Vital Information wrote:It's not on the English menu, but I'm sure it can be easily ordered. It's chicken with a variety of mushrooms served in a bamboo log (green). Amazingly complex sauce, slightly spicy, a bit numbing from szechuan peppers, fragrant from spices, try.

Rob,

I'm not quite on the same chicken and mushroom in a bamboo log as you and ReneG, I found it overpowered by ginger, ginseng, star anise and the chicken quite overcooked.



The same evening we also had chicken and mushroom hot pot, also from the Chinese menu, where the subtle mushroom flavor was mildly masked by aggressive root/herb/spice flavoring, though not to the degree of the Bamboo Log dish. Though the kombu (seaweed) bow ties, tofu and fresh herbs added to the dish balanced out the flavor.

Chicken and Mushroom Hot Pot




Overall a nice meal, I am really quite enamored with Spring Worlds Tofu Flower in Chili broth.



Enjoy,
Gary

LTH,

A heads up mushroom lovers, Mike Sula, aka m'th'su, has posted a translation of Spring Worlds Mushroom Menu on Chicago Reader Blog.

Enjoy,
Gary

My new job, in addition to being nearly the perfect place of employment for me (at last ), now places me within reasonable striking distance to China Town for lunch given the Lake and Ashland location. I think this goes without saying that this is a massive improvement from my former options at my old location of Clark and Diversey.

So what does this have to do with Spring World (SW) you ask? Well, in addition to turning on my entire office to the SW lunch special, I also had a chance to pick up the new take-out menu. I have to say, this is as far as I have seen, the gold standard for CT take-out menus. I have gone and scanned it for all here to see but the size required to see all the pictures and descriptions would be to large to post here so...

I have made a Photobucket page for the menu!

With any luck, all will have no problem viewing this. Please send me a PM if it doesn't work and I'll do what I can to fix it. Lastly... I encourage everyone to get out and support Spring World... it really is a astounding place!

From the Gaper's Block blog a few weeks ago:

Justin prepares most of FIG's savory items, and Molly covers the sweets. Both draw inspiration from cookbooks and frequenting their favorite Chicago restaurants: Molly's latest front runner is Frontera Grill, and Justin's is Spring World.

I want to hear more about figjustin's favorite restaurant (and Molly's as well)! Current favorite dishes? Regular menu, or insane-deal $3.95 lunch menu? I'm also hoping this bump may prompt a few posts from other recent diners, as there are simply too many items to try, and without additional guidance I'll be (happily) stuck in my twice-cooked pork belly and Szcehuan tofu combination for at least the next few months.

Also: they have xiao long bao, but were out during our last-minute LTH lunch last week. We must break through on this front, since as we know, not even Tony Hu can get his kitchens to make satisfactorily inundated soup dumplings.

one of my favorite dishes in the world (and my favorite at springworld), is lamb with fish and pickle. its is an extremely spicy, large casserole that will feed several people. it tastes mostly like lamb. there are silky pieces of fish that just slide down your throat, and no visible pickle or pickle taste. it's an amazing dish. there are vermicelli noodles in it as well, but i also add rice, as it is very hot. justjoan

I have only been to Spring World 3 or 4 times, but it only took the first bite to grab my attention. This place is great because the flavors are different from most. Using heavy star anise and mushrooms that are just fun to look at let alone eat. I have not been yet for the crazy lunch special, but it is on my short list of things to do. Some of my favorites have been the braised chicken and mushrooms in the bamboo delivery tube, tea smoked duck, pork belly and tofu, mushroom hot pot and the whole fish special. This place makes me smile. The staff is friendly and I have just begun to explore there extensive menu. But in the times I have been there, I have tried probably 15 things and was not just happy with them, but blown away. Plus the nuts, cabbage and marinated potato they bring out are a great start. I will post more as my experience grows.

Just a quick pointer to the Spring World GNR presentation lunch w/ pictures. Enjoy!

We stopped in for lunch today.

We had to ask specifically for the lunch mennu.

I had the twice cooked pork and szechuan tofu combo. The pork is delightfully gamey and the tofu silky and spicy.

My friend also had the pork and attempted to order the winter melon and the zuchini, but they were out oof both. He tried the potato, which was good, but simple.

I tried to order the Chengdu dumplings, but ended up with potstickers.

All this food plus 2 cups of hot and sour soup and many leftovers for $14.

I'm not sure a better deal exists.

(They do validate parking in the lot.)

Ate at Spring World for the first time last night with a big group. One of the finest Chinese meals I have had in Chicago hands-down.

