Chengdu Impression in Edgewater has delicious food! When you first arrive: The inside of the restaurant is massive. It seems to be setup to easily accommodate larger groups. I normally pick up my food to-go, they have sitting area for people waiting to pick up food. I've visited a handful of times and the restaurant is nearly always empty. The staff is always friendly whenever I go to pick up my food. They normally have the food ready by the time I arrive. I rarely have to wait long if it's not ready by the time I arrive. Food: I have yet to have a bad dish from Chengdu Impression in Edgewater. My favorite items to order are the General Tso's chicken and the pork pot stickers. Both items are always consistent and reheat well. I've also ordered the fried rice and I have no complaints. Chengdu Impression in Edgewater is my go-to spot whenever I want consistent food! Plus the ingredients always taste fresh. The food is reasonably priced because I always get a few meals out of my order. Overall: I highly recommend Chengdu Impression in Edgewater. The food is always delicious and you get a lot of bang for your buck. read more

Food was hot and delicious! Atmosphere calming and conducive to an enjoyable experience. Staff pleasant and accommodating

07/08/25 - We stopped in @ Chengdu Impression in Edgewater @ 5900 N Broadway. We ordered 2 dishes 1 dish was the eggplant w/garlic & ground pork. This dish was good but too salty. The other dish was the dry chili chicken w/ton of dry chili peppers diced. This was very spicy & also good but it had a ton of salt on it. Overall I felt like the food was just ok as both dishes weee very spicy. I'm sorry to say there are lots of Chinese restaurants. read more

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Cute restaurant in Edgewater. The dishes were hot and flavorful and came out promptly! It was a slow night it seemed so we were served by multiple different people so paying the tab was a bit cumbersome. Overall great authentic tasting Chinese food read more

Chengdu Impression - Edgewater - Szechuan Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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They have an extremely large menu which always gives me pause. My friend and I stopped in to eat dinner in between sets at a music festival. The sweet and sour was just okay. My friend ordered General Tso's Chicken and I preferred his dish over mine. They charge you extra for white rice; at all other restaurants I've frequented, the rice is included in your meal. My friend and I only had an entree (no appetizers, no drinks) and the total (with tax and tip and the extra charge for white rice) was almost $50. Not in my top 3 (heck, not even in my top 10) so I won't be returning. read more

The food is too salty!. The kidney wasn't too fresh. The boiled beef and green beans both good. The service not too friendly. read more

This is a local Sichuan go-to for me. Most of the dishes I've tried have been good to great and the portions are generous. The twice cooked pork is delicious, as is the mala fish and the cumin lamb. The dry-fried green beans are also soooo good. Lately, I've mostly been getting takeout but I think the service is fine at the restaurant too. It's a big restaurant with plenty of tables--I only wish they had lunch deals! read more

Delicious spicy food in the neighborhood. Service might be slow but staffs are very pleasant. Can't wait to go back and try their other dishes. Ambiance was clean and festive for the Lunar New Year. read more

Chengdu Impression - Edgewater - Chengdu Style Dry Chili Chiken - Szechuan Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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Excited to see chengdu impression came to edgewater. Came here for the northside restaurant week. 25$ per person for a big amount of food. Ordered xiao long bao: pretty good flavor. Not too sweet. Juicy and tender meat in it. Skin's not too thick also. Sichuan Dumpling: love this! Great flavor. Not too spicy and good amount of meat. Sichuan Boiled fish: not traditional boiled fish as it's more oily and less water. So it gets kinda mushy. I guess maybe they tried to squeeze it in a medium sized bowl. But the flavor's good. Fish is very tender. I would recommend it. Chili chicken: I asked mild spicy and it's perfect. Slightly crunchy and tight meat inside Had mochi ice cream just the right amount of chewy. Not very busy on a Friday night but they have lots of take out orders so the food does not come very fast. Staff's nice. Pretty big venue with lots of Chinese decor. read more

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Ordered for delivery through Grub Hub. Food arrived two later. That's the bad news. The food, however, was amazing, especially the Ma Pao tofu. Perfectly hot and pungent. In the future, I will order for take out. Interested in trying their other dishes. read more

The food takes way too long and to top it off it's extremely mediocre Not even mediocre mediocre is a compliment but I don't see the point in waiting so long in a place that looks as bad as their food tastes. The floor is also slippery like they mop the floor with greasy mops and it smells bad not a good ambiance. read more

