742 W 31st St

The vegetables are from Uncle Zhang, I'm addict to this restaurant recently. Miss the flavor from my hometown especially during the holidays. My friend can not eat meat, so this time I order some popular vegetable dishes from here to show her my new favorite. Definitely will try more dishes in the future.

Uncle Zhang's is definitely my under the radar Chinese food spot in the city that is highly under rated. Hands down it is the best Chinese food in the city! The eggplant and the sweet and sour pork out of this world! The fact that no place I have been to makes the sweet and sour pork like they do makes them innovators since it's hands down the best l dish! Most of the dishes are Cantonese style. And the serve that served us checked in often what is very pleasant! So, if you like home style cooking and high quality food Uncle Zhang's is the place to come try!

I had 2 different people mention in passing that this is the place they go out of their way to visit when near Bridgeport so I had to check it out. Rather spacious. 5 large group tables w lazy susans that can seat 6-8 people ea (1 in a semi private room) plus 5 booths & 4 tables that seat 4 ea. Good for groups. More spacious than I anticipated from outside. Much nicer than I expected, for some reason. When I asked what the most popular item was, I was told the TRADITIONAL sweet & sour SLICED pork and the dumplings. The difference between the "traditional" and "new" style is the traditional is made with vinegar and the new style made with ketchup. This was really good, a refreshing change to a typical sweet and sour or orange/general tso flavor. So much more herbaceous and fresh tasting, not too sweet, not too much fried batter. Just really delicious. And it was even good the next day too. Had me saying Mmm with every bite! I had the pork and cabbage dumplings which were pretty good. Comparable to dumplings elsewhere but still good. I'd definitely go back. Glad it's on my way to places I go regularly!

An amazing Chinese restaurant in Chicago!!! We ordered a soft-fried pork intestines, stir-fried sauerkraut with vermicelli & pork, and a beef tender with spicy sauce. All of them were sooo delicious! My friend and I were so impressed by the flavors!!! We both felt jealous of the people living here lol, if we were in Chicago, we would love to try each option of the menu!

Since I got takeout, I can't judge the service or ambiance (which from the photos, does seem a bit dated), so I'll go only off the food. All three dishes were flavored nicely, packed well, and generously portioned. The pork was just sweet enough, and nothing was too oily. Great takeout spot, though personally I wouldn't dine in here.

This is LEGIT! Boiled Pork & Celery Dumpling: Perfect appetizer and warm, hearty, dumpling to kickstart your meal. I'd probably stick with the chives/other veggie option if you don't prefer a celery-ish aftertaste. But, super juicy! Green Onion Pancake: Yes, yes, yes. If you like this remotely, just get it. Great crispy exterior, fluffy interior. It's a win. Black Bean & Pork Noodle: Honestly, not a fan of this at all. I would take a star off because of this but because this was overwhelmingly good, I'll chalk this up to something I wouldn't recommend. Just nothing enticing to be honest. Sauteed Lamb W/ Cumin Flavor W/ Bone: Good heavens, this may be THE best lamb I've ever had. You likely already know that Northern Chinese Cuisine often includes Lamb (think Xi'an). This was just decadent with a complete flavor bomb of cumin, spiciness & savoriness that you just must try. If you get nothing else, get this. (Make sure to have a side of rice) Eggplant w/ Garlic Sauce (Spicy): Big fan of Eggplant -- garlic may have been a tad cooked long which left a slight bitterness to it. However, the eggplant is nice and charred. It's got a good light spice kick to it too.

Saw this place before but never had a chance to eat here. Food was great, fresh, and hot. Ordered general tso chicken, Mongolianbeef, shrimp fried rixe, and two egg eoles. Probably some of the best egg rkles. Very crispy with tasty dipping sauces. Definitely will eat here again.,

Some of the best and most authentic northeastern Chinese food in the area. I tried these dishes and would 100% recommend all of them! The sweet and sour pork, jellyfish and cucumber salad, and this crispy pancake stuffed with meat. The pancake was my favorite!

