Friendship Chinese Restaurant

I did not see a dedicated thread for this place, so I'm starting one. My wife and I decided to give Friendship a try after a recommendation from a co-worker and seeing them on Check Please. I believe they were on the show a week or two before we went there (we went on Friday Nov 9).

If you blink, you will miss this restaurant from the street. Once inside, we were told the wait would be 20-30 minutes (it was 7pm). However, we were seated in less than 10 minutes. This place is beautiful and very unexpected for a Chinese restaurant. Since my wife and I love LTH for our Chinese fix this was a nice change. I think their motto is "180 degrees from Chinese" and the decor lived up to that. Dark wood, "modern" lighting, white tablecloths and little candles everywhere. The back wall is copper (?) and looks amazing. Noise level was a little loud, but there were 2 big parties having a good time.

We ordered the Cigar Egg Rolls for an appetizer. They were delicious and served nicely. 4 egg rolls with a spicy sweet and sour sauce "painted" over the arc shaped plate. Not some cheap egg roll stuffed with cabbage!! These had pork and taro root puree (I got that from the website - would never have guessed). For main dishes we ordered the Spicy Garlic Peanut Chicken and General "Tao" Shrimp. The shrimp was lightly breaded and cooked perfectly. The sauce had a little heat to it - perfect for my wife (I would have preferred a bit spicier). The chicken was also very good. My only complaint would be that the sauce was a bit too sweet for my liking and could have been a little spicier. The veggies were cooked well also. And LOTS of peanuts and garlic - yum. I'm assuming they have no dessert since we were not asked if we wanted any.

Overall, the meal was great. This is a place I would take friends and family who wouldn't dream of going to "scary" Chinatown. This would also make a nice date night dinner when we wanted to dress up a little and have some "fancy" Chinese food. My only complaint was the water service. One or two sips in and the glass was refilled. We even had one person refill the water, only to have another "top it off" before we even took a drink. Very minor complaint.

Friendship Chinese will not replace our weekly trips to LTH for dry pan fried BBQ pork noodles, but we will be going back in the future. I really want to try the Walnut Shrimp after seeing it delivered to another table.

Dave

Friendship Chinese Restaurant
2830 N Milwaukee
Chicago
773-227-0970

Fantastic!

I just ran across Friendship myself, after a long struggle to find decent Chinese in the Bucktown/Logan Square area. We only visited for pickup, and the decor was as pleasant as you described. We have since ordered delivery twice.
The first time out we ordered an eggplant and tofu that was quite good, and the sesame chicken. I know sesame chicken is pretty anglochinese, but I feel like it is a good test of how they treat their ingredients, and whether or not the poultry is quality. Both were delicious!
We also had the potstickers, which were standard but good, the sauce provided had a nice spice that I found a nice addition to a classic item.

Their menu is recommended reading with some interesting items and a flair for flavor.

Friendship was always a go to takeout/delivery spot when i lived in what was noman's land for decent chinese food, The North/Northwest side. I found it to be worth a drive from bucktown for the Chicken Wing appetizer and Hong Kong Steak.

i've had it delivered... pretty good, though delivery chinese is a bad judge of the food usually... though the packaging they delivered it in was cute. and they have online ordering right on their web page, and it's efficient.

i agree the decor is cute, and unexpected.

a few weeks ago they hosted 100 Yelpers for Hour Derves, a complimentary 3 course meal, and free tiger beer. again probably a bad judge of how their food and service truly are, since there were only 2 choices of entrees and they served everyone simultaneously (which from everyone's perspective went off amazingly well).. the appetizer was some coconut stringy thing that was good though i honestly have no recollection of what it really was. for entree i had a wok tossed steak, it was way way way overly salted... to the point where i didn't finish half of it. though nobody else seemed to mention that much so maybe i just had a bad prep. the other entree choice--a salmon of sorts, served with sticky rice--looked like the better entree to me and probably more unusual than steak...

before the dinner they served various appetizers... i agree the cigar egg rolls were pretty great.

for desert they served a tofu non-dairy cheesecake that was every bit as good as many other cheesecakes.. a little jello no bakish, but hey it was tofu..

....one of the real deals here is on Tuesday nights every entree on the menu is $8.95.

The food is good - different but good - the one weakness that really bothers me is that their hot and sour soup is terrible (in my humble opinion).

Jonathanc wrote:The food is good - different but good - the one weakness that really bothers me is that their hot and sour soup is terrible (in my humble opinion).

