Izakaya Hapa

The food was mediocre and tasteless. Miso soup was so watered down that no spices or any flavors were present. All the Sushi pieces had the same just thawed out taste and the calamari was greasy and was mostly breading wit very little squid.
Service was very good though hence two starts otherwise I would have given them one star.

If I could I would give this restaurant 0 stars. The food overall was ok, but the service was horrible. The waitress started out very nice, but then our order was lost. She didn’t come back for a very long time and then just ran by basically saying our food was almost done and sometimes the orders get lost. We had ordered two rolls with raw fish, so I wan’t sure why it was taking so long. Finally our food came out and she just mumbled something, dropped the food off and walked away. We had already waited for what felt forever and when the food finally came out, it looked like the sushi chefs had rushed in making it. We ate our food and then the waitress never came back. I had to go to the hostess stand and ask the manager for our check so we could leave. As I was walking away, the manager said to the hostess, «she’s scared to go back over there». wtf? We didn’t yell at her or even were mean to her. I don’t understand why she thought it would be better to just let us sit at the table forever. The manager didn’t offer to comp any of our appetizers or even apologize. This is the worst experience I’ve ever had at a restaurant.

Fresh, simple and well-​balanced food. Farm-​to-​table Japanese style. Drinks are wonderful.

I found their food uncomplicated, fresh, and cooked to perfection. If you are looking for a complicated sushi contraception, you should go to the restaurant downstairs. The upper floor is meant for the type of food that you would get at a small, cozy six-​people bars in Tokyo. Their simple and direct approach to cooking: perfectly grilled eggplant, yakitori, and stir fries might not wow the crowd with their presentations, but the whole point of yakitori is simplicity, comfort, and conviviality. I think it is unfair to try to lump this restaurant in a same category as Japanese restaurants that serves sushi, when it serves a distinct sub-​category of Japanese cuisine. Try it, do not treat this place as sushi place, rather think of it as Japanese bar food.

Bleh… sorry, this is a no go. What a FOOL i was to not check the Unilocal reviews before coming here, ARGHGHHG.
Oh well, so here’s the deal, this place is not good! Let me start with the soy sauce, the most basic of all condiments, you buy it, you pour it, you eat it, it’s good. Right? WRONG. I don’ t know what was up with their soy sauce, but it felt like they were watering it down, like cost cutting… whatttt? It was not very salty, very light brown in color, like weak coffee… so weird! If they’re skimping on the soy sauce, what about the raw seafood?
We started with the seaweed salad, ginger salad, and pan fried veggi gyoza. Apart from the somewhat slow arrival of the food, the apps were fine. We then ordered the pan-​seared salmon and 2 special rolls (Ginza and Yuzu). The salmon arrived with some green ooze circa The Exorcist. Our server was pleasant and at least re-​made the dish for us minus aforementioned green ooze and then it was ok. The salmon was cooked well.
I will say, really the main reason I am giving 2 stars instead of 1 is that the service was friendly, and they did try to accomodate us and correct issues for us. Our sushi rolls sucked, honestly, genuinly were not good. We sat their sulking but decided since we’d already made a fuss about the green ooze, we couldn’t really complain about the sushi TOO… our sulking was noticed and they kindly offered to replace the rolls with an order of Yakisoba, which was nice of them.
The Yakisoba was better than the sushi, not bad, flavorful but could use some more veggis.
Sigh…I will not be coming back anytime soon. I vow to always check the Unilocal reviews before I try a new place… some accidents can and should be avoided.

My mom and I jet-​lagged and hungry decided to come here for an early dinner. A little side note: My mom is not a spring chicken and doesn’t sprint up stairs like she used to (or like our hostess). Once my mom and I finally got up the stairs, the hostess apologized for not showing us the elevator. Um, yeah. That would’ve been good to know… yesterday, thanks.
My mom went with the shrimp tempura. The order originally comes with 1 shrimp tempura mixed in with vegatable tempura. They were able to substitute the vegetable for additional shrimp pieces for $ 5 each. It was such a huge order and good enough to share. I got chicken terriyaki. The chicken was a overcooked and kind of crunchy for my liking. It was kind of disappointing but the tempura made up for it.
And yes, we did use the elevator on the way out.

