Starting December 22 we’re giving away unique dining experiences. Each day features a different offering – that’s 10 special gifts as we say goodbye to 2011. We’ll announce the daily giveaway on our Twitter account @rokaakorchi.
Entering is as simple as following Roka Akor Chicago on Twitter and then clicking here to tweet the daily giveaway message. You can enter once per day per account, so get tweeting!
For every dish created at Roka Akor, there is a story that exists behind it. This is the story of the man behind the food. Roka Akor’s head chef, Chef Ce Bian was born in China and raised in London. Spending much of his youth in his family-owned restaurant, Ce Bian learned the ins and outs of restaurants at a young age. What started as jobs to help pay for his education from Wales University, eventually turned into his dream career.
Ce Bian’s culinary background is worldly and extensive. His first job was working under Chef John Torode of Smiths of Smithfield in London’s meat market. He continued to broaden his knowledge of European cuisine in the years to follow. In 2002, Ce Bian met Chef Colin Clague, opening chef of Zuma. It was this partnership that paved the way to his love for Japanese cuisine. Ce Bian spent the following eight years in London working with chefs such as Nic Watt and Yoshi Muranaka while opening restaurants for the Rainer Becker.
Although Ce Bian considered London his second home, he eventually left to become a supporting team member for Roka Akor in Scottsdale, Arizona and helped continue to elevate the sushi and robata grill technique. Upon moving to Chicago in 2011, Ce Bian looks forward to experiencing another city in the United States and learning about its culture and history.
Join us and experience Chef Ce Bian’s renowned creations today at Roka Akor Chicago. Click here to reserve a table online.
As we begin our descent into the winter months, Roka Akor has created savory dishes that will please your palate for the holiday season.
Check out our decadent New Year’s Eve dinner menu!
Click here to make your reservation to try our fabulous winter menu items. For a limited time only.
The holiday season is fast approaching. In anticipation of holiday gatherings, Roka Akor has created a special holiday menu that can accommodate small intimate gatherings and large-scale sophisticated parties. Spend an evening with us as we treat your guests to an eclectic evening of culinary excellence.
Roka Akor’s private rooms, featuring natural and creative beauty with a minimalistic elegance, offer the perfect setting for any holiday gathering. The restaurant features several flexible options for group events, which include a chic, intimate dining area that seats 18 people; the main private dining room that accommodates up to 48 guests and features a private bar; the Shochu Lounge, a fabulous setting for a holiday cocktail hour; and a full buy-out of the restaurant for a large gathering of up to 260 people.
You are invited to customize a menu that suits your party’s needs, ranging from Roka Akor’s signature Omakase Menu – offering a personalized tasting of all of the premium in-house items including the freshest sushi and sashimi, signature appetizers and grilled prime steak and seafood – to a three- or six-course luncheon, or an assortment of appetizer and cocktail spreads, among many other options. Roka Akor’s event design planners will ensure every private party is a seamless and unforgettable dining experience.
Roka Akor will be open for normal business hours on Wednesday, November 23 and Saturday, December 24, but will be closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Reservations can be made by calling (312) 477-7652. Not ready to plan a holiday party? Click here to reserve one of Roka Akor’s many beautiful spaces for lunch or dinner.
Roka Akor Chicago was thrilled to participate in Breast Cancer Awareness month by creating a special drink menu and a nightly silent auction for Omakase for two in the month of October. The Roka Akor Chicago team strongly supports the cause and as a result of the generous contributions of our guests, we were able to raise over $6,000 in donations to support the American Cancer Society.
Roka Akor raised funds for breast cancer awareness, education and programs within the Chicago area by promoting our special “Think Pink” drink menu created by our talented mixology staff, a partnership with Champagne House of Laurent-Perrier. The “Think Pink” cocktails included a Pink Pomegranate Shochu, the “Pink Ribbon”, and the “Beat It” cocktail. We also featured a special on Cuvee Rose Brut champagne, where portions of glasses and bottles sold were donated to the cause.
Additionally, each night during the month of October, Roka Akor auctioned an Omakase dinner for Two, a special chef-created menu where guests enjoy a one-of-a-kind multi-course dining experience. All proceeds from the auction went directly to American Cancer Society for Breast Cancer Awareness.
The American Cancer Society is dedicated to creating a world with less cancer and more birthdays. But helping create these birthdays has taken hard work — decades of scientific research, advocacy, patient support, and much more. Thanks in part to the work of the American Cancer Society, 11 million cancer survivors will celebrate another birthday this year. Roka Akor proudly supports the cause and is thankful to have the great support of our customers to make such a great contribution.
Think sake is a spirit or a kind of wine? Think it has to be consumed warm? Think again. We’re here to debunk a few popular myths about the Japanese alcoholic drink.
MYTH: Sake has a massively high alcohol content.
TRUTH: The exact proportion varies depending on the brewer, but the typical percentage is 16% or so. That’s higher than wine, but not by much, and way lower than typical top-shelf spirits.
MYTH: Sake is a kind of spirit or wine.
TRUTH: Sake is often described as “rice wine”, which is inaccurate, and sometimes compared to spirits because of its appearance and perceived strength. In production terms, it’s actually more like beer than anything else, but still so distinct that grouping it together with other western-oriented alcoholic drink categories is fairly pointless.
