Ellen C.
Yelp
I've had Chinese/Taiwanese food everywhere in SoCal, NorCal, NY, Minneapolis, Chicago, Seattle, everywhere I can get my hands on it, and was glad to find something in the Chicago suburbs that could compete.
They just started opening up dine-in options again. They run pretty lean and so the service (both at the table and getting food) was slower. The restaurant itself isn't the biggest, but it can handle smaller groups (~10 tops). It was a little on the pricier side, which is why the 4 stars and not 5 stars. Our meal below was $63 including tax and tip.
Beef noodle soup: Amazingly good. It had thick noodles, which I'm not usually a fan of but here, they were tender yet slightly chewy, and soaked up the flavor of the soup. The broth flavorful, spicy, and its depth of flavors made the beef even better. They soaked up the broth were tender and moist. Even the veggies in the soup weren't overcooked and hard to chew, they were crisp, and were the perfect balance to everything else.
Chongqing noodle soup: They warned me about its spice level, so I asked for mild. Even then it definitely had a kick to it, but it was worth the sniffles. This had ground pork, a ton of amazing flavors in its oniony-spicy broth, and the bok choy pieces in it were also perfectly cooked. It also had roasted peanuts in it which gave it an additional crunch and helped with the spiciness of the soup. Delicious!!!
Pork & chive dumplings: Disappointing. The skin was too thick and so the dumpling just didn't have a ton of flavor. I usually like somewhat thicker skins, but here the balance was off so the dough had no flavor and the filling couldn't compensate for it. I was planning on buying a couple bags of frozen dumplings (they have those to go as well) if these turned out good, but I opted not to do that. Their other options were way better.
Kung pao chicken: Comes with a bowl of rice, also amazingly good. Yes, it is a greasy dish, but everything in it was super fresh. Everything from the slices of moist, flavorful chicken, to the perfectly cooked bell peppers and onions in the dish. Even the roasted peanuts thrown in there had its fresh crunch! There's some kick to this too but had GREAT flavors and was cooked perfectly.