Recent views on Silver Seafood

Hi- I just wanted to quickly drop a line and see if anyone has been to Silver Seafood recently? The latest thread I saw on lthforum has a 2005 visit in it. I haven't been in a while, and have not had the compulsion to go back since I was underwhelmed the last time I was there (which was roughly around 2005 too). My friend just said it was on Check Please last week and everyone was raving about it. I am sure there will be a spike in customer traffic because of the show. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!

Silver Seafood
4829 N. Broadway Ave
Chicago, IL
773-784-0668.

I've continued to order from SS from time to time. It has remained relatively consistent. My biggest criticism is that they no longer have cuttlefish, just squid. I preferred the cuttlefish.

I've been there twice in the last 2.5 months. I had salted fish and chicken fried rice and the black pepper beef sizzling platter for dine in - both were tasty and consistent w/my previous experiences.

This past Saturday I called in for a carry out order of chow nar haw and Singapore noodles. The Singapore noodle was a little dry and crunchy - probably from being in a hot wok for too long. The chow nar haw was good but a struggle to order over the phone as they had trouble understanding/hearing me.

It was the day after their Check Please appearance, and it was a zoo. I don't know how it normally is on a Saturday night b/c I usually only noticed it when I drove by and saw a wedding reception being held. The hostesses seemed to be struggling w/the ever growing crowd waiting for a table. I don't think they even had a name system until it got really bad.

I would advise going during off-peak hours/days until the Check Please crowds dwindle down.

I really like SS, and for the last several years I have felt it offers the best and most consistient Cantonese food in the city. This is a regular stop for me and I'm usually there once every 4-6 weeks. Regular dishes for us include the seafood soup with dried scallops, salt and pepper squid and cuttlefish, Hong Sue fish fillet with pork, chow fun noodles dry style (with duck substituted for beef), crispy skin chicken or steamed chicken with ginger and onion, and whatever seafood is fresh and interesting. If avaiulable the whole flounder either steamed or braised can be excellent. Another dish they do really well, and not often found at other spots is Dover sole "two ways" (meat stir fried with snap peas, and bones deep fried and crunchy). Duck with taro is also very good. My kids love the long life noodles or the bbq pork cantonese chow mein (actually, I do too).
They also have nice seafood potstickers , great soft (Japanese) tofu with mushrooms and good clams in black bean sauce (can be had over crispy rice noodles on request)...I could go on. one of my favorites on the north side. Americanized Chinese dishes are best avoided (with the exception of Mongolian beef which they really do well),. Pseudo sechuan here can be even worse. This is a cantonese restaurant, and a very good one at that.

I have been past SS a couple of times on Thursday nights around 7 pm (while on my way to Tank Noodle) and the place has been pretty deserted.

I will have to try the place the next time I have theatre tickets.

Has anyone tried the Peking Duck here?

The Peking duck is pretty good for what it is, which is not a truly authentic version of the dish. Definitely a cut above what is offered at most cantonese restaurants (because the roast duck itself is very good) , it's still not the real thing. This is a Cantonese restaurant and northern dishes just are not their strongest suit. None the less, I will still sometimes order it if dining with a large group because a bit of it makes for a nice change of pace in the context of a larger meal. With a smaller group (less than at least six in my opinion) it tends to become too dominating and there really are better things to be had there.

kuhdo wrote:I really like SS, and for the last several years I have felt it offers the best and most consistient Cantonese food in the city. This is a regular stop for me and I'm usually there once every 4-6 weeks. Regular dishes for us include the seafood soup with dried scallops, salt and pepper squid and cuttlefish, Hong Sue fish fillet with pork, chow fun noodles dry style (with duck substituted for beef), crispy skin chicken or steamed chicken with ginger and onion, and whatever seafood is fresh and interesting. If avaiulable the whole flounder either steamed or braised can be excellent. Another dish they do really well, and not often found at other spots is Dover sole "two ways" (meat stir fried with snap peas, and bones deep fried and crunchy). Duck with taro is also very good. My kids love the long life noodles or the bbq pork cantonese chow mein (actually, I do too).
They also have nice seafood potstickers , great soft (Japanese) tofu with mushrooms and good clams in black bean sauce (can be had over crispy rice noodles on request)...I could go on. one of my favorites on the north side. Americanized Chinese dishes are best avoided (with the exception of Mongolian beef which they really do well),. Pseudo sechuan here can be even worse. This is a cantonese restaurant, and a very good one at that.

I'm always impressed by your knowledge of authentic Cantonese dishes - in particular, this evening, your knowledge of "Gwut Heung Leung Lei" was astonishing.