We started with two apps - szechuan beef and maw, and smoked beef szechuan style. The second dish was ordered accidentally - we didn't need that much beef as an app.

The beef and maw was great, the flavors really shone, the beef was rich and garlicy and the cilantro provided a refreshing zest to the dish. The "smoked" beef had no smokey flavor. It was an OK dish - the fat completely rendered by what must have been braising or baking, making the beef soft and rich. Why they call it smoked? Who knows...chalk it up to awkward transaltion perhaps.

Szechuan green beans were the best rendition I've had of this venerable dish. The beans retained a fresh vegetal snap, perfectly textured. Among the various meats and sea creatures we ordered, the beans were the first to go - a testament to their excellence.

Salt and pepper shrimp (the name was slightly different on the menu - chile shrimp perhaps?). Basically fried shrimp with no shell, coated in what seemed like cornmeal and dotted with dry chile, fried garlic and !!! crispy Chinese bacon. This was an excellent plate of food - a nice departure from the S&P shrimp I have had at other restaurants.

Lamb with cumin was great. Flavors vaugely reminiscent of chili (cumin, meat, hot peppers) - altogether a dish that is not as daunting as it sounds. A bit greasy at the bottom of the plate but the lamb was well-textured and had a nice gamey-ness to it. Definitely a must try for people who never thought to order lamb at a Chinese restaurant.

Beef chow fun was beef chow fun. The noodles were perfectly textured and the dish wasn't as oily as others I have had. Not a must-try but a good version nontheless.

Our final dish was the only stinker (in my opinion at least, others at the table loved it). Deep fried whole fish with sweet and sour sauce. If I had wanted something that tasted like pancakes in syrup I would have ordered pancakes with syrup. The fish was competently fried, but fried skin combined with the sweet and sour "sauce" (corn syrup, ketchup, corn starch, garlic???) created the odd and of-putting impression of eating pan fried flapjakes with Aunt Jemima syrup. By the time we pulled the fish apart, its tender flesh was submerged in this cloying goo. Basically, good fish, bad sauce.

Dinner was about $90 for 5 people (w/ tip). Service was gregarious (we had a Chinese speaker with us, but they seemed genuinely accommodating). Oh and the restaurant was handsomely and tastefully decorated, from the tables to the steam table area. Lot's of tile and natural stone. Very cool.

On an interesting note, we spotted numerous tables ordering what looked like a joint stewed ham hock. My chinese friend asked what it was and got the reply "big bone." The waitress then confirmed that it was indeed a stewed ham hock. Looks great, will try next time.

A friend is in town for the weekend, and, having had her fill of turkey from thanksgiving, she requested "ethnic" meals. Yesterday, we red-lined it down to Chinatown for a great, homey lunch at Springworld (and followed it up with a fantastic dinner at Spoon Thai).

We had to ask for the lunch specials specifically after being seated, and the server (who seemed to only speak mandarin) seemed a little, I don't know, put off? at the request. Another table of 5 or 6 people seemed to have ordered as many specials and were sharing them, so I thought the server's reaction was kind of odd. She and the other person who waited on us were otherwise warm and friendly though.

The two of us shared way too much food. One special - twice cooked pork and szechuan tofu, scallion pancakes, cold sesame noodles and chengdu dumplings. the highlight of the meal was the chengdu dumpling sauce - mild chili oil with the incredibly tasty, sweet/savory blackish paste (that's the technical term, don't you know). What is in that? I surmised that it is a fish product, but I'm not sure. Whatever it is, YUM! We spooned that stuff over everything else. The server came to clear the plate after we'd finished the dumplings, but one look at our panicked eyes, and she walked away laughing. No one was gonna take away our delicious dumpling sauce! My friend was also quite enamored of the twice-cooked pork, never having had pork belly before (whaaat?)

All that for $21 (including two over-full bellies, a generous tip and leftovers for hubby BJY's lunch tomorrow), it can't be beat.

I stopped by here when I was in town for Thanksgiving. The smoked beef , tea smoked duck, and cold yunnan noodles were great. I also really enjoyed their cold bar.

Got takeout last night from Spring World for a party of seven. At just over $100, it was a wonderful, reasonably-priced feast.

We placed the takeout order in-person. The gentleman who took our order was pleasant and helpful. Dishes we requested be made a certain way were made that way. He promised our food in thirty minutes and delivered, despite the fact that Spring World was packed.

Our food was delicious, even after the twenty-minute drive home. Nothing needed to be reheated. We chose dishes likely to survive the travel time and think we succeeded with one exception.