My go to for crispy smoked duck. If you are a smoked duck fan, it is a must try. Their cold noodles is delish, on the spicier side if you can take the heat, but they have so many dishes to choose from. The service is always great, friendly and never a long wait for food or anything. read more

Opened six months ago, this is Chengdu's 3rd location in the Edgewater neighborhood serving Szechuan cuisine. The interior is spacious and simply decorated with a couple of pieces of art on the walls. The chairs and napkins are in popular red in Chinese culture. Depending on who you ask, red symbolizes power, celebration, luck, joy, and even happiness. My family ordered a few dishes to take home over the phone. The person who took my order was very pleasant and friendly. I enjoyed a great deal of the dishes. Here are the dishes we ordered. Garlic pork (cold appetizer) - although it was quite good, it lacked fresh garlic. The portion is large compared to other Szechuan restaurants I've been to. Fu Qi Fei Pian (cold appetizer) - a mixture of sliced beef and tendon tossed in chili oil. It was flavorful and delicious. Twice-cooked pork - tender pork cooked with leek and peppercorn. I loved the flavor of the pork. It was perfectly cooked. Dry chili chicken - unlike others I've tried before, Chengdu's version had a perfect balance of chicken and chili. I loved the crunchiness of the chicken that was deep-fried and then tossed in dry chili and chili oil. It was my favorite dish of the meal. MaPo tofu - very, very good! The thick sauce had a hint of peppercorn but not overpowering. It was perfect with steamed rice. I can't speak for other locations, however, this one is BYOB. There is parking on nearby residential streets if you are lucky. Otherwise, pay street parking on busy Broadway Street is the only option that can be challenging. Highly recommend! I'd order again. read more

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Excellent! Highly recommend. After living in Singapore for a year my daughter was looking for a dish she loved while living there. Chengdu Impression Edgewater did not disappoint. The Chili Chicken was exactly, authentically cooked. The serving was large. I got the Mongolian beef and it was full of tender, delicious beef. Ordered via delivery service. read more

Thought that the crispy duck was way too greasy and not tasty Peking duck looks good but is priced high at $48.00 Waiter could barely speak English and did not understand menu - had to consult manager on every question- he could not explain any of the dishes Cold and super bright, almost a fast food type setting - not cozy at all read more

I went in for Beef Fried rice, liked it and ordered more dishes. All good. Service was excellent. Wait staff patiently answered my many questions about items not on menus of standard Chinese places. They do a good amount of take out, but there are nice rooms and tables to eat at with Some degree of privacy. Good vibe. read more

Came here on a Sunday night with a friend and it wasn't busy at all so we were promptly seated. The menu is expansive! We ordered three dishes: Dan Dan noodles, eggplant, and pork belly. It was all so good, but my favorite was the pork belly - melt in your mouth texture. I ate the leftovers for two days - great bang for your buck. This would be a good restaurant for bigger groups too. read more

We visited early on a Thursday evening. It was mostly empty when we arrived and filling up when we left. Three stars for the ambience. Three and a half stars for the food. And eleven stars for service. So I figure that averages in the five star range. Let's start with the food. We ordered a few appetizers, buoyed by earlier reviews that praised them. The crab Rangoon was pretty good. I might have been more impressed if I didn't know I could walk up the street to Indie Cafe and get some of the best crab Rangoon in all of human civilization. Here it was just a touch more greasy than I would have liked. Since other food was fried perfectly, I suspect the grease level on the crab rangoon was because it had been frozen. The Peking style dumplings were very good, served with a lemon grass soy dipping sauce. The shrimp shumai (another favorite at Indie Cafe) was pretty good as well. It was, we decided, unexpectedly "shrimpy." There was some debate in our party as to whether "shrimpy" is a good or bad thing. I, for one, am pro-shrimpy. The salt and pepper pork was, as we were warned by a server, "too much bone." There were lots of pieces with bones. But it was delicious and we resolved to order it again but to do carry out so we can eat like animals in the comfort of our own home. We ordered General Tso's chicken to get a read on how they do the basics. Beautifully steamed broccoli came with it in a generous portion, but the chicken was a let down. Very thick, very sweet sauce with no detectable spice. Not getting that again. Rice is $1.50 extra. The service was so good it was a little unnerving. A squadron of masked staff stood just outside the kitchen, swooping down on each finished plate and refilling water with each sip. They were lovely and helpful though, especially with wading through the enormous menu. I half expected them to break out singing "Be Our Guest." Oh yeah, Disney songs. Their playlist veered from soft Chinese pop music into abruptly playing a power ballad from the Disney musical "Tangled." This got our attention because the music was a bit too loud for the acoustics of the room. The space itself is clean and bright. A little brighter than I want for an evening meal out, but it's not a deal breaker. It's also not impressive or particularly beautiful. It's just okay. Maybe a good spot to meet up with someone for lunch. Assuming they start opening for lunch. Overall, our meal was pleasant, and it's nice to have another option in the neighborhood. But if we want to go out for a Sichuan meal, we'll probably make the trek to Chinatown for something more consistent (and boneless salt and pepper pork) and for a winelist. read more

