One of the 3 skewer place in Chinatown. The food taste awesome with nice blend of cumin and other spices. Not too spicy though got a decent kick to it. Small, intimate joint. read more

See all

Food wasnt too bad...expect most of the bbq to be spicy with a cumin flavor or super garlicky.. Stir fried noodles were a bit salty and greasy. Fried rice was flavorful but presentation could use some work. Most of the food is served on paper plates..plasticware. Food was pricey in my opinion. 2 chicken wings on skewers costs $8!! It was super dead inside while many of the other surrounding restaurants were bustling. Def think this restaurant could make some improvements. read more

This place was right across the street from our hotel and open late. We went in one night just for some skewers and they were okay. The meats all come on skewers that's fun and they were cooked well. We ordered several skewers...Lamb, Beef, chicken skin, chicken heart, pork belly. As someone said in another review everything was pretty much seasoned the same. There was like a sprinkling of spices which had curry and fennel seeds and red pepper. However if this is a flavor you love, this would be your spot. Service as fast. They don't serve alcohol but I did see a table that brought their own case of beer. read more

Everything tasted great! Although, most of the meat was seasoned similarly so they all tasted alike. Fast service and friendly staff. Really quick seating, little to no wait between sitting, ordering, and eating. Chill vibe and peaceful energy. pictured: fried rice, chicken heart, pork belly, string bean, wonton soup. read more

Friend BBQ - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Liked their BBQ skewers but not the hot pot. BBQ enoki mushroom, chicken gizzards and lamb are so good. BBQ pork belly is kind of disappointing as it still feels fatty and greasy (not roasted enough) and on the sweet side with heavy Gochujang taste. The hot pot has non-meat things like beef tripe, shrimp, quail Egg, fish tofu, some napa cabbage and kombu - just not worth the price and the flavor is okay. Tip: be prepared to drink lots of water after eating here as the food is pretty heavy. read more

Friend BBQ - a bowl of spaghetti with meat and vegetables - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Very nice place with friendly service. The restaurant is clean and comfortable. I would come back again.

The meats were adequately cooked but lacked the characteristic smokiness and the vibrant seasoning that should sing with each bite. It was as if the soul of the BBQ was missing, leaving behind only the echo of what could have been. In terms of sides, which can often rescue an otherwise mediocre main, we found no redemption. Service, as far as takeout goes, was efficient. Our order was ready on time, and the packaging was done well enough to prevent any spills or mix-ups. The only thing to complain is probably that they forgot the utensils. read more

All the food and meats have the same seasoning. Great idea but poor execution. Could have been great with just a few more simple flavor profiles. read more

I like the food! Don't get me wrong,but I'm not happy about the service! I let then know my fish cake bbq test not fresh. I'm easy going person. But I really mad！ this lady come over(she sounds like a manager or owner).take my food away,then she come back telling me (nothing wrong with that) with out my food!Is order come 3 sticks. I don't even finish one! She take 2away!！what!!! Hey! This is nothing! I still need to pay my food!!!! WTF! If I know is will be charge on my bill! I can throw this food to trashcan!! I don't need you help ！ thank you！ I send $80 for two people,is reasonable price! But I'm not happy with The management! If your customer complain that must be have reasons.I just don't want to other people have a food poisoning over this day !is hard to go to hospices! read more

Friend BBQ - Appetizer - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Unique experience. Food was really good. Would recommend for anyone interested in trying it. Service was great, all the food came out super quick and hot. read more

Great taste. I ordered from uber eat so the food get cold faster. I will definitely visit the place someday. If you like Chinese kabob, this is the place to try out. They have variety of meat and vegetables to choose. Their sweet and sour soup is good for cold day. read more

Friend BBQ - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

A wonderful new place to taste the traditional Chinese BBQ~ Fresh & tasty ingredients, especially the Orleans BBQ chicken wings, juicy and flavor Is just right. read more