Very genuine northern Chinese food . A surprise to find it in Chicago . Taste exactly the same as in northeast China restaurants.

Chinese food is pretty common around Bridgeport. It of course is next to Chinatown. Northern City is a little different of an experience. Making it unique is having cuisine from Northern China, which is typically a lot more authentic. The prices are pretty good and you get a lot. Bridgeport typically has Chinese restaurants that focus on Cantonese and Szechuan, which are Americanized. It gets more authentic here. There's still of course all the favorites you already know. Anyone wanting to get some of the authentic stuff can find lots here. The only thing is there's not too much of a vegetarian friendly selection. It's about $9 for an entree. We came after going to a game. It wasn't busy. That could have been a worrying sign but luckily it wasn't. For the first time here we tried one authentic and one Americanized item. I got the Kung Pao Tofu. It was a pretty big portion. The tofu was covered in spicy and sticky sauce. Good heat. She had the Northern Style Tofu. It looked different because it was authentic. These are cut in thin sheets instead of cubes, and it tastes more vinegary. I would get it the next time here. The rest of the menu has many meaty choices like chicken hot pot. For sure it's not like a typical Chinese carryout. It's actually recommended to dine in because the food is better fresher. There's still those who like to get it as takeout.

Ugh! The struggle to find good Chinese food in the area continues. I ordered from Northern City for the first time partially due to all the good reviews on Yelp. Unfortunately, my experience turned out to be lackluster. My mom and Goddaughter were visiting me so we decided to order out. We all had a craving for Chinese so we decided to give Northern City a try rather than ordering from a restaurant farther away featured on one of the overpriced deliver apps. Now I wish I'd just paid more and ordered from UberEats. We ordered fried rice, crab rangoon, Mongolian beef, egg rolls and sweet/sour chicken. The food came very quickly which was a plus, but it wasn't very good. The rice was chewy and too sticky. All the food was extremely dry too. The egg rolls tasted odd so we didn't even eat them. My sister took one bite and spit it out. They didn't smell right to me so I never even tried them. The sweet and sour chicken was okay, but they packaged the chicken with the veggies so it was soggy. Normally the vegetables are in the sauce and you add the chicken right before eating. The fortune cookies were also stale and they didn't give us any soy sauce! We were so disappointed with the food that we tossed the leftovers in the trash immediately because no one wanted them. Needless to say, I won't be ordering from Northern City again.

Great little hole in the wall. The beef noodle soup is a real winner. The spicy noodle soup is also fantastic if you can tolerate really spicy food. The dumplings are also fantastic. Overall, really good northern Chinese food at a reasonable price.

My hopes for authentic Northern Chinese food were fulfilled tonight. I knew what I wanted because I lived in northeast China for two years and have been missing the foods I enjoyed there ever since. We ordered the green onion pancake first, which was a lovely flaky version with a slightly chewy interior. Just as it should be. The lamb skewers were all right, though not quite what I was hoping for. The version we had was seasoned with more chili powder than cumin. Northern style dumplings were expertly prepared and served with chili oil and vinegar on the side to create your own custom dipping sauce. No one does eggplant better than " dong bei " and we thoroughly enjoyed the authentic northern braised eggplant. It is so rich that it must be eaten with steamed rice, which was complimentary. Our savory kung pao chicken was fantastic and tasted just like the dish I regularly enjoyed in China years ago. Our last dish was the steamed red snapper, which I think I saw scooped out of the fish tank not long before our main entrées were served. The snapper tasted fresh and was lightly seasoned, which made for a refreshing contrast with the other stir fry dishes that were loaded with garlic, salt, and oil. All those flavors are a very good thing if you are in the mood for hearty Chinese cooking. And we were. This place is a dangerously delicious discovery for us.

Best Chinese takeout I've had in a while. I ordered the lunch special. The sesame chicken was delicious, crispy (not soggy), and plentiful. The veggie egg rolls were also great. The service was friendly and fast. I'll definitely come back; hope it will be just as tasty!

