Arami Go

As a update this location now is closed and will be moving to 3056 north Lincoln ave in Lakeview. They really should lower the prices or else that one will have difficulty staying in business as well

This is another place close to where I work. It’s kind of small with a little seating area. You order at the counter and they call out your order when it’s ready. I ordered a vegetable dish. Three vegetables and some rice and it came with edamame. It was okay. Not a lot of flavor to any of it. There was a lot of it, and I didn’t finish it all, but it was over $ 11 for that. I’ll pass.

Good bento boxes. Had the beef teriyaki and sweet potato it was awesome.

I went there last night with my boyfriend. I’m so so glad we did. We tried a couple of different things, pretty much off all their categories except for sashimi. We tried a don buri, the miso ramen and a bento box. It was a lot of food. We got the lemongrass ramen, the shrimp bento with Brussels sprouts and spicy edamame and the chicken don buri. The bento box was delicious– the shrimp was grilled to perfection, flavorful and succulent. The Brussels sprouts are definitely the best I’ve ever had. They were fried, tasty and the baby sprouts that were used were really helpful in making it possible to achieve the mentioned. The edamame was good, although I’m not a big fan of edamame to be fair. The miso ramen was piping hot, with just the right amount of lemon grass. There was plenty chicken and egg and tasted pretty authentic. The don buri was delicious, we got it with brown rice and I loved the sauce that was used. I know a couple of people thought it was expensive but if you go there for dinner, its actually pretty reasonable. I thought the flavors were pretty authentic.
Overall, I would definitely recommend getting the soba noodles and the Brussels sprouts if your getting the bento, which is recommended as well. The soba noodles are worth the extra $ 2.50 and trust me, the Brussels sprouts will be the best you have ever had. Trust me!
Fyi this place is pretty white meat and vegetarian friendly, which was definitely a delightful surprise.

Thought we’d give this place a try after learning that they had a vegetarian ramen, and boy were we disappointed. The vegetarian ramen (it was a vegan soba on the menu but we substituted the soba with ramen) was bland and not memorable. Also ordered a veggie bento and we thought the spicy tofu tasted fairly decent, until we found a hair in it. The sautéed mushrooms somehow had a piece of chicken meat in it, and the bag of chips we bought had expired which we didn’t notice until after we ate most of the bag. Arami Go just comes off as very careless with their food. Generally we turn a blind eye to these things… mistakes happen. We certainly see this in Chinatown every now and then and it hasn’t stopped us from going back, but at Arami Go, flavors are blah and prices are high. It’s hard to find any motivation to go back.

I was starving when I was in the Streeterville hood getting a massage.
I saw AramiGo and had to check it out.
I got the soba noodle ramen stuff. It was kind of pricey for veggies and noodles… like $ 11. Bah, what are you going to do.
It was just a touch too salty for me, but overall, it was really good.
The place was d-​e-​a-​d. I felt like I was in the twilight zone.

This place gets a solid 4 star.
I used to get the Bento’s on a consistent basis, but ever since i’ve tried the pork belly ramen noodle soup, that’s all i’ll order from here on out.
The soup is delicious and the portion size is huge– that’s a good thing for a $ 14 soup. When I get take out, the amount they give you easily 2 full bowls of miso ramen soup, a generous portion easily big enough for a full dinner.
So why the star missing? A. The price. Pork belly is a delicacy so I guess it has a right to be pricy, but it is still a noodle soup. B. The wings. I went to Arami Go the week it opened, and my roommate ordered the chicken wings– never in my life have I tasted such incredible wings. The flavor, the juiciness, words cannot describe how good those wings were. The only problem, every time i’ve ordered Arami Go since opening week, they say they don’t have the wings.
Please Arami Go, if you read this, bring back those wings!

