Unless you are in a hurry, I'd suggest ordering only a couple of dishes at a time--have had this happen at Katy's and was reminded when a group ate at Isla Pilipina last weekend, that "please don't bring all the dishes at once" rarely seems to translate

abe_froeman wrote:I doubt we're going to order all of that, and I'll have to see what the other people in my party are interested in, but this is a good start. Anything else you'd recommend?

While this is not responsive to your question, I would take a pass on the XLB or Juicy Steam Buns at Katy's Oak Park location. While my opinion is only based on one attempt, it would take a great deal of convincing to get me to order these again instead of a plate (or another plate) of fried pork and chive potstickers.

prolly too late, but that's a whole lotta noodles for 4. Suggestion: don't overlook an order of three chili chicken or dry chili tofu as crunchy add ins for your noodles. Everyone wil be plucking them off the plates. Both are tough to stop eating, imo.

I'm here now- just ordered. We got pork & chive potstickers, scallion pancakes, stir-fried pancake noodles with shrimp; one of us is a big fried rice fan, so we got Grandma's Fried Rice, the combo one. Oh, and against deesher's advice, we did get the juicy steam buns. Eh, it's $6.

Has anyone had the mayonnaise crispy shrimp? I'm intrigued.

At the eleventh hour, we added on the mayonnaise crispy shrimp...holy cats, that was amazing. Lightly fried shrimp with a creamy lemon sauce over steamed broccoli. It was like a dessert. So good.

I made it back to the original Katy's over the weekend after a bit of an absence. They were cranking through the end of the lunch blitz at 1:30pm on a Saturday but I managed to get a seat. I ordered my standard - pork fried noodle, spicy.

They really knocked it out of the park this time, after a couple of so-so efforts my last few times. The older lady was running the show that afternoon, with the tall grumpy/sad looking one working the prep kitchen. Maybe that had something to do with it, or maybe they were just in a groove and everything just hit right.

One thing I noticed is that the portion looked smaller at first... but it really wasn't much smaller - just a different plate. At $8.95, it's still a good value, just not quite the smoking deal it was when they first opened. But I'm definitely going to speed up its position in the weekend lunch rotation again.

Is the Naperville location gone? I no longer see it listed at their website.

shorty wrote:Is the Naperville location gone? I no longer see it listed at their website.

I posted in the Naperville location thread that the sign said Closed to Dec 1 for remodelling

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=22553&start=78

On Dec 6th, all signage has been removed from the building and I waited at the curb while my kid ran up and read something like "Closed, Thank you for your Patronage" so we ran back towards the mall to Szechuan House in the old Red Chopsticks space.

Short Answer: its closed.

Still need more time at Szechuan House before having enough to write.

I've been going to Oak Park regularly as it's convenient to my home.

Last visit we had the pork and chive potstickers which were made to order and they were phenomenal.

Boiled beef in spicy Szechuan sauce was good but frankly this dish is better with the fish.

Beef noodle soup was great but even ordered mild it was on the upper end of her heat threshold.

That beef noodle soup is one of the best dishes in Chicago period.
The fact that it's an amazing value is icing on the cake.

As an almost 25 year resident of Chicago, for at least the last 20 of which I've had access to a car, and a job that takes me all over the metro area, I sometimes amaze even myself with how geographically challenged I am. I've been out in Oakbrook for about a day a week since last May and, smh, only today realized that Westmont and Katy's is only 4 miles from my office.

No clue if anyone has posted about this in the 20+ pages of Katy's reports but I absolutely LOVED the Pickled Cabbage, Pork and Noodle soup that I tried today. Along with an order of fresh and tasty stir fried spinach with garlic, this was the perfect lunch--not so heavy that I couldn't work after and with enough left over to easily make for dinner tonight.

And my server, who was as nice and accommodating as could be by the way, told me I was a "pro" for asking for 2 takeout containers so that I could separate my noodles from the broth to keep them from getting too mushy.





I'm normally out there on Wednesdays so I'll try to organize a lunch in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

For at least yesterday and today, Katy's original location has been closed unexpectedly, with just a simple sign which says "CLOSED TODAY" on the door. Dark inside, so it wasn't like they were doing work on the place. We were there in the late afternoon both days.

Hopefully this is nothing serious.

threadkiller wrote:Hopefully this is nothing serious.

Has anybody been by here since this spooky report?
I ran out of dumplings this week and I'm do to re-up.

Jefe wrote:

threadkiller wrote:Hopefully this is nothing serious.

Has anybody been by here since this spooky report?
I ran out of dumplings this week and I'm do to re-up.

Rest easy, my friends.

Whatever might have happened at either location of late, Katy's Oak Park is delivering stronger than ever. They make my favorite twice-cooked-pork in the city at the moment, and the pork-and-fennel dumplings and Chengdu dumplings have been popping with more herbaceous and ma la sensations than ever. Only their stir-fried pancake lags behind Westmont with less wok hei. Their delivery service is still very quick and a good value.

Tip: order the happy green bean jelly noodle, a $5 appetizer, and leave it overnight in the fridge. It's a pound of good food with cucumbers and herbs and makes for a spicy lunch for two, and the jello-like rice sticks hold up very well in texture and soak in more of the chili oil.