At the suggestion of a few of our dining companions, we ordered several more familiar dishes. The hot and sour soup was a hit, as was the Mongolian beef. The veggie fried rice was better than decent. The wonton soup, though, was just okay. Kung Pao chicken was too sweet, and despite it being specifically requested by a guest, wasn't finished.

The biggest hit of the night was the eggplant and pork dish. The eggplant was soft, a bit spicy and a bit sweet. A close second was the pork with Chinese pickled noodle soup with its sour broth. Despite being covered with chilies, the don don noodles were another favorite. A few folks who hadn't tried Ma Po tofu before couldn't get enough of it. The only two dishes that RAB and I liked that others didn't seem to enjoy that much were the twice-cooked pork and the spicy ginger baby chicken. The pork, which was belly, was probably too fatty and the chicken too spicy (a few people loved it, but others hardly touched it). Chengdu pan-fried prawns disappeared quickly (I thought this was the one dish that didn't benefit from the travel home - - a bit tough).

Bottom line - - a group of my dad's friends, that I didn't expect to be especially adventurous, did a really great job finishing off almost everything. Nearly everyone wanted to try every dish and many folks were pleasantly surprised, trying things that were new to them. My dad had suggested Dee's in Lincoln Park. But, after looking at Dee's brief, pan-Asian, pricey menu, RAB and I volunteered to head down to Chinatown to pick up dinner. I think everyone was glad we did.

Ronna

My dad enjoyed our recent takeout meal so much that when deciding on where to eat lunch today, he was enthusiastic about going to Spring World.

Again, no lunch menus were offered - - we had to ask. I don't know why, but I have trouble only ordering the lunch special. It is plenty of food, but at just $3.95 for soup, rice, and two entrees, it's next to impossible for me to not order something else. I almost feel guilty, like I should be paying more - - it's just too reasonable.

So, in addition to my delightful plate of ma po tofu and twice-cooked pork, we ordered the Chengdu dumplings. For me, the great thing about these dumplings is the wrapper. It's just as it should be - - fresh and soft, and doing a good job of holding the filling in. I think that the filling, though, is nothing special. But, the wrappers, with the chilies and minced fresh garlic on top, are great.

Hot and sour soup was good, as always. It isn't the best version, but it's tasty stuff.

Dad had garlic pork, which was served steaming hot and included some nice vegetables. He also ordered stir fried Chinese vegetables, which turned out to be just bok choy. It was quite good bok choy (nice salt, good crunch), but not the variety I would've expected.

On a Monday at noon, Spring World was less than half full. With the prices as reasonable as they are, you'd think they'd have a few more diners. Then again, it does not appear they're doing anything to advertise their lunch special.

Ronna

Another great $4 lunch at Spring World today. Again, the restaurant was fairly full, but not packed. Lots of happy diners. I continue to be amazed at the quality and quantity of food for $4. The food was served so hot that we had to wait for it to cool a bit before we could eat it. For the first time, the lunch special menu arrived without us having to request it. I was smarter this time than last and didn't order any other dishes despite the strong temptation to do so.

We'd thought about trying Double Li or Cafe Huang. But, realized that with just two of us, we wouldn't have the ordering power to try more than 2-3 dishes - - and the cost would be many times that of Spring World. We'll save Double Li and Cafe Huang for dinners.

After lunch, we swung by Joy Yee's for a few smoothies. It is a stunning day and I felt like an icy drink despite being completely full. One good thing I can definitely say about Joy Yee's - - they use really fresh fruit. There was a big buffet of fresh fruit for smoothie-making - - pineapples, mangoes, papayas, strawberries, kiwis, avocados, etc. While a good deal at $8 for two huge drinks, the drinks still cost nearly as much as our lunch!

Ronna

REB wrote:Another great $4 lunch at Spring World today.

Spring World's $3.95 lunch remains one of the best lunch deals in all of Chicagoland. Went with my standard one from column A, one from column B Kung Pao Chicken/Szechuan Style Tofu, includes mediocre hot and sour soup, tea and a generous portion of rice.

As there were three of us we split a starter from the $4.99 for three choices cold bar, spicy bamboo shoot, spicy green beans and Szechwan beef and maw.

Spicy Bamboo Shoot, Szechuan Beef/Maw, Spicy Green Beans



Followed by a bucks worth of watermelon ice at Mario's you have a $5 One-Two Punch that can't be beat.

