Ben Tre Cafe - Vietnamese Chinese West Rogers Park

LTH newbie post!

Thanks for all the post for places in north/northwest Chicago! Maybe all these suggestions are because there is a limited selection of decent carry out places up here (apart from Indian Pakistani cuisine). So to carry on the LTH tradition, here is a new place that opened about 9 months ago:

Ben Tre Cafe
3146 W. Touhy Ave., Chicago
Tel: (773) 465-3011
Fax: (773) 465-3028

My wife and I picked up carry out there three out of the last four evenings and so far each dish has been fantastic and the dishes we've had blow away any Asian place around the Devon, California, and Touhy area! Here the items we ordered so far:

Egg Rolls x2
Spring Rolls (Shrimp and Pork… yes Pork!)
Lemon Grass Chicken x2
Simmered Chicken with soy sauce x2
Beef Cubes with wine sauce

As with most Vietnamese/Chinese places, there are lots of soups on the menu so I look forward to trying those after the weather cools off. They have a large selection including rice dishes, noodles, and soups. Overall, we have been very satisfied with what we've had so far. The owners speak very good English and are extremely nice with fast service to go with it.

Enjoy!

We've also had takeout from here (if this is the place I'm thinking of; sandwiched between the McD's and the White Hen?) which was good, and bubble teas - they have a larger selection of flavors than I've seen elsewhere.

I'm pretty sure this is the second incarnation of what used to be my favorite Thai delivery place - it always tickled me when I placed an order because the teenage girl had such a distinctive California valley-girl accent. I can't help but wonder if the young woman at the takeout counter is the same person (which tells you how long ago this was)

I liked the Pho we got, and the spring rolls with shrimp were very good, though my experience with both is somewhat limited - but the people were very nice.

That's the place! Between New York Pantry and McDs. Its not the best looking corner of Chicago, but at least its close to the house. I haven't tried the bubble teas.

The same girl works there. She caught me off guard on the phone because I tried to say my order in Chinese. Then she responded w/ "Lemon Grass Chicken (in English)." I like that they speak very good English. It makes me feel like the order is going to be correct especially on the phone.

Got carryout from Ben Tre the other night.

Decent Vietnamese fare. My wife craves Bun Bo, the vermicelli rice noodle salad with shredded carrots, cuke, onion, radish and an almost satay beef with peanuts on top. This version, albeit to go, was fine, but not fantastic. Interestingly, they use mint as an herb for this dish in lieu of cilantro. No peanuts either--maybe I looked allergic.

My litmus test for Vietnamese cuisine is lemon grass chicken, and Ben Tre's was served in a spicy sauce with jalapeno slices, cucumber & lettuce. Portions of this dish were surprisingly small, but the taste was right there. Not Mekong on Broadway circa 1985, but pretty good.

Also got an order of egg rolls and spring rolls. Both were kind of dry, but I'll chalk that up to the hour drive up north. However, I did get an sweetened Vietnamese iced coffee to go, which was syrupy until I let the ice dissolve & then it was like rocket fuel. Yum!!

All in all, for north suburban Vietnamese fare, I'll still pick Annam Cafe on Clark in Evanston.

Got carryout again and we are sticking with the same dishes although I mixed it up w/ a salted pork dish. It was good