August is here, and this month is big one for our college town. We go from sleepy summer vibes to bustling fall semester. This whiplash from relaxed routines to schedules with start times gets me every year. Whether you’re new to town or already part of the community, let’s enjoy some stellar local experiences in delicious Champaign-Urbana-Savoy. This month, I’m highlighting brunch on a farm, stunning sashimi, from-scratch artisan doughnuts, beer at the brewery that brewed it, and a gyro bowl at a shawarma spot.
Sashimi︱ISHI restaurant
ISHI Japanese offers a most excellent lunch in a corner restaurant tucked away from all the busy downtowns. The mom-and-pop shop has a small menu of kaisen don (rice bowls), omu curry, and rotating specials of whatever Chef Ken Ishibashi wants to make, from okonomiyaki to ramen. I ordered the sashimi special ($15) which that day had Hokkaido scallops, tuna, and karei (Japanese flounder). It was amazing. The fish tasted so fresh and looked so beautiful. The torched scallop was my favorite, but I loved every bite of the assorted raw and torched fish. The raw tuna was amazing, and cold scallop was melt-in-my-mouth yum. The sashimi that Chef Ishibashi torched were seared only slightly, enough to impart some smokiness and give a fantastic contrast to the raw cuts — a spectrum of fish deliciousness. Those who enjoy sashimi and raw fish must try the restaurant’s intimate omakase dining experience, one of C-U’s BEST unique dinners, exclusively available on Fridays and Saturdays and only by reservation.
Keep an eye out for a ramen pop-up at ISHI later this month, and follow the chef on Instagram for pictures of fresh fish before he breaks it down and menu updates. For more about the restaurant, read Xiaohui’s 2022 interview with the owner.
ISHI restaurant
305 Cedar St
Champaign
T-Th 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
F + Sa reservation only
Eggs Benedict︱ Prairie Fruits Farm restaurant
Um, hello, look at this amazing eggs benedict from Prairie Fruits Farm’s new restaurant. I ordered this eggs benny ($16) and was blown away by how freaking good it was. Everything about it was awesome. The bottom layer was a from-scatch bread by C-U’s bakery powerhouse Central Illinois Bakehouse. The toast was airy enough to have crevices and cracks to house drips of hollandaise yet sturdy enough to withstand the weight of savory ham slices and a plump, farm-fresh egg. That ham was quality, thick-cut ham, co-starring with the expertly poached eggs with a satisfying yolk pop that glazed the ham and bread. What took this take to another level was the secret smear of tomato jam. That surprise tiny punch of sweet was so delicious with the salty ham and rich hollandaise. The farm’s weekend breakfast menu offers poached eggs with bacon, berry French toast, pastries, parfaits, and more.
There’s a lot to love about Prairie Fruits Farm & Creamery: award-winning cheese, dreamy farm dinners, goat walks and goat pilates, happy hour, lunch, and brunch. To learn more about the goat farm, check out their website and our post about the recent change in ownership.
Prairie Fruits Farm & Creamery
4410 N Lincoln Ave
Champaign
T 5 to 8 p.m.
Th+F 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Sa 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Su 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Half Dozen Doughnuts︱Pandamonium Doughnuts
All students and teachers go back to school this month, and I know just the thing to help make a school-person’s morning: doughnuts. We have so many great doughnut shops in town (with another opening later this month), and Pandamonium Doughnuts is a fantastic doughnut destination. The interior of the store features a cool mural about Champaign-Urbana, and the menu offers artisan doughnuts. One morning, I bought an assorted half dozen ($19.50): orange-pistachio, maple-praline, rainbow sprinkles, strawberry shortcake, chocolate crumble, and glazed. All made from scratch, these six doughnuts were delicious. My favorite was the orange-pistachio because of the nutty crumble paired with zesty orange icing — that the doughnut house makes with fresh orange juice squeezed in-house.
Five days a week, Pandamonium Doughnuts has signature fluffy yeast doughnuts with hand-dipped icings plus a different special each month. For more about the sweet breakfast, read Serenity’s doughnut review from May or our 2018 interview with the owner about opening their Champaign storefont.
Pandamonium Doughnuts Store
1105 Windsor Rd
Champaign
W-F 7:30 a.m. until sold out
Sa+Su 8 a.m. until sold out
Pandamonium Doughnuts Food Truck
Goodwin Ave + Oregon St
W-F 8 a.m. until sold out
Gyro Lunch Bowl︱Shawarma Joint
Shawarma Joint serves custom Mediterranean rice bowls, pitas, wraps, and salads, but the real deal here is their lunch special. For $13.99, they’ll fill a big bowl with rice, protein, a sauce, and a choice of five toppings, plus it comes with a basket of fries and a drink. At Shawarma Joint’s Urbana location, I ordered a gyro meat bowl with spicy rice, garlic sauce, cauliflower, Arabic salad, lettuce, hummus, and sumac onions. It was a lot of food, and there was no way I could finish even though it was so good I wanted to. The gyro meat was sliced from the restaurant’s vertical rotisserie, and the fact that it was a beef and lamb blend packed each bite with flavor. The rice was spiced but not spicy, and all the toppings tasted fresh. Got to give a shout out to the cauliflower here. Shawarma’s seasoned cauliflower had florets with a fried crispiness but a tender-crisp stalk, and I probably would skip the lettuce next time and get double cauli.
For more info, check out Caitlin’s review of Shawarma Joint’s original Green Street location that published last month.
Shawarma Joint
627 E Green St
Champaign
11 a.m. to 10 p.m., daily
Local Brews︱Triptych Brewing
Lastly, a great spot for a cold local beer is Triptych Brewing in Savoy. Their award-winning beer tastes best at their taproom, which has patio seating and indoor tables in addition to pinball machines, darts, and board games, too. They always have a selection of excellent small-batch brews available; take a look at what’s currently on tap. My favorite Triptych brews are the No Big Deal, Japan House collab sparkling lager Mirai, and Czech 10°. The brewery also has a tap dedicated to locally-brewed kombucha from Urbana’s Cloud Mountain Kombucha, which is what I had the last time I was at Triptych. My husband loves literally every beer that they make, and since Triptych offers such a range of options, there’s a beer (or ‘booch) for anyone thirsty for a crisp, cold pint.
Across the street from the taproom in the Memery, they’re continuously brewing more batches of tasty, quirky-named beers. Read my interview with the four Triptych owners for more about the Savoy brewery.
Triptych Brewing
1703 Woodfield Drive
Savoy
Su noon to 8 p.m.
M-W 3 to 9 p.m.
Th 3 to 10 p.m.
F + Sa noon to 11 p.m.
Alyssa Buckley
Food + Drink Editor / / instagram
