Another Chinese take-out found in a lesser than lovely, strip mall. The parking spaces aren't properly spaced, so often your car doors could be closer to the next car than you'd like.
The food is grossly overrated in these reviews. Grossly. As in, soon after getting my fill of food, I threw the rest away. This is low grade Chinese take-out. Some may argue, "Jacob, for $6 dollars what do you expect?" Try Kam Kong Cafe in North Park, their lunch special is $7 and you can taste the difference. Fresh food and freshly made eggrolls. (Shit, they even make their own sweet and sour sauce, for the egg rolls!) I've said this in another review of another Chinese take-out place; but something I remember sensing on the car ride home with their take-out. A sweet ingredient used in the preparation. Maybe hoisin?, is of a low grade quality. Every time I've smelled that chemical-smelling-kind-of-smell, I've usually hated the food. Ding, ding, ding!
Per their menu it states "ONLY THE BEST", "we use only the finest ingredients..From garden fresh vegetables and tofu to high quality chicken." It goes on to mention that their beef is USDA flank steak and the seafood is a "sure delight." The menu continues with saying it's healthy, low in fat, cholesterol and they cook with 100% corn oil.
If the ingredients they started out with were fresh, they have to fire their cooks because these guys are overcooking the hell out of it.
Let's discuss the lunch special. I asked that they make everything spicy, including the rice. I wouldn't mind an up-charge. (I was ordering a couple lunch specials) They said, they would do it, no problem. The fried rice was dry and the chicken pieces in it were grossly overcooked. (I've been told, that dryness can be helped easily. One need only tell the counter-person to hydrate the rice a little better. Or say, "make it fresh", they aren't really going to make it fresh, but they will add a bit more water to the steamer to present the rice in a nicer fashion.) Commonly; at most fast food Chinese take-out spots, foods are made in advance, either that day or in worst cases, a few days ahead. Especially large quantities of the fried rice and soups. Oh boy.. let me tell you about their hot and sour soup. It was a "goopy" mess. The texture of it, was grotesque. I couldn't stomach eating it. As if it were made with fat and oil, the soup had congealed into a blob. (For rockstar hot and sour soup, try Kam Kong Cafe in North Park. Soups are made fresh!)
What else? I got the General Tso's chicken which I thought was overcooked and served in a goopy (yes, I said it again), thick sauce. The egg rolls tasted like that variety that's purchased in bulk. One of my lunch mate's commented that it tasted "medicine-y." None of us were satisfied with the food. It was just, OKAY. Honestly, I hated it. I'd also ordered some potstickers for sharing and those were the pits as well. The texture of the shell was like plastic and thick. The potsticker had lost it's spongey-feel. I dunno, I feel as though some of this food was made a few days in advance and reheated.
If we listened to other reviews which stated that this is the "best" of Rogers Park, I'd say y'all need to get to another neighborhood and try something a hell of a lot better.
Oh.. and they didn't make any of the food spicy. read more