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Categories: Grocery, Japanese, Sushi Bars
3 S Arlington Heights RdMon-Sun. 9:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
"This review if for the small eatery in the corner by the meat dept in the grocery store. This place was recommended by one of my customer's…" read more »
my sis, cL, had been raving about the sushi from this place for months, and i just wasn't buying it... so on a saturday afternoon, i finally gave in (due to an impromptu sushi craving) and we drove on over to pick some up and bring back home as a late lunch for the 3 (us + hubby).
well... tensuke sits in an average-looking strip mall that also houses a polish bakery, a video store, a tax office... you get the picture. additionally, the parking lot looks as if it's been attacked by meteors.
so! if you can get over the exterior surroundings, and manage to drive slowly and carefully over numerous potholes and into a parking spot, you'll find a hidden gem.guaranteed.
there's a fridge section on the way to the back "sushi bar". i put that in quotations, because really, it looks like a little cafe. we picked up a spicy salmon roll from the fridge, then stared at the menu on the wall at the "sushi bar" for about 10mins, trying to decide what to order. in the meantime, orders were flying out at the other end of the counter... and i was drooling. there were about 3 or 4 chefs using their magic to make fresh sushi, maki and other entrees like grilled sole, or udon soup.
we finally decided to get 2 orders of thelobster roll special. let me list what is included in each order:
8pieces of lobster roll
2sashimi (salmon & tuna)
4tamago
2ebi sashimi
some kind of green salad (seaweed?)
some pickled ginger
a knob of wasabi.
oh, and also miso soup.
each order was$9.99!
wethoughtour eyes were bigger than our stomachs in ordering 2 lobster roll specials, and picking up the spicy salmon rolls.... but.... once i plated it all so nicely, we devoured all but 2 pieces of maki.
absolutely delicious! i will be back for more... probably weekly, if not biweekly.
and for my first 'sushi cocktail party' (TBA)... guess where i'm ordering from!
i'll take 5 lobster roll specials,to goplease!
I just saw a bid ad on their window that says "all you can eat Japanese."
Thought it's from 1600 - 1930... Maybe only on weekdays... I did not check but I definitely need to go!
It's a Japanese grocery store that has a lot of fresh seafood as well as other Japanese items (fresh veggie, snacks, Japanese style bread, frozen food, tea, ice cream and videos and more!!!).
They have a small restaurant inside. It's not big but the food is awesome! They have authentic Japanese dishes that come with rice & miso soup; and they have sushi, of course. I've seen many Japanese people eating here. It gets crowded during lunch & dinner time.
You can order Party Tray for "to go" and if you bring your own plate, they will use your plate.... (Guess it's nice if you have a special plate you wanna use for your party...???) They have order sheets and you can even fax to them. One of my friends from Japan gave me the links for the order sheets (below).
For regular sushi order
http://www.sumutoko.co...
For party tray order
http://www.sumutoko.co...
Ah, I love fresh seafood :D
So I had decided to stop on by based on the great reviews on yelp. I have to add the attitude I got in the store was somewhat appalling. I had intended to order a Chirashi and possibly an udon bowl, but the ladies at the register seemed to be more interested in their conversation then helping a customer. I waited about maybe 5-6 minutes to get any response, and when I said I'd like to order they seemed to shoot that " did you REALLY interrupt our conversation look".
This might just be an isolated incident- but I spent no money in the store and will probably never go again.
Still good, and improving! They're adding more to the menu, like a bento box (quite good, but the eggrolls are lacking some filling, and the teriyaki salmon was a bit on the sweet side for me), and a ramen salad, and a soba special--which is my favorite. $8.50 for a good amount of soba, tempura, california roles, and sunomono salads.
Pretty good lunch spot, and very reasonable prices. The fish is fresh, and selection is good, but is… Read more »
one of the best freshest sushi...great food.
my dad loves their udon noodle and often drives 40 minutes from chicago just to have some noodles.
It's no lie that I hang out with some pretty nerdy people. And I won't deny that in my youth I was quite a little Japanophile. I still hold places in my heart for all things Japanese. So when I went to visit my fellow nerdy friends in Chicago they took me to Tensuke Market.