A small hole in the wall Chinese restaurant in Bridgeport. Affordable and good. We had fried rice, string beans, general tso's chicken, walnut shrimp, and northern style dumplings. Everything we had was good but the favorites were the walnut shrimp and the northern style dumplings.

Another in the strip of Halsted Chinese food restaurants, I've ordered out and gotten the crab fried rice and special pancake. Not sure what a special pancake is but it was good, the rice was fine, couldve maybe used more meat, but portion was big. Later I dined in, got the egg roll and the seafood dumplings, which were very good, and you got 14 of them, I know it's supposed to be an app but I got it as my main course. BYOB which is cool. Place was kinda empty so service was fast. Solid experience overall

Great little hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant in Bridgeport. I happened to find myself here on a busy night but the service was still extremely fast. Our food was great and we will definitely be back. We ordered green onion pancake, dumplings, and king pao chicken. All very good and at great prices. Make sure you stop at Northern City for an authentic Northern Chinese meal!

Home style cooking in the heart of Midwest which made you homesick Most of the northern style cooking is difficult to survive so I do wish they had better luck

Every thing perfect I recommend the stewed ox tails I order from here often they fully load my containers too

Taste: 4.5 Location: 3.5 Cleanliness: 4 Ambience: 3.5 Value: 3.5 Service: 4 OVERALL = 3.83 Great food overall! I've always been a fan of the Potsticker House, which is another great Chinese restaurant in the Bridgeport area. Finally got the chance to try out Northern City after seeing the reviews on Yelp. The place is definitely bigger than Potsticker House, which is a plus, because sometimes I do feel crammed at Potsticker House. Decided to order their Braised 'Pork Belly with Bean Noodle' and the 'Stir-fried Chicken with Double Chili' and boy, they were amazing! The glass noodles were smooth and delicious. The pork belly was sinful-licious. The Chicken was fantastic too. I'm a big fan of spicy food and so I was expecting something really spicy especially because they also say it on the Menu that the Chicken dish is really spicy. But it's not spicy at all for my standard; nonetheless, it still tasted amazing. You'd need to eat and bite the actual chilies that came with the dish - they're spicy =P Will definitely come back to try out their other dishes!

Food: 3 stars Value: 4 stars We came here for lunch with our friend who is a fan of Dong Bei food. We were thinking of trying Homestyle Taste Chinese restaurant since we hadn't been, but this place looked more Dong Bei centric so we figured we'd give it a shot. I don't know much about the food of Northeastern China but was excited to see what this place had to offer. When we arrived around 2 on Saturday, the place was almost entirely empty except for us. The waitress we friendly and took our order. We had soy milk, fried Chinese donut, pork soup dumplings, hand pulled pancake, stir fried potatoes, kung pao chicken, Korean style cold noodles, liang pi (cold starch noodles), house special squid salad, and jia jiang noodles. The soup dumplings were decent. They were not anything like Ding Tai Fung's since the wrapper was kind of thick, but they did have a decent amount of soup inside and the pork filling was nicely seasoned. The kung pao chicken was nice, as were the stir fried potatoes which were slightly vinegary and refreshing. The Korean style cold noodles were okay, but the broth was too sweet for my taste. The noodles were nice and chewy though. My husband thought the liang pi were just okay. The fried donut was a bit heavy and the soy milk was too sweet. I thought the hand pulled pancake was also a bit heavy. I've had it other places where it is fluffier and lighter. However, that being said. we had tons of leftovers to bring home and all this food was only 77 dollars before tip. Quite a bargain!

Great little local restaurant, off the beaten track from Chinatown. As their name implies, they specialize in Northern Chinese cuisine rather than the more typical American known regional styles of south China. They are heavily frequented by Asian patrons, which points to authenticity in the food. Not fancy, but friendly. There are two big circular tables up front that can handle a large group or family with the typical lazy-Susan centerpiece for sharing food. The rest of the place is filled with booths and tables, as well as a bar area at the back. Don't be afraid to branch off the beaten path to try something unusual. This is not your standard "Chinese Takeout" that you will find in suburbia or at the mall. There are many delicious cold appetizers as well as excellent dumplings to try. My personal favorite dish is vegetarian: the sautéed string beans. Mmmmm.

