Sanook

Looks like Sanook has closed.

The food was delicious when dining in with my boyfriend. He got one of the combo boxes. I had the Dob buri.
Service was a bit slow — our server had 2 tables including ours.
Would have given 4 stars, but the big reason i’m docking them points is their hours. For serious, why does your restaurant close at 9:30pm? Is this suburbia where families go to bed before the sun sets? For godsake Applebees stays open later than these guys.

I was on a sushi mission. I wanted to eat somewhere I could use a
certificate. Sadly, it was a Friday night and most of those certificates can’t be used on Friday.
Then… I saw Sanook. Boo-​yah, sushi on a Friday night!
It was yum. My dude and I ordered away with the reckless abandon that only a couple with a
certificate can do.
My favorites were the Miami maki and the Father and Two Sons. Snap. Loved them!
The service was attentive, friendly and nice. We had the little dude with us and sometimes places aren’t super receptive to having kids dine in but they were all about having the baby in. Gotta love that.
We’ll be back next time I need me some deep fried maki rolls.

I forgot to write a review last week after dining here for our 2^nd time. Our first time was *awesome*. Our server was this smiley Filipino guy, who was only filling in. He was so accommodating and attentive! I didn’t write our review then because since he was a fill in, it probably wasn’t indicative of how the restaurant runs usually. That, and when we went it was a random late night where it was just us and one other couple.
So we went back last week. Yeah, not quite as good as our first visit. It was dinner time on a Wednesday night. There was only 4 tables free for our party of 2+ baby in high chair. We sat and waited easily 5+ minutes for water… and a few more minutes to put in our order. Although there were only 4 tables free in the whole restaurant at the time, mind you, there were only 3 other parties dining. The rest of the tables weren’t cleaned off and so our poor server was extremely backed up. She was the only one running the front of the house with 12 tables at most (4 tables w/​diners, 3 tables empty and 5 tables that needed to be cleaned up).
The food was decent — just as good as the first time — but the service was really lacking. She got our order wrong and gave us 1 entrée with chicken when we asked for pork. We were left pretty thirsty since we didn’t get our drinks refilled. By the time she came by and could wait on us, we were pretty much done with our meal.
The food was pretty typical Thai & Japanese fare — nothing that really jumps out or is too memorable. I like how close it is to home, which is one positive point. At least the food has been consistent the both times we went (and we ordered pretty much the same dishes each visit)
We’ll give this one place one more shot since I have a
gift certificate to use up. Hopefully the third time’s a charm.

NEW SANOOK FANS! Hubs and I came here for the first time today, armed with a gift certificate from
. Wow, this place is great. We were actually the only people in the place, which concerns me because I do NOT want this place to ever shut their doors. However, it was only 4:00pm on a Friday, so I’m hoping it was just due to our bizarre eating schedules and that the place fills up later in the evening.
You may be thinking, «Geez Jillian, if you loved this place so much why not 5 stars?» Well Unilocalers, it is my 2011 new years resolution to reserve the 5 stars for take my breath away experiences. That said, Sanook is great! Maybe my new favorite! Seriously, TRY IT. It will not disappoint.
The best part of our meal I think was DESSERT. I got these little taro balls in a coconut milk cream broth that… okay, that did take my breath away. It was so delicate and so yummy. Can’t stop thinking about it. So don’t skip it if you make the trip here. Hubs had the Mexican roll and said it was the best he’d ever had. I’m not a sushi girl, so I’ll take his word for it. Everything was flavored so perfectly, never bland, and often surprising!
All in all, we are so glad we found this place. It’s going to be the new go-​to Asian spot for us for sure.

A year and a half has passed since the first time i reviewed Sanook. When they first opened, they were new. (as opposed to first opening and being old). I meant it was obvious they were new to the restaurant business. Now they are seasoned vets, thousand yard stare and all.
so mike, why the extra star? the food is great! the service is great! yeah! exclamation points! that is why the extra star has been rewarded.
one small factor that just doesn’t sit right with me is the place feels like it’s missing something. maybe it’s the color scheme of the paint but the dining room seems a little bare. i just feel like there could be something done about the décor to make it look more warm and inviting.
all in all, great place with great food. congrats on earning the extra star guys!

I love this place. It is right around the corner from my home and this place is great to go to, great to have delivered to you and great if you feel like a lil Kamakazie Karakoe at stupid a.m. on the weekends! The delivery is fast, tasty and send with love usually delivered by one of the chefs– we just love it!
We tried other places around just to make sure that this was the best and now we just don’t even bother. I love thier Mexican roll and they always willing to make it special for me — I’m sure they will do the same for you!

