Wish I could give this place more stars... I have been to this place with my parents (who are locals -- they come here almost every week) several times and we are usually 1 out of 3 or 4 tables dining. Not on Christmas day.... we had a similar experience as another person whose review was posted on Christmas day and we have also never not left a tip before (my dad is in the food service business). They sat us down and since we had already been multiple times, we already had a menu on us with our order down and immediately handed it to our server when we walked in. They took it with them to get our tea and brought it back to us. We realized 10-15 minutes later that no one had stopped by our table and there was no receipt stapled to our menu -- the server did not enter it into the computer. We waved over another server (this is the only way you will get served in Asia/Chinatown -- everywhere else in America, it's considered rude). And then began our wait....30 minutes until our first dish came...another 20 minutes (yes we timed it) until the next one did (they were all cold, by the way). The service that day was a serious s---show. They would bring out a whole bunch of food on a cart and then 5-8 servers would crowd around the cart with tickets trying to figure out what went to who.... yeah, that could never go wrong. The only reason they get 2 instead of just 1 star is that my mother angrily told one of the servers (a 20-something man who spoke Chinese -- doesn't really narrow it down, I know) and he immediately took charge of our table and almost instantly brought our food over (after waiting for 1 hour while every table around us who was seated before us was served -- the exact same dim sum orders that we had order). The server apologized and boxed up our food for us to go (after we asked -- he even burnt his hand a little on a hot plate) So yeah, not exactly the best experience. The food was meh. Still not as good as my go-to place in Orlando, FL (plus, it's almost $1 more per dish -- doesn't sound like a lot, but for dim sum, it really adds up). I guess the take away message is just this: 1) Don't go to Chinatown on Christmas day 2) Make sure you wave over a server every 5-10 minutes to check on your food -- they WILL forget about you. read more

Imperial Restaurant - Christmas Day -- a real s---show. - Dim Sum Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

I've tried Cai a few times now and I keep trying to convince myself to like it as much or more than MingHin but it's not working so well. Cai definitely has more options than MingHin. Prices and wait time for the two restaurants are very similar. Most of the dim sum items taste similarly as well. The only downside is that Cai tries too hard to add more items to their menu while compromising the quality of the taste. I tried their soup dumplings aka xiao long bao and it was a HUGE disappointment. The skin was too soft, the juice was lacking, and the filling too sweet. I would also avoid the spicy wontons-- warning: they are NOT spicy at all. Cai, please leave these items to Shanghai or Taiwanese restaurants who specialize in them. You should just focus on what you already do best- dim sum! Maybe it's my fault for ordering these items at a Cantonese restaurant. read more

Delicious dim sum. Lots of variety. Don't ignore the back page for noodle dishes and vegetables. Service is typical for a Chinatown restaurant (meh). Check your receipt - they almost brought us the wrong order x3. They lose one star for charging for tea, even if you don't ask for tea (or a second pot of tea). Plenty of seating to accommodate large groups or parties of 2 or 4. Come before 11 on the weekends, or else you'll be watching other people eat while waiting for your table. Remember to validate your parking if you used the corner lot under the el. $2 for up to 3 hours. Meters would end up costing more if you stay for 2 or more hours. Take a walk down to Chiu Quon Bakery to burn off calories and pick up more calories for later. read more

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This probably has been my least pleasant experience in a restaurant. Serves have very bad temper for whatever reason. I even noticed one waitress nearly shouting to a customer, who reasonably asked about when the dish will be ready. The plates and spoons were very unclean, and when we asked for change to server she said someone will be here and just walked away! More horribly! One dish delivered to us with a scramble paper!!! That's definitely ridiculous. I barely share my experience but this is something different for sure. I just want to save improve your service otherwise there still are tons of dim sum in Chinatown! read more

Imperial Restaurant - Dim Sum Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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The wait time here is ridiculous for dim sum. Dim sum foods are typically brought around in carts, meaning they they should be piping hot and coming out of the kitchen continuously. I do appreciate being able to order all items at once using a menu where you can mark how many of each item you'd like, but the wait time was 1 hour after we'd ordered the food. I have been to many other dim sum establishments with larger seating occupancy and customers on a weekend, that have been able to deliver accurately and efficiently. Not only that, the customer service was lackluster. We had to repeatedly signal several different waiters for requests for drinks and additional menu orderings, as well as the check. Won't be coming here again. read more