UPDATED REVIEW: I wish I could give this place 0 stars. I've always been a loyal customer, as you can probably tell by my previous review, complete with pictures!  My friends and family dine here often. I usually get takeout though, or delivery. Today I went to eat lunch there (sit-down) and had the worst dining experience in my 23 years of existence. The waiter gave me the wrong order, and proceeded to charge me incorrectly for it. Having never ordered this dish before, I unknowingly ate it because I assumed it was the right one. When the bill came, I pointed out the discrepancy. Cindy, the Chinese lady working as the cashier, inserted herself into the conversation I was having with my waiter. She was very rude to me, and started yelling at me. She seemed mad that I confronted them about a mistake on their part.  I was in shock, since before she came into the conversation, the waiter and I were talking out our problem just fine. She said something along the line of, "I don't give a ****, just because you're a customer you think you can do XYZ...You think you're superior..." (In Chinese, of course!) I definitely did not expect that, since I was very cordial and polite up until she came in and started telling me how wrong I was for something that was *not* my fault. I asked to speak to the manager, who tried to minimize her wrongdoings by saying she wasn't feeling well. I have never paid for an experience where I was yelled at and left feeling extremely upset. I will NEVER visit Northern City again. I encourage you to do the same and boycott this place. You have lost a loyal customer, and I will be sure to tell my friends and family. Homestyle Taste on Halsted is just as good, with better service.

Restaurant review Unfortunately I did not write this review sooner so I will have to say that I can't remember all of the dishes we had at the restaurants, however the dumplings were so so. Maybe I cannot appreciate the finer points of dumplings, but I found them fatty. The noodle dishes also were quite oily along with the northern pancakes which also were nice but on the oily side. Afterward the meal I felt thirsty which may mean some MSG.... Well maybe next time I'll try some other dishes Pro: Northern type asian cuisine Cons: oily and some of the dishes possibly had MSG Hidden gem: none that I know of

Lunch options are inexpensive and come in pretty big portions. Dishes seem somewhat hit-or-miss, though some are definitely great. I really loved the 'stir-fried preserved pork and sausage', though my wife found it a little too fatty. We'll order from here again.

Smoked chicken from here is delicious!! Everything comes in big, shareable portions. I also recommend their sweet soy milk with fried crullers -- simple and nostalgic breakfast.

An excellent choice for dining Chinese. It's a bit off the beaten path as far as the Chinatown experience, but once you've been to Chinatown a few times, that shouldn't be a concern for going elsewhere. You come to this restaurant for the cuisine, not for the theatre or spectacle. This cuisine is from a truly different region of China, so don't shy away from the unfamiliar. While I will admit that I've never had a bad dish from the three visits I've had so far, I suggest ordering at least one of their house specialties if not more, because even though the more standard American Chinese dishes are great, you owe it to yourself to try some of the less common choices. You might find it unusual, but chances are you will broaden your horizons. Service is better than many Chinatown restaurants although it may be a little less than what you would hope for. However, it's not a rudeness issue; all of the staff are friendly and helpful, but they are also busy and probably not especially trained, so you should be willing to flag someone down to get them to handle whatever you need. I don't think they mind, and they always take care of whatever I've needed. (Don't be afraid to ask!) It's likely this will be a bit of an eye-opening experience. I noticed several of the flavors and spices used, while Asian, are not what I typically would associate with Chinese cuisine, so it made me realize how ignorant I was of what I've been missing. I have really only been exposed to Cantonese, Mandarin, Hunan, Szechwan and Taiwanese styles, so this was a great choice to add something else to the roster.

This restaurant is good price and the food is so delicious. The Dumpings were juicy, and The dry pot chicken was awesome, spicy and delicious.

