Holu Reviews
Submitted by Yibai Xu on 04/04/2022
Yibai Xu 5 stars rating.
Me and my 5 roommates, we six girls hang out and dine-in at Holu 火炉居 last night on Monday. Holu usually open at 5 o' clock, but we arrive earlier like 4:30pm around. The staffs were very sweet and friendly and got us a big party size table that can easily fit six people ( actually this table can hold up to 12 ppl ). We felt lucky that no other customers but only we six girls taking service right here since restaurant hadn't opened yet. However, the dining room got completely full suddenly after they just opened at 5pm. That's why reservation is highly recommended.
We came over just for their famous LIVE FRESH EEL, got very curious and high expectation. The eel didn't disappoint us and it was super super delicious and 100% worth to try! We also ordered their Japanese imported fresh oysters and South Africa Deep Cold Water Lobster, and it was WOW! Amazing! Absolutely, no ones are able to beat their legendary high quality steaks! so many portions/cuts from Prime Dry Aged, Domestic Wagyu and Australian Wagyu and Japanese A5 Kobe. The general experience was flawless from beginning to the end. It was a truly graceful encounter with holu on raining Monday night.
Lisa Sarah 5 stars rating.
This place is amazing. Service was great, engaged into conversations, clean up was spot on and explained things perfectly. The meat was delicious and super tender and very yummy!! The side dishes were incredibly good and flavorful. Plus the hundreds of wine & spirits selections! Also love the 40~50 creative house craft cocktailsI would rate it 12/10. ????
Submitted by Lisa Sarah on 06/09/2022
Brittany Kam Wintczak 5 stars rating.
My husband and I have been to Holu twice now and we can say the foods really delicious! Our server was awesome and very funny and outgoing. It was a unique experience and definitely a good date spot!
Submitted by Brittany Kam Wintczak on 05/10/2022
Derrick C 5 stars rating.
HOLU's USDA PRIME dry aged RibEye Steak is impeccable! Amazing! We were surprised by such highest quality of dry age steak ever. They offer 45 days, 60 days, 90 days and 120 days dry aged steak. It was totally excited to watch the bomb of dry aged RibEye thick cut being dropped onto grill and cooked perfectly in front of you on table top.
This is the gift that just keeps on giving. Our server Ashley took us on a journey through beef and I enjoyed every moment. Service is top notch and whether you choose wine pairings or a drink for their beautifully crafted menu, you will not be disappointed. I cannot wait to go back. Get ready to be treated like royalty.
Submitted by Derrick C on 04/10/2022
Elliot Cortes 5 stars rating.
We took my partner’s cousin and her husband here last night to celebrate their bdays and it was fabulous from start to finish. We arrived early and ordered cocktails at the bar while we waited for our booth semi-private table to be ready. Cocktails were great. bartender made good recommendations and was friendly and efficient despite the crowd at the bar. The booth table was perfect for the 6 of us - Spacious table, warm, and private. Our server was Ting and he was excellent - personable, present, and intuitive. We started with the house salad and wagyu tartare to share and he also brought out the most delicious bating mussels I’ve ever tasted, then we all got the butchers feast, which I highly recommend. It was an excellent variety of meats + sides at a reasonable price point. Everything we ate was bomb. Ting + Ben were great and cooked all of the beef perfectly. The short rib at the end was my favorite but it was ALL delicious. In the end we fed 6 of us for about half the cost of our anniversary dinner for two at Gallaghers Steakhouse last week, and this was way less pretentious, much more fun + exciting, and we got to have more cocktails ???? We try new restaurants every time we come to CHI and don’t ever go back to the same places but this is definitely one we will be returning to and we look forward to trying the full omakase menu next time. Thank you to the Holu team for a wonderful night out!
Submitted by Elliot Cortes on 04/10/2022
Beecha Sri 5 stars rating.
This place deserves its PRIME mark a 100%, it exceeded expectations in every possible way. The food, the service and the atmosphere are a 11/10.
Special thanks to May and Jason who were very accommodating, professional and attentive. We will definitely come back !
Submitted by Beecha Sri on 04/10/2022
Sharon Verazie 5 stars rating.
My birthday meal today was my third time at holu and the experience was positively phenomenal from start to finish each time. The "Carnival Packages" actually the Deluxe Feast, truly is worth the hype and all the other sides, apps and deserts we ordered were genuinely flawless. The service was quite professional and friendly, 5 stars ???????????????????? across the board and already looking forward to my next visit
Submitted by Sharon Verazie on 04/04/2022
Teresa Romo 5 stars rating.