See all

Got abunch skewers and the seafood rice noodle. It's interesting. The seafood rice noodle is quite delicious but the topping is peculiar, includes fish ball, fish cake, and luncheon meat, in other words theres no real meat in there. But flavor is pretty good, kind of taste like instant noodle seafood flavor, which is expected in a good way. Skewers... ugh where should i start. It's soggy, granted i ordered delivery. It taste more sour and sweet, very homemade marinade. tastes nothing like chinese bbq. It's lacking that crisp and char which could be delivery issues but the flavor is not good. The sourness isn't sweet and sour, it's kind of like the sourness you get from canned chilli sauce. it has cumin but really can't taste it. Not just flavor is off, it also has no aroma. Normally bbq skewers you can smell the seasoning miles away. While i ordered lamb, beef, sausage, enoki and bacon, tendon, etc etc, theres no aroma. if I were to describe the over all flavor it taste like salt, chilli, a bit of whole cumin, and then they brushed it with sweet soy sauce trying to combine japanese and chinese skewer seasonings all together creating this off taste clashing flavor. I was really excited to order but what i got was a bit disappointing. read more

Friend BBQ - Seafood Rice Noodle Pot - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Everything was delicious and the price was reasonable. Food came out quick and everything was flavorful. Warning the spicy rice noodle pot has a numbing spice to it. Your mouth will get numb, but it was still so good. read more

Friend BBQ - Lamb with Fat - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

See all

A nice little spot for skewers and a good variety of dishes. We came for the skewers - seasoning was all there - a little salty, some cumin, some spice. Overall, it was a pretty nice blend. We ordered okra, lamb, special lamb, grilled scallops, grilled eggplant, pork belly with enoki mushrooms, beef tendon, and chicken skin. Each skewer was on the smaller side, especially the chicken skin, and between the regular lamb and lamb special, there was minimal difference to me, so I would just stick with the regular lamb. Items come out to your table fast and hot! read more

See all

Authentic, fair price and good services, that's all you can really ask for! Highly recommend getting their eggplant, savory and garlicky!!! read more

Friend BBQ - Red stick xin jiang special lamb, prefer the other lamb on the stick better - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

BBQ is pretty popular especially when they make you break out the traditional norms with the various protein's they give as choices. Beware that these sticks can be small but the prices do add up at the end. The menu does not have pictures only descriptions to leave you to order to find out. I went down the list and ordered one of each which ended up with a fairly large bill but at the end I enjoyed all my choices but wanting more. I would recommend the lamb meat - that seems to be the juiciest and tasty of the entire bunch. Recommendation - Review the items in Yelp for pictures to the item - That helped me. read more

Where to start where to start. Came here with some friends prior to a concert, an hour before close. My god. Super impressed, coulda been more spicy (personal choice) but my god it was so gooood! Would have taken pictures but a boy was hungry and smashed. Took like 10-15 mins to get the food, cmon thats some fasttttt service. Very kind and lovely staff, gave a wonderful vibe. Can't lie too that music was boppinggggg, can't wait to come back again and try more food. Maybe I can show the beauty that was Friend BBQ. read more

Chinese bbq? Eh? Like, I'm familiar with Korean barbecue, with all the raw meats around a heated grill. Or Filipino barbecue, which are marinated saucy meat skewers. But usually when I think Chinese barbecue, I think something along the lines of Sun Wah and its Peking duck. We had friends visiting from New York who told us about Friendship BBQ there...not sure if this place is related or not, but the food was similar. We went with them and had them order some of their favorites for their first time. The way most of the menu works is you order by the skewer, and almost everything is coated in cumin packed spicy seasoning. You can go with some basics like beef or chicken wings, or go for some really flavorful stuff like squid tentacles and chicken gizzards. Most sticks cost $1.50-$3. Also don't forget the mantou buns, which provide some sweetness to cut through the spicy. You can also do a hot pot style where they give you sticks of raw meat and you cook it in a hot pot of broth, which I think we'll try next time. Service was fine by Chinatown standards. We had to flag down staff to get water refills, but otherwise food came out quickly. It wasn't busy when we went on a Friday night, probably because it's so new. We found out they had giant TVs everywhere and they're BYOB, and I think this place would make a fun place to take a big group of friends. Looking forward to coming back and sharing some sticks soon. read more

Came here for a late night bite, it was one of the few places in Chicago that was open till 2 am. I'm really happy we found this place, it has expanded my palette for Chinese bbq. The skewers were very popular, it's flavorful spicy rather then hot spicy. Two skewers won't be enough if you're hungry, order 3-6 if you're only getting skewers, their fried rice is a little different than what I'm used to but it's amazing!!! They don't use soy sauce, it pretty much just has egg, salt, pepper and rice. I don't know what else they put in there but it's delicious. Everyone is very friendly as well, the servers all pull together to take care of each guests. If you're in Chicago check it out, you will not regret it. read more