A bit of a lower key Chinese restaurant in my opinion, this place seemed like a very straight forward place. It being a "Northern" Chinese place, the options are slightly different than a typical Chinese restaurant. Though, I'm not we enough versed to say what those differences are. My girlfriend and I enjoyed what we ate, and we tried something purely based off the picture, though asking what food the picture was turned out to be kind of confusing, and the cashier had to get someone else. I have a closer Chinese spot to me, so odds are I will go that one, but if I was nearby and wanted Chinese, I wouldn't be opposed to stopping here again.

I was under the weather, and wanted soup, boyfriend wanted noodles. my tendency of ordering the weirdest things on the menu got me to inquire this "homemade soup with flour and pork", the server said it in mandarin to me that it is her favorite soup....gosh...def. didn't go wrong with going with a "local"'s suggestion...sooo good...it's a bit on the thick and heavy (coz of the flour dumplings thing) side bf ordered the spicy beef noodle soup...that's probably one of the best noodles soup i have ever had...it's spicy, but i can still taste the food, the beef was perfectly favour and tender, the noodles's chewiness was just about right.... i swear...the hotness (spicy level) from the noodle soup and the hotness (temperature) from the flour soup def. helped sweat my fever away! i am not kidding...i literally went in with 100F and went home and it was down to 98.X F that night! Now, that is medicine!!!

If you're down for spicy food then this is the place to go! It was my first time here on Sunday a couple days ago and the food was amazing. I'd recommend fish filet cooked in water (spicy soup) it was delicious. This place has lunch special and cost around $5.75 without tax included.

This is very authentic Northern-style Chinese food. The dumplings are among the best I've had in Chicago and remind me of dumplings from China. The skin is handmade and the filling is savory and flavorful! Can't speak to service since I ordered delivery, but the delivery was fast and the food hot.

I was very disappointed this place is getting worse and worse and today I have to give it an one star for both the food quality and service. I still remember this place used to have a very good taste food two years ago, and the price is very decent. I am very happy to find a cheap and good taste restaurant near halsted street. And everytime when I feel to get spicy Chinese food, I think of this restaurant. One year ago, I think when they hire new staff, the services start getting worse, either some of them doesn't want to pick up the call, or they prefer to hang up as soon as they can ( I doubt how busy they are, but when I went into the restaurant, only few people is need to served) Two days ago, I ordered Sliced Beef Tendons & Pork w. Hot & Spicy Sauce to go. I didn't realize until I taste it. This food isn't suppose to taste sour, but it did!, so I assume they put vinegar on it. Nor, the meat tasted weird, and I smell the food taste it has been stay for long time. I feel very pissed off because I remember when I paid cash, they return me the wrong amount, the waitress's service is not very nice and now they give me expire food. I feel very upset about this restaurant is getting worse, and I feel like I won't go there from now. It just waste of my money and rid my mood.

Ordered three things and they were all delicious. I guess it really depends on what you order here. I loved the deliciously thin, sweet and sour pork cutlets. The spicy beef belly noodle soup was the right kick of numbing spice. Fish filet in spicy sauce was really good.

This is our favorite restaurant serving delicious dishes from north of China. Authentic, clean (especially their restroom), bright, and with friendly service. We ordered Crispy fried pork, Stir-fried pork kidney w. spicy sauce (not very spicy actually, highly recommend! so authentic), Shredded pork w. garlic sauce, and Candied sweet potato. I love the potato dish, it's good for people who carving dessert after dinner. Although I pressed five stars here, I sill want to mention that the paper table cover was stained with grease... Anyway, still is a good place to having Chinese food!

This is still one of my favorite Northern style Chinese restaurants in the U.S. I just ate here today and had one of the best meals I've ever had. I had the 抓饼，油条，大拉皮，and 羊肉串. The 大拉皮 (da la pi) texture was fantastic and chewy. People, please eat here for an authentic Northern Chinese experience!

Good service and excellent food.food was cheap and big. Yummy yummy .will come back again...