I think there was an attempt to impress, seeing as how I'm from Columbus and surely (don't call me Shirley) we don't have anything like a Japanese Market in C-bus. Surprise! We do! And oddly enough it is also called Tensuke Market.
But this Tensuke Market is much larger than the one we have, and very roomy. The selection is on par with any other Japanese market that I've seen, and I was impressed with the video rental area!
3 stars because it was like everything else I've ever seen. Good, but nothing exceptional.
Just a brief comparison with Mitsuwa
The sushi with raw fish is fresher. I don't know if this is because they are owned by a Sea Food company.
The food court is very tiny, but seems to have enough dishes to satisfy my Japanese food taste bud.
Grocery price here is slightly higher than Mitsuwa.
One of many places I frequent during my lunch break. This place was recommended by a bunch of my Japanese co-workers. They have a small food court, but the quality of the food is superb. The fish is very fresh and the portions are quite nice. They have everything from sushi, rolls, sashimi, udon, ramen, grilled whole fish, and tonkatsu.
My only complaint is that ever since they remodeled their food court, they have raise prices and have made changes to combos. You used to get 6 salmon rolls with any noodle bowl, but now you just get 6 california rolls for a higher price.
Other than that, the place is still great!
We got a sushi platter and a sashimi platter from here for Mother's Day. It was a hit. The prices are decent and the fish was good.
I also got some shrimp tempura, a last minute add on, which was good. One thing that kind of annoyed me was that they were really stingy with the tempura dipping sauce. I mean, how are you going to prepare an order of 10 shrip tempura pieces and then give a tiny cup of the sauce? when I asked for more, she had to check with 2 other ppl to see if should could give me some free of charge, and then gave me the TINIEST cup of sauce. Seriously, tablespoon size.
*Photos shot
Without launching into which is better - Mitsuwa or Tensuke, they both have their merits - I am happy to find that Tensuke is a great alternative.
I can't attest to the waiting lines at their food court at normal business hours as I checked them out in midday Sunday.
Almost every combo dish is in pictorial form. I went with the $8.99 sushi combo that consisted of humonguous rolls, and individual sushi. It also comes with miso soup. They satisfy with their freshness and portion.
Tensuke is also a mini market. If you like Hello Kitty, there's a good selection of Kitty chopsticks and such.
It can be a little difficult to find it as there's no flashy signs. It is in the same strip mall as Rose's Cafe, right across from Busse Woods at Higgins and Arlington Heights Road. It is situated at the corner closest to Higgins. The other bonus is that it is in the strip mall as Jarush bakery.
A great little Japanese grocery store that has a little of everything, including a small restaurant at the back of the store that serves sushi and sashimi. Very clean and organized.
Store Hours
Monday thru Sunday: 9:00AM to 8:00PM
Sushi Bar Hours
Monday thru Friday:
11:30AM to 2:00PM and 4:00PM to 7:00PM
Saturday: 11:30AM thru 7:00PM
Sunday: 11:30AM thru 6:30PM
Sushi Order 847.806.7680
Located in the Elk Grove Woods Plaza on the SE corner of Arlington Heights Road
cross road is Higgins
Fresh, tasty fish, served in a homey cafe crowded with Japanese and Korean people. It's an excellent value, especially considering the high quality fish served there.
in addition to the fish, they are solid on other Japanese comfort food standards, like curry, tonkatsu, udon, etc.
Arguably the freshest fish and sashimi could be found here at Tensuke Market, one of the newer chain by True World Group, which has a seafood distribution network that no one can beat. Within the Japanese grocery store, toward the back, there is a sushi counter with several seats to enjoy their good value sushi. Even if you see pre-made rolls, don't be afraid to ask the chef to make you a fresh one - he won't mind.
As for the grocery store, they have pretty much everything you need, so there really isn't a need to make a separate trip to Mitsuwa. Store is well lit and clean.
DEBATE: Now, the sticky stuff. There is an on-going debate about whether or not shopping at Tensuke is indirectly supporting the controversial Moon's Unification Church. This is fairly a new news to Americans, but to the Japanese Community in Chicago, it's old news. Most of the Japanese in Chicago knows exactly which restaurants & stores are run by Moon's Church, and they pretty much don't care any more. Remember, many non-church run sushi restaurants also gets their seafood from True World. For me, I know that I can count on fresh tuna from a True World distributed markets, and I know it tastes very good.
