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• CU Hidden Treasure: Sushi Kame

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Of all of the overlooked treasures nestled in CU, my new favorite is a restaurant in downtown Champaign — Sushi Kame, located at 123 W. Church St. Right next door to the Boardman’s Art Theatre, this little gem unassumingly provides the best Japanese food I have had in CU since I moved here three years ago. Yet every time I’ve had the pleasure of eating at Sushi Kame, the dining room is empty except for maybe two or three other occupied tables. That is a real shame too since the authenticity of the cuisine at Sushi Kame blows places such as Ko Fusion far out of the water.

Upon entering the restaurant, my date and I were greeted by the waitstaff and the sushi chef, whom you see right as you enter the establishment. The dining room was lit dimly, which gave the restaurant a warm, cozy feeling — great for the last weeks of winter. The walls are a deep rust color accompanied with paper lanterns and traditional Japanese artwork. The atmosphere of Sushi Kame fuses modern with traditional — it’s comfortably classic and fashionably chic.

My date and I wasted no time delving into a menu that offers 24 appetizers, 10 salads, 11 entrees, 6 noodle dishes, 16 sushi platters, 10 dinner boxes, 5 different donburi (a stew dish served in a large bowl), and over 52 single sushi rolls called maki mono, including a create-your-own option. The menu is complete with several high-end sakes, red, white and sparkling wines and a traditional Japanese dessert menu.

To start the night off right, we ordered sweet sake called matsumoto. At Sushi Kame, the sakes come in two sizes: small for $10 and large for $20. We got the large, which pours about eight cups of sake in traditional sake serving sizes. Since this was higher-end sake, the waitress suggested we have it chilled instead of warm so the flavor of the rice wine was not altered. This sake was fantastic. It had a very smooth taste and finish and hinted slightly of vanilla. It was one of the best I’ve ever tried.

For an appetizer, my date ordered three sushi rolls — an unagi (eel), kaki (oyster) and hotatega (spicy scallops). He said that the unagi was his favorite as the rice was a bit sweet and the eel had a very creamy texture to it. He said the kaki was pretty tasteless, and the hotatega had a slight fish flavor, but overall they were good. I ordered shrimp tempura, $5.50, for an appetizer, which came with two giant shrimps and several tempura vegetables. The shrimp were buttery and delicious, and the crunch of the light breading was nearly perfect.

For the entrees, I had the steak teriyaki, $16.95, which came with a side salad with house ginger dressing, miso soup and choice of fried, white or brown rice. I chose fried rice. My date ordered the tonkatsu bento box, $12.99, which was a huge meal consisting of Japanese pork cutlets, 6 California sushi rolls, shrimp and veggie tempura, miso soup, a side salad and choice of rice. Basically, what we ended up with was a giant amount of food that would be impossible to finish in one sitting.

The steak in the teriyaki was amazingly tender, and the fried rice was very fresh. The flavor was simply delicious. This is by far the best teriyaki I’ve ever had. My date said his brown rice tasted a bit like oatmeal and that the breaded pork cutlets were good but nothing to write home about. He did enjoy the ginger dressing that came on the salads. It had a savory flavor with a strong, fresh ginger taste.

Being entirely too full for dessert, we passed it up, although I wish I would have left room for the green tea ice cream. Even though we didn’t get dessert, two small slices of watermelon came complimentary after the meal, which was a nice finish to a great dining experience. Perhaps the best part about Sushi Kame is the fact that we walked out of there with two more meals — the portions are huge, the service is great and the food is definitely worth the trip off campus.