“Have you ever had sake?” a server asked as I scanned the beverage menu. It was an early evening, early in the week at Ani, a new, modest Japanese restaurant from Ty and Troy Fujimara, the siblings who own Wicker Park’s great sushi restaurant Arami (and Small Bar).
It’s that California-grown grain, also served at Arami, that elevates this sushi, and other dishes at Ani, beyond the standard neighborhood chop-shop product. Each grain is distinct and plump, tangy with its seasoning, and served at the proper temperature. The best thing to eat at Arami has always been this rice, and that’s true here too. It’s perhaps no more enjoyable than in a generous bowl of donburi, topped with sweetly seasoned chunks of tender grilled chicken and slabs of charred vegetables, or shaved rib eye and caramelized onions, brightened with pickled daikon and ginger (the latter perhaps a bit too salty).
Ani isn’t breaking any new ground in the big picture. It’s a lot less reverent than its older brother Arami, and a lot more accessible. It isn’t aiming for anything loftier than a something-for-everyone approach to Japanese food. But if it can maintain its current level of execution, it deserves to attract more followers than it has so far.
3056 N. Lincoln 872-206-8553facebook.com/AniChicago
