In the three years since sushi specialist Macku Chan took over the old Erwin space in Lincoln Park, he hasn’t had much luck channeling the longevity of that pioneering restaurant, a onetime breeding ground for chefs including Paul Kahan and Mindy Segal. First there was Vu Sua, a French-Vietnamese fine-dining fiasco that saw Chan serving fried cod with chocolate sauce and strawberries. Then came Macku Signature, an adjunct to his eponymous sushi joint, where he’d perform feats of insanity like rolling smoked salmon with Laughing Cow cheese. Now there’s Lure Izakaya, a reboot of his brother Kee’s spacy, short-lived but likable Chinatown boite, also called Lure.
Rich but delicate dishes predominate, like slices of barely seared salmon in a sake sauce or fatty slabs of rare seared duck breast dressed in vinaigrette—a treatment normally given to fried fish, but one that’s just as appealing here.
Lure also offers a number of ever-changing fish specials on an iPad. I got lucky with a miso-anointed black cod cheek so ephemeral it might have been a ghost, and less so with split langoustines so overcooked that no amount of spicy mayo-based sauce could bring them back to life.
2925 N. Halsted 773-360-8816bestchicagojapaneserestaurant.com