Santander wrote:
Tip: order the happy green bean jelly noodle, a $5 appetizer, and leave it overnight in the fridge. It's a pound of good food with cucumbers and herbs and makes for a spicy lunch for two, and the jello-like rice sticks hold up very well in texture and soak in more of the chili oil.

Nice intel - Always looking to branch out.

We are now three chili FISH, and dry chili tofu addicts. We round it out with dan dan, Chengdu dumplings and cucumber in garlic sauce. That's our baseline before ordering other stuff. Went with a crispy duck a few weeks ago (the weekend of the alleged fed issue*,) probably won't do that again. It seemed pretty obvious they don't go through a lot of duck, and I'll leave it at that. We switched from three chili chicken to three chili fish on a whim, and, tho I'm sure it's definitely not wild caught <insert any better species than good ol' farmed, shit eatin' tilapia,> we've convinced ourselves that it's better for us than the fried chicken chunks (it might actually be, if only marginally, but every little bit counts when potbelly oatmeal cookies, and those little damn fruit flavored balls at Red Mango are only steps away...Quit judging me!)

I'll give this jelly noodle a whirl. Soon.

*Easy mods, I didn't say nothin'

Rocking those Happy Green Bean noodle leftovers from the fridge right now. Added some of last night's rare grilled steak. Not bad. Lots of chili oil love going on.

Went on Tuesday, and..
Stir Fried Noodle...
Prepackaged. Hopefully a random one-off issue. Everything else was outstanding, but stir fried noodle was NOT what we had gotten in the past. Just regular old spaghetti lookin' noodle sadness. We didn't get a pancake, or dan-dan for comparison since we had so much other stuff. A gentleman came out from the back, and asked how everything was. He was not one of the servers. I asked if this noodle was infact , the new noodle being used for stir fried noodle dishes, and he said, "yes." The mother in law thinks he didn't understand my question. I think I took a pic, I'm scared to post it. I'll seriously assume it was just TUesday night one-off. We were the only table in the place for about 45 min. One take out order went out. Again, everything else was outstanding as usual - Three chili fish, dry chili tofu, pot stickers, cukes in garlic sauce, even simple egg drop soup was fantastic. The noodle dish was actually pretty damn good, but the noodles were not the regular players.

Seebee, I assume this was in Oak Park, not the Westmont Original (I hope).

Oak Park, yes.
Don't assume that the place is going to pot. My assumption is that it was just a Tuesday night one-off oddity. I'll happily be back to order noodles again, to test my theory.

Something's been up at Westmont. I stopped by two weeks ago and they were closed on a Thursday. Peeking in, it almost looked like a light remodel. The classic sign was resting on the floor. A note on the door said they'd reopen the following week. I haven't been back to investigate.

I do wonder if the flagship is where a lot of the production happens, like the noodles and dumplings. I know that I've seen folks lugging out tubs full of frozen dumpling sacks. That narrow kitchen doesn't necessarily seem like a first choice for a production facility, but who knows. Just speculating here, but it could explain a (hopefully) temporary substitution in product.

Jefe wrote:Something's been up at Westmont. I stopped by two weeks ago and they were closed on a Thursday. Peeking in, it almost looked like a light remodel. The classic sign was resting on the floor. A note on the door said they'd reopen the following week. I haven't been back to investigate.

I do wonder if the flagship is where a lot of the production happens, like the noodles and dumplings. I know that I've seen folks lugging out tubs full of frozen dumpling sacks. That narrow kitchen doesn't necessarily seem like a first choice for a production facility, but who knows. Just speculating here, but it could explain a (hopefully) temporary substitution in product.

I'll check next week.

Ate there a week ago Thursday. They've certainly remodeled since the last time I've been, which was quite a while ago, admittedly. Walls painted black, specials chalked on the wall, food great as ever.

I was in the Westmont location this week. Pancake noodles were on point. They were renovated since the last time I was there, but my last visit was months ago.

There is new ownership, which I am almost positive is the reason for the renovations.

bg23 wrote:There is new ownership, which I am almost positive is the reason for the renovations.

Can you tell us anything more about this? Is there a relationship between new and former owners? Are any former staff or owners still involved? Does this involve all locations? Thanks!

I think we all need to be clear which location we're talking about. My meal two weeks ago was in Westmont and all of the gang was there, including Katy herself.

Sorry for not being clear. I was only referring to the Westmont location.

I heard of the new ownership from my parents after they got some carry out this past Sunday and talked with the woman working the register, so I don't have much more info.

Apparently she (is that Katy? Sorry, we're Chinese so we only call the place Zhao Lao Er, so I'm not sure who Katy actually is) is married to the owner, who wanted out for personal reasons. So considering the food and staff were the same, I assume things shouldn't change too much.

Any news? I have heard reports that there are new owners and that they don't make items such as the dan dan noodle. I tried to call today and no one is answering the phone so I am guessing they are closed on mondays now. Would love an update from anyone in the know.

susan13 wrote:Any news? I have heard reports that there are new owners and that they don't make items such as the dan dan noodle. I tried to call today and no one is answering the phone so I am guessing they are closed on mondays now. Would love an update from anyone in the know.

New website (note the "s")for Westmont - http://www.katysdumplings.com/ - Dan-Dan Noodle is on the menu.

Hold up, is there any reason the new website does not mention the Oak Park location? Or did I miss it?