didn't likey.

Decor is MOD, and they serve big designer Martini's. All in all, not really a FOOD joint. Am I the only one who gets turned off by multiple nationalities on the same menu?

I see no difference in my being of different nationalities or a menu of different ethnic cuisines.It is all in how the chefs execute it.

hattyn wrote:I see no difference in my being of different nationalities or a menu of different ethnic cuisines.It is all in how the chefs execute it.

Chefs executed you being of different nationalities? You must have a helluva family ...

Another interesting mixed-cuisine place (is this a new thread?) would be this Italian-Mexican place. They used to be on Chicago Ave - haven't been there since they moved.

Privata Cafe
935 N. Damen Ave., Chicago, (773) 727-5292.

My dislike of Chinese/Japanese menus (or French/Italian for that matter) is just a stupid prejudice on my part. But what the hell, I'll be dead in a couple of decades and here's hoping my bigotry dies with me.

hattyn wrote:I had a feeling someone would chime in with a funny response.But back to food. I have had or heard of mixed cuisines that work just fine such as French Vietnamese or Argentinian Italian.

Franco-Vietnamese and Italo-Argentine are styles of cooking that have developed in the settings of communities. The Vietnamese accepted and adapted to their tastes various elements of the cuisine of their colonial masters. In the case of Argentina, what would Argentine cuisine be without its Italian element? Argentine cuisine grows out of the cooking traditions of the massive Italian immigrant population of the country in contact with the other culinary traditions present there.

These sorts of cuisines and the restaurants that represent them are quite different from combinations that have been brought together essentially at the individual level. Restaurants that offer such double or triple menus are almost per definitionem not especially accomplished at any of the cuisines they pretend to offer. In effect, it seems to me, such combo joints are just trying to appeal to multiple but not very passionate audiences.

Along these lines: has anyone tried the Italian/Mexican restaurant that recently opened just south of 18th on the west side of Ashland? Or has anyone been to the Italo-Pakistani place on Western just south of Devon? I'm curious about them both but so far unwilling to visit them just for the experience...

Antonius

nr706 wrote:Another interesting mixed-cuisine place (is this a new thread?) would be this Italian-Mexican place. They used to be on Chicago Ave - haven't been there since they moved.

Privata Cafe
935 N. Damen Ave., Chicago, (773) 727-5292.

I'm pretty much across the street from the new location, and I've been twice (though the second time was only to take out an order of their homemade flan...the owner's dad makes it, and it's quite good). When I went there w/ neighbors for dinner, I wasn't too impressed with the food. Not that it didn't taste good, but it wasn't something I couldn't just whip up at home in a jiffy myself (and for a lot less than the $12-ish they charged for entrees). I had a pasta dish w/ black beans and grilled chicken. I guess the pasta made it Italian and the black bean sauce was the Mexican. It's been awhile since I was there, so I can't quite recall what my companions had...we did share a nice smoked salmon appetizer, and, as I mentioned, the flan was very good.

My neighbors say the restaurant makes really good breakfast burritos, but I haven't been to try.

I also agree with Antonius' interpretation of restaurants featuring culturally-fused cuisines versus the "everything but the kitchen sink on the menu" places.

I tried Koi recently for dinner (a second visit - the first was lunch); my responses were very similar to AHava and Leek from 2004. The sushi and sashimi were not super-fresh (they were not "off" tasting, but neither were they just "off" the boat) - the sashimi was overly chilled, perhaps to keep "fresh." Not terrible, but not worth the effort for a special visit. My special "Red Dragon Maki" was colorful and busily filled with ingredients, but lacking the freshness and combinations of individual ingredients that characterizes great maki.

The Chinese entries that my colleagues tried were very ordinary.

The restaurant is modest in price, and fairly stylish (although by no means the go-to sushi place architecturally). Koi represents an instance of how pan-Asian has become mainstream with a surfeit of middle-range places.

Koi apparently has a second location: Chens - 3506 North Clark.

Koi
624 Davis
Evanston
847-866-6969

I have eaten at Koi twice in the past month. We only ordered Chinese dishes, not the sushi/sashimi. The first time, it was outstanding, excellent in every way, particularly the glazed orange shrimp and the Szechwan style red snapper. The second time, we got Mongolian beef and moo shu chicken, both of which were reasonably good but not great.