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Update (6/4/2006)
Their food court has been closed for remodeling construction for a while now. I peeked in there and it doesn't look like it will be finished for several more weeks. I don't understand why they are so slow. They still have sushi-to-go, but if you want to dine here, you should call ahead to see if they finished their remodeling..
The grocery store is clean and has all the basics. The ramen and sushi are great and they offer a pretty good variety of food. I prefer this place over Mitsuwa in almost every way, even though it is only a fraction of the size. Great place to just pop-in for some sushi take-out. I recently picked up some raw salmon steaks for dinner after a recent ramen lunch session and I have to say that it was some of the freshest, non-fishiest, most delicious I've had. It's hard to find consistently fresh fish at times in the burbs but I've got high hopes for the fish here.
Nice little asian market with an eating section. They have a good selection, despite lacking the size of Mitsuwa. I actually find foods a little easier when shopping here over Mitsuwa. The seafood seems a lot fresher than other shops in the area as well.
This is a smaller version of Mitsuwa in Arlington Heights, concentrating more on food. There is a small import video selection , but it was in Japanese (which I can't read) and the boxes didn't have pictures. I went here mainly for the sushi shop in back , although the store seemed pretty cool. I did see some of the pot stickers I love in their frozen food section. I had the option to buy my sushi to order at their counter but my son wanted to get it to go. There were some very nice prepackaged containers in their case , and we picked 3 packages of rolls; the spicy roll combo , the "Chicago roll" (spicy red and white tuna roll) and the standard spicy tuna roll(although here they had avocado in it and it was garnished in fish eggs). I have to say normally the spicy tuna roll is my favorite , here it was good but I liked the Chicago roll a little better. I liked the smaller spicy tuna rolls in the combo pack best of all , very simple and perfect. The combo also came with spicy "crab" rolls (they did list imitation crab on the ingredients , so I didn't freak out) which were pretty good , and spicy salmon rolls , which I got 1 of because my son ate all the rest. This is impressive because up until this time , he exclusively ate spicy tuna rolls and sweet shrimp sashimi. I have to say these were the best and freshest pre boxed sushi I've ever eaten. I can definitely see myself picking up a few boxes of sushi on my way home in the future. I will also make it a point to try the sushi counter there.
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Tried the kitchen at the rear of the market for the first time, with great results. The menu was very diverse with both hot and cold food , and alot of sushi. We were mostly ordering for my son , so we got the Salmon , tuna, spicy salmon and spicy tuna rolls. I have to say these were some of the best tuna and salmon rolls I've had , fantastic. The Spicy rolls were really simple , fish and spicy mayo , but I really liked them, absolutely great.
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I've been here several times now and have to say that , they have the best prepackaged selection I've seen , really good sushi quality fish (to make your own sushi) , and some of the lowest prices ever. The kitchen is awesome , no atmosphere to speak of , but the food is great. Definitely the best bang for your buck on sushi .
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Tried the Oregon roll (smoked salmon and avocado with spicy sauce) which was great. The Alaska roll (spicy tuna with rice paper wrapped in smoked salmon) , another killer specialty roll , awesome.
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Finally tried some of their hot food, got the terriyaki beef which both my son and I liked , although him more so than I. I would say it was good , no more , no less. I also tried the beef Ramen , which I was not a big fan of. I probably wouldn't order it again , nor would I recommend it.
Tensuke is a foodie's treasure! The fish & other ingredients are so fresh, every roll (even your average california roll) is so delicious. Udon is fresh and soft, packages of fresh fish from the market can be cut into sashimi for you for free. It is a 20-30 drive from the city, but worth it if you are a picky sushi-eater/sushi snob.
We shop there on a weekly basis because you can count on finding fresh seafood. Since the store is nice and compact, I appreciate how I can be in and out of the store in a short time. My hubby & I love the "Hand Roll (Sushi) Special" that you can order at the food court. It's so yummy! Check out their weekly specials too.
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