I don’t know much about sushi but I do know what I like. I liked Sanook.
Disclaimer: We’ve only had delivery. I have no idea what the interior of this storefront looks like.
Now I’m not exactly a sushi connoisseur. I like simple maki rolls and an occasional sliver of sashimi. Once there are chewy things that appear to still have the skin attached I start thinking about a nice calzone. With this in mind Sanook was perfect for me as they have a balanced sushi/​Thai menu.
We had a few simple rolls (California and Alaska), some maguro, a vegetable tempura appetizer and a chicken Pad Thai. We ordered off Grubhub which allowed us to get a free fried rice with a coupon we otherwise wouldn’t have known about. Free stuff is always a nice touch.
Everything was good not great. The rolls were thick and well filled without being sloppy. The sashmi was relatively thick and tasty. The Thai items were still warm and pretty good. Couple all this with super fast service, reasonable prices and no delivery charge and it equals repeat business from us. Just because you won’t see Sanook on a hidden gems of Chicago television program doesn’t mean it isn’t delicious to eat at home while watching one.

Came here because of a gift certificate on
. To my surprise, we were able to order a lot of food for $ 35, the minimum amt to use the GC. We had an appetizer, a salad, 1 maki roll and 2 entrees. Yes, this place serves sushi rolls as well which is great because I was able to mix up the Thai and Japanese cuisines.
chicken satay — delicous
papaya salad — good but not as spicy as I would have liked
maki roll — decent
fried rice — yummylicious
basil beef — just okay
The service was okay. The restaurant is located in a plaza so there’s parking available in the lot. To my surprise, the restaurant was actually very nicely decorated. The bathroom smelled good and the sink was cool design. The restaurant also offers BYOB.

Sanook, you have earned an extra star!
Thanks for being opened on the 4^th of July and making delicious vegetable tofu soup (it is on the salty side and I would recommend eating this with rice instead of by itself).
btw, cute name. Sanook means Fun in Thai.

I really enjoyed Sanook. I was in around 8pm on a Friday evening and it wasn’t too crowded, luckily I also had a
gift certificate and was prepared to sample all sorts of dishes with my mom.
We had
–tofu Tom Yum soup
–pad see eiw tofu
–shrimp pad thai
–chive dumplings
–spring rolls
−50÷50 iced tea and lemonade mix, absolutely delish!
The decorations were beautiful and certainly calming…
The waitress was pretty attentive and alert despite working alone. It’s pretty good food and I’d definitely come back!

Lots of mixed reviews for this place!
I gave Sanook a try since I am desperately looking for a decent sushi place in town that delivers.
The sushi seemed a little bit warmer than room temp, but not sure if that happened in transport somehow. The Summer roll was really good, a bit of a kick and the fresh asparagus inside was an amazing crunch and freshness. I’d recommend that most def! (although 1 of my pieces of tuna was really chewey)
Also tried the Philly and Negi Hamanchi (yellowtail & scallion). I’d probably get the Negi again, as well. Might try the Thai and cooked options at Sanook someday, but it makes me nervous — I can get cooked (and Thai) food anywhere and feel the quality is better when sushi places specialize in just sushi. Will try again…

This place could probably get 5 stars if not for the ridiculously long wait you have to endure to get your food on «all you can eat» nights. I have no idea if they have a pond in the back parking lot that they need to catch the fish from or what because the wait isn’t because they place is crowded. On the contrary, its been fairly deserted most nights I’ve gone.
This place has every chance to get it right. They even have a parking lot. But, it just misses the mark. I’ve eaten here about half a dozen times and, sad to say, but I’ll probably never go here again unless someone invites me for some event, like a birthday party or something.

My update for Sanook. The food is acceptable but they cannot understand us at all when we order. Tonight we unfortunately attempted to order asparagus maki, which is on their menu (though misspelled). It sent two of their employees into a downward spiral. My boyfriend was on the phone with them for about 15 minutes attempting to place the order. After having them read it back to us, I still have no faith that we’ll get anything we actually ordered.
Sanook, if you cannot understand your own menu, at least put numbers on the items so we can communicate with you numerically.
PS, why is ordering food in Irving Park is so effing difficult!!!
PS again — last time we ordered from Sanook, we waited over 2hrs for the order to arrive, and we live just a few blocks from the restaurant.

