Shandong Cuisine in Chicago?

This past weekend we visited family in San Francisco and had the opportunity to dine at a restaurant specializing in dishes from the Shandong cuisine. I was intrigued by the dishes and the cuisine. I know that Cantonese and Sichuan seem to be prevalent in Chicago. Does anyone know of restaurants in the area that specialize in Shandong cuisine? Thanks much. John

I hope the Shandong restaurant you dined at in San Francisco was the divine San Tung, located in the City's Inner Sunset District. It's one of my very favorite restaurants. Anything in dough is delicious, and the dry fried chicken is amazing.

In the Chowhound's Guide to the San Francisco Bay Area, it lists San Tung as a Korean-Chinese restaurant, not surprising given you get kimchee when you sit down and the menu and some of the signage is in Korean. Funnily enough the following recent thread discusses Korean-Chinese restaurants in Chicago:

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=3382

I haven't been to any of these places, but this might help you find what you're looking for.

Mr. T, when you ask for Shantong cuisine what dishes are you looking for exactly - man tou (steamed buns), cha chiang mian, chao ma mian? I've driven by the San Tung restaurant in Richmond in SF but have never tried their food.

Some Korean restaurant owners are actually Chinese or Chinese/Korean from Shantong so sometimes they incorporate some Shantong dishes in their menu. You may find some Korean/Chinese restaurants offering dishes that you are looking for. Or you may find a few Chinese restaurants that offer the dishes as well. Check out the link Johnathan mentioned. It should provide a good start.

Jonathan,
Yes it was San Tung and it was indeed divine! We started out with the pork dumplings which were very good. The filling was flavorful without being too porky tasting, and the wrapper texture was just perfect.

We also had the dried fried chicken pieces which was the highlight of the meal. It's just hard to describe the goodness of this dish - it's chicken to be sure, but the coating is incredibly crisp, the sauce is tangy/sweet/spicy but very light. It looks and tastes almost like a hybrid of Great Seas, Dong A with a hint of tanginess thrown in. There were four of us, two orders of chicken, and we were left squabbling over the crumbs by the end of the meal. To round it out, we had noodles in a pork broth and sauteed spinach, which were solid but not standouts like the dumplings or the chicken.

Anyway, to answer Peety's question, I definitely would like to find a local restaurant that might offer dried fried chicken but also would like to explore the noodles more and the cuisine in general. I had more than my fill of cha chiang mian growing up but would just like to explore the cuisine more. I'm somewhat familiar with the Korean/Chinese restaurants on the north side, and I have to say this was a different experience than say Great Seas or the others.

Thanks for the link to the Korean-Chinese restaurants - I'll start there and continue the search.
John