Johathan,

How is the hot and sour soup at Friendship terrible? Too sweet, thick from cornstarch, not enough vinegary tang?

In general I'm not a fan of hot and sour soup, they tend to run a bit on the thick/gummy/cornstarchy side for my taste, love to know where you do like the hot and sour.

Enjoy,
Gary

The Friendship hot and sour soup is a seafood hot and sour soup and the flavor is not typical. If one is expecting a "regular" hot and sour soup, I could see where it would disappoint.

I am planning on going there with my family on Saturday mid-day but wasnt' sure if they offered their regular menu or just that lunch menu that I saw online? (There's not many things to choose from on the lunch menu, which concerned me since my sis is a vegetarian!)

Please advise if you know...thanks!!!

jennydran wrote:I am planning on going there with my family on Saturday mid-day but wasnt' sure if they offered their regular menu or just that lunch menu that I saw online? (There's not many things to choose from on the lunch menu, which concerned me since my sis is a vegetarian!)

Please advise if you know...thanks!!!

Why not just call them and ask?
773-227-0970

Thanks, I was going to but they don't open until noon. I was trying to figure out my plans before then with some people. I was just looking for a quick answer and this is usually the place...

Hi,

Every Chinese restaurant I have ever visited has allowed me to order from the dinner or full menu at lunch time. While the lunch specials are fine, it is not what I always have a hankering for. I will be very surprised if they decline you.

Regards,

Friendship may be the most adaptable restaurant I've ever visited, so I'm guessing they'll accommodate your request.

You can have ingredients added to any of the basic dishes (many of their standard poultry and seafood dishes are a little sweet for me, so I'll ask them to add chicken or shrimp to a vegetarian entree, and they're always quick to oblige). They'll also add vegetables by request to their meat dishes, some of which tend to be be under-greened for some tastes.

The atmosphere, service, and presentation at Friendship tend to knock my socks off slightly more than the gustatory experience, but it's my go-to for a peaceful, affordable spot where I can bring my own wine.

Friendship used to be my go to delivery place (I ordered from them once every couple of months), but the last time I called they said they no longer deliver to my address; their new cutoff was 3 blocks away. I offered to pay an extra buck or two but they declined.

Fujisan, you might give it a few months and revisit the delivery question. Friendship was just on Check, Please and has been overwhelmed with busines this last month or two. I'm guessing they're setting some limits for fear of not being able to provide good quality and service without them.

Given Friendship's location, I'm guessing the Check, Please effect won't be permanent. Might be worth a shot after February or so (depending upon whether the episode is rerun in the meantime).

ChristyP wrote:Fujisan, you might give it a few months and revisit the delivery question. Friendship was just on Check, Please and has been overwhelmed with busines this last month or two. I'm guessing they're setting some limits for fear of not being able to provide good quality and service without them.

Given Friendship's location, I'm guessing the Check, Please effect won't be permanent. Might be worth a shot after February or so (depending upon whether the episode is rerun in the meantime).

This was sometime in December. I'll try again in a month or so and see what they say.

my wife and I are also trapped in the bucktown/wicker park "no good chinese" zone and are slaves to friendship's delivery, which is the best we've found. damn you, check please, they seem like they've been overwhelmed lately but even so delivery times are still an hour or less. We've tried alot of the menu and gravitate toward the seasame chicken (standard fare, but well done) and hong kong beef (although the latter, a 16-oz seasoned steak, is too expensive at $21-22 to be a regular pick). For a non-traditional dish, we like the walnut shrimp -- 8-10 grilled shrimp, decadant cream sauce, candied walnuts and steamed broccoli.

i'm so happy that everyone loves Friendship Restaurant as much as my fiancee and I do. we randomly ordered take out dinner from them in November, just because it was close to our hood, for pick-up. we have been back several times since then, and have always had outstanding food and service. it is NOT your typical sweet, sticky, tough, chewy chinese food. peking duck is served without pancakes, so you get to actually enjoy the duck without the chewy "pancake". the curry tofu tofu has 3 different styles of tofu, 5 spice, fried and tofu sheet, which is creamy and soft, with a deliciously spicy coconut curry sauce. the mongolian beef is tender and sizzling. curry shrimp is tart and spicy and the shrimp are tenderly cooked, not rubbery.

we always get cigar eggrolls, which are yummy yummy...i could eat ten myself.

presentation is artistic and classy. the interior is inviting and warm.

i have to say my favorite part of the meal are the chocolate fortune cookies. SO tasty and different!

a little secret? every tuesday evening, ALL entrees are $8.95! get there early because it's EXTREMELY busy every Tuesday.


