Bai Cafe

I live down the street from Bai and meant to post on it, but I never got around to it. I'll remedy that now since the cat is out of the bag on Openings and Closings.

The older lady who runs the kitchen is ethnic Turkish but born in Uzbekistan, hence the red crescent moon and star (which signified Turkish to me) in the window. Her English is pretty limited, but she speaks fluent Turkish. I learned this since on both my visits, 100% of the clientele was Turkish. The server who rang me up on my two visits is from Kyrgyzstan and some signage on the wall indicates some connection to the Kyrgyz community. I'm not sure who owns the place, but I do know that they're largely catering to the Turkish cab-driving community.

On my first visit, I quickly learned that menu is more or less irrelevant. I started looking over the menu and asking questions only to find out that many of the menu items weren't available. This was ok by me since, honestly, the offerings were pretty lackluster. They directed me to the daily specials, and I saw freshly prepared pelmeni (I called them manti, but I was quickly corrected) so I had to order that.



It was served in a soup that reminded me a lot of the lagman noodles at Jibek Jolu. Nice lamb broth with hunks of meat, potatoes, and chewy dumplings. The other fellow in the restaurant with me ordered the dumplings served Turkish-style, smothered in garlic yogurt. I probably would have preferred that, though I enjoyed my soup.



On my next visit, I saw them preparing stuffed peppers, and I was reminded of the hours I spent in my youth helping my aunt make dolmas at home. I enthusiastically ordered the dolmas only to learn that they wouldn't be ready for a couple hours. Seeing as it was 7:30, I was surprised to hear that. Recently, though, I've driven by at night and saw the place packed full after 10PM, so I guess it makes sense. Instead I ordered the lamb stew which was similar in quality to the dumpling soup. It tasted like classic, homemade comfort food, with lots of potatoes and rich lamb.

So it seems for the full experience, you need to get there on the late side, to coincide with the cab-driver rush. I haven't had the opportunity to partake in that yet, but I'm looking forward to it. It's nice to have a cheap, hole-in-the-wall so close to my house so I will probably be back again soon.

Bai Cafe
3406 N Ashland Ave,
Chicago, IL.
(773) 687-8091

Thanks for the nice report and photos. Looks like a must try. Late-night Turkish is a niche that needed filling. Great for post-theatre coming from Belmont.

Didn't think I'd want two of those fried potato "cakes," but I did:



This little snack seemed like an excellent way to set up for another six hours of driving a taxi: simple, non-assertive, a little greasy, comforting.