Enjoy,
Gary

Mario's Italian Lemonade
1068 W. Taylor St.
Chicago, IL

Gary, I'm surprised we missed you, the Picky Eater and I were there today as well! I actually had the exact same thing as you, the Picky Eater ordered his eternal (infernal?) General Tsao's chicken. The tofu is really out of this world, one of my favorite treatments of it in Chicago.

Kung Pao Chicken, Szechuan Tofu


I actually enjoyed my hot and sour soup quite a bit. So much so, in fact, that I ate the Picky Eater's bowl as well. It was just the ticket after a weekend of too much "celebration" with old friends.
Hot and Sour


More food than either one of us could manage, for $9 and some change.

Ursiform wrote:Gary, I'm surprised we missed you, the Picky Eater and I were there today as well! I actually had the exact same thing as you

We went for an early lunch, were full happy and out the door by 12:30.

The Kung Pao Chicken/Szechuan Style Tofu combo is one of my favorite lunches in the city, the fact its $3.95 is icing on the cake.

Enjoy,
Gary

Went for my favorite combo of Chicken with Cashew nut & MaPo Tofu (Szechwan style Tofu),
only to have the waitress, indicate w/ a Sharpie Marker to the laminated Lunch Special menu-
that the price for my favorite "deal" in Chinatown (or anywhere for that matter),
is now priced at $4.95
(close to a 25% increase if ya think in percentage terms!)
And, along with the higher price- the portions, in comparison to the portions I've been served over the past 3 or more years
that I've been going there-
were smaller.
And todays rice- had some large sized clumps- kinda like when you reheat leftover carryout Chinese Rice...
Everything thing overall was still tasty overall-
but the combo of:
the propaganda machine touting the 60th Anniversary of Chairman Mao on the Satellite TV
the Price Increase &
The Clumps,
made me less smiley,
than normal on my way out the door.

Just got back from my first lunch trip to Spring World. The price for the combo has indeed gone up to 4.95, but it's still an outstanding deal.

The hot and sour soup is well above average with plenty of kick. I ordered the cashew chicken and the sour bok choy. The chicken was prepared with plenty of garlic, ginger and chili oil and the bok choy was covered in a thick sour sauce that really warmed me up on a cold day. My friend had the kung pao chicken and the vegetable trio which turns out to be a funky bean sprout and noodle dish.

This lunch definitely exceeded our expectation. Not only is it plenty of food for a reasonable price, but the food is much better than standard chinese takeout fare. Not sure why I didn't think it was going to be great from the sound of the menu, but I'm glad to have discovered such a cheap lunch option in Chinatown.

We did our xmas eve dinner here - as always, I thought the food was fantastic, yadda yadda yadda... I mainly wanted to mention 2 dishes I hadn't had previously that I won't neglect in the future.

1) Yunnan Chicken with Rice Cakes (something like that, it was on the yunnan page) - I don't think I've had a better chicken dish in Chinatown. The rice cakes were like little chewy rice-based scallop pillows.

top-left corner of this shot



2) Szechuan Tofu, talked about before I believe... The colors were amazing, the tofu silky

Rebuffed trying to use my expiring Groupon at Veerasway tonight (3 hour waits at around 5:30), we instead headed to Spring World. Reviews here are so overwhelmingly positive, I almost feel like I went to a totally different restaurant tonight. But my friend and I were not very impressed. Perhaps we ordered the wrong items, but what we ordered did not impress us that much. We ordered:

Hot and Sour Soup - A good version, although we felt it could have been more sour.

Ma Pa Tofu - I would say average at best. I thought there was too much oil, not enough flavor, and just nothing compared to what I'm used to at Lao Sze Chuan.

Kung Pao Chicken - We thought this was really bland except for the excessive use of ginger which really threw the flavor of the dish out of whack. But what's more, what we were served was much paler in color than what I have seen pictured in this thread.

Scallion Pancakes - A good version, even if a bit too oily.

Service was not much better as it took nearly 10 minutes for anyone to come up to us after we were seated, and only after waving our hands around.

Maybe this was an off night? Maybe other dishes would have impressed more? I'm not sure but my first visit really let me down.

BR wrote:Perhaps we ordered the wrong items

I think you ordered the wrong items

I've only been once, but it seemed like the more successful dishes were the ones that were furthest from the beaten path.

My two favorite dishes there are lamb with cumin (not that out there) and the tripe dish on the lunch menu. More than likely, you'll have to politely convince your hostess to let you have it (unless you speak Mandarin,) but it can be done.

BR wrote:we instead headed to Spring World. Reviews here are so overwhelmingly positive, I almost feel like I went to a totally different restaurant tonight. But my friend and I were not very impressed. Perhaps we ordered the wrong items, but what we ordered did not impress us that much. We ordered:

Hot and Sour Soup - A good version, although we felt it could have been more sour.