Even on a simple weekday dim sim lunch for only 3 people they still lack on service. You have to call the waiter each time you want something and there is never any one to refresh tea, sauces, or plates. The service is more than slow, but I have to mention that these soup based dumplings are better than last time. The dim sum is not as good as it was few years ago when it first opened either but it does have an elevator nearby so it was accessible for my mother. read more

Generally when I go to Chinatown--I don't expect the service to be stellar--in fact I usually expect quite the opposite. For my first visit here, that was no exception. We were a party of 3 on a Saturday morning. Yes it's busy, yes it's packed---but you would think you would want to get us food and get us out as quickly as possible. About 15 minutes went by---and even though I was more than happy to converse with my dining partners---the growls in our stomachs could easily have been heard over all of the convos in the restaurant. We had to ask for tea and water repeatedly, which was kinda annoying. At least the food is decent and the price is tolerable--otherwise I would have given it only 2 stars. We had the usual shu mai dumplings, shrimp dumplings (ha kow), steamed beef balls, couple of funn rolls, salt and pepper fish, veggie and chicken bun, and a few other types of dumplings----we finished everything--in total 14 dishes---for 3 hungry chicks. If I wasn't so use to terrible service in chinatown I probably would've been super grumpy---but alas the tasty food prevailed. read more

Good place for dim sum. My favorites are pork dumpling And egg yolk bun. The shrimp dumpling is not very good, the wrapping is too thick and the shrimp is not deveined. Been here for dinner a few times and it is just ok. The sizzling black pepper ribs is too salty. the eggplant and fish casserole had pineapples in it, which is weird. the breading on the deep fried squid was too thick. we ordered half a chicken and it was, well, chicken. The mushroom and beef was good. The fried pea tips were good. This is one of the nicer and cleaner restaurants in Chinatown. I will recommend this place, especially for dim sum. for dinner there are better places. Note that this place is BYOB. read more

Dim sum, every asian's dream of finding just the right bao or flaky crust crepe. There are a ton of dim sum places in chinatown and each place does something that I like. Here is what I like about Cai; flacky taro, beef noodles, and flacky pork crepes. They also offer validation for chinatown parking which is Key. Cai is a bustling place on the weekends, the establishment is so big you usually don't have to wait too long for a seat. They also offer a dinner set meal which my friends and I love. Who doesn't like good food at a cheaper price. read more

Large banquet esque room... but most of the tables are the large round ones and so it feels like there's not a lot of space. I love it when they push the carts around... this is not one of those restaurants, but I really don't mind so much. With the set up of the tables, you're so close to the other restaurants goers that I feel like that method would be hectic! Service was okay - not too friendly, but not cold either. We went on a Friday early afternoon (~1 pm) and had to wait about 10 minutes. They give you a number if there's a wait and call your name when the table is ready. Ordering - no one explained to us how to do it. But we kind of just stalked other tables to figure that out. Oops. Anyways, you get a little colorful sheet that has all the dishes... and just check off the ones you want (or actually write in the quantity if you're ordering more than two of the same dish). I love that the food is ordered in this manner, because all of it seemed fresher coming straight out from the kitchen. All the items were pretty good, from the pork ribs to the beef tripe to the shu mai & shrimp dumplings... and my favorite radish cake.... the pork & thousand year egg congee was very good too. Unlike other congee I've had in the past where you can barely find traces of pork or the egg... you could see the chunks clearly. Whee. Very good food, very happy me. Next time I'm in Chicago, I'll be sure to stop by. read more