I was just thinking, even months from then… i still want my money back

I wish I can give negative stars on Unilocal!I am a crazy izakaya goer whenever I travel to Tokyo or NYC. NYC has the like of hagi, kenka, and etc, while Tokyo needless to say has a izakaya around all major stations and even chain izakaya e.g. watami, amatarou. There are also San-​kyu and Kurumaya in the Arlington Heights area which are the closest to an izakaya.
However HAPA… definitely is not an Izakaya. If today it advertises itself as a fusion lounge bar kind of deal I will buy it however as an Izakaya it failed miserably. the menu itself is just a joke itself… it does have yakitori and some yaki soba dishes curry and with my amazement green curry pot…
so we decided to just try out some dishes and ordered fried chicken wings, yakitori chicken and pork meatball, fried oyster, and garlic shrimp… let’s see where to start the chicken wings were marinated in a Chinese way and served with something I grew up with Taiwanese thickened soy sauce
«Another type, thick soy sauce (jiàngyóugo), is a dark soy sauce that has been thickened with starch and sugar. It is occasionally flavored with MSG. This sauce is not usually used directly in cooking but more often as a dipping sauce or poured on food as a flavorful addition.” — wikipedia
another sign of how it’s not an izakaya, the fried oyster were not fresh and the batter was tempura batter instead of the panko i was expecting from a real ‘kaki fry’. the yakitori were definitely stars that night however the meatball wasn’t flavored thoroughly. the garlic shrimp was okay other than the fact that the shrimps were tiny and the presentation just looked like something we can do at home.
the service was good I didn’t care for a drink at the place and the decoration is definitely fancy or a bit too fancy for a izakaya… I was excited when I saw the sign when it first opens believing that there is an Izakaya in downtown… but i was extremely disappointed with the overall experience that night.
Afterwards we strolled over to Murasaki and had some sudako and karaage some real izakaya food!

The décor was 5 stars, the food, only 1.
It’s a really nice space and the décor was very well done. That’s really all I can say for this place. It would be a good place to have a private party? Not sure about the drinks, perhaps they’d be a tad more redeeming. The chairs were really comfortable, so they’ve got that going for them.
The sushi was bland. It was bland to the point of not wanting to eat it. It wasn’t really «bad», it was edible, but why waste the stomach room on tasteless food?
Service was ok. They were not busy at all for a Friday night, and I was a little surprised that the service wasn’t a bit quicker, but it wasn’t so slow that it was annoying. When she sat the tray of sushi down between us it was pretty much completely taking up my quarter of the table. She didn’t center it or turn it so it was evenly between us and leave room for our plates. Again, not a deal breaker, but it was just a little odd, as it left us shuffling things around the table so we could move the sushi.
I probably will not be going back here anytime soon. $ 55 for 4 tasteless sushi rolls and 1 beer is kinda ridiculous.

Good restaurant with quality food and great customer service. The venue is spacious, with a main dining floor upon entry and a second floor with a bar, which makes for great private events. The beef and chicken dishes are excellent and the sushi fresh. I would make a return trip on the food alone!
The ambiance is quite alluring too. Very convenient location on Ontario and strikes a mood that is good for drinks with friends, dinner with one or two others, or a group outing/​event.
Recommend checking it out and seeing for yourself!

Slow service, below average sushi. Great bartender and cool décor though!

Good idea, poor execution.
Let me preface this by saying I was really looking forward to trying Hapa out ever since I saw the UrbanDaddy feature. It starts well enough… the décor is colorful, trendy, and the furniture fits. The bar is lavish and well-​stocked. The bathrooms were Vegas hotel quality. The menu has a nice collection of sake and seems plentiful, but that’s where the good news stops.
Maybe it’s my bad for misreading the UrbanDaddy spread, but I was expecting some hot pot. The available «hotpot» items were actually hot things presented in a pot. There was nothing resembling shabu shabu.
The menu also presented yakitori and got me excited. But when the food came, too much of it tasted like it was all cooked with the same sweet teriyaki glaze. The chicken, chicken wings (where did they find these small non-​hormone-​injected chickens? the wings were smaller than the size of my thumb), and even to a small extent, the scallops all blended together in terms of taste.
The hamachi carpaccio was just ok (too sweet). The agedashi tofu was flat out bad. The Japanese burger was only Japanese because of a slice of daikon and hambagu meat (questionable flavor), but had old lettuce and a stale bun.
All this (with a small bottle of $ 15 sake) came to over $ 35/person…and I left still hungry. This place is expensive and not particularly good. Maybe you could come for some drinks (the flavored sake pitchers were cheap) and a few small bites, but I wouldn’t come here expecting a full meal. It’s unfortunate as the space is nice, there is a good vibe with a DJ, and Chicago really lacks a true izakaya (Oysy and Kamehachi are definitely not despite their claims). But I would much rather go to Mizu for yakitori and hike uptown to Chiyo for shabu shabu. If I had to come here, I’d spend my money downstairs in Sushi Taiyo.

I love this place. The food was great and the drinks were top notch. What more can you want in a restaurant? I will be back!