Late Night Chinatown

My brothers are coming into town and we've been talking about doing a night on the town.
I'm looking for places in Chinatown that are open late, I'm talking after around 2:00 AM.

A perfect night would be a stop at LTH, which I know is open late, and them one or two more Chinatown stops ending up at Jim's Original on the way home for a pork chop sandwich.

We REALLY want to hit a szechuan place but it looks like both Double Li and LSC close before midnight. So what else is open really late in Chinatown?

A quick search of Metromix, filtering on Late Night Hours for restaurants in Chinatown, yields these results:

Triple Crown Restaurant - 2217 S. Wentworth Ave. (to 4 a.m. 7 days)
Yee Heung Seafood House - 225 W. Cermak Rd. (to 11 p.m. Sundays, 4 a.m. weekdays, 5 a.m. weekends)
Seven Treasures - 2312 S. Wentworth Ave. (to 2 a.m. weekdays, 2:30 weekends)
Dragon Court - 2414 S. Wentworth Ave. (to 2 a.m. 7 days)
Tea Leaf Cafe - 2336 S. Wentworth Ave., No. 105 (to midnight weekdays, 2 a.m. weekends)
Sushi Lounge - 234 W. Cermak Rd. (to 2 a.m. 7 days)
Kam Fung - 216 W. 22nd Pl. (to 2 a.m. 7 days)

And if that's not late enough for you, two Chinese restaurants on the Southwest Side are open 24 hours (nothing right in Chinatown though):

Hong Kong Restaurant - 2757 W. 55th St.
Jun Hoe Toy - 2550 W. 63rd St.

Hi,

Finding late night Chinese is certainly easier than finding early morning Chinese. Bakeries open at 7 am and few restaurants around 8 am. If you want something earlier, it does not seem to exist.

After 10 pm, some Chinese restaurants have a late night menu. It is small plates of their dinner and some other snacks, though not always the same as dim sum. This menu is not always offered to non-Chinese, you have to ask for it. However, it allows two people to sample a wider range of food than they could off a dinner menu.

Not mentioned in the list above are some of the Hong Kong style youthful stylish, both in menu and decor, restaurants that are now at both ends of Chinatown mall. They not only are open late, they also open early by Chinatown standards: 8 am.

If I were not already late for going to bed, I'd fill in the blanks with names and addresses. I'm sure someone will recognize and advise further.

Regards,

Thanks nsxtasy (awesome info!) and Cathy2!
I'm sure we'll find something that works.

Ken Kee is open until 1am. Chi Cafe is open until 5am on Fri and Sat nights, and 2am on other days. Sweet Station is open until 2am. All 3 are Hong Kong style places.

Yeah - it seems the szechuan close up shop comparatively early.
Oh well

I recommend Chi Cafe and get their Hong Kong Style Fried Noodle.

I've seen signs on Chi Cafe that they were open 24 hours for a couple of days of the week (probably Fri and Sat nights). Have not verified this directly.

That Metromix article is a bit out of date, as I learned the hard way a couple of weeks ago. My wife and I went for some late night Chinese around 2:30am and found out that Triple Crown Restaurant now closes at 2am. We ended up at LTH for our first ever visit...

nsxtasy wrote:A quick search of Metromix, filtering on Late Night Hours for restaurants in Chinatown, yields these results:

It's dangerous relying on Metromix for up-to-date restaurant information, particularly for south side places where the data often haven't been updated for many years. Let's go through this list one by one.

Triple Crown Restaurant - 2217 S. Wentworth Ave. (to 4 a.m. 7 days)

Triple Crown closes at 2am everyday.

Yee Heung Seafood House - 225 W. Cermak Rd. (to 11 p.m. Sundays, 4 a.m. weekdays, 5 a.m. weekends)

Metromix is correct.

Seven Treasures - 2312 S. Wentworth Ave. (to 2 a.m. weekdays, 2:30 weekends)

Metromix is correct.

Dragon Court - 2414 S. Wentworth Ave. (to 2 a.m. 7 days)

Dragon Court closes at 12:30am.

Tea Leaf Cafe - 2336 S. Wentworth Ave., No. 105 (to midnight weekdays, 2 a.m. weekends)

Tea Leaf Cafe is closed; it's now Noodle.

Sushi Lounge - 234 W. Cermak Rd. (to 2 a.m. 7 days)

Sushi Lounge is closed; it's now Sakura Karaoke Lounge

Kam Fung - 216 W. 22nd Pl. (to 2 a.m. 7 days)

Metromix is correct.

nsxtasy wrote:And if that's not late enough for you, two Chinese restaurants on the Southwest Side are open 24 hours (nothing right in Chinatown though):

Hong Kong Restaurant - 2757 W. 55th St.
Jun Hoe Toy - 2550 W. 63rd St.

Hong Kong closes at 10pm Tue-Sat; 9:30pm Sun. The owner of 12 years says he's never been open all night.