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Food is traditional Chinese. Very delicious. A bit pricey, however if you plan to go there.

Delicious boiled beef or fish, especially in the winter. Just comfort food, warm and a bit spicy. A bit intimidating at first since I don't know much about the menu but a friend invited us and recommended what to order. I did enjoy the pictures on the menu which helped out. Just go in and try something new, you'll find something yummy. read more

I have gone to this place for some time because it's conveniently located. However, the manager who is there most of the time is consistently unfriendly and even, on occasion, rude. I recommend people go elsewhere for better ambience and service. read more

Not writing this review as fresh as usual but had these photos in my library. I think the key to approaching a Sichuan (or any) menu is to avoid hitting the same taste in two or more dishes. There is room at Chengdu Impressions' menu to do this. We got the Sichuan cold noodle salad and also got I think the heart-breaking rice jelly. I think there was an alternate saucing for the rice jelly as "Northern Sichuan" - we would ask next time to maximize contrast in taste between other dishes we order. (both are spicy Sichuan dishes!) After that we did get Ye Er Ba stuffed glutinous rice dumplings that we hadn't seen elsewhere and got the braised pork belly with pickled and fresh veggies (mai cai kou rou). For dessert we had the hong tang ci ba (fried sticky rice sticks with syrup). Nice to share and not common elsewhere. read more

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Not impressed with my last take out order from this place. I used to LOVE Chengdu Aroma off of Clark and Belmont, but unfortunately they closed down last year, and I've found Chengdu Impression to be the next best option when looking for Szechuan in this area. I've never found them to be quite as good as Chengdu Aroma, but good enough to return. I ordered the Fu Qi fei Pian 夫妻肺片 & dry chili chicken. The Fu Qi Fei Pian was decent. Not the best I've ever had, but it was good. The dry chili chicken on the other hand was not good at all. It tasted like it had been sitting out for a while, and not a lot of flavor. The spice level was also severely lacking. I'm not sure if this location has changed their spice levels to potentially accommodate the demographic in the area, but I was very disappointed. Since I've ordered before, and it wasn't this bad, I feel like a 3 star review is sufficient, but I may try them again in hopes that it was just a bad night that I ordered from them. read more

Summary: Bug in food, poor service, never returning This is the photo of the bug that we found in our food. The restaurant offered to take the dish off our bill, and offered 10% discount; I said that they should give us 50% discount, which they did. The owner was in the kitchen but did not come out to speak with me directly, it was through the staff. Leading up to this, we had waited at least 40 minutes for our food to come out, before I got up and spoke to the staff directly on the status of our meal. I'll be filing a report with IDPH. read more

Chengdu Impression - Edgewater - Szechuan Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

crispy chili chicken and the duck fried rice are to die for.do not miss out on these amazing flavors!!