Just under 4 stars. We’ve dined in a couple times and taken out once. Great for what it is – we like the options, quality, and would come here all the time except for the price (a complaint par with the area)…upgrading to soba and sashimi (both great, btw) basically doubles the price of the bento box. Have always gotten the boxes and never the ramen so can’t comment on that.
If you try a bento box — don’t miss the pork belly and brussel sprouts! The sprouts are super savory but everything else about them is amazing.

In between a 3 and 4 for Arami Go.
Tried the Kimchi Ramen and the Shoyu Ramen and both were pretty tasty, and like other reviewers said, paid pretty steep prices for a casual restaurant.
The noodles were fresh and chewy. Both broths were decent. If you’re looking for a thicker spicier broth, try the Kimchi ramen. If you’re looking for a cleaner, milder broth, go for the Shoyu. I was looking for a creamy rich broth like that found at Santouka but unfortunately didn’t find that at Arami Go. The best part of the ramen for me was the charred pork belly, that was cooked to perfection.
All in all, decent place for the area if you’re having a ramen craving/​want to pay $ 13 for a bowl of noodles.

A coworker and I use to really like this place, despite the high cost. Well, yesterday was our last straw. Their SMALL bento box already costs $ 11 for the basic ingredients. The bento is good bot great. Now they have gone an added an up-​charge for the spicy tofu side. Seriously, $ 2 for tofu with chili sauce?!? Not to mention, all of the sides were disappointingly small. That does not make a hungry girl happy.
I’m over you Arami Go. We are officially «broken up.»

I went here based on a friend’s recommendation and it was worth it! The inside of the place is bare, but that doesn’t matter as long as the food is great, and it was.
I ordered the pork belly ramen bowl, which was $ 13 dollars. A little pricer than what I normally spend on food, but again, worth it. The portion was pretty alright for $ 13 dollars. The broth was flavorful and delicious and the grilled pork belly was insanely packed full of flavor. I wish there was more pork belly that came with the bowl, but I would definitely order this again.

Today’s one of those rare days where I didn’t bring my own lunch to work, so I decided I’d go try out a new ramen place I remember reading about in the Chicago edition of Serious Eats.
Cocoro is usually my go-​to for ramen in this area because while I like Takashi, I dislike how god damn salty the broth is for the shoyu ramen at Slurping Turtle, and if I remember correctly, the tonkatsu ramen is only served at dinner time. So, imagine my disappointment that the ramen at Arami Go, the easiest place for me to get to without a cab, fail to meet even my minimum standard for ramen.
It was $ 12 for a bowl of the blandest broth flavored only by the charcoal-​grilled (I’m guessing this was the flavor I tasted) chashu.
Seriously, what kind of shoyu ramen doesn’t even have a hint of shoyu in it???
Here’s a little Japanese language lesson for you: Shoyu means soy sauce. The soup base of a shoyu ramen should at least taste faintly like soy sauce.
My other minimum standard for ramen? Don’t make it with soba noodles. If you want to serve me soba noodles, call it a soba noodle soup. Don’t mislead me into thinking that this is ramen. This is not ramen.
What about the toppings? The chashu was the best part, then came the narutomaki (the red/​pink spiral-​patterned fish cake). The chashu, as I’ve mentioned above, was probably grilled. It was juicy and fatty, and it had a nice flavor to it. They probably cooked it with some oil, garlic, and green onions, which they then probably poured over the noodle soup, which gave the soup that flavor. The narutomaki you can buy prepackaged in stores, and I’m guessing this is what they did, which is fine, but as the second best topping, there’s not much to say about everything else.
The poached egg was alright, but when you know that you don’t even provide your customers with adequate soup spoons, why wouldn’t you cook the egg a little bit more? It was super runny, and the minute I placed my itty bitty plastic soup spoon under it and brought it up above the soup, the whole thing fell apart and the yolk ran into my soup. Ridiculous!
And what is up with the pickled cucumbers mixed in with my wakame (seaweed) in my bowl? That’s about the weirdest thing yet. It was so vinegary. Pickled vegetables really don’t belong in a ramen bowl at all.
I will not be coming here again. I might have as well gone to Gyu-​kaku across the street for more decent Asian food.