Better than I thought it would be. When we arrived on a Friday evening, there were a number of tables occupied, so that was pleasing. We had the Northern Style steamed dumplings, sauteed lamb, and Northern Style braised eggplant. The dumplings weren't that good, as the dough was too thick and the filling was simply just pork and leek. The sauteed lamb was pretty good and was quite a generous serving. The eggplant had a nice crispy texture to it. However, the accompanied vegetables like green peppers and onions were nearly raw and hard to digest. All of the dishes came freakishly fast. We also had the tofu dessert with sweet syrup (don't know the exact name), but the tofu should have been thinner and slippier like at other places (Gourmet in Chinatown). What was the most disappointing was the accompanied pot of tea. It honestly tasted just like hot water just with a light brown coloring. When I opened the pot, there were no tea leaves in there so they must have brewed it elsewhere, which explains the lack of flavor. Service was okay. The young waitresses were friendly, but clearly inexperienced. They had trouble and took a long time to clear off our table. They also didn't really check up on us and we had to signal them, especially when clearly we were done eating. The place itself is decent and looks pretty clean. Prices are a tad expensive, but understandable, especially as some of the dishes are pretty generous. Overall, not bad. Probably will return sometime especially as it is in my neighborhood, but definitely not a go-to.

I don't understand why this place isn't more popular! I'm Chinese and this is the best Chinese restaurant I've ever eaten at in Chicago! It's also not expensive! The string beans, soup dumplings, eggplant, tofu, everything is absolutely amazing. Confusingly, the place isn't that busy so there is no wait!

Delivery guy hassled me and said that if I hadn't give tip I couldn't receive the food. I offered to use the card to pay but he kept insisting that I had to get cash. I literally had zero cash on me (which was my initial problem) and had to ask one of my friends if they had spare cash to use. After he saw my friend he insisted 'I won't take less than 4'. This guy had zero etiquette, I've never had a delivery guy be so rude before. The service inside the Restraunt is okay but I'd avoid ordering. The delivery guy working there will probably try to rip you off.

Clean place and pleasant service. First time there and possibly last time b/c food could be better.. The meals are not my liking.

Enjoed the dine-in experience but when called for delivery they charged a $7.5 delivery fee and the girl had an attitude on the phone. They said if they are busy they might not wanna deliver and it will take 1 to 1.5 for the food to get here. I have ordered delivery from other places in chinatown and it's always a 3 dollar delivery fee. Will not do delivery again.

I'm glad to see Bridgeport bouncing back and local businesses opening up shop. Northern City renovated a run down, eye sore of a building, and turned it into a nice, warm place to eat. The orange chicken and Mongolian beef are 2 excellent dishes. With such a extensive menu, there is bound to be something for everyone. Just give them a try.

I just... I can't. Every time I order from Northern City, I'm reminded that I promised myself I wouldn't do it again. Every order, without fail, has something weird about it. My latest & least favorite was crafted with a sodium content that was just off the charts. I picked up a mapo tofu lunch special a few weeks ago that was like a tofu salt lick. I'm not exaggerating, I'm not trying to be a mean ol' Yelper here, but really it was disgusting. My teeth actually ached like I had wrapped my lips around a salt shaker. It was the strangest thing. I threw away an entire box of food. Yesterday I was out running errands & all I wanted was some crab rangoon. Major craving, so I figured I'd just swing on by Northern City on my way home. Can't mess up some cream cheese & pastry deep fried, right? Wrong. The pastry dough was so obviously stale, I had to rip & tear with my teeth just to get a very chewy bite. Second successful bite revealed a whole mess of spoiled cream cheese. Into the trash this wasted $$ went, just like that lunch special a few weeks earlier... I used to really enjoy getting noodle dishes from Northern City. From what I understand, their noodles are actually homemade. They were always thick & plentiful, if only a bit on the greasy side, but they were tasty. I'm not sure I can risk trying their noodles again! I'm so sorry, Northern City! You're just not the most reliable Chinese joint in the Bridgeport neighborhood! :(