Friend BBQ - Chicken Skewers - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Great service, and wonderful food. We had cucumber, oyster, clam and many bbq lamp. Love it! Great job! read more

Went here with 3 friends and was sat almost immediately after they took our temperatures! Everything we ordered was really good, highlights of the meal were definitely the eggplant, grilled bread roll, potato fried rice, and honestly any of the meat because everything we got was so good! The prices are very fair and you can easily fill up without breaking the bank! The way they're handling their safety regarding COVID is really well done :) From the temp checks when you walk in to the QR scan ordering at your table, you can tell they are working hard to make sure everyone feels comfortable. read more

The energy was good, very friendly staff, amazing food, spent about $60 on just two people and we were satisfied. Lots of night-core music which was alright, I think the staff got a good laugh watching a couple white dudes using chopsticks, yes we noticed, maybe don't stare so much next time.. overall 8/10 read more

What a surprising and delightful find in Chinatown! Went here on a whim for dinner at around 9:30 on a Friday night - and we were seated right away. The food comes out lightning fast. If you're looking for Instagram trendy posts with interesting decor - this isn't the place for you. But if you are dining for the actual taste and quality of food - this place is a gem. I could care less that they served the food on paper plates - the flavoring and ingredient quality is top notch. Incredibly authentic flavors and despite being no frills, the restaurant was extremely clean. The serving staff aren't going to come by with a charming joke or punch line - but they brought out the food extremely quickly and are there to get you anything you need. I can't wait to come back - wonderful spot! read more

The skewered meats are where it's at, and also the tofu skin. This place is a real gem and I would gladly go again.

Dang this was satisfying. Exactly like the street food you find in China except you won't be sick the next day. Very tasty seasoning, and fast and friendly service. I was out of there after just about a half hour. read more

See all

Open late, that's a plus when everybody else in town was locking up. I ordered fatty beef, fatty lamb, special lamb, squid, chicken hearts, beef tendon, pork belly, chicken skin, grilled bun and scallion pancake for a total of $21. Excellent beef and lamb! The chicken skin, pork belly and hearts were not hot and fresh. Grilled bao bun was great, squid and scallion pancake were pretty good. Beef tendon was super chewy, not too many tender bits on this one. Every skewer has the same spice rub, which is good, but different flavors would make it more exciting. I also tried the Dark Plum drink which was really good too. A little hit or miss on the quality. Items hot off the grill were great, and the others would have been if they were hotter and fresher. read more

See all

Our friends came in from NYC to visit and we were going to go to dinner. They mentioned Friend BBQ was a location of their favorite Chinese BBQ spot in NYC. They kept telling us how great it is and that we need to go. I don't know much about Chinese BBQ, but glad we went. The place is clean, bright, and has a lot of TVs around. Seriously, it would be perfect viewing for the Super Bowl or some other big game. The menu is a good size. You can easily identify what you want without getting lost in a sea of options. I really wanted chicken gizzards and let the table decide the rest. The chicken gizzards were delicious. We also ordered their special lamb skewers along with a bunch of skewers. The lamb skewer came out on a skewer looking like Harry Potter's' wand. So much flavor and so juicy!! I could probably eat like twenty of their lamb skewers. The fatty beef was another favorite of mine too. The grilled bun was a very surprising skewer. The spiciness of the seasoning along with the sweetness of the bread was a great combination. I honestly didn't think I would like the bun, but I really enjoyed it. The hubs and I really enjoyed this place. We even brought another group of friends a month later here. FYI they're byob too!! read more

This was so delicious ! We were all about weary about trying this restaurant. Everything was on skewers except the noodles & rice dishes but OMG your taste buds are excited for every new flavor. The tofu skin was strange sounding but incredible, and the eggplant was arguably the best I've ever had!! We ended up ordering it again!!! Highly recommended read more

We heard through the grapevine that one of our favorite Chinese BBQ skewer places in NYC opened in Chicago Chinatown. Our friends had never had Chinese BBQ before, so perfect opportunity! Chinese BBQ for those who don't know is about skewered meat, vegetables, etc and utilizes spices like cumin. The inside is a little smaller than its NYC (Flushing) counterpart but still can fit enough people. There's a number of tvs in here and they were playing some NBA games. The menu itself has a number of skewers whether it's lamb, beef, chicken, etc with the other stuff like chicken hearts, gizzards, aorta, beef back straps, etc. Also more than enough vegetable and seafood skewers. They also have skewers hot pot which is like hot pot but instead of the stuff floating around and you trying to find it, they're secured on skewers. My favorites will always be ones like the Xinjiang Lamb, which is juicy lamb on willow tree skewers. Actually pretty much everything is good. The menu isn't as big as their Flushing counterpart but still big enough. They don't have a liquor license yet and not sure if that will change, but they allow BYOB. Overall, about the same quality as we are used from their NYC outpost. Hopefully they get busy and even Americans find out about it. What's not to like about skewered meat, vegetables, etc? The skewers are great, especially with some beer. This place is open until 2am, so there's a lot of good going for it. read more