Ma Pa Tofu - I would say average at best. I thought there was too much oil, not enough flavor, and just nothing compared to what I'm used to at Lao Sze Chuan.

Kung Pao Chicken - We thought this was really bland except for the excessive use of ginger which really threw the flavor of the dish out of whack. But what's more, what we were served was much paler in color than what I have seen pictured in this thread.

BR,

Maybe an off day, but if not we differ on taste. I do not like Spring World's hot and sour soup, at least the version that comes with the $4.95 pick two lunch, and do like their mapo tofu and kung pao chicken, my two standard colum A and B lunch items.

I'd suggest giving Spring World another chance, its not a perfect restaurant, but occasionally an exceptional one.

Enjoy,
Gary

Well, I wanted to try the ribs but my dining companion wasn't biting, and we debated the lamb . . . always one of my favorite dishes elsewhere. But given the passion about the quality of the food here (and more importantly, coming from quite a few whose recommendations have not steered me wrong before), I'll have to give SW another try one of these days.

After my first trip on Saturday, um, those yunnanese ribs...something special. Make sure you like cumin. Maybe even if you don't like cumin. They do have bones - beware. My sister called them the perfect TV food, and would not allow anyone else to take them home.

I think I could eat the shredded chicken in spicy vinegar all day long if given the chance, and found myself eating the pig's tongue with a piece of the chicken in the same bite throughout most of the meal. When the "entrees" came, I kinda shuffled the appetizer plates next to me, and pretty much polished off a 1/4 lb of the tongue and 1/4 lb of the chicken myself.

I need to ask if they will prepare some form of chicken nugget pieces the same way as those ribs. Man, chicken thigh chunks like that would hook me like heroin, I'm sure.

BR wrote:Kung Pao Chicken - We thought this was really bland except for the excessive use of ginger which really threw the flavor of the dish out of whack. But what's more, what we were served was much paler in color than what I have seen pictured in this thread.

Couple of rounds of pick three for $4.99, Sichuan beef and maw tender spicy delicious, micro long beans, toasty dried pepper spice crunchy, pig ear little heat loaded with cartilaginous goodness, crisp refreshing cucumber, almost tender tripe and a veg that required the patience of a contented cow chewing her cud to properly masticate.



Hot and sour soup it's usual goopy out of balance self, spicy soft leek laden Mapo Tofu and Kung Pao chicken that had an odd undercurrent of sweet, almost like the waitress said this is for Americans and the chef added a little sugar to the sauce. It was still good, very good after a generous addition of chili oil, but not up to past greatness.

Mapo Tofu (top) Kung Pao chicken



Even with the $1 increase to $4.99 Spring World is a hell of a lunch deal, 5-people, two rounds of pick three, Chengdu dumplings, tasty, if slightly oily, scallion pancakes and 5 pick one from column A one from Column B lunches came to a couple of bucks under $50 including tax.

Enjoy,
Gary

Gary, the level of sweetness in the Kung Pao struck me as odd also, and although I asked for and used a fair dose of hot chili oil, it didn't make up for what I found to be the overall lack of harmonious flavors in the dish. But I imagine this is how the dish was prepared for everyone because the food was delivered so quickly that I assume the sauce had already been prepared.

And whether I just don't like their renditions of Kung Pao Chicken or Ma Pa Tofu or whether they had an off night doesn't matter too much. I didn't like my meal there on my inaugural visit and I was pretty annoyed with the service, but there are a number of dishes that seem to be getting LTHers' eyes to roll back in the head which I'd like to try, including the pig's tongue, shredded chicken, lamb with cumin and especially the ribs. So more than likely, I'll give it another try.

BR wrote:...And whether I just don't like their renditions of Kung Pao Chicken or Ma Pa Tofu or whether they had an off night doesn't matter too much. I didn't like my meal there on my inaugural visit and I was pretty annoyed with the service, but ...

This was my experience as well. Service was possibly the worst, rude and annoying. Would I give them another chance, probably not. I'd rather give my business to a neighboring restaurant. There are too many other restaurants in Chinatown that I have yet to try.

gooseberry wrote:This was my experience as well. Service was possibly the worst, rude and annoying.

I've always found Spring World's service matter of fact, not friendly or interactive, but efficient. Lunch yesterday water was brought without asking, tea refilled, extra napkins, chili oil etc. I actually thought it a high level of service for a $4.95 lunch.

Enjoy,
Gary