Katy's Goes Hollywood

I unexpectedly found myself in the Western Burbs today, so I made a last minute decision to go to Katy's for lunch. Imagine my surprise when I walked in and found the familiar hand written white boards gone, replaced with a series of pictures displayed over the ordering counter with the names for each dish in English and Chinese. Not only that, but the old menus have been replaced with a full color version with the same pictures, along with a complete list of everything they serve in English. This is a huge change, and a big improvement for those diners like myself that don't read or understand Chinese.

One thing I found out from the new menu is that they have both machine made and hand made frozen dumplings and wonton. That's what it's been saying in Chinese all this time and I never knew. The $6 for 60 frozen dumplings I have been buying to take home are the machine made ones. Next time, I'm going to get some hand made ones (at double the price). They offer 8 different kinds of handmade dumplings as well as two kinds of hand made wonton. I feel like a whole new world of ordering possibilities has opened up for me at Katy's. Yippee!

The shrimp wontons are decent - smallish filling with hand-diced shrimp (not minced/ground filling) heavy on the garlic - skins are a little thick and starchy; If you're going to make wonton soup I recommend boiling the dumplings first then adding them to the stock (rather than adding them straight to the stock).

I wonder who instigated this new menu for them?

Jay K wrote:I wonder who instigated this new menu for them?

It sure took me by surprise. Mr. Red Shirt was no hwere to be found today, but there was this other tall younger guy who I had never seen beofre. Perhaps its the prodigal son.

I have made a meal of Katy's shrimp wantons simply boiled with some light and thick soy, garlic, Sichuan pepper, and chile oil many a night.

This place passed the grandmother test. She liked the pork pancake dish and beef soup noodles, but thought the hot cold noodles too spicy. She ordered noodles and dumplings to go -- the handmade ones. She also picked up a couple of the "plate lunches" that they have in the refrigerated case.

BTW, she thinks that their mantou is the best she has had in the Chicago area, and echoes what others have said about the noodles.

The proprietors are from a (Northern Chinese) family that specializes in restaurants. The row of business photos on the wall are the parents' and siblings' places.

The wall had the only secret menu that we saw -- and as mentioned are just combos of noodles, dumplings, and mantou to go. They did have two menus -- one with just the good stuff, and one with good stuff and "traditional" chinese crap for tourists.

Thanks again for whoever discovered this place.

Had dinner there last night. I like the "new" menu. Red Shirt Guy was in back, in a striped shirt. Got dumpling drippings on my shirt and pants. It was worth it.

It looks like I'll be there a few more times in the next several days as I have a friend who's a patient at Good Sam. Fortunately, she's not on a special diet so it looks like it'll be carryout for her.

They also have fancy new to go menus with glossy pictures (I think you have to ask for one. Unfortunately, mine got ruined when some of the oil from my leftover stir-fried pancake leaked out. Oh well, good excuse to go back this week for a Dan Dan noodle lunch.

My dry cleaning bill has suspiciously gone up since dining at Katy's.