A jewel in the rough it would be easy to overlook this pan-​asian eatery in the a creepy little mini-​mall. Also I’m usually skeptical of pan-​asian places but their thai menu is pretty damn tasty.
I confess though, i haven’t had many dishes here yet because i’m stuck on their Rama Tofu. Delicious peanut sauce with nicely seared tofu and steamed crunchy broccoli over wide rice noodles. All of my favorite things beautifully presented in one dish! (see crappy phone pics) The Goma Ae is also killer with nice presentation. Some day i’ll eat something else here but for now this is my goto place for Rama!

I have to knock off 2 stars (Yes, 2 stars) due to the fact that they are only doing the Sushi Buffet on Sundays now. Was super disappointed when I went in a few Tuesdays ago and was told this. My boyfriend and I left after finding out.
Seriously, the owner should know that a daily (or 4 times a week) Sushi Buffet will bring people in and help with keeping the business up and running. Take a page from House of Sushi & Noddles book and bring back the buffet, please!

My qualifications to review this restaurant:
I have just returned from a 4-​year stay in Japan.
I ate a swimming pool’s worth of raw fish while in Japan.
My impressions of the carry-​out my sister and I ordered and subsequently ate.
pretty good.
the menu had a wide variety of Maki-​Sushi (rolls) with interesting sounding names. I counted 25! Having lived in Japan, I was a bit apprehensive to the idea of Jalapenos, but i have to say Mexican-​maki was a treat, errr was it the San Francisco (?), that also had Jalapenos. I love spicy food, but I did find myself chewing and sweating, saying «This sushi is making me thirsty!»
If you like trendy Japan-​Thai fusion Sushi and a pretty extensive Thai menu, come here. If you’re looking for authentic, you may want to try somewhere different. Any suggestions? I’m new.
$ 18 all-​you-​can-​eat sushi (read maki «rolled» sushi) special. Sunday and Tuesday. I wanna go!
by the way, I suspected the two Sushi Chefs of giving me the «Stink-​eye» and I think that gave them a bit more credibility in my book.

Attn: City dwellers who (unfortunately) work in the nothern/​nw ‘burbs…
Sanook is located fairly close to the Irving Park exit on 90/​94, which means it’s easy/​fast carry-​out access on your way home! It might be easy to miss, so look for a strip mall, across from BK, right before California.
The basil duck ($ 8) was freakin’ fantastic! The duck was flavorful and yummy and it was mixed with some awesome green beans, fresh basil and red peppers. Pour this over some super sticky rice and it is heavenly. O-​M-​G. No exaggeration, either!
The signs boasts an $ 18 all-​you-​can eat maki special (available M-​F). VERY tempting. I have got to drag my friends here to try it out. They have a crapload of both traditional and creative rolls on their menu that I was dying to order — but opted for the duck instead. I did have one piece of tamago for $ 1.25 (yes, that’s correct!) and it definitely got my stamp approval.
Hmmm…now wondering when my friends will take me up on this all-​you-​can eat adventure! Sanook is also BYOB, with a $ 5 corkage fee!

I came here on a Thursday, wanting to do the All You Can Eat Sushi thing, but unfortunately it was only Sun-​Tues. We decided to stay anyway. We were the only people in the restaurant, and were seated right away. But, the waitress took an incredibly long time to come take our order. The phone rang about 20 times, and they would hardly ever answer it, which was incredibly annoying.
I got the sushi combo, and the spicy tuna roll was not good and the rest of the pieces weren’t that great. My friend got a Dragon Roll which was decent, but not amazing. 5 minutes before we left another table finally came in. The atmosphere was alright, minus the phone constatnly ringing. I don’t plan to come back though.

My review is based on the Thai Lunch Specials.
Lunch specials are $ 8 and service M-​F between 11am and 3pm. You get a decent amount of food — you choose between and egg roll or gyoza, the soup of the day (which was Wonton Soup when we went) or Miso soup, Cucumber or Sumono Salad plus your entrée.
I ordered the Gyoza, Wonton Soup, Cucumber Salad and Ginger Chicken entrée. The gyoza was blah — the sauce that was served with it was very odd. The Wonton Soup had one wonton in it with three pieces of Iceberg lettuce in broth that is usually in Miso soup. Blah. The Cucumber Salad was great. The Ginger Chicken was alright. It wasn’t anything spectacular but it was a portion that people should probably be having instead of those hungry man sizes. My lunch buddy and I are gluttons so we ended up ordering a Pad See Eiw with beef as well. The noodles were done well and the beef was okay. Seemed a little overcooked. The broccoli was nice and fresh.
Overall, the whole experience was okay. The service was fine. I’d prefer to go to Sticky Rice which isn’t far away and get more bang for my buck.
They apparently have karaōke in the evenings and also host private parties.
There is free parking in the lot.