Jay K wrote:

kuhdo wrote:I really like SS, and for the last several years I have felt it offers the best and most consistient Cantonese food in the city. This is a regular stop for me and I'm usually there once every 4-6 weeks. Regular dishes for us include the seafood soup with dried scallops, salt and pepper squid and cuttlefish, Hong Sue fish fillet with pork, chow fun noodles dry style (with duck substituted for beef), crispy skin chicken or steamed chicken with ginger and onion, and whatever seafood is fresh and interesting. If avaiulable the whole flounder either steamed or braised can be excellent. Another dish they do really well, and not often found at other spots is Dover sole "two ways" (meat stir fried with snap peas, and bones deep fried and crunchy). Duck with taro is also very good. My kids love the long life noodles or the bbq pork cantonese chow mein (actually, I do too).
They also have nice seafood potstickers , great soft (Japanese) tofu with mushrooms and good clams in black bean sauce (can be had over crispy rice noodles on request)...I could go on. one of my favorites on the north side. Americanized Chinese dishes are best avoided (with the exception of Mongolian beef which they really do well),. Pseudo sechuan here can be even worse. This is a cantonese restaurant, and a very good one at that.

I'm always impressed by your knowledge of authentic Cantonese dishes - in particular, this evening, your knowledge of "Gwut Heung Leung Lei" was astonishing.

Jay, I'd like to say thanks, but fear I may have stepped off into a sarchasm .

kuhdo wrote:

Jay K wrote:

kuhdo wrote:Another dish they do really well, and not often found at other spots is Dover sole "two ways" (meat stir fried with snap peas, and bones deep fried and crunchy).

I'm always impressed by your knowledge of authentic Cantonese dishes - in particular, this evening, your knowledge of "Gwut Heung Leung Lei" was astonishing.

Jay, I'd like to say thanks, but fear I may have stepped off into a sarchasm .

Actually, I held my tongue in regards to the "sole" issue; I really AM impressed by your repertoire (is that the right word)? In any case, "Gwut Heung Leung Lei" is indeed a fine dish and one of my favorite Chinese preparations for flatfish.

I really like this dish as well, though as you imply the "Dover sole" is often another type of flatfish. This isn't available everywhere, and I think the version at SS is quite good. As seems to be the case in your picture, a few yellow chives are usually part of the dish. The presentation in your post looks a bit different from what I've seen in Chicago....I'm curious, where was this taken (HK perhaps?).

Jay K wrote:

Ocean Palace Restaurant
11215 Bellaire Blvd # D
Houston, TX 77072
(281) 988-8898

Any pics of what it looks like in Chicago?

Texas !

No pics of the local version (yet), but the skeleton is typically disarticulated, fried in sections and then arranged around the stir fried filleted meat, not left whole and used as a basket as it appears to be in your picture. Also, snow peas or sugar snaps are usually part of the package. Finally, the bones in the Texas version are a bit darker than I typically get in these parts, suggesting what might be enhanced crispiness (could be a good thing). I'll take a picture and post it next time I'm at SS.

I've been going to SS for a few years now, and my last visit was in August. It seems to get slower every time I go, so I'm glad to hear they may have received a lot of extra business recently. I almost always get the fresh steamed fish or crab with black bean sauce when I go, last time we had a steamed sea bass. I also got some string beans with pork, another favorite. Since it was just me and a friend there, that's all we had. The quality seemed on-par with previous visits, though the service was a bit lacking. I never really expect stellar service when I go there, though.
I was concerned that the quality would plummet this summer, after all the personal problems the owners went through. Seems like it's holding up, though.

kuhdo wrote:Texas !Also, snow peas or sugar snaps are usually part of the package.

From the same restaurant, but this time they used asparagus; Snow peas can be seen peaking under the first example I posted. I guess they use whatever's at hand/fresh, at least at that restaurant.

Ocean Palace is a huge two story restaurant with multiple "separate-able" banquet halls downstairs and upstairs - can host multiple weddings at one time. Typically on weekends, the upstairs is filled to the brim for dim-sum. In evenings the bottom floor is used for a-la-carte dining.


It is one anchor of a huge supermarket/mall w/ various small shops and other restaurants at the far end of the multiple-city-block Chinatown in Houston.

It's interesting b/c I was used to this mega-spread-over-miles type of Chinatown in Houston, and was initially a little disappointed with the Chicago Chinatown as well as Argyle in size and options - in particular the markets. I was used to markets more along the size of a touch smaller than Super-H Mart.

I found it exceedingly interesting that the "newness" and improvements in Chicago Chinatown were a recent development in the past few years. I confess I would have been sorely disappointed.

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