Imperial Restaurant - Dim Sum Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Cai is a big, showy circus of a restaurant. A huge banquet room. A numerous and orderly staff. Slightly gaudy in decoration. You will notice one sure sign of good, authentic "ethnic" food. The patrons are almost entirely Chinese, speaking Chinese. The local Chinese community dines here on a Sunday night. We ordered Dim Sum, and were not disappointed. The steamed, barbecue pork buns were the standouts. A bit hard to find, if you're not with a local. Cai is on the second floor in a corner of a large Chinatown market. If you're down in this neck of the woods, it is worth a visit. read more

Imperial Restaurant - Dim Sum Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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I went to Cai on a Sunday night around 8pm for dinner. Even though it was past the dinner rush time, the restaurant was still bustling. We, a party of two, were luckily seated immediately. The restaurant had a good level of chatter and was pretty clean with high ceilings and good lighting though the tables were placed in close proximity to each other. The servers were prompt and very attentive. The only complaint is the order that the food was served -- we got the mochi dessert first, then the dimsum and lastly the duck. This is probably because the food was served whenever it was ready. The food was excellent-- one of the best cantonese restaurants I've had in Chicago and the price was very reasonable and comparable to other restaurants in Chinatown. The quality was definitely well worth the price. We ordered half a pecking duck, chinese broccoli, and a few dimsum dishes (shrimp dumpling, fried dough covered in rice noodle, and pumpkin green tea mochi) Pecking duck (2 eats) 1. Pecking duck wrap - The duck was delicious, roasted perfected with the skin ever so crispy - The wrap for the duck was hand made. It was a little thicker than I'd like but it was handmade and had a good chewy texture to it - The waiter sliced up the duck up in front of us and prepared the wraps for us with cucumbers, spring onions, and carrot. He included a bunch of meat in the wrap. - The duck was sliced a little too thick but other than that super delicious 2. bitter melon cooked with duck meat - Other choices were lettuce wraps and stirr fried duck - The bitter melon was surprisingly delicious and was not overly bitter. The sauce was flavorful and savory which helped cover the bitterness but it was not overly salty - Duck meat was tender and chopped up into small pieces with the bones Chinese broccoli - Good texture and crunch - lightly salted with garlic, flavorful but not salty Pumpkin Greentea Mochi - this was on the dimsum menu and I thought I'd give it a try since it seemed like an interesting combination of flavors. It was so delicious! - outside was lightly fried with a bit of crisp coating on the mochi - mochi has a light pumpkin flavor with a soft green tea filling - comes in 3 Shrimp dumplings and fried dough with rice noodle were also delicious and well prepared. The rice noodles were not too thick and had a good balance of fried dough and rice dumplings. Overall, a very awesome experience. Definitely with be back with more friends next time! read more

Service and dishes were great! Our group enjoyed pork dumplings, Mongolian beef, sweet and sour chicken and pork, pork lo mein and veggie lo mein. read more

I currently live in a medium-ish size city and unfortunately dim sum is not an option. So when I was in Chicago, it was definitely on my to-eat list. A Chinese friend recommended Cai and I'm so glad she did. We went during what I can only assume is prime time (Noon on a Saturday) and it was one of the most bustling atmospheres I've ever witnessed. The food was outstanding and seemed to never end. The only tips I can recommend are to plan on waiting for a table and wear comfortable clothes cause you're going to be absolutely stuffed! read more

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We went on Labor Day weekend around noon on a Saturday so there was a 20 minute wait which wasn't unreasonable. After we were seated, we were offered tea (turns out they charge $0.60 per person for tea) and given the dim sum menu. As someone who primarily eats meat, I highly recommend the Siu Mai (it was entirely filled with pork and shrimp), the Korean Style Beef Short Ribs, and the Stuffed Bean Curd Skin with Pork and Shrimp (similar to Siu Mai stuffing, except now there are some vegetables and mushrooms). I was initially pretty excited about the Vegetarian Duck, but it was very bland tasting. There also wasn't much meat in the Spare Pork Ribs with Black Bean Sauce (thankfully they didn't try to disguise taro as pieces of pork at this restaurant, pumpkin was used as a filler instead). read more

