JMK Nippon Restaurant

Your a Five Star Dining Experience. From N.Carolina. See you again in April when your Snow has melted away....FPD "You can please some of the people some of the time, Not all the people all the time" Own a Place of Dining and see for yourself....Chill!!!

IT IS AMAZING! the surf and turf roll and vegas roll is SO GOOD!!

Good location and nice restaurant but the food was not traditional Japanese, not so good and most of the ingredients can be bought at regular groceries stores like soy sauce, sesame oil , nothing special about it. After we had dinner at teppan table, we had to take a shower again due to the odor in our clothes and hair. I think the restaurant doesn't have a good circulation. I won't recommend it to my family and friends , the teppan tables are noise and barely talk to our family member, it felt like we were in the sport bar.

Best sushi EVAH!!!! I discovered this place a couple of years ago when I went there for some friend's birthdays. I have not eaten on the grill side because I really don't like that sort of thing so I can only comment on their sushi which is phenomenal. Their pieces of fish are huge, larger than I have seen at any other Japanese restaurant, and the fish is always fresh with a perfect bite. As an example, their unagi has got be about 4" x 1.5". They also have unique and imaginative rolls that are tasty and again are huge, we're talking silver dollar size in diameter. Their pickled ginger is to die for, I could eat a plate of just that. JMK also has an expansive sake menu which I have explored in depth. ; ) Lunch is the best time to go as they have reduced prices on sushi. I've read several complaints here about the service at JMK and all the times I have been there I have never had poor service. I have never had outstanding service either but I'm usually too busy chattering away with my friends so if it takes a little longer to get my water refilled, no biggie - the server's probably going to hate me by the end anyway because I've often stayed past their 2 p.m. middle of the day closing time. The bottom line is I drive 1.5 hours one way to get to JMK, it is that good.

JMK Nippon has been in the Rockford area for over 20 years at 2 different locations. 20 years ago it was new and different, and I would laugh when novice patrons would complain of "no bread". The food was delicious, and the atmosphere was cozy and friendly. This was my absolute favorite restaurant. With it's success, JMK moved to its own custom built facility and the atmosphere was greatly improved, but the service and food quality has suffered. I've had sushi several times there and the wasabi is heavily inserted and the pieces have fallen apart. When they can't get the rice right, it's a bad sign. The hibachi cooking has always been a winner. A perfect blend of ingredients, but have witnessed more than necessary difficulties with special orders. The service is the one thing that has severely gone down hill. After your initial wet towel and drink order, the staff just vanishes only to reappear with your bill at the end. Over the last 10 years, a competitor has come into the area, Shogun. I can't say the quality of the hibachi is of the same caliber, but you do get more food (except scallops) for your dollar, including noodles. The sushi is better, and the staff is more attentive. If you want excellent sushi, you'll have to step out of Rockford, Minami in Streamwood has spoiled me. And after SushiSamba in Las Vegas, it will be almost impossible to impress me around here.

I love JMK! Best restaurant ever great restaurant for the kids. Let me tell you, i have a 5 year old daughter and since the age of 3, if you ask her where to go its always jmk! if young toddlers are choosing that over Mcdonalds, that's saying something. they are so entertaining and playful with the children while doing their tricks. both my daughters love it! absolutely beautiful in the summer the landscaping is great. i would highly recommend this restaurant to everyone! little hint...its about half the price if you go for lunch, be careful though they close at 2 till dinnertime, so get there early.

From my experiance of going to that restruant I think it just a wounderful place to go and dine the service there is just wounerful and well sometimes it's not that woundeful but hey people have off days there. It is also a great place to bring your kids and have fun.

OH my goodness the Saturday Night "Curry" tradition is worth every effort of work a Saturday requires..... Hats off to Master Chef Takuji..... The Best kept secret in Rockford. Worth waitng 9 hours for even with a reservation....

We had a reservation for 4 in the sushi bar section, which I have never before had. Our table was tucked back in the corner. Ok by us. We wanted to order sushi plus some old favorites. Our waitress took our drink order but had only brought us one menu for sushi. Our friends were trying to make thier choices so when she returned with our drinks we were not ready to order. She came back a couple of minutes later and we still were not ready so at that point I asked for an extra sushi menu. My husband had a chef's choice piece of sushi prior to this visit and did not like it. He discribed it to the waitress and she told him what it was so he asked not to have it again.She was very helpful with this. We asked for low sodium soy sauce, which we got. She brought our food but forgot the small bowls for the soy sauce, so we waited while she got those. she then forgot our forks,(yes,forks) we then waited while she got those but in the mean time I poured some soy sauce and out came a dead baby fly! She apoligized and brought a new one. We then ordered desert and she totally misunderstood what we wanted but the 4 of us ate it any way. I feel we should have had desert offered to us free due to the fly but it was not offered and no compensation was made. i sometimes feel restarants hire the younger generation and they are given no good customer skills. (I'm only in my 50's)but to preserve your name and reputation wait staff need to know when to offer a customer compensation. I know the fly was not HER fault but it was still gross. Other than that the food was great.

We have lived in Rockford for 2 years and did not visit Nippon's until 2 weeks ago. Everyone that I have spoken to has raved about this place. We went there with my Dad who was visiting from Seattle and our 3 teenage children. We had a reservation and still had to wait almost 45 minutes (on a school night) for our table. However, we did enjoy browsing their collection of Japanese pottery and wares and did purchase a few items at what we felt was a reasonable price. Once seated, we were surprised that it took almost 20 minutes for a waiter to come over and take our drink order. All of us ordered top shelf drinks and it took another 15 minutes for those to arrive. We inquired about a sushi appetizer, as is one of Nippon's claim to fame. Our server looked at us like we were nuts....and left the table only to return with a computer printout of their sushi selections and a pen for us to make check marks next to what we wanted. We asked him to recommend a sushi and that we were looking for something with tuna...he recommended a California roll. We eventually made a choice of our own and I will honestly say that it was delectable......tuna and a few other choice rare fish rolled into cucumber. Probably the highlight of our visit. We all ordered a combination dinner, which came with soup, salad, rice, veg and our choice of entree. The sides were delicious but not unlike all other Japanese style steakhouses (I think they all share the same salad dressing recipe and the same soup recipe). Our meats were perfectly cooked, although I must admit it was a little scary seeing our chef (cook?) slice a filet into thin slices. There were definitely WAY TOO MANY mushrooms included with the entrees, even for the mushroom lovers at our table. I felt that they were trying to cushion the small portions with inexpensive mushrooms. Our chef openly admitted to us that he was new and that he had a lot of reservation about "Taking a table by himself"....he flubbed the entertainment portion of the dinner....dropped the egg, shell and all onto the grill and almost lit my daughter on fire. We had 2 birthdays at our table, but only my son's birthday was acknowledged....with a highly overpriced pineapple sliced into pieces with marachino cherries and those snappy umbrellas that many Asian restaurants are known for. Other dessert options were never offered. The atmosphere was nice and the food was good. The service could have been much better....but I have heard since being there that the restaurant demands tip-sharing amongst all of the staff and I think that diminishes a waiters motivation to give good service. We may go to JMK Nippon's again, but will not sit at one of the grill tables. Next time we will visit for the shushi only, in their informal sushi bar.