Chicago Eats - Slurping Turtle

After waiting for what seemed like months (oh wait, it was months), Slurping Turtle (116 W. Hubbard) finally opened its doors to the dining public on Monday. Because of the long wait and anticipation, some of us decided to go for both lunch and dinner. Turns out they actually have a different menu for both times, so our crazy decision turned out to be not so crazy. As some may surmise from the name, Slurping Turtle has a focus on Japanese style noodles like ramen. But they also have a sashimi bar, japanese style tapas, a bincho grill, bento boxes (only at lunch!), and various rice dishes, which are also predominantly served at lunch. I'm pretty sure we ordered 75% of the menu between two meals, so here's a look:

Noodle Dishes:

Tori Ramen - egg noodles, clear sea-salt broth, organic grilled chicken, soft boiled egg, bok choy

Slurping Noodles - rice noodles, bok choy, cilantro, black tiger shrimp

The Tori ramen (chicken) was the favorite of the night. Everything from the broth to the noodles were the best. With that said, the Shoyu ramen (egg noodles, classic Tokyo style soy broth, braised pork shoulder) had the same noodles, but something just seemed off about the broth - almost like it was unbalanced. Unfortunately, no pics taken of the Shoyu ramen, sorry! The table agreed - we didn't really enjoy the Slurping Noodles as much, and they were the least favorite of the meals.

Sashimi Bar and Hot Tapas:

The sashimi and hot tapas were probably my favorite thing at the Slurping Turtle:

Left: duck fat fried dark meat chicken. Right: pork belly snacks

My two favorite hot tapas! I really liked the flavoring of the breading on the duck fat fried chicken. HOWEVER, one of the girls at lunch noticed that her first piece was overcooked, but her second piece was cooked just right. As I finished my two pieces, I noted the same thing. After some deliberation, we came to the conclusion that the problem is that they fry bone-in and boneless pieces of meat at the same time. Usually, meat with the bone-in will tend to cook a bit slower as compared to boneless meat. Our theory was supported since the wings with the bone were moist and delicious, whereas the thigh meat (no bones) was dry, but still pretty tasty.

The favorite dish of the day AND night? The pork belly snacks. Pork belly, it can do no wrong. Since it's generally so hard to cook, most restaurants either have to cook it right, or not serve it at all. Luckily, Takashi cooks this one right and with the spicy mustard, was a joy to eat. I could go for a few more of these right now...

Lobster Corn Dog

"A waste of lobster." Yep.

Yuke Tataki

This is an asian-style beef tartare mixed with a spicy-sweet chili paste with a quail egg thrown on top. I thought this was delicious. It wasn't too spicy as the main taste sensation was sweetness to me. Something about beef tartare really speaks to me. I would get this again the next time I come back.

Tartare of Hamachi in a Taro Root Taco

The hamachi tartare taco was good, but I did taste a hint of truffle oil. I feel like truffle oil + fish is a bad combination only because the truffle oil overpowers the fish. However, they seemed to be very conservative in their use of the truffle oil, so the dish wasn't overwhelmed. Good, but not the best in class for the sashimi bar.

Ceviche of Baby Octopus, Hokkaido Scallops, Shrimp, Squid in a Yuzu Ceviche Dressing

I love ceviche. I even made some before (I could use some more practice). I appreciated the various seafood in this dish, and the dressing was mild, allowing the flavors of said seafood to shine through. I would recommend this dish to everyone. What's not to like in this one?

Bento Box: (lunch only)

Bento box - sashimi, shrimp and veggie tempura, braised short rib, spring roll, dumpling, mushroom miso soup, rice

Look at all that food! Sashimi, tempura, salad, soup! It's no wonder why I love bento boxes. But, I was a bit disappointed with the short rib - the quality of the meat was sub-par, fatty, and tough. Everything else was good, but nothing that really stood out besides the sashimi. Essentially everything was average for a good bento box. But at $15 for essentially 3 orders of sashimi that would normally account for around $10, I think there's good value with this dish.

Bincho Grill:

We only got a few things off of the bincho (coal) grill - pictured above are the wagyushyu (wagyu or kobe beef) salmon skewers. We also got a chicken thigh (pic didn't turn out). The chicken thigh was probably the best since it was juicy and delicate. Plus, dark meat is the best meat! I thought they overcooked the wagyushyu and I didn't think it was worth the $10 asking price (most skewers are $3-6). The salmon was your typical salmon; nothing special, but nothing bad. Both the salmon and chicken had a teriyaki style glaze, whereas the beef had a milder sauce. They have quite the assortment of meats for the bincho grill, and I'd be willing to try more of them next time. Some are more reasonably priced than others.

Desserts:

Macaroons, Cream Puff, Custard Pudding with Madeleine, Sea Salt Ice Cream

• Macaroons: I'm not much of a macaroon fan, but I enjoyed these. The best was that pink/red one - raspberry-wasabi. So good, so unique. The ones flanking the outsides were kumquat, a bit too sweet for me. The plain white one was a caramel one, good but not outstanding IMO. The one with the green flecks was green tea, which was pretty mild but had enough flavor to stand on its own.
• Cream puff: this one was coconut, and I had a green tea cream puff at dinner. I liked these the most out of our desserts.
• Custard pudding: The custard pudding was basically flan. Flan = thumbs down in my world. However, the green tea Madeleine was awesome. I wish they sold those separately.
• Sea salt ice cream: This really delivered on the name. It was supposed to be served as soft-serve, but our server told us the machine was broken so they made ice cream instead. We all felt like this was a bit too concentrated, and perhaps the change from soft-serve to ice cream was accountable for that? Either way, it wasn't the best thing we had. 

Overall, I'm happy that Slurping Turtle opened up, but there was a lot of hype that surrounded its opening. Maybe expectations were set a bit high because I didn't leave feeling like I HAD to come back to this place. But it's a good addition to the River North 'hood, and another option that's open fairly late. But the next time I come back, I'll stick to the sashimi bar and hot tapas.