Chinese Food

Sorry, guys, I've been to LTH restaurant twice now since you recommended it, and it did not impress me as much as my favorites, Emperor's Choice, right around the corner on Wentworth, and Jia's at State and Delaware.

Out of respect for your opinion and experience, I intend to try LTH again some time. Maybe I've just ordered wrong..what dishes do you particularly recommend?

Phil Simborg

Well, on one hand, I think yea, what you order at LTH, like a lot of "ethnic" places, does influence your meal. As I have postulated before, I think your order sends a message to the kitchen, and they cook according to how they percieve you. Also, obviously, places like LTH just have better dishes than other dishes. If a dish can be accentuated by Gary's (almost) always available chile sauce, well that's a good dish to order (and folks more enthralled with LTH than I can suggest their particular favorites). Which gets me to the other hand, like a lot of places, there is no uniformity of opinion. I for instance, am not as strong a fan as others on LTH.

For straight ahead Cantonese style Chinese food, I am most happy, most often, with Happy Chef in the Chinatown Mall. It is garish and brusque, but it also delicious and a great bargain to boot. One can easily add lucious whole lobsters or whole crabs to their orders for very little money. Also, while there are SOME untranslated wall items, the vast store of stuff at Happy Chef, the good stuff, stir fried various greens, poached chicken with ginger and green onion, scallops in black bean sauce, head-on salt and pepper shrimps, are easy to spot on the family item menu.

Chinatown also has some great options in styles not Cantonese. Have I mentioned the "New" Mandarin Kitchen? Great Shanghai style food. Get more than a couple of the cold startes, a few stictly carbs choices like the homemade stuffed pancakes, and at least one of the braised items, probably the lion's head meatballs. Also, very much consider the fied fish with seaweed. Lao Sze Chuan and Spring World are ultra authentic repositories of Western Chinese cooking, Szechuan and Yunnan. The food can be oily and spicy and rough in very good ways, but also extremely satisfying. I have a slight preference to Spring World over LSC because it is more homey. The 1,000,000 item menu at LSC can take forever to negotiate!

Outside of Chinatown, I like best, Ed's Potsticker House on Halsted in Bridgeport, the only place in Chicago really focusing on Northern or Beijing style food. A lot of the stuff is not on the English menu(s), but with a bit of prodding to the owner, Brenda, great meals can be obtained.

Finally, in suburban Westmont, you will find one of the best Chinese options, the Taiwainese influenced weekend brunches at the International Mall. Go with enough people to go hog crazy on all the dumplings, mixed platters of pig ear-seaweed-pressed tofu-preserved egg, soup noodles, long donut sticks, hot soy milk, mildly stinky tofu, fried fish with garlic chips, (and more) your party can handle.

Rob

Hi,

The guy who absolutely considers LTH the best restaurant in Chicago is Gary. It is no mistake this forum is name LTH, it was and is Gary's first choice. A typical menu of Gary's favorites can be found at Useful Stuff Board.

Some people, like Ann Fisher and Dickson, love the salt and pepper smelts offered there.

I am not a chili-head. I recommend people inquire about Gary's chili sauce. I use it gingerly because I do like the food as-is at LTH.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Regards,