Hands down best steakhouse in city (“REAL” steakhouse in a way). Top of top quality meat in the world. Even it is the best restaurant experience I’ve ever experienced . Service was extremely pleasant. Food was beyond this world . Came here for my anniversary and me and my husband loved it. I would recommend this to anyone. The meats are top tier. 10/10 would recommend.
Submitted by Teresa Romo on 03/29/2022
Jenny Khang 1 stars rating.
Let’s start by saying Service from the host to the servers were amazing. The table side server/cook did a great job minus some meats and vegetables were slightly overdone. We ordered two extravagant feast for 2 people priced at $380 per feast (enough to feed 4 of us). The menu said for each feast you receive 1 king crab leg size 6-9, which is amazing. As anyone can see on the photo those king crab legs are very small, at largest they are size 16-20. This is very misleading. Which leads to the second part of the review wherein some of the meats that the server/cook stated tableside did not taste like A5 wagyu, as we have had them from many restaurants in chicago before. From the look of the meat the marbling was questionable. The dry-age definitely did taste dry-aged and were fine (no complaints). However after knowing that the king crab legs were not the correct sizes we began to question the actual cuts of beef. Overall not worth $380, at most $300. Also the oysters were good but not great. Id expect that if im paying that much for oysters they would at least cut the bottom abductor muscle. Our whole table had to use the knife given to us to cut the bottom abductor muscle of the oysters on every one of them. One thing to highlight, however, are that the dumplings were great! A suggestion to the owner would be to put labels next to each slice of meat, so that when you cannot hear your server at least you can return to the label on the serving board. Overall, expensive meal without leaving anything amazing of an impression. Will revisit if major changes happen to improve quality of products.
Submitted by Jenny Khang on 03/23/2022
Amy G 5 stars rating.
5⭐️ + 10 more! This steak was better than any other I’ve had in the city! Leo made phenomenal suggestions. He was also one of the kindest waitstaff I’ve ever had. In addition to the steak sampler, we added on 2 Japanese A5 pieces (filet and ribeye) per another reviewers suggestion. We also got the seafood platter. Everything was delicious on there. The scallops were cooked perfectly. Wow!! Ivy prepared and grilled our steaks. She was also sweet. Made me so happy to get to spend that time with her. She was very knowledgeable about the cuts of meat and grilled it to perfection. I’d like to say I’ll be back weekly but my wallet says to pace myself! Complementary ice cream at the end was a nice touch.
Submitted by Amy G on 02/06/2022
Justin Hayworth 5 stars rating.
This is amazing and so unique experience.
* Server cooked steaks for us, but I can also cooked my own fancy steaks ( 8 different portions of steak from meat paradise ) on table, lots of fun to play around.
* Meat and seafood is so high quality, price is reasonable.
* First time to eat live sea urchin pairing with A5 Japanese wagyu, tht was incredibly unique and delicious. Recommend must-try.
* Sommelier paired wine and sake for us, damn good.
* From servers, hosts, bartender to manager, they'all knowledgable and attentive, definitely enjoyed the service other than the delicious food.
Advice for holu is: it's much better if you serve surprising side dish like noodle or sushi at the end of dinner, tht'll boost my satisfaction quite much though. Anyway, good job guys! see ya all in a little while.
Submitted by Justin Hayworth on 09/12/2021
Lavinia Cohen 5 stars rating.
HOLU is an upscale elegant venue of great quality. I believe is slightly overpriced, but worth a visit. Excellent wine selection, great service . We had a 7pm reservation but our table was ready at 7:20pm since it's crowded on weekend. They offered an house signature cocktail to apologize. Appreciated the gesture.
The quality of the food is really really good. The meats are carefully selected and the waiters very knowledgeable about the menu. The jumbo tiger prawn is very huge far larger than my hand. I loved their wagyu tartar with sturgeon caviar, very delicious with great quality that worth the $$.
The table next to ours was kinda loud and it seemed like they were celebrating the birthday party, we would have preferred a quieter crowd but at the end, it's hip place in Chicago !
Dress code is elegantly casual.
Staff wear mask diligently.
Submitted by Lavinia Cohen on 09/05/2021
