Updated October 2026. A Friday night sushi dinner for five at Wu’s House on Rand Road in Kildeer, with friends and without the kids. The bill is at the bottom.
We walked into Wu’s House in Kildeer on a Friday night with a couple of friends, five of us in all, and the first thing that hits you is the size of the place. Tall ceilings, a lobby with lanterns and paper umbrellas hanging overhead, a samurai suit in a glass case, a cherry blossom tree growing up through a dining room. Honestly, it felt like we had walked into one of those huge restaurants in Las Vegas.
Here is the thing, though. Sushi is at least 75% of the restaurants we go to, so we have a lot to compare it to. And on the drive home we landed in the same spot. Google has Wu’s House at 4.3 stars, and Vika said it best: a four star rating is something she can get behind. The rolls are big and the cocktail was a genuine surprise, but there was way too much sauce, the fish was hard to tell apart, and every dine in check gets an 18% service fee added.
Wu’s House Kildeer is huge, because it used to be a grocery store
The size makes sense once you know the building used to be a grocery store. There is a sushi side, a hibachi side, a bar and a couple of big dining rooms, and the whole thing has a big parking lot out front. If you have a party of 15 people, it would fit easily. Twenty, easily.
The room is nice, modern and decorated, but I would not call it anything special. Vika said it looked very kid friendly, and I agree. This is a place where you could show up in sweatpants and nobody would blink.
The hibachi side sounded like a party, the sushi side was quiet
We did not do hibachi, we just did sushi. But you can hear the hibachi side from the other room, and it sounded like they were beating drums in there. It sounded like a good time was going on, and Vika could see it being fun for kids, or a bigger group that wants some entertainment with dinner. That simply was not us that night.
On the sushi side it was the opposite. There was no music, or it was soft enough that the five of us could sit there and have a conversation without anybody having to yell. When we sat down there were a few other tables. By the end of the evening, it was literally just our table in this super spacious room. As Vika put it, you kind of just get lost in there. I can see it getting very loud on a full night, especially near the hibachi, since that is probably the part that fills up first.
What we ordered at Wu’s House, three rolls and a lot of sauce
Vika and I split three rolls: the Spicy Scallop Roll, the Black Thunder Roll and the SK Bomb Roll. I had a Tsingtao, and Vika had a Sidecar.
The first thing I will say is the rolls were not small. Every single roll at our table, basic or special, was a decent amount of food, including our friends’ Naruto roll, which comes wrapped in cucumber and is six pieces. Sometimes you go somewhere, you pay a lot, and the rolls are tiny. That was not the case here.
The Spicy Scallop Roll could have been almost anything spicy
This is where my all you can eat comparison comes in. The spicy scallop was minced and mixed with a lot of tempura crunch as filler. If you had handed me a spicy tuna, a spicy salmon, a spicy scallop or a spicy crab made like this, I think I would have said, sure, they taste a little different, but I could not tell you which one was which.
And that is exactly the feeling you get at an all you can eat place. You are not really sure which fish you are eating, but if they call it spicy something, it all tastes pretty similar. So my honest take is that the quality was like a very good all you can eat sushi restaurant, and Vika agreed with me on that.
The rice was fine. It was fresh, and on the Spicy Scallop Roll you could actually taste it, and it was fine. It did not stand out in either direction, which I would count as a win, because we have been to places we have written about, like Furinkazan in Des Plaines, where the rice was the problem.
Too much sauce, and it covered up the fish
If I had to pick one thing to knock Wu’s House for, it is the sauce. Two of our rolls, the Black Thunder and the SK Bomb, were drenched in it, and it was leaking onto the base of the Spicy Scallop Roll too. The Black Thunder is shrimp tempura and avocado topped with spicy tuna, tobiko, eel sauce and the chef’s special sauce. The SK Bomb is tempura crabstick and avocado, topped with shrimp, masago, spicy mayo and eel sauce. Both came out swimming.
Now, I actually like sauce. But I like sauce on my sushi, not my sushi with my sauce, and this was a little bit of the second one. It reminded me of Butterfly Sushi for that reason, where it is hard to taste the actual roll under everything on top of it. Vika was 100% on board with me there.
To be fair, the sauces themselves were tasty. The eel sauce was good, and Vika gave the spicy mayo a four out of five. I agree with her, I could not find anything wrong with it. And I guess you could argue it either way, because sometimes a sauce like that is covering up something that would not taste good on its own. With this much of it, we just don’t know.
The Sidecar was the best part of the meal
I did not expect to be writing this, but Vika’s Sidecar was the best part of the meal. She was shocked it was good, because a cocktail at a sushi place out in the suburbs normally does not do much for her. I tasted it, and I am telling you, it was good.
Good, but you pay for it. More on that at the bottom.
What our friends ordered
Our friends got an appetizer that was a sort of tuna tower: avocado, spicy tuna and seaweed salad layered together, red and black tobiko on top and a ponzu sauce underneath. Size wise it was great. Vika had debated ordering it for us, but with three rolls between the two of us she thought it would be too much food. I did not get a picture of it, unfortunately.
Funny enough, the first thing to hit our table was not the appetizer. It was one of our friends’ rolls, the Naruto, the one wrapped in cucumber with the fish inside. It came out before anybody else’s food, even before the tuna tower appetizer she had ordered, and then the rest of the food started coming out shortly after.
