Sunda

110 W. Illinois St.

Chicago, IL 60654

312.644.0500

www.sundachicago.com

twitter.com/sunda

Parking: $12 Valet

Days: Mon-Fri

Times: 5-7pm

Drink Deals: $9 Featured Daily Cocktail

Food Deals: $2.5-$9 Appetizers and Sushi Rolls

Sunda is surely one of the hottest spots in Chicago. If you do a quick google search for this New Asian cuisine restaurant in River North, you will find just as much written about the celebrity sightings, as you will find about the food.  Surprisingly, they also have a Happy Hour called Sunda Social.

To kill some time before a Women in Film networking event, I popped into Sunda for a Happy Hour meal.  I found the place to be quite happening for 5:30pm, so much so that I ended up sitting at an awkward corner of the bar. My seat wasn’t quite a table but an odd shaped addition to the bar already in place. Regardless of the weird seating, the bartender was nice enough to come from around the bar to hand me a menu. Busy as the scene was, I really appreciated the gesture.

There is plenty of beer, wine, and cocktail options at Sunda, but for Happy Hour there is only one featured cocktail daily for $9.  On my Thursday visit, the featured cocktail was Kabuki Crush. The cocktail is made with Grey Goose vodka, raspberry puree, lime juice, plum bitters, & calamansi spice; served up in a martini glass. The Kabuki Crush was delicious and popular throughout the bar.  I’m always into a cocktail when fruit puree is included!  I would have loved to see a couple of the cocktails from the long drink menu listed on special, too.  Non-Happy Hour cocktails run $13-14.

I wish I had visited Sunda at a less busy time so I had a better opportunity to learn more about the food from the staff. When inquiring about popular dishes to help make a selection, I was just told “everything is good.”  I’m sure that it is, but there has to be some dishes more popular than others.  I decided to start with the Spicy “Tail of Two Tunas” roll ($8), a spicy tuna roll topped with super white tuna.  The two tunas were tasty but it was the Sunda Poke ($7) that really excited my taste buds.  The poke is served atop crispy wontons and garnished with two sauces not listed on the menu description.  I believe one to be a wasabi mayo, but whatever they were, it made the meal.

While the food and drink were on point at Sunda, I may not be returning anytime soon unless Sugar Daddy was to take me. A solo Happy Hour ran me about the cost of two normal Happy Hours, even more so than Beverly Hills Happy Hours. Reservations definitely recommended.

-JG

Rating: 3.5 Martinis