GAF wrote:Koi apparently has a second location: Chens - 3506 North Clark.

If I'm not mistaken, Chen's opened in Chicago before Koi opened in Evanston. So technically, Chen's has a second location - Koi.

It's not my favorite sushi joint either, but we often carry out some specific dishes from Koi. They do a good job with their lower-fat Chinese entrees, especially the Soong which is wok'd chicken or shrimp in lettuce cups.
>>Brent

Diabetics and grown-ups should avoid the Chinese menu at Koi. I tried the place last night, and every sauce tasted like a melted jolly rancher. A whole red snapper was suprisingly fresh and pleasantly crispy, but barely edible while swimming in a gallon of dark-colored candy sauce. Ditto for the rest of the meal.

Koi has declined dramatically from when it opened. We were frequent visitors in the first year or two but the food quality started slipping and after 2 or 3 bad meals we stopped going altogether. I know they had a management shake-up and one of the original partners then opened La Petit Amelia a couple of blocks away.

spinynorman99 wrote:one of the original partners then opened La Petit Amelia a couple of blocks away.

Which, along with Omaggio and Über Burger - Robert LaPata's other two places - failed a year or so ago.

The last two were barely there.

We had a nice lunch there in January 2008.

nsxtasy wrote:I have eaten at Koi twice in the past month. We only ordered Chinese dishes, not the sushi/sashimi. The first time, it was outstanding, excellent in every way, particularly the glazed orange shrimp and the Szechwan style red snapper. The second time, we got Mongolian beef and moo shu chicken, both of which were reasonably good but not great.

We went back to Koi a couple of weeks ago, for the first time since the two meals at the time of my previous post. We started with the pot stickers (beef dumplings pan-fried, using their menu's terminology), then had the glazed orange shrimp and Birmingham braised chicken. We liked all three dishes a lot; they tasted very good, and they were reasonably spicy (we did not specify any particular level of spiciness). The portion sizes were substantial as well.

Most of the Chinese restaurants we've tried in this general area have ranged from mediocre to dreadful, and we occasionally travel the 17 miles past downtown Chicago to Chinatown, to visit Double Li or Lao Sze Chuan. And while I wouldn't put Koi in that austere company, it was good enough that we will return there when we want Chinese food but don't feel like going all the way to Chinatown to get it.

nsxtasy wrote: The portion sizes were substantial ...

With that, I can agree.

I ate at Koi shortly after it opened. The sushi was pretty decent for the area. The entrees, regardless of the ingredients or menu description, were all served with the same caramel sauce. Deelish!

Lovers of authentic Asian delights, rejoice! Koi now has A SECRET MENU!!!!1

Cool beans!

While they're not a favorite, they tend to be an occasional part of our Friday night ordering-in rotation. We're perfectly content with the quality even though I wouldn't make a special effort to visit in person.

I do wonder about a traditional Chinese dish made with "citrus aioli." But I guess there are "new traditions" and old ones.

I give props to any restaurant which states for a specific dish on the menu, "This dish is very spicy and cannot be prepared mild."

GAF wrote:I do wonder about a traditional Chinese dish made with "citrus aioli." But I guess there are "new traditions" and old ones.

At least it sounds different from that god-awful melted jolly rancher sauce that drowned just about everything else I had at this place.

Yes, Kenny. We get it. You didn't like it. You don't have to say it again. And again. And again.

I liked the dishes that I've had at Koi. Not great, but as good as I've found in and around Evanston. If someone else knows of another Chinese place in the northern suburbs or north side that's better, I'd love to hear about it, so I can try it. Just don't say Pine Yard. Blech.

For Kenny's sake, let us hope that Koi doesn't begin to make Italian Subs.

http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=25732&p=279699&hilit=Bari+subs#p279699

nsxtasy wrote:If someone else knows of another Chinese place in the northern suburbs or north side that's better, I'd love to hear about it, so I can try it.

Sun Wah is not much more than a 15-minute drive. Actually, if my only choices were that or Koi, I'd be happy to walk there. On my hands.