I’ve gone past the Sea Ranch Seafood in Evanston (518 Dempster Street, 847-492-8340) a few hundred times without even looking in. I figured it was an expensive high quality fish place that I shouldn’t tempt myself with. I poked in yesterday to look around and grabbed some quick sushi.
It has refrigerated cases with pre-cut and whole sushi-grade fish, a freezer with Japanese frozen packages of dumplings and things, a few shelves of the kinds of dishware, condiments, snacks and candies you’d find in Mitsuwa, and a deli-style sushi counter with six little tables. The pre-packaged stuff looked beautiful, including sizable lumps of uni, hunks of yellowtail and thick octopus arms. The sushi prices are reasonable, and there’s a good variety of the tame to the daring (i.e. uni). I had the spicy eel avocado, and my lunchmate had the Wisconsin Roll (sour cream, smoked salmon). Both were very tasty. While I can’t properly review the place without trying more (especially the raw stuff) everything seemed fresh and they were doing a brisk business, a required sign of a good source of fish.
Spicy Eel Avocado roll.
Wisconsin Roll.
It’s nice to know I have a mini-Mitsuwa right up the street. You never know when I need to run out and get some fresh uni.