Updating my review a second time. We have regularly ordered since this place opened but it has always been inconsistent. The food was wonderful and authentically spicy when they opened, then it became very bland for some reason, then it got authentic again, and now for the past few months it's gotten... Just weird. Some items are wonderful, some items are horrible. Our last two orders, our cold Sichuan noodle salad has been rancid. Literally made with very clearly rancid sesame oil. Last night we tried it again and the item was gag-worthy it was so rancid. That combined with their shortened hours (no more lunch hours at all) makes it feel to us like they're cutting corners. There's no way they don't know that they are making their food with some ingredient items that are clearly stale. It's very disappointing. Tired of constantly having items refunded by Uber Eats. read more

I have never had such a horrible experience at a restaurant. Waited over an hour and a half for any sign of our entrees. The server came by after the first 30 minutes to ask what we ordered again, then another hour went by and no food. She also completely ignored us the entire time we waited and displayed zero empathy for their mistakes. We saw 4 other tables come in after us, eat and leave while we were still waiting. We finally just asked for the check so we can pay for our drinks and appetizers so we can leave. I can't even leave a review for how the food tasted because we never got our entrees. read more

Went with my girlfriend on a Thursday around 6:30, got two appetizers and placed our entree orders shortly after. We waited for 30-40 minutes until the server asked us what we ordered after we originally told her. We waited about an hour after her asking again without getting any food brought out to us. We watched multiple groups have the same experience around us while a few people who ordered got their food. The staff was extremely dismissive of us and did not apologize or refill our water once all night. Overall, pretty terrible experience and maybe the worst I've ever had. read more

I live just a few blocks away from this place and my initial enthusiasm for its opening soon subsided to a meh. I like Sichuan cuisine but for Chengdu the prices are high and the cuisine is simply heat without any varied taste components. Basically, pricey takeout. Flagging energy in the dining room. Disappointing. read more

My Edgewater neighbors, we finally have Chengdu provenience Chinese restaurant. You must have a heat tolerance, so my my Mexican, South Asian and spicy loving neighbors please come out and support this new local gem. Okay the details.... Amazing service Fresh perfectly cooked veggies Many vegetables offerings Many meat, poultry, lamb recipes Great music selection Spacious seating We will return often with friends!!!! read more

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I was incredibly surprised by this place. I know that this is a mini chain, but always wanted to try it. Glad to be able to make it there tonight! The menu is actually pretty massive. As some have mentioned, this place seems to really shine with the appetizers. The soup baos and dumplings were the favorite of the table. We also really liked the crab Rangoon. The egg rolls were only ok. We went with the special dry chili chicken which I loved, but others at the table were a little underwhelmed. I liked the kick and the dry rub thing really worked. I thought it was weird that rice was extra, but it was a sizable bowl for the price! We left here stuffed, but it seems like they've gotten their groove as our server was outstanding. He and the rest of the team made sure we were taken care of, especially with water. The restaurant is also bright and clean. I will be back for sure. The food was excellent and I'm ready to try other things on the menu. read more

I was excited to try Chengdu Impression, but my first experience there was not that great. I will say that service was very attentive, but the food left me a bit unsatisfied. I will also say that inside of the restaurant was very cold and it was not very comfortable sitting and eating there for any decent amount of time. The dumplings were the best part of the meal. I thought they had great flavor and were not too salty. The appetizer vegetables that we had ordered were much too salty to eat. They were bordering on the edge of being inedible. The Chengdu dry chili chicken has good flavor, but the chicken was mostly comprised of breading and were very tiny pieces. Also the spice in the chicken was excessive and definitely outweighed any chicken itself. Sigh. I had high hopes, but I doubt I will be returning here. read more

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This is one of those places where you really need to order right to experience what they're good at. And what they're good at (unsurprisingly given the name, and their specials list) is spicy, numbing-and-hot-peppered Sichuan style dishes. This is not the place for orange chicken or xiao long bao or basically anything that isn't accompanied by a picture under the 'specials' list on the menu (or in RED on their online menu). The things they choose to highlight, they choose to highlight for a reason. So that being said, I really enjoyed the: - diced rabbit, a cold dish covered in hot bean chili sauce and peanuts. It has bones (everywhere) so be careful. - cumin lamb. Okay, this is more of a (further) Western style Chinese dish really, but they do it justice. - green peppercorn fish. Let the bowl sit for a minute so the flavor can soak into the fillets. At some restaurants, the liquid is oil and you probably shouldn't drink it. Here it is broth, so go nuts. The classic boiled fish, Sichuan style, tasted different than it might usually, but it had kind of the same flavor as a dry chili chicken might (I'd like to try their version of that next time I go back). Their eggplant is okay but not to the level of outstanding that Sichuan places can achieve. Same with the Mapo tofu. They claim it is very spicy but it barely burns at all. read more