Arami was overpriced for the food, Arami Go was no exception.
I got Gilt City coupon for two benton boxes, two drinks, and two desserts for $ 20. I picked soba, spicy tuna tartare, asparagus, and spicy edamame for my box. My husband almost got the exact same thing except for the veggie, he had the mushroom. The vegetables were very well seasoned and I loved my asparagus. Spicy tuna tartare, on the other hand, was neither seasoned nor spicy. It was very very average. Soba noodle was A-​OK. Nothing wrong with it, nothing special. My biggest complaint was that, after finishing everything, I was still hungry.
If it weren’t for my coupon, our lunch would’ve been over $ 30. I think for bento box, I’d rather go to Oysy, it might be $ 2 more, but it came with miso soup, and it fills me up.

I came here for lunch today with a friend. We were debating whether to go to Gyu Kaku across the street but settled on this place instead because they offer ramen.
I ordered the pork belly ramen while my friend got the lemongrass chicken ramen. I didn’t get to try his out, but I liked my ramen. The broth was thick with flavor and the noodles had a bite. The portion amount was decent as well. The pork belly was alright. Not too fatty.
The décor was nice and simplistic. Self serve pop station and the staff can come pick up the trays when you’re done.
This is more of a 3.5 because their bento boxes look amazing. I would like to try their sashimi at the actual restaurant. The seating is a bit cramped and the pathway to the bathroom is a bit confusing.

When I saw there was going to be a new japanese take out place across the street from my office I almost wet myself with excitement. I waited and waited for them to open and then went on one of the first days it opened.
First time there got the short rib bento with spicy edamame and the seaweed salad. The food was definitely good — so why the 3 stars…
To start, this place is overpriced by probably a couple bucks for a bento. $ 11 after tax for lunch (no drink, no other stuff aside from the bento box) is a little steep and granted, the food is good, but all of the ingredients other than the meat are dirt cheap!
My views on the seaweed salad depart from most of the reviews I have read — yes it’s a little creamy which is not what I expected but I thought it was yummy and got it the 2^nd time I went back.
On top of the price, I was honestly still hungry after my lunch. I am not the type that needs to be stuffed to be happy but after a pricey take out lunch I don’t want to be instantly looking for something to snack on.
I really think it all comes down to price — if they priced more in line with what you get I think this place will be slammed non stop.

I work in the area and my co-​workers suggested going here for lunch.
I have the Bento box with salmon, sweet potatoes, brown rice was my carb, and the gingery Edamame. They through in pickled veggies and I added miso soup, Came to $ 14.27
The miso is your standard nothing special. The salmon was quite tasty small though (I have a healthy appetite). I loved the grilled sweet potato. Not sure what they did but tasty and I wanted more. Edamame I felt was nothing special. The pickled veggies were nice for changing up the flavors but nothing i would want more of. That leaves the rice which I felt I had too much in relation to rest of my food.
I do have to say this is a nice change from sandwiches and yuppie mexican. in the area.

I’m really excited to have another new lunch option in the ‘hood… and even more excited to have a fresh, somewhat healthy option.
For my first trip to Arami Go, I had the chicken bento box with brown rice, edamame & asparagus, with miso soup. Everything was tasty, and the pickles that come with the bento box are delicious.
The only downside is, while the bento boxes are a decent size, by the time I got the bento box, the miso & a drink, my bill was $ 16. That’s a little steep in my book for a lunch, so Arami Go isn’t somewhere I could frequent every week. I even think the miso is kinda pricey ($ 3) for such a small serving, and if I wouldn’t have had the miso I think I would have still been hungry.
The interior is really cute, I dig all of the wood everywhere. They were fast & efficient, but there aren’t a ton of tables so you might want to plan on taking your lunch to-​go. My only other complaint is that, if you stay there to eat, they still give you a plastic container & styrofoam cup for the soup… and there isn’t a good recycling option for these containers. I’d rather have reusable plates/​silverware so I don’t feel like I’m killing the environment with my bento box container.
All in all, it’s definitely worth checking out… while Arami Go isn’t the cheapest option in the ‘hood, it’s a good alternative to all of the sandwich joints around.

