Bixi Beer, Logan Square

New reader and first time poster!
(So sorry if this is to long, just read the first line and scroll on by!)

Bixi Beer opened in Logan square this week.
It's a new Chinese/Korean via the Midwest eatery and brewery.

My wife and I popped by tonight and left feeling that this place will be great in a month or so, needs time for the kitchen to hone it all in. Split 4 dishes and 4 beers.

We had tried:
Bao burger
Kimchi Mando
Tomato and tofu salad
Ssam Plate

-Burger, bacon, seasoning all great, the bao sadly was dried out and kind of lifeless.
-kimchi mando, tasty, but they used very thick dough for the dumpling, sadly it wasnt steamed thourouly making for a kind of tough and plastic like dumpling.
-tomato tofu salad, a dish where the parts were much greater than the whole. Unripe diced peach got lost in the small pieces of tomato, maybe larger pieces of each would make it a bit more cohesive? The dressing however feels like a throw back to the countless ginger miso dressings you've had at sushi bars, but in the best possible way, pro move would be to order this with the scallion pancakes and just sop it all up. Super savory, very delicious, no spoons, I just looked like a mad man dipping my fork tines in this over and over again.

Ssam plate was great. Delicious mix of greens and pickles to dress your char sui pork as well as some buns and a sausage roll to eat it all with. Very satisfying, very pretty. And at $20 felt like a steal.

Happy to have this place open, and I'm very excited to go back, I just might wait a little cause I can only imagine this place getting better.

Oh! Couple first week woes: ice cream machines breaking down, multiple menu items unavailable. But a super sweet and accommodating staff never made this feel like an issue. we had three different people all checking in and chatting us up, very hospitable, never felt stressed or rush.

Thanks!

2515 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60647
(773) 904-7368

I have to know.. how were the beers? Some of them sound interesting.

We had the Chelonean dark beer brewed with Szechuan peppers, it sounds a lot more intense than it is. Very mild, feels low alcohol and pretty drinkable for the summer.

The Sunsinger is an Summer pale ale brewed with strawberry and lemongrass, not bad. Very subtle flavors. An alright pale IMHO.

Captain Haddock Wit I don't really care for wit beers, this was fine. Couldn't really catch the corriander.

The standout was the Unspoken Rule, it's brewed with jasmine tea, and it steers very much in that direction. Reminded me of some of the really fun beers Whip In in Austin used to brew.

That said I really like weird unsubtle beers everything was pretty good and really drinkable, but Unspoken Rule felt special, on the other hand Cehlonean dark was also a standout for its subtle spice notes and really just taking a weird idea and making it enjoyable. (I've only had one other spicy beer before, while interesting didn't seem like something I could keep drinking)

Go try them and tell me what you think. It's an unusual selection for Chicago and even when I was just Ok on beers I was still pretty happy they would skew towards more untraditional flavors.

Tried Bixi for the first time and don't really have much to add to Sula's spot on review in the Reader.


The menu primarily contains of a mashup of Asian flavors. Some dishes work, some don't, and the Yibin Style Belt Noodle is absolutely delicious. The noodle (it's actually one really long thick small-entree-size noodle) comes with Chinese brocoli, pickled mustard greens, peanuts and a spicy umami bomb of a sauce that includes fermented beans and Szechuan peppers.


The seasonal kimchi was very nice, though very light in the spice and funk departments. A few drops of Szechuan oil helped out. Would order again. The oil was one of 4 condiments on each table with the other three being black vinegar, Thai sweet chili, and tamari.


The Chicago beef bao was a bit of a mixed bag. The meat and veggies were really great and the Demi-glace-like juice served with it was delicious. But I wasn't a fan of the sweetness of the bao.


The penang curry, which includes eggplant, mango, pineapple and jalapeno along with a choice of tofu or chicken, was fine, but I thought it needed quite a bit more of a kick.

I only tried one of their beers - the riskrunner - an enjoyable funky beer that went well with the food.

I wouldn't plan a large group meal at Bixi, but I will 100% make it back for the yibin style noodle. I'm also curious about the cumin lamb noodle as well as some of the promising (on paper) desserts.

Beautiful photos. Thanks for sharing your meal with us.