With PAX West having just wrapped up earlier this month and TwitchCon starting two weeks later, I took this lull in my schedule in between the two events as an opportunity to visit my parents in the Chicagoland suburbs.

I’ve been going to a lot of chef’s tasting menu and omakase restaurants lately, but I found out that my parents had never been to an omakase experience before, so I decided to treat them to their very first one at Good Sushi in Lincolnshire, Illinois.

As our first course, we received a vinaigrette shot with oyster and ikura. All my photos of the glass were out of focus so I don’t have any to share, but it was a good opener that had a strong kick of sourness to get us primed for our meal.

Next was chawanmushi, which is Japanese steamed egg custard. This was pure chawanmushi with nothing added into it, which was a bit unexpected (as there is usually mushrooms, sea urchin, roe, and/or vegetables added in), but it was still good in quality and had a clean flavor.

Next was octopus atop a medium tomato filled with cheese. I’m usually not a big fan of cheese, but whatever type they used was mild enough that it didn’t overwhelm the dish. The taste of the octopus had something distinct and different to it that I couldn’t quite figure out, but the flavor was good and the texture was sat­is­fy­ing.

Afterwards, we received abalone topped with sauce made from abalone intestines.

This was my favorite dish of the meal. This was the most tender abalone I had ever had, and the chef said that it was probably because he prepares it by steaming it over six hours. This was my first time ever having abalone intestines, and it wasn’t quite like anything else I’ve ever tasted before; the closest thing I can think of is monkfish liver, but even then, the intestines still had something very unique to it that I can only explain as a weighted blanket of umami.

Our next dish was fish shoulder, though I managed to miss what kind of fish it was, and I somehow couldn’t tell just by the taste. This was thoroughly marinated with a house-made sauce, so it tasted like generic but very clean fish with a good amount of saltiness and a very light tinge of sweetness.

The chef added a nice touch to this shoulder dish—he made sure to keep track of the plates so that my parents each got one shoulder off the same fish.

While we were consuming the previous dishes, the chef started preparing the sashimi for our nigiri.

While the chef continued to slice the sashimi, the waiter came out with some miso soup and side dishes.

Our next eight items were eight pieces of nigiri.

The fish for all eight pieces were cut very thick. Usually at countertop omakase experiences, you grab each piece of nigiri with your fingers and finish it in one bite, but these were large enough that I had each in two bites. Because of that, the portion size added up quickly and was pretty filling and sat­is­fy­ing.

As our final piece of sushi, we received a spicy tuna hand roll. I’m personally not the biggest fan of spicy tuna because I think the sauce overwhelms the flavor of the tuna, but still, this was a nice addition to the menu to have some variety.

For dessert, we each got a fairly sizable portion of matcha tiramisu topped with strawberry.

This was a little bit too sweet for my preference, but the earthiness of the matcha powder helped balance things out a bit.

Here’s a shot of the kitchen area beside the bar where we were served.

Omakase was $125 per person, and with $33.75 in taxes and $72 for gratuity, the total came to US$480.75.

The omakase chef is the owner of the restaurant, and he is Korean. That wasn’t too helpful for me because I didn’t get to interact with him much considering his somewhat limited English, but it was great for my parents, because they were able to talk with him in their native language and learn more about the food they were served.

I thought this was a solid omakase dinner landing squarely within satisfactory expectations of a meal at this pricepoint. To add some context, I’ve been to a lot of nice restaurants in major coastal cities, so my rating has that kind of perspective behind it; with that in mind, you could argue that this restaurant was actually very good, considering that it is out in the suburbs over 30 miles away from downtown Chicago and likely does not have access to the same resources and quality of ingredients as coastal cities.

If you’re interested in checking it out, note that you’ll need to book a reservation at least 48 hours ahead. I imagine this is one of the side effects of being in a less populated area—they have an à la carte menu, but it seems like omakase is not always fully booked, so you’ll need to give the chef a heads up so he can shop for fresh ingredients and put together the day’s menu for you.