THE SHTICK: Tokyo meets Logan Square.
THE VIBE: This place is pretty chill, especially on a Sunday morning when it’s not overrun with neighborhood scenesters looking for beers and buns before hitting the town. There’s a ton of light wood and wrought iron, both in the intimate booths and the row of counter seating practically custom-made for inhaling bowls of noodles. 8 out of 10.
THE FOOD: The spot’s Sunday Noodles comes in at quite the steal: You get your choice of ramen, a cocktail or housemade soda, and dessert for $20. And this is really a lot of food, too much for either me or my dining companion to polish off in one sitting. So naturally, we started things off by ordering an extra snack, the fried chicken bun ($6). The hunk of crispy white meat cradled in a puffy bao with aïoli was exactly the kind of thing you crave after a long Saturday night, and it was totally delicious. But there’s only one bun to an order, and it wasn’t $6 worth of delicious. Save your cash and your stomach space.
You will need all your reserves to tackle one of Yusho’s monster bowls of ramen–and, admittedly, we could not conquer our choices, the Logan Poser and Chicken + Beer. Soup should be considered a brunch food more often, especially when it comes with flavorful broth and mounds of chewy noodles, as both our choices did. Of the two, the competitive edge goes to the Logan Poser, whose luscious broth gets amped up when you break the soup’s runny hen egg and hack up the deep-fried orbs of pigtail and fish ball.
Seasonal soft-serve is a refreshing counterpoint to all that richness—our banana variant got spiked with sesame seeds and a rum-infused chunky fruit sauce. We made room for it. In all, you’re getting quite the value meal here. Just stick with the set menu. 8 out of 10.
THE DRINKS: You don’t get a ton of flexibility with your drink order if you go the Sunday Noodles route—just one option with alcohol and one without—so picky drinkers are best left to go à la carte. But both the boozy and dry beverages were delightful picks. The fizzy apricot-white peach rum punch, served on draft, packed a pleasant wallop and wasn’t overly sweet, and the house lemonade smacked of summer even in the middle of an awful wintry Sunday. 7 out of 10.
THE SERVICE: Our dudely servers were plenty pleasant, but this was overshadowed by the fact that our meal dragged almost painfully. It took us more than two hours to get in and out, and it’s not like the place was slammed—in fact, it was less than half full. Skip this spot if you’re in any kind of a rush. 4 out of 10.
OVERALL: If Yusho was being solely judged on food, we’d be shouting our praises from the rooftops. But unfortunately, we can’t spend all day Sunday sitting and waiting for our soup. Speed things up, guys! We have errands to run! 6.5 out of 10.
2853 N. Kedzie Ave., Logan Square, 773-904-8558