One friend had their crazy noodles, which were rather tasty. Another had the pad thai noodles, and those were ketchup forward. Vika would certainly not be inclined to order those.
Service was hit or miss
I thought the service was good enough. Vika would call it hit or miss, and she has a point. Our server had a hard time following what we were trying to order, and Vika ended up pointing at everything on the menu, starting with her cocktail and then every roll. One of our friends had the same thing happen. I did not have that problem with my beer.
On the plus side, the restaurant sent out one plate of edamame for the five of us, on the house.
Would we bring Josh and Emily to Wu’s House?
The kids were not with us this time, so this is our read rather than their verdict. We would certainly be okay bringing them here. It is very kid friendly, there is plenty of room, and the hibachi side might be fun for kids.
Whether they would love the sushi is another question. Vika is not sure it is the type of sushi they gravitate toward. That said, we did not order the rolls they usually get, so I would not count it out.
Is Wu’s House a date night spot?
For us, no. This is not a put on something nice and go out on a date kind of restaurant. For lunch, absolutely, go grab some lunch. For a casual dinner when you just want to grab something, sure. For a date night, I would not recommend it.
If we wanted sushi and pad thai on a night out, I would go to Sushi Plus Thai by Sensei in Palatine. It is about the same drive for us, the sushi is tastier, and it has a very different feeling, especially when it is just the two of us. I would put it much higher than this place, and Vika completely agrees.
Our verdict on Wu’s House Kildeer
I would give it a solid four out of five. Not a wow, but a solid four. The rolls are big, the room is enormous and great for a group, the sushi side is quiet enough to talk, and the Sidecar was legitimately good. The downsides are the sauce covering up the fish, rolls that taste a lot like each other, and a bill that felt slightly overpriced for what you get.
Would we come back? Yes, I would come back again, no problem. Vika put it well: she would not make a point of coming back, but if we want sushi and somewhere nearby like Tsukasa is closed, sure, let’s go to Wu’s House. Some places you go to and think, why would we ever come back when there are better places closer to home. This is not one of those. It is good enough for what it is.
What dinner at Wu’s House cost
Our check, for the two of us, came to $97.17. That was the Sidecar at $19, a Tsingtao at $7, the Spicy Scallop Roll at $12.99, the Black Thunder Roll at $19.99 and the SK Bomb Roll at $17.99, for a $76.97 subtotal, plus $6.35 in tax and a $13.85 service charge.
The Spicy Scallop Roll is a good example of why it felt overpriced. We have had a lot of spicy scallop rolls lately, and at other places they have cost less than this. Considering how much tempura filler was in this one, $12.99 is overpriced. The Sidecar stands out too. Good as it was, $19 is a pretty hefty price for a cocktail out here.
The thing to know before you go is that service charge. Wu’s House charges an 18% service fee on every dine in check, not just big parties. There is a lit sign inside that says so, and it shows up on the receipt as its own line.
Put the fee together with sushi that tastes like a very good all you can eat place, and that is why it felt slightly overpriced to me.
Wu’s House Kildeer location, hours and parking
Address. 20771 N Rand Rd, Unit A, Kildeer, Illinois 60047.
Phone. (224) 662-4559.
Hours. Their website lists Monday through Thursday 11:30 am to 9:30 pm, Friday and Saturday 11:30 am to 10:30 pm, and Sunday noon to 9:00 pm, and says hours are subject to change, so call ahead.
Parking. A big parking lot right out front.
Service fee. 18% on all dine in checks.
The address and phone number are from our receipt. The hours come from the Wu’s House website, which lists one set of hours for its locations.
Does Wu’s House Kildeer charge a service fee?
Yes. There is an 18% service fee on all dine in customers, posted on a sign inside and printed on the receipt as a service charge. It was on our check for two, so it is not only for large parties.
Does Wu’s House Kildeer have hibachi?
Yes, there is a separate hibachi side. We only did sushi, so we cannot tell you about the food, but from the other room it sounded loud and like a lot of fun.
Is Wu’s House good for families and large groups?
Yes on both. The space is huge, a party of 15 or 20 would fit easily, it looks very kid friendly, and there is a big parking lot. We would be okay bringing our kids, though we are not sure the sushi is what they would order.
Is Wu’s House a good date night restaurant?
Not for us. It is casual enough that sweatpants would be fine, and the room is so big you kind of get lost in it. It is a better fit for lunch, a casual dinner or a group.
How much is sushi at Wu’s House Kildeer?
Our three rolls were $12.99, $17.99 and $19.99, a Sidecar was $19 and a Tsingtao $7. With tax and the 18% service charge, the check for the two of us came to $97.17.
Is the sushi at Wu’s House Kildeer good?
It is good, not great. I would compare it to a very good all you can eat sushi restaurant: big rolls, fresh rice, tasty sauces, but a lot of sauce and spicy fillings that are hard to tell apart. We gave it a solid four out of five.
More sushi from the northwest suburbs: Sushi Plus Thai by Sensei in Palatine, Kaido in Arlington Heights, Black Pearl in Glenview and e Sushi, our all you can eat pick in Mount Prospect.
This article is not sponsored. The restaurant comped one plate of edamame for our table of five. Nothing else was comped, and we didn’t tell them we were going to write about them. Prices come from the itemized receipt on the night.