I really do love Friendship Restaurant.

gopher66 wrote:my wife and I are also trapped in the bucktown/wicker park "no good chinese" zone and are slaves to friendship's delivery, which is the best we've found.

We recently ordered from Emporer Wok (yes, that's how they spell it) and it also delivers to this area. It is different from Friendship - very standard Ameri-Chinese. Not tremendous, but if you want really traditional, it isn't bad. And the delivery guy was one of the nicest (and chattiest) delivery guys I have ever met.

Finally got to check this place out on Sunday night. Great decor and atmosphere. Very comfortable. Ordered the seafood tempura rolls and they were very good: crunchy, rich flavor, and accompanied by a deliciously sweet sauce. Wonton soup was also wonderful: rich broth and perfect dumplings that were stuffed with a flavorful pork/shrimp combo. Unfortunately, those were the only two edible highlights. Our order of Shrimp in Lobster sauce was not bad, but not great either. It was a generous portion of large shrimp, but the sauce was very bland. But it wasn't the most bland thing we had there. The chicken fried rice might have been the worst I've ever had from a chinese restaurant. Little pieces of dry rubbery chicken were barely edible and the dish was entirely devoid of flavor-- with its little bits of carrot and peas, it would barely pass as my Minnesotan mother-in-laws version of prairie fried rice.

So though the meal started off with great potential, it became a huge dissapiontment. Considering how good our apetizers were, I'd have to believe that Friendship Chinese has better entres--but I'm not sure I'd go back unless I happened to be in Logan square and had to have Chinese food. I can think of a half dozen superior Chinese restaurants much closer to home and almost half the price.

The menu changes there, but we have recently liked the salt and pepper beef very much.

RAB and I try to support neighborhood restaurants and have been enjoying exploring Logan Square during the last year. RAB picked up a $25 gift certificate on http://www.restaurant.com for a few dollars, so we thought we’d try Friendship Chinese.

It’s an interesting place inside. The décor is clearly trying to be upscale, but the color scheme isn’t cohesive. Also, folks were wearing tee shirts and jeans, though, so there was a decidedly casual feel to the place. Others have commented on how the place is nice inside, but it just wasn’t working for me. Heck, I suppose the décor reflects the disjointedness of the food.

The menu is interesting. There are plenty of dishes that aren’t Chinese. For example, spinach salad with honey wasabi vinaigrette and honey glazed walnut and marinated tofu, champagne lemon chicken panko crusted with lemon and champagne reduction, and candy flavored spicy flank steak in merlot sauce. We knew we didn’t want any of these. We wanted Chinese food.

We asked our server for recommendations. He asked what we liked. We said we’ll eat anything, but gravitate toward spicy dishes. Of the four dishes he recommended, he described three as “sweet” and “breaded.” Apparently, that’s what they sell a lot of. At this point, RAB took a reconnaissance walk around the room to see if he could gather any helpful info. (note: stay away from seafood in bird’s nest - - it’s filled with surimi.)

We wanted to try more than a few dishes to help us decide whether to return. Thus, we decided on the large appetizer platter and two mains.

The appetizer platter was quite large and impressive looking, but I guess it should be for $18.



It came with egg rolls, cigar egg rolls, pot stickers, crab wonton, lollipop shrimp, and BBQ ribs. Of these, I kinda enjoyed the egg rolls (not greasy, but rather flavorless), the pot stickers (dense and unevenly cooked), and the shrimp (I liked, but RAB didn’t). The cigar egg rolls, on the other hand, were too greasy to eat. The ribs were dry, fatty, and tasteless and covered with sweet bourbon barbecue sauce (clearly not Chinese). I left the crab wontons to RAB, who picked at them. We still can’t figure out what pickled ginger was doing in the middle of the platter. Perhaps it was there just to fill a compartment. There wasn’t a single appetizer I’d order again. Sorry, Friendship.

The best part of the appetizer platter was the sauces: a garlicky, mild Chinese mayo-mustard sauce; a thick, sweet soy sauce; and a sweet, medium-hot sriracha-like sauce. All were good and did a decent job covering up the appetizers’ many faults.