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I think it's fair to say that Cai is one of the better, not best, restaurants in Chinatown. Since it is a newly constructed restaurant, it is cleaner and more appealing. With that being said, they also charge a bit more than other restaurants. It's a fair deal though. I usually come here for dim sum. They will still serve dim sum until 4pm on weekends. I'm not too sure about weekdays. When you are seated, they will hand you a big sheet of paper with all their dim sum dishes. They have pictures to go along with it, so if it is your first time ordering dim sum, this will be helpful. I really like their egg tart, super har-gow jumbo shrimp dumpling, and siu mai. These are the classic dim sum dishes. This place can be really crowded in the mornings, especially on weekends. So first come first serve! But usually the wait is not that bad. I was here with my friends on a weekend. We decided to order a second round of food, because dim sum proportions are small. And I realize that they forgot to give us one of our dishes. I told one of the waiter, and he bought it us soon afterward. This is a big and crowded restaurant, so keep that in mind. read more

I would prefer Minghin or triple crown over cai for Dimsum The porridge is watery and the Shu mai and hargao just average for me However I do like their rice roll though read more

Imperial Restaurant - Harga I - Dim Sum Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Still one of my favorite dim some places in Chicago. Sure sometimes you need it to be old school with the lady's pushing the food carts around. But with the picture menu system it's much easier to bring outsiders and friends to try dim sum. We always end up ordering so much food we have leftovers but that's perfect for next day. read more

Imperial Restaurant - First wave of dim sum! - Dim Sum Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

I will start with the only downside to this establishment, they don't have the table side carts with the old Asian women, always my favorite ambience. But as we ordered from the menu in a large group, we were pleasantly surprised with all the choices, we all love shrimp, and there was a boat load literally. Staff very accommodating, even an hour before they shut down dim sum. Not a bad choice did we sample. (Yoda speak) my family enjoyed the experience immensely, one of the better choices in the area for dim sum! read more

prior to Imperial this place was called Cai. as in past, today we enjoyed a dim sum lunch which consisted of a variety of around 12 dishes. every was enjoyable. the only thing lacking was the slow or lack of service , granted i'll give the place a pass due to the lack to employees in job market. read more

I love real dim sum places. This one was great. Service was fast and friendly. The food was wonderful. Will definitely go back again read more

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I usually come here as a regular and its always been a rather delightful experience. This time, it took a turn. We sat down and ordered our usual few dishes. First dish comes and its great, just like Im use to. I then proceed to request for a cold water, and when I get it, there's a dead fly in there! Yikes. Now here's the kicker that really displeased me. We ordered one of the dim sum dishes that has pork in it and when we dig in, we see that the pork has not been fully cooked! Its still red. We make notice of it to the personnel, and they joke it off saying it's almost cooked. How can you almost cook pork? Its need to be FULLY cooked otherwise people can get sick. Shame. Not coming back here again. Food quality has also downgraded. A lot of what was good is not as good as it use to be. read more

We came here tonight around 9 pm, seated immediately. Food we ordered: 1. Xiao Long Bao 2. Steamed Chicken Feet w/ Peking Sauce 3. Stuffed Bean curd Skin w/ Pork And Shrimp 4. Beef Tendon w/ house Sauce 5. Steamed cabbage and pork Buns Food was tasty and fresh, not disappointed. Price may be a little bit cheaper than Ming Hin. Customer services was not bad. Maybe will give a try again. read more

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An extremely traditional Asian restaurant with dim sums to die for. We ordered a whole range of pork, beef dim sums, the Yang chow fried rice, soup and few other things. The service- polite and super quick, nothing fancy. You place your order on the menu itself by marking the dishes you want. Check once your order is placed that all your food has been ordered, our server missed one. The food- delicious and so fresh. Yummy, light We ordered 5-6 dishes and only I paid 25$ which is amazing read more

Imperial Restaurant - Inside Cai very traditionally decorated and lots of place to sit..!! - Dim Sum Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Very disappointed that I have to rate this a 3. The food itself was delicious and nicely portioned but the service was so unbelievably bad. No one really paid attention to my table and we would always have to go find someone for service. Even then, they were very stand offish and didn't seem to want to help. Would have loved to come back for the food but unfortunately will not be. read more

