Mount Prospect, IL · Sushi · Date Night · Around $75 for Two
There is a new sushi bar in downtown Mount Prospect, and the chef behind it used to work at Nobu. That is the kind of detail that makes me want to go before the rest of the neighborhood figures it out. Deba Sushi Bar opened about three weeks ago in the old Patina Wine Bar space on Prospect Avenue, and Vika and I grabbed a table on the patio one warm evening to see what it is actually like. The short version: the fundamentals are here, the fish and the rice are dialed in, and a few of the finishing touches are still settling into place. For a spot that is three weeks old, that is a pretty good place to be.
This article is not sponsored. We paid for everything ourselves, and we didn’t tell the restaurant we were going to write about them.
The room is modern and relaxed, a little more grown up than your average suburban sushi spot. There is a big chandelier over the dining room, a mountain mural along one wall, and that patio out front that was exactly the right call on a warm night. The name comes from the deba, the Japanese knife used to break down whole fish. The chef, Naro Butsaboon, spent years at Nobu in Chicago and Nobu 57 in New York before he and his wife May opened here, and his cooking leans traditional Japanese with a modern Thai twist. So you walk in with your expectations set a little higher than usual. I think that is fair. They set them there themselves.
The Starters: One Hit, One Miss
We started with the mushroom soup, and this is where Vika and I split. It is a dashi forward broth, deep and savory, the kind of umami that coats your whole mouth. I really liked it. Vika found the umami a little much for her, and we both landed on the same note: it was very salty. Not ruined, just salty enough that we said so out loud. If you love a big savory broth, you will be happy here. If salt is something you watch, go in knowing.
The sashimi cup was the letdown of the night. On a menu built around premium fish, this is the dish I most wanted to love, and it just did not come together for me. I am not going to pretend I can tell you exactly why. Maybe it was the fish, maybe it was the way it was seasoned and built in the cup, but it landed flat when everything around it was sharper. At a place where the fish is supposed to be the whole point, that is the one I would want them to take another look at.
The Rolls Are the Reason to Come
The rolls are where Deba earns the Nobu line on the resume. We had three between us, the spicy scallop, the Seafoods Mountain, and the Dragon.
Here is the thing that told me the kitchen knows what it is doing: the rice. It was seasoned, the vinegar came through, and it held together without being a heavy ball under the fish. That is the part a lot of places get wrong, and Deba got it right on the first visit. When the base is that solid, the rest is just tuning.
The spicy scallop roll is a strong one. The scallop is not minced into a paste the way it is at a lot of places. You get actual pieces of scallop, so you taste the scallop, sweet and clean. There is sesame on the outside and masago inside, and the masago was fresh. That sounds like a small thing, but I have had masago elsewhere that tastes faintly of the freezer, and this did not. The crunch and the little pop were both there. For Vika this was almost the pick of the night.
The Seafoods Mountain is the showpiece, a daikon wrapped roll topped with a creamy spicy octopus, and it was my favorite of the three. The octopus was excellent, and it reminded both of us of the spicy sashimi salad at Tsukasa, which is about the highest compliment Vika and I hand out. Vika went back and forth between this and the scallop and landed here too. It is a bigger, six piece roll, so it felt worth it. Maybe a touch high, but you can see exactly where the money went.
The Dragon is where the value wobbled. Spicy shrimp inside with a good crunch, topped with a little eel and a little avocado. It was fine, but not one we would order again, partly because there is plenty else on the menu we want to get to, and partly because of the size. For what showed up on the plate, it ate like a much smaller roll than its price suggested, and Vika and I both said the same thing without prompting each other. Make it a little bigger or price it a little lower and it sits right.
One more thing we kept noticing, and it ties back to the sauces. The spicy mayo was not consistent from dish to dish. On the Seafoods Mountain it was that rich, Tsukasa style spicy mayo we love. On a couple of the other bites it leaned closer to a sweet salad dressing, almost a spicy Thousand Island, than the Japanese style mayo I was expecting. Maybe it is two different sauces, maybe it is how it plays against different fish. Either way, when it was right it was really right, and I would love to see that version on everything.
The Price
I include the price in every food writeup, because most places do not tell you and I think it matters.
For two people sharing a starter and a few rolls, this was a fair night out. On the higher side, but not out of line for sushi this fresh. We didn’t order drinks this time, but scanning the menu, the wine and cocktails ran on the pricier side, so factor that in if you plan to add a round.
What we paid: our total with tax was $74.37. That covered the mushroom soup, the sashimi cup, and three specialty rolls for two.
Would It Work for the Family?
This was a date night for Vika and me, so Josh and Emily were not with us. And here is where I will be straight with you: I would not bring our kids to Deba. Not because of the room or the service. The room is calm, and our server Matt took good care of us. It is the menu. Josh usually goes for a California roll, but he likes it with imitation crab, and Deba uses real crab, so even that is not really his. Emily would be in the same spot, because unless you genuinely like real sushi, there is not a lot else on the menu for her. There is also no kids menu, which is completely fine for the two of us, but if Emily is not in the mood for a roll and wants chicken fingers and fries, that is not an option here. Think of Deba as a date night, or a dinner with friends who are into sushi, and it makes a lot more sense.
The Verdict
Deba Sushi Bar has the bones of a really good sushi restaurant. Fresh fish, rice that is seasoned and handled right, a spicy scallop roll I would order again, and an octopus that holds up against the best sushi we have found out in the suburbs. The misses are real, but they are the kind a three week old kitchen tends to smooth out. A sashimi cup that fell flat. A Dragon roll that does not match its price. A soup that runs salty. A spicy mayo that cannot decide what it wants to be. None of those are fundamentals. They are finishing.
So here is where I land. If you are an adult who likes sushi and you want to try the new spot in downtown Mount Prospect before everyone else does, go. Order the Seafoods Mountain and the spicy scallop, go in knowing the Dragon eats small for the price and the soup runs salty. I think Deba gets better from here, and I would not be surprised if a lot of these notes are gone in a few months.
Want to see the rolls up close? We posted a few shots from this visit on Instagram. Head over to @travelandfoodguy and take a look.
Have you tried Deba yet, or is there a sushi spot in the northwest suburbs we should hit next? Drop it in the comments. Vika and I are always hunting for the next one.