My husband and I frequent Ed's Potsticker House to get our Northern Chinese cuisine fix. However, the past couple of times I've left Ed's disappointed. Dishes were too salty, disgusting thick layers of oil sit at the top of the dish. Things just didn't taste the same. The first time I thought to myself, maybe it's a different chef on Sunday nights. Let's not go there anymore on Sundays. But then it kept happening on other nights. FF a few months later, a Chinese co-worker informs me that a couple of old Ed's Potsticker House cooks left to start their own restaurant around the corner! So typical Chinese. So of course we check it out. Now this is the tofu in home style sauce I remember! They nailed it! Everything was fresh and clean. No thick layer of re-used oil. All the dishes are the same as Ed's and just as good as they were before. The tofu in home style sauce is our fav. We got the beef with two types of mushrooms, very tender, super yummy. We tried the rice cake and pickled snow cabbage. Their pickled snow cabbage is out of a can. I'm used to eating my mom's home made pickled snow cabbage. Once you've had it fresh, you can't go back to the can. I'm not sure the next time we'll be back at Ed's, but Northern City, we'll see you tonight!

I live right by this place and since it just opened, I figured I would give it a try. I got a hold of the menu and browsed through it to see if anything special caught my eyes. My first impression from looking at the regular menu was that it is pretty expensive. I noticed the lunch special was a good deal because it was $5.00 and it comes with soup and an egg roll as well. The egg roll is horrible by the way. I decided to order the hot and spicy chicken lunch special because this is one of my favorite dish from another restaurant that I have tried in the past. It is pretty good, but definitely not as good as the one from any of the Lao's restaurant in Chinatown. For $5.00, I will definitely come here just for the lunch special. I wish it came with fried rice instead of white rice though.

Ordered the shredded pork with garlic sauce lunch special for take out and was slightly disappointed. Half an hour before I wanted to pick up my order, I called them and asked if they used MSG. The man on the phone assured me that they did not. So I went ahead and ordered; my entree came with jasmine rice and delicious hot soymilk. They offered egg drop soup as an alternative to the soymilk, and according to their website, an eggroll. They didn't offer me an eggroll on the phone :( but honestly there was so much food I forgot about it. Pickup was prompt, and they had my order waiting within the specified half hour. The food was just ok, very Americanized. I was led to believe that they were somewhat authentic and placed my order in Mandarin in the hopes that they would up the authenticity factor. Alas, that was not the case, and the copious amounts of oil was a major turn-off. It was ridiculously sweet... they must have used at least a tablespoon of sugar. What really sealed the deal on me never returning was that they used MSG!! When they assured me they didn't!!! I was sleepy and parched for the rest of the afternoon. Northern City is a cheap pick (at least for lunch), but not healthy or up to par on taste. I'm still a little annoyed that the guy lied about their use of MSG, but I guess that's how they rope you in, at least once.

Excellent food at a great price is about the easiest way I can summarize this place. I have been a pretty loyal patron to Potsticker House for as long as I've visited Chicago, and when I heard that their head chef had left to start his own restaurant, I kept my loyalties with the house over the turncoat. What a mistake that was. Whereas the food quality at Potsticker House has dropped (while business has inexplicably increased for whatever reason), I was left with an urgent desire for delicious, authentic, and flavorful northern style Chinese food. Enter Northern City. The soup dumplings, are flavorful, juicy, and filled with soup. Just the way it's supposed to be if a bit on the thicker side. The sweet and sour "squirrel" fish was deliciously crispy, appealing to the eyes, and wonderfully fresh. The yolk-fried egg tofu was crisp and soft at the same time, with the right balance of salt, pepper, and egg yolk--talk about a surprising dish! The pork-stuffed chinese pancake was to die for. Literally. And my favorite, the napa cabbage, mustard greens, vermicelli and pork belly casserole was just the right amount of sour, just the right amount of herbs, and full of flavorful broth. What a great treat this was. I now have found a new norther style Chinese place to patronize.

Ordered the Northern Fried rice, generous portion of meats, it contained chicken, shrimp, and beef. The shrimp and beef were breaded which gave it a tasty feel. The chicken tasted rubbery though and was disgusting. The shrimp fried rice box was about $9 and was a good portion. I would order again but not with chicken.