After Happy Chef got closed down, my family and I have primarily went to Cai for dim sum. When you go on a busy Saturday or Sunday morning, the food is really fresh. I love the shrimp roll and chicken feet as well as the har gow. The taro puffs/wu gok are okay depending on if they're fresh or not. Overall the dim sum is pretty standard, but the food comes out pretty quickly which is a plus. The atmosphere is definitely more for families unlike Ming Hin, where you can tell they're trying to cater more to a younger crowd. I recommend coming here when it's busy just so you can get the fresher dishes. The times I've been here on weekdays or during dinner hours, the food has been okay. read more

I came here for a late lunch before I headed to the airport because dim sum cravings are real! I decided to order a few of my favorites: shrimp dumplings, congee, chicken feet, BBQ pork buns, crispy taro and spare ribs. I am not sure what happened because I marked my choices on the paper menu and it was on the ticket, but my congee and taro cakes never arrived. The food I did receive were great, but I was really bummed that I didn't receive my full order. read more

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Went last Friday at opening 9AM, there was 3 of us all for dim sum. Décor was very new and classy. What we ordered: Har-gow, Sui mai, Chicken feet, Beef stomach and liver, Sticky rice, Xao Long Bao with Crab, Fun roll with shrimp, Shrimp spring roll, Fried dumpling with meat, Curried baby octopus, Egg tart, Papaya pastry. (I Guess if your there before 11 you can only get dim sum after 11 the lunch/dinner chef is there so menu ordering is also an option.) Both the dim sum taste and presentation was far and above any thing I have had in Chicago Chinatown in the last 25 years. I was most surprised about the Presentation seeing as dim sum is so cut and dry, the little extras "Cai" did really added a lot. It seemed every other order came with its own sauce, by the end of the meal we had black vinegar and ginger, chili sauce, hosion sauce, sweet and sour and more. What a great addition thought out the years in china town getting a side sauce can be a chore. Nothing was greasy, none of the fillings were over mixed, and every thing tasted excellent. It was all so good I would call it nearly imposable to pick a favorite. Gun to my head I would pick the chicken feet, sweet and sour to perfection and melt off the toe. Service was outstanding also; I felt there Waiter and the Server actually took an interest in what we were ordering and whether we liked it or not. The owner came by and checked on us. Throughout our meal I observed the owner getting into in-depth discussions about dim sum the world over with other customers. In their favor all though they were doting on us it never once felt overbearing or annoying. We read the whole Friday Tribune between the 3 of us during breakfast, witch they had no issue with seeing as it was early and they weren't too crowed. I hope the Old stand by's in Chicago Chinatown take notice, it would not take much for them to negate that burned out feeling you sometimes get. Without a doubt "Cai" has raised the bar! read more

Imperial Restaurant - Xao Long Bao with Crab,Beef stomach and liver,Har-gow,Curried baby octopus, Papaya pastry,Chicken feet,Shrimp spring roll - Dim Sum Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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Food was great, I tried new food not sure what it was but it was very tasty. However, the service sucked big time. Waited and waited and waited some more for service. If we come here again it will have to be during the week when they open doors and no one is there. read more

Five stars for simplicity. We arrived through the back entry, which probably was not the correct entrance and was directed to the host stand. We were given a number and only had to wait about 20 minutes, crowds of people arrived after us so we got there before the rush. We immediately put in our dim sum order as soon as we sat and food was served quickly. Everything tasted delicious, service was good... waiters and waitress that came to our table didn't really say anything to us, but we got what we needed without any issues. Overall, it was a very easy lunch trip. We sat, we ate, we left. And everything was very affordable read more