Pompeii just closed, so we came across the street to try this place.
Ambiance: nice wood counter, bamboo tables, and textured concrete floor. The music is a good volume, and the bright environment reminds me of noodles &co. Only 16 seats, though, so probably better for a quick lunch to go.
Food: the main bento option is a little pricey for a Chipotle style assembled lunch at $ 10+. I had the rice, short rib (ok, chewy, not as tender as can be), seaweed salad (creamy, oddly) and a nice selection of pickled vegetables. I added a bag of shrimp chips, so my order came out to over $ 14 total. My friend got the tea, at $ 2, which is a little high for a bag and water.
Regardless of getting it «for here» or «to go», we all received plastic bento boxes with plastic covers — which made for a very full garbage can and guilt for being wasteful. The price prohibits me from making this a regular lunch stop, but it has no extra value as a special stop.

Totally agree with Teri Y’s review below. It is ok but has the potential to be so much more! (ala Xoco or Frontera Grill at Macy’s/O’Hare and Takashis ramens in the Macy’s food court)
I got salmon, soba, king oyster mushrooms, edamame
Salmon — well cooked for pre-​cooked chafing dish salmon and sauce is tasty
Soba — could use a much larger portion since this is cheap!
Side — I literally got 4 pieces of oyster mushroom. This portion size is a little ridiculous
Edamame — same as veggies. spicy sauce was tasty
I know Japanese food is supposed to be small, but I’m a petite person and it still wasn’t enough for me! for a on-​the-​go lunch it needs to be cheaper or have something more standout that justified the $ 10 price tag. Everything is pretty simple, straight-​forward.

Arami Go is what it says it is. Fast casual bento box food. Opened by the folks at Arami, Arami Go is one of those places where you just want a quick no-​frills Japanese-​inspired meal at an affordable price. If you go there expecting Arami Go to be like Arami, then you will be disappointed. I’m going to be fair here, this place is not Arami and I know they don’t claim to be. The whole idea of Arami Go is to create a quick, casual place serving Japanese-​inspired food. Hey, $ 10 for a bento box for lunch in the loop… pretty good, right? But there’s just something lacking… something just did not make our experience at Arami Go more memorable and it’s hard to point a finger to what exactly was not memorable.
We went in today on their 3^rd day of opening. One of their staff took us on a little tour on how their concept works. They have a refrigerated section with an adequate selection of items that are already prepared such as edamame (3 types), octopus poke, etc. At the counter is where you select the options that go in your bento box. You choose your carbs (white rice, sushi rice, brown rice, soba noodle), protein (short ribs, tuna tartare, salmon, grilled chicken, etc), vegetable (seaweed salad, avocado, maitake mushrooms, etc). My tuna tartare came with a pack of nori (seaweed) so that i could wrapped it up with rice if I wanted to eat it that way with my tuna tartare. My husband got the beef short rib. The portion is pretty good for a $ 10 meal but overall, the taste and quality of our meal were really just alright. Nothing was bad but nothing stood out either.
Again, I know this is a fast, casual concept. But since it is the brainchild of the folks from Arami, I expected a bit (if not a lot) more based on their calibre and potential. I initially thought to myself… oh well, it’s a $ 10 meal in the loop? What I can expect? But you know what? I thought further… $ 10 for a quick, fast meal does not have to be of subpar quality. I don’t really want to compare here but to further explain my point… take XOCO for an example. It’s Mexican quick, casual food, and affordable and yet the quality is really something to write home about. Unfortunately, I can’t really say the same about Arami Go. The idea has great potential but I think a lot more has to be done to make the experience memorable and worth returning to.