Name: Kurumaya Japanese Restaurant
Address: 1201 E Higgins Rd, Elk Grove Village, IL, 60007
Telephone: (847) 437-2222
Price range: $$

Kurumaya Japanese Restaurant

Super GemElk Grove Village (suburb) · Japanese Community-sourced, unverified

📍 1201 E Higgins Rd, Elk Grove Village, IL 60007

Kurumaya is tucked into the Elk Grove Village business park, which is exactly why the people who know about it keep driving out.

The udon is made in-house, and the katsu curry is the dish that keeps regulars coming back to this Elk Grove Village spot.

A kurumaya is the runner who pulls a rickshaw, and the restaurant is about as close as the Chicago suburbs get to a real izakaya: mostly small, appetizer-sized plates meant for sharing, an English menu with short explanations, and a daily specials board written only in Japanese. It's been run in this spot since 2002, and the room is small, with a little sushi bar and a tatami room behind a curtain. Order the way regulars do. The Chicago Reader's 2015 visit with a Japan-obsessed cook worked through takowase (raw octopus with pickled wasabi), simmered daikon with yuzu miso, atsuage (fried tofu stuffed with miso and bonito), an eel-filled rolled omelet, griddled beef tongue with garlic, fried eggplant in dashi and grilled smelts with roe, and the bold can try the shiokara.

Reviewers keep naming the eel rice and chirashi, and they praise seasoning that's neither too salty nor too sweet. The daily lunch special is the famous deal: Time Out once called it worth the drive at $8, and it was about $13 in a more recent video review. Lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday; closed Sunday. Expect a wait on Saturdays, and call (847) 437-2222 before you go.

Hours

Mon-Fri11AM-2PM,4:30-9PM (Fri until 10PM)

Sat11AM-2PM,4:30-10PM

SunClosed

🥡 Takeout available 📞 (847) 437-2222

Amenities & accessibility

🥡Takeout available

❔Wheelchair access: unverified

Location

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Kurumaya Japanese Restaurant

Kurumaya is tucked into the Elk Grove Village business park, which is exactly why the people who know about it keep driving out.

Specials at Kurumaya Japanese Restaurant