It’s owned by Billy Dec, who also owns Rockit and The Underground and is a celeb magnet. So popular that he supposedly dated Jen from The Bachelorette.
Naturally, the TNDC was curious. Neha was finally able to make a dinner, and this was her pick. Alyssa was wining and dining her husband in honor of his birthday, so she was not in attendance.
The Trib named Sunda, 110 W. Illinois, one of its top 10 celebrity hangout spots in 2010. The cast of “Glee” ate there last week after their concert at the Allstate Arena. The Tribune also lists the following celebs as frequenters: Miami Heat’s LeBron James, New York Yankees’ Derek Jeter and San Francisco 49ers legend Joe Montana, actors Vince Vaughn, John Cusack, Colin Farrell, Jeremy Piven, Channing Tatum, Josh Duhamel, Jared Leto, Leighton Meester, Jason Statham, Patrick Dempsey, David Schwimmer, Kate Walsh, Lea Michele and Cory Monteith, singers Fergie and Kesha, rapper Common, rock bands Green Day and Soundgarden, the Bears’ Jay Cutler, the Blackhawks’ Patrick Kane and reality TV star Nicole Richie.
On this particular day, it was about 95 degrees in the city. A sweltering, rainforest-like heat wave had blanketed Chicagoland and it proved quite uncomfortable and sticky.
Neha and I decided to cool off at Rockit, 22 W. Hubbard, which ended up being an unfortunate experience. I got there first and was told even though the rest of the restaurant was empty I could only sit in the bar area, which was filled with tall, two-seater tables. We had three, but I did not argue (the heat must have really gotten to me). I waited about five minutes and did not receive any type of drink menu. Then Neha arrived, aghast at the seating arrangements. She asked the hostess if we could sit at a larger table, and she said we should just pull up another chair if we had a third. Grrr. Again, no drink menu. Nobody came over. So we left.
We headed over to Hub 51, 51 W. Hubbard, where a similar experience ensued. Nobody came over! We really began to wonder whether we stank. So we had to walk up to the bar and order our drinks. Tres annoying.
Meghan joined us and the three of us determined we were STARVING so we headed over to Sunda early to order an appetizer while we waited for Amy. We decided on two orders of the Sticky-Icky Rice, which is steamed sweet rice with chicken, mushrooms, water chestnuts and chives wrapped in lotus leaves. It came out in covered bamboo containers, and you unwrapped the lotus leaves to find a thick patty of rice underneath. It looked weird. And once you cut it open, it still looked weird with little chicken bits inside. But it was soooo good. Rice was perfect amount of stickiness, and if you dipped it into the soy sauce, mmmmm. I don’t really have any sophisticated adjectives to describe this dish, it was just freakin’ good.
Amy only eats “fake” sushi, which apparently also includes tempura style sushi so she ordered two rolls. Meghan ordered the “Shaking” Beef, which was “wok-seared beef filet, greens and lime-pepper dipping sauce. She described it as “shish-kabob-style beef” and seemed to enjoy it.
Neha and I decided to split four sushi rolls so we got a rainbow roll, a spicy tuna roll, a hand roll with crab, shrimp tempura, salmon, and spicy tuna and the stuffed avocado, what we thought was a roll. The food came out on four plates and Ne looked at me and said “Kel, what did we order?” The rainbow roll and the spicy tuna roll were standard sushi. The hand roll looked like a wrap, cut in half. The stuffed avocado was not, in fact, a roll but it really was an avocado, stuffed with tuna. It. Was. Delish. The tuna was diced and shaved into little pieces and stuffed inside a perfectly ripe avacado. I highly recommend. The hand roll was OK-Neha liked it better than I did. The other rolls were good too. But given the price of the meal (mine and Neha’s bill was $72 each), I should have been stuffed to the brim and wanting to sleep with the owner for the deliciousness. We felt like we could get just as good of sushi at a cheaper restaurant (South Coast-what what!)
We each graded the meal. Meghan was the most generous with an A-. I believe Amy gave it a B+ and Neha and I decided that while our meal was good, the price to goodness ratio warranted a flat B.
I think Sunda is a great place to have a drink and some appetizers with friends. But if you’re looking for sushi, I can recommend a number of other places with just as good if not better sushi for a better price.
And no, we did not see any celebrities. I looked.
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