Quick visit, only had 30 minutes, food took a while (it was not busy at all) so only got a few bites. Dry chile chicken was good, glad I tried it. BBQ spare ribs, 4 for $10, not so good; bland, almost like they were baked or steamed, with not the lively beet-red sauce one expects but almost like a plain regular bbq sauce. Two dishes, nearly $30, over that with tip. Maybe worth a try but probably only with more people to split & try stuff. read more

We decided to order from Chengdu Impression for our Jewish Christmas meal and were disappointed. I know they were slammed for Christmas so I am giving them extra leeway, but the process was rough. Their online system said it would be 45-55 minutes for pickup, but in the couple of minutes it took to put in our order and paid for it, the ETA moved up to 80 minutes. My partner arrived at the end of the initial pickup window and ended up waiting more than an hour for our food. They were short-staffed (which most places are, and we get that), but our main issue is that the pickup space was just chaos. The staff weren't talking to anyone waiting, and when they did they just said it would be an hour wait. People who ordered after us were getting their orders before us. When we finally got our food, half of it was cold because they made it at different times. We had to cancel our evening plans as we got the food 90 minutes after we were supposed to. As they have multiple locations, I'm surprised they were operating like this. We don't live far from the restaurant, but even so when we got the food back only one dish was hot, everything else was cold to warm. The veggie dumplings tasted good but they were cold so they were a little squishy. The scallion pancakes were the last thing made (strangely) so they were hot but also so flaky they were a bit difficult to eat. The cucumber salad was SO garlicky that it was spicy and burned my mouth. I also ordered veggie fried rice and asked for extra onions and NO PEAS (caps included) and got a dish with no extra onions and full of peas. Ultimately that's not an issue but if that were an allergy that would have been awful. My partner got the bean curd dish and said he enjoyed it. Given that I can't really eat spicy food, I don't think I'll really be able to get their signature Sichuan dishes, so I doubt I'll be back. read more

I'm so excited! Edgewater, Roger Park and Loyola friends we now have a great spicy Chinese restaurant in the neighborhood! This is my wife and my favorite Chinese restaurant from both their Lincoln park and wicker park locations. They are still in a soft launch and getting things like the bar area ready. But that's actually good news as they are byob until they get the liquor license! Here are some pictures of our first meal as we weren't planning on going out for dinner but walked past and saw they were open! So exciting that they are in the neighborhood! Go check them out. Right next to Moody's pub in the old wine cellar location. read more

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This is a brand-new location of the Lincoln Park Szechuan classic. It's still in soft open mode - the owner told us he's still installing decor and lighting, and the front door and windows still say "Cellars" (the prior restaurant in the building). But the kitchen is open and ready for business! They have lots of seating, including large tables for groups. By far my favorite was the cumin lamb - spicy and flavorful and just a little crispy. I've had this dish before at other restaurants and thought it was nothing special, but here I was scraping the bottom of the plate to get the last cumin seeds! The crispy eggplant was also delicious - fried almost like a potato wedge, they're very spicy and addictive. The string beans were good but not as outstanding, I felt the bean curd was a little tough but others really enjoyed it. Overall, a great option for really good Chinese food and right now you can easily get an enormous table, so bring all your friends! read more

Chengdu Impression - Edgewater - Lots of seating! - Szechuan Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

I ordered the dan dan noodles, spicy wontons, and a side of white rice. The food is decent and not for those who are sensitive to spicy cuisine. And these dishes are supposed to be mild! They give you a pretty generous amount of noodles for a reasonable price. And if you add a side of white rice for $1.50 then you will be end up really full. So I think it's a pretty good value. I just wish the noodles were a little thicker, though. Like I already mentioned, the food is alright and worth trying out if you are into Chinese food of the spicy variety. read more

Tried this place 3 times. Very average the first 2 times. Egg rolls were burnt and tasteless. Orange beef was mushy. I threw away half of it. read more

I love this restaurant. Things you see in Chinese cuisine documentaries on Netflix, and wish you too could eat, are here, and they are so delicious! I always get the Hot Wok Chicken (today it came with a flame at the table, oh bubbling goodness). I also get one of the many green veggie side dishes (maybe green beans, tong choy, etc). Lastly, I end it with sesame balls dessert, which are light balls filled with sweet, red-bean paste, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, always served warm. Come and try chengdu if you haven't been here. This is my 4th time. read more

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