MYTH: Sake should be served warm or hot.
TRUTH: Sake should be served slightly colder than room temperature, so no long-term refrigeration or heating is necessary.
MYTH: Sake should be consumed from shot glasses.
TRUTH: In a Japanese context, the key rule is that you shouldn’t top up your own drink. The spirit should be sipped to enjoy the flavor, rather than shot like tequila.
Wondering where to start ? Here’s our list of the best sake Chicago has to offer.
Since we’ve shared the best sake Chicago has to offer, Roka Akor wants to introduce you to shochu – a distilled spirit that is ubiquitous in Japan. Not widely known in the States, shochu outsells sake in its homeland, and can even be purchased from street vending machines.
With an alcohol content generally averaging 25 percent, shochu can be made and distilled from any number of starches including buckwheat, barley, rice and even brown sugar. The spirit provides different taste profiles depending on which starch is used in it’s creation. The palate may read it as similar to vodka, gin or tequila, although it is lower than all of these in both proof and calories- shochu has about 1/3rd the calories of an equal amount of vodka.
Roka Akor is currently offering seven varieties of shochu, with flavors including blueberry, pineapple and mango-chile. As we head into the Fall and Winter season, we will be adding seasonal options including fig and spiced apple. The infusions are served over ice that is freshly chipped from an ultra-pure 60-pound-block custom ordered for the restaurant.
Join us today and enjoy the fresh cherry and black peppercorn Manhattan, mixed with house-infused cherry-peppercorn shochu with Punt e Mes vermouth, Angostura bitters and cherry syrup.
At Roka Akor we take our sake seriously. We’ve made it our mission to bring rare and hard to find brands to Chicago for your tippling pleasure. The best sake in the world is now available in River North.
Here’s the lowdown on five sake brands you won’t find anywhere else in Chicago.
Azure
We love this stuff. In fact, Roka Akor is the only restaurant in the state of Illinois who carries it. Shipped directly from Japan, our working relationship with Azure allows us to carry this rare gem at all of our restaurants worldwide.
Chikurin Junmai Ginjo Organic
Yet another sake you can’t imbibe anywhere else in Chicago (starting to see a parttern here?) by the glass, it’s the only EU and USDA certified organic sake. That means a start to finish process of starting with estate grown organic rice and sake production and ending in your hand at Roka Akor.
Kenbishi
Japan is an old country and they adore tradition. Kenbishi is one of those special alcohols that have been produced the same way by the same brewing masters for six hundred years. That’s right: it’s the oldest brand of sake in Japan, and we’re serving it for you buy the glass.
Watari Bune
Rare means hard to get. Watari Bune might have taken the idea of a “limited run” too far… Made from a thought to be extinct sake rice that was rediscovered from 28 grams of seedlings and brought back into production Watari Bune is the sake that almost never was.
No. 9
When top shelf sake is made each grain of rice is polished down to the best inner morsels. No. 9 is produced from the highest polished rice in the world. Amazingly, fewer than 400 bottles remain in existence due to the devastating 2011 Japanese Tsunami. While the producer has vowed to rebuild, it will take years. In the mean time we’re holding a bottle or three behind the bar at Roka Akor Chicago.
Mention this blog post in the Sake and Shochu Lounge and we’ll put together a special off-the-menu sake flight with some of our best offerings.
Good news for Midwest-based fans of Roka Akor: you no longer have to fly to Arizona to get your sushi fix! This week, Roka opened a new location (alongside sister restaurant Bombay Spice) in Chicago’s chic River North neighborhood, resulting in plenty of buzz from the local media. Monday’s grand opening event was a huge success, with over 500 satisfied attendees.
The Chicago outpost has much in common with the Roka you know and love, with some exciting additions. The dazzling dining room features tall windows that let in an abundance of natural light, illuminating the wood and glass that fills the restaurant’s interior. The wine room, enclosed by a stunning glass wall, is home to an extensive selection of international wines, carefully selected to pair with Roka’s cuisine. Shochu infusions make an appearance as well, crafted specially for the restaurant using fruits, spices, ginger and honey to be consumed alone or mixed into cocktails. Exciting new flavors include mango and chili, black cherry and pepper, and coconut and ginger. Bartender Dante LoPresti has expanded on the cocktail list of the Scottsdale location to include original libations such as his signature creation “THE ONE,” featuring Bombay Sapphire Gin, junmai sake, Del Maguey Vida Mezcal, housemade kombu-infused soy syrup, ginger, fresh lemon juice and a lemon peel garnish.
The menu will feature all of Roka Akor’s classic dishes, as well as many new items including roasted king crab with chili lime butter and fresh cucumber, beef tataki with shaved black truffle and truffle jus, and robata-grilled chicken wings with sancho salt and lime. Chef Ce Bian will offer an omakase menu, allowing guests to leave the fate of their meal in his capable hands.
Whether you live in Chicago, have friends there, or plan to visit soon, you won’t be disappointed by Roka’s 111 W. Illinois St. location. If you happen to be in the neighborhood, make your reservation by calling
(312) 477-7652 or clicking here. We look forward to your visit!