The mains were a bit better. We ordered Mongolian beef and Singapore noodles. The beef was tender and not over-cooked. Very soy-saucy, with some ginger and a bit too much sweetness. No white Styrofoam noodles in sight, but plenty of bell peppers, onions, and scallions. It wasn’t remotely extra spicy, like we’d ordered and emphasized, but it was pretty okay.



The Singapore noodle dish had some really lovely, well-cleaned, and large shrimp, a nice kick, but was a bit too dry. The stringy, dry strips of pork, though, were a sad afterthought.



Had we paid full price, our bill would’ve been $56. I would’ve been quite sad to have paid that much for this food. At $31 after gift certificate, which is what we paid with tip and tax on the full, higher bill, I’m okay with the value. But, I still don’t think any of the food was more than decent.

I think we’ll be driving to Sun Wah or Chinatown for future Chinese meals. If we want something quick and nearby, we have far better options. At least I no longer have to worry about whether I’m missing out on something good in my backyard.

Ronna

Groupon $13 for $50 deal for Friendship - http://www.groupon.com/deals/friendship ... newsletter

groupon is great. but chilean sea bass is being overfished. so i urge people NOT to purchase this particular groupon. and if you eat at friendship restaurant, ask them about their sustainable fish policy, assuming they have one. here's a link explaining the issues around chilean sea bass:

http://www.wisegeek.com/is-chilean-sea- ... ngered.htm





justjoan

justjoan-
Thanks for posting this. I'm really surprised that over 2k of these groupons have been sold considering that the issue of the Chilean Seabass nearing extinction has been addressed in the talk thread on the site. I emailed Friendship Chinese restaurant to see if they can deliver a certificate of Chain of custody, and havent recieved an answer. Therefore, I'll not be participating in this particular Groupon, and after I spend my current gift certificate, I'll not be returning to this restaurant.

Nothing in this world tastes so good that I'm willing to wipe a species off the earth for it.

bella54330 wrote:justjoan-
Thanks for posting this. I'm really surprised that over 2k of these groupons have been sold considering that the issue of the Chilean Seabass nearing extinction has been addressed in the talk thread on the site. I emailed Friendship Chinese restaurant to see if they can deliver a certificate of Chain of custody, and havent recieved an answer. Therefore, I'll not be participating in this particular Groupon, and after I spend my current gift certificate, I'll not be returning to this restaurant.

Nothing in this world tastes so good that I'm willing to wipe a species off the earth for it.

bella: i'm so glad that you take this seriously. it's really difficult to keep track of sustainable fish. sometimes a particular species is ok to eat from one part of the world, but not others. it takes real effort to even attempt to stay on top of this stuff. chilean sea bass is one of the easy ones to recognize, it has received a lot of publicity-dont eat it, and tell restaurants and stores that you wont support them if they sell it. i'm not surprised groupons have been sold; many people have never given this serious issue any thought. saving money is on everyone's mind. but saving money, or as you point out-enjoying the taste, doesnt justify eating an overfished species. jj

I love me some Chilean sea bass, Im getting this groupon asap.

The groupon says 2,836 of these deals were sold. Really? 2,836 people will be descending on Friendship Chinese for a fish dinner. Umm, I don't think so.

Groupon. Rhymes with "You're a con." Sort of.

Kennyz wrote:The groupon says 2,836 of these deals were sold. Really? 2,836 people will be descending on Friendship Chinese for a fish dinner. Umm, I don't think so.

Groupon. Rhymes with "You're a con." Sort of.

damn...... I guess if it sounds to good to be true it just may be.. i guess Ill have to source my "forbidden fish" elsewhere.

update: in the 12 or so minutes since my last post, 31 more people bought this. Yeah right.

Amusing quotes from the Groupon site:

Groupon wrote:This Chinese gem in Logan Square serves the most authentic Chinese cuisine this side of Beijing

Groupon wrote:Here's what your delectable five-course meal includes...Chocolate volcano cake with vanilla gelato and Kahlua coffee sauce

Kennyz wrote:The groupon says 2,836 of these deals were sold. Really? 2,836 people will be descending on Friendship Chinese for a fish dinner. Umm, I don't think so.

Groupon. Rhymes with "You're a con." Sort of.

Those numbers purchased certainly sound unlikely at best, but I had no problems using the only Groupon I've ever purchased (for Bonsoiree).

And as long as the groupons are valid, does anyone actually give a damn if they inflate their sales metrics?