Imperial Restaurant - Dim Sum Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Re-posting on this page since Cai has been renamed to "Imperial" I've gone to this restaurant a few times in the past and it's always been enjoyable with tasty food. This is no longer the case with Imperial. My girlfriend and I went here for lunch and we were extremely disappointed with the taste in food. We ordered the combination fried rice and it tasted bland. Some of the peas were hard and still frozen, the rice wasn't the typical brown flavor meaning they added little to no soy sauce or sesame oil to it, there was barely any meat, there was barely any green onion and it overall lacked any flavor at all. We ordered siomai and it also tasted bland. We had to dip the entire thing in the housin or chili oil for flavor. The crabmeat xiaolong bao was the best entree we ordered and it was even subpar at best. The ones we got that did have broth had good tasting broth, but the crab meat was bland and over cooked. 2 of the dumplings did not even have broth in them which was extremely disappointing. The shrimp and chive dumplings were awful. The shrimp was over cooked and it also lacked any real flavor. As I went to pay my bill, the cashier asked me if everything was "ok" and I voiced my dissatisfaction with the food and she responded very rudely. She said "that's impossible" and then shrugged me off as she gave me back my card. I'm so disappointed in what happened to this restaurant. I used to come here all the time with family and friends, unfortunately that will no longer be the case in the near future. I do not recommend going to this restaurant. There are plenty of better restaurants in Chinatown you can go to. read more

I prefer this place for dim sum in Chinatown over other places. I know many may disagree but that's ok. I like their selection of dim sum dishes and this place is clean and never too crowded so getting a seat is usually not an issue. i'm not a fan of waiting crazy long lines for restaurants as most are not worth the wait. read more

Tried Cai for the first time today. It was very good! They were able to accommodate a large party in such short notice (called last night for a table for 17 for a brunch for today). When we got there, we found out that the max they can actually do is 15 at the largest table. 18 of us ended up sitting elbow to elbow at the large table and enjoy our meal. Will definitely try it back again with a far smaller group size! read more

This is not a honest restaurant. We went to have dinner last week. We have a group of 10 people. When I started order dishes, their waiter came and said I can't order any dishes without ordering their set dinner. I said I have all the dishes list already , I said why don't you tell us early when we started sitting here. The waiter said he just made that policy! I said I don't want to order the set dinner cuz I don't like those dishes on the list. Honestly I really wanted to leave , however I come there with elder and little kids, and we started drink tea already I just want to eat what I like but this restaurant forced you to order their set dinner and set their policy whatever they want! Ok I picked the cheapest dinner set and order my dishes Their oyster pot is full of old and frozen oyster, oyster meat are not fresh at all and hard to bite the meat. Very very disappointed ! Not honest at all read more

45 minutes waiting for dim sum. 40mins to tell me they were out of spring rolls, stuffed vegetables and crab claws. XLB was marginal best.

This is just an OK place for dim sum in Chicago. The wait can be long on weekends. I have waited for an hour for a group of four. Some of the dishes were not hot when they came out and the flavors were not memorable. WARNING - They sometimes charge tips automatically on your bill so make sure to double check the price when you pay. I was once charged a 18% tip and we only had two people. The waiter we had was good but the girl who took our bill didn't even apologize when we mentioned this to her. Overall service is just okay. read more

It just hit the spot, the xiao long bao was definitely good especially when you add hot thai chilli sauce. The bun was perfect steamed right and soft with just enough meat. The spicy wonton was good still satisying with a good enough spice kick. Good for the price read more

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What can I say it's classic dim sum. Super busy, cramped place. Servers not really giving a you know what. But they are quick, quick, quick! And the dim sum was delicious! This is our "go to" spot for sure! Don't expect the best experience, just enjoy the dim sum:) read more

Food is pretty decent. Service is ok. Large space food for groups. Nice corner view and large windows.

I was here for lunch with a friend, and "meh" is the best phrase I can use to describe this dim sum experience. My first (and totally irrational) gripe is that they don't have carts. They definitely don't have room for dim sum carts, but I like to see my food before I order it, and dim sum is one of the few sit-down restaurants where you can really do that. And that's what I want. We ordered a ton of food (our eyes were definitely bigger than our stomachs), but overall I just didn't find anything that we ate was exactly what I wanted it to be. Maybe my tastes just differ from the chef here - but I was very underwhelmed. Bottom line: I wouldn't wan to come here again, but I wouldn't cry about it. Dim sum is sadly lacking in Chicago, so I'll probably find myself here again eventually. read more