Jun Hoe Toy has been closed for years and even when last open it wasn't a 24-hr restaurant.

So Metromix is correct in three out of nine. To me, a list that's only 33% accurate isn't terribly useful. But it's worse than that: the list doesn't include a bunch of Chinatown spots that currently have late hours. Here are some other restaurants open to at least 2am (some are mentioned earlier in this thread).

There actually is a 24 hour restaurant in Chinatown. There's this little place called Three Happiness (209 W Cermak) that some may have heard of.

Happy Chef (2164 S Archer) is open to 2am everyday.

Shui Wah (2162 S Archer) is open to 2am everyday.

Chi Café (2160 S Archer) is open to 4am; 24 hours Fri-Sat.

Sweet Station (2101 S China Place) is open to 2am everyday.

Tasty City (2022 S Archer) is open to 2am; to 4am Fri-Sat.

I agree, Metromix is not 100 percent reliable, and I would not rely on Metromix information alone. Particularly when looking for places at odd hours, I would call the place or check their own website before actually going there. But it may be useful at identifying candidates for such calls or website checks, especially in the absence of additional information from other sources. Thanks for posting that additional information!

nsxtasy wrote:I agree, Metromix is not 100 percent reliable, and I would not rely on Metromix information alone. Particularly when looking for places at odd hours, I would call the place or check their own website before actually going there. But it may be useful at identifying candidates for such calls or website checks, especially in the absence of additional information from other sources. Thanks for posting that additional information!

In ALL FAIRNESS, you can say the same thing about nearly every tourbook, AAA guide, and the like. Part of the problem is that they are not willing to invest the time to actually call each institution on an ongoing basis,

Second, within the last 18 months, large numbers of restaurants have opened/closed/moved, etc.

If you plan to drive 10+ miles to visit restaurant, it is well worth it to call beforehand.

It is funny that this question came up. I was on a website outlining all of the restaurants in Socorro, NM. The New Mexico Tech professor maintaining the site notes that there have been more changes in the past eighteen months than in the prior ten years.

jlawrence01 wrote:

nsxtasy wrote:I agree, Metromix is not 100 percent reliable, and I would not rely on Metromix information alone. Particularly when looking for places at odd hours, I would call the place or check their own website before actually going there. But it may be useful at identifying candidates for such calls or website checks, especially in the absence of additional information from other sources. Thanks for posting that additional information!

In ALL FAIRNESS, you can say the same thing about nearly every tourbook, AAA guide, and the like. Part of the problem is that they are not willing to invest the time to actually call each institution on an ongoing basis,

Second, within the last 18 months, large numbers of restaurants have opened/closed/moved, etc.

If you plan to drive 10+ miles to visit restaurant, it is well worth it to call beforehand.

It is funny that this question came up. I was on a website outlining all of the restaurants in Socorro, NM. The New Mexico Tech professor maintaining the site notes that there have been more changes in the past eighteen months than in the prior ten years.

But Mextromix isn't a guidebook. It's an on-line resource operated by a major corporate entity, that could, conceivably, be updated daily. As such, there's an expectation that it provides at least relatively current information, which it clearly does not (at least in this case). With a printed guide, even one that's re-released annually, there's no expectation or possibility that the information contained therein will be 100% or even 90% current. I appreciate Rene taking the time to illustrate Metromix's limitations in this particular area.

And yes, as the memorable ad campaign once wisely advised, "phone first."

=R=

Rene G wrote:It's dangerous relying on Metromix for up-to-date restaurant information, particularly for south side places where the data often haven't been updated for many years.

Indeed. Consider these listings:





The screenshots are linked to the actual listings. AFAIK, these are not just vanished restaurants, but restaurants that never existed. Note the phone number in the first instance. And if you examine where they are supposed to be (use Google street view if you aren't planning a trip to Calumet Heights), you can be pretty certain there never were restaurants in these locations.

I remember Hong Min was open until two every day, a real late night hang. A lot of chow fun after gigs. And Moon Palace used to be open even later, 4:00 a.m. IIRC. This was late seventies, early eighties. In my dimmed memory it seems that there used to be a lot more really late hours in the decades gone by.

Has anyone been lately to any of the aforementioned spots, specifically at late night hours? Any feedback/recs? Thanks.

Emperor's Choice is some times open til midnight or 1 a.m. and the salt and pepper tofu is the best.

So I crave Chinese food alot at night, and browse different menus on GrubHub. I noticed that there is a section at a few restaurants that is titled something like "Late night menu". It seems more authentic (not sure). It also is cheaper. I was just wondering what the story is behind these late night menus. Any info would be appreciated? (Why, portion size...)

THANKS

Seven Treasures is open 2:00am Not as good as it used to be but still OK. My personal favorites are Wonton noodle soup, BBQ pork Yang chow fried rice.