Ordered from this joint last night with UberEats and was blown away! Ordering from Uber eats can be a bit intimidating especially without pictures or good descriptions, but saw a few reviews on here and decided to try some of peoples favorites. I ordered the lamb, chicken and beef skewers, which were all super tender and so full of flavor. Finger Lickin' Good! I also ordered the Grilled Bun which was outstanding. Need to check this place out in person. read more

The quality for some of the food is pretty bad. The oyster tasted not refresh, I don't want get stomachache so I didn't eat. And later on some of the dish tasted some weird sauce flavor so I didn't eat either. The owner lady came and asking anything ok. And I told her how I feel. She then try to argue with me how fresh their oyster is, and the food is no problem.... so I just said ok.... if a good owner they would really care and returned my money. I spent over 100$ there for 2, and paid over 20% tips Bc my friend insisted to tip like that for any restaurant. read more

Went there kinda reluctantly because Chinese BBQs in the US are way way more expensive than they are in China ($7 an oyster, excuse me?), not to mention the always substandard taste. However, the moment I got our skewers here at Friend BBQ, I knew I had to take my words back. THEY TASTED EXACTLY THE SAME AS THOSE FROM THE HOLE-IN-THE-WALL SKEWER PLACES IN CHINA! Beef with fat, lamb with fat, Xinjiang special lamb, beef with beef tendon were our favorites. We ordered them twice actually. But chicken wings and pork belly were a bit dry and fell short of expectation. Also, if you are not sure how much spiciness you can take, ask the waiters for chilly powder on the side. I actually ended up adding a lot of chilly powder -- but I am a spice monster lol. All in all, if you really miss Chinese bbq, come here and you would know it's worth it. read more

It's a must-go place in Chicago if you miss Chinese food. The food here is really authentic and the staff here are nice. Even though we waited for an hour and half, it's worth it! read more

Friend BBQ - Shaokao - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

See all

Had the tofu skin soup - didn't taste good, could only eat half. Had the chicken BBQ - good, but no one but me liked it. Spices not great, but cooked very well. My Chinese au pair had the frog dish. She didn't like it and couldn't eat it. I hated the waiter and how he treated us, including my Chinese au pair. It seemed to me that he was snotty and arrogant. He asked if we liked it, we said we didn't and he charged us for everything anyway. read more

Great place! Authentic and tasty, friendly stuff, nice atmosphere. Extremely garlic oyster was soooooo good. Huge. Flavorous. Try it. I would definitely come back and recommend it to friends. It's the best BBQ restaurant in chica read more

See all

The waiters are super nice and the food tastes super good too. I would recommend my friend to have dinner here . The most authentic northern Chinese barbecue is in Chicago. read more

Friend BBQ - Chinese Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Went in not expecting much, but was very interested in the pictures of the spicy clams and meat sticks. I was pleasantly surprised by this small hole in the wall and would 10/10 recommend this to anyone near by. read more

We went to friend BBQ around 10:30 at night on a Friday. There were a couple tables in, not sure if they're just too new and no one knows to go to them that late at night or if it's cause they're pretty much the last store on the street, but this place had great service, they were always paying attention to our drinks and new exactly when we were ready to order and ready for the bill. We ordered everything in medium, probably a little too spicy for my preference but that's because I like spice that provides a good balance between the flavor and the food itself. The spice is good but once you eat too much of it, that's all you taste. So I would go for the mild, my fiancé however liked the medium. The portions for the foil packets are huge, so don't think that you're being overcharged here for something because you're either getting fresh Ingredients or a large amount of food, just like with the clams we ordered. It was a ton of food! Can't wait to check this place out again when we're back in town, might have to try the hot pot skewers next time! read more

See all

Great tasty food. Beside all the delicious grilled meat, the chives and cold cucumbers are so so so good.