Name: Cocoro Restaurant
Address: 668 N Wells St, Chicago, IL, 60654
Telephone: (312) 943-2220
Price range: $$

Cocoro Restaurant

Super GemRiver North · Japanese Community-sourced, unverified

📍 668 N Wells St, Chicago, IL 60654

Cocoro is a River North izakaya on Wells Street that still feels like the kind of family-run Japanese restaurant the neighborhood used to have more of.

Sukiyaki for two with an extra egg for dipping, a few small plates from the izakaya side, and a sake cocktail.

The idea of an izakaya, as Cocoro explains it, is an after-work place to drink and share small plates and kick back, and the room delivers exactly that, with a full menu of traditional Japanese cooking around the drinks. The headliners are the hot pots. Sukiyaki, sweet soy-simmered beef and vegetables cooked at the table, is the order regulars keep coming back for, and the two-person portion with an extra egg for dipping is the move. Shabu-shabu, thin slices swished through simmering broth, is the other real draw.

There's also a proper sushi bar that the restaurant bills as the authentic way to experience sushi, a tempura set that fries up light and greaseless, and a list of original sake-inspired cocktails that make the izakaya side worth lingering over. It's a small room, so reservations help, especially on weekend nights when it fills and the kitchen slows a little. Lunch runs weekdays from 11:30am to 2pm, dinner Monday through Saturday from 5:30 to 10pm, and it's closed Sundays. The Chicago Brown and Purple Line stop is a short walk away.

Hours

Mon-Fri11:30AM-2PM,5:30PM-10PM

Sat5:30PM-10PM

SunClosed

📅 Reserve online 🥡 Takeout unconfirmed 📞 (312) 943-2220

Amenities & accessibility

❔Takeout: unverified

❔Wheelchair access: unverified

📅Reservations accepted

🚇Near the CTA Brown/Purple Line (Chicago)

Location

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Cocoro Restaurant

Cocoro is a River North izakaya on Wells Street that still feels like the kind of family-run Japanese restaurant the neighborhood used to have more of.

Specials at Cocoro Restaurant