Ma Gong & La Po

While having dinner at Lao Hunan a few weeks back I noticed a line snaking out the door of what I assumed to be the little Cantonese bakery across the street. Further snooping revealed that while there was indeed a little Cantonese bakery in front, what everybody was waiting for was seating at the new tastefully decorated Sichuan restaurant in back. Open just over a month there's no English menu yet (tho they assure me one is coming soon),but staff is quite friendly and willing to help navigate you through the menu (ask for Amy!). Food so far has been outstanding. Especially noteworthy is fish special which they translate as "grilled fish", which it certainly is not. This is a large fish (?pike) scored and fried and brought to the table simmering in a fantastic spicy broth/sauce to which you eventually add bok choy, tofu and noodles hot pot style, allowing the whole deal to simmer away on a tabletop burner ( splitting the head in half lenghtwise so it would rest snugly in the pan was a nice touch) The overall effect is remarkable. At the beginning you're eating a delicious fish in a marvelous sauce so full of Chinese celery and Sichuan peppercons it feels like you've been french kissing a Chevy Volt, but after awhile the whole thing breaks down and melds into a wonderful stew like mess that"s even better. Great meal (tho a bit pricey this single dish alone was plenty for two ) goes great with iced "king tea" the hostess will steer you to. Must be a popular choice as at least half the tables in the (fully packed at 7 pm on Monday) restaurant had the same dish. You can even snag a nice funky chicken cookie at the bakery on the way out.
It's under the radar now, but may not stay that way for long.

Ma Gong & La Po
2215 S Wentworth.

kuhdo wrote:It's under the radar now, but may not stay that way for long.

Ma Gong & La Po
2215 S Wentworth.

Or at least it was ... thanks for the report.

Regards,

I've been here twice. I've hesitated to write about it firstly, because of the entire lack of English menu, but secondly my experiences have been very uneven.

On my first trip, I just loved everything ordered, most especially the "beef stew", this huge metal bowl of soft meat*, seaweed, some kind of dumpling, and way too much Szechuan peppercorns. The second trip, this dish was different and disappointing, featuring slices of beef instead of chunks and none of the dumplings. Overall, the second trip found the food milder. The beef and maw, LTH favorite, seemed watery on the second visit.

I went the second time with a gentleman who just returned from Chengdu. When we entered, he remarked that the place smelled like home. After our courses, he did not feel that way. Granted, this is someone's whose idea of "authentic" differs greatly from our own, but he felt the dishes had all been tamed for the Chicago audience. In fact, he suspected based on what I had told him from my first meal, that the house had taped down the intensity of several of the dishes in the few months they've been open.

If they can produce like they did on visit number one, this should be high on your places to try list--I had eaten a few days earlier at Lao Hunan, and this was so much better, but if it was like my second visit, you'll not go away happy.

*At Lao Hunan, I tried the oxtails. Instead of the unctuous thing this should be, it came tough and stringy from being boiled hard instead of braised low. This was much more what I expected.

Too early for me to judge consistency, but we certainly went away more than happy after our visit. May be I just caught them on a good day. One thing for sure,when they're on… they are on.

Two more visits and the food keeps getting better. Beef with pickled cabbage,seafood dumplings northern pancake with honey, Sichuan"jello" seafood "combination bowl" all at least very good and mostly better. Having never been to Sichuan,,I cant speak to authenticity but the criticism that the food may have been altered for Chicago tastes is a little hard to swallow given a restaurant with no English menu where the only English even being spoken ( as far as I could tell) was at my table (Seems that observation might be more fairly leveled at a sweet deep fried boneless dish like the ever popular three chilli chicken. @lsc as opposed to this place which I don't think even has boneleess chicken dish on the menu). Anyway, I think the food here sparkles and hope people aren't staying away beause of VI's post Chicago could use more places like this.

kuhdo wrote:Two more visits and the food keeps getting better. Beef with pickled cabbage,seafood dumplings northern pancake with honey, Sichuan"jello" seafood "combination bowl" all at least very good and mostly better. Having never been to Sichuan, I cant speak to authenticity but the criticism that the food may have been altered for Chicago tastes is a little hard to swallow given a restaurant with no English menu where the only English even being spoken ( as far as I could tell) was at my table (Seems that observation might be more fairly leveled at a sweet deep fried boneless dish like the ever popular three chilli chicken. @lsc as opposed to this place which I don't think even has boneleess chicken dish on the menu). Anyway, I think the food here sparkles and hope people aren't staying away beause of VI's post Chicago could use more places like this.

FWIW, I really look forward to trying this place out after reading your accounts. This month most of my dining out time is spent checking out GNR nominations, and my guess is that this is the case for a lot of people.

Vital Information wrote:I've been here twice. I've hesitated to write about it firstly, because of the entire lack of English menu, but secondly my experiences have been very uneven.

On my first trip, I just loved everything ordered, most especially the "beef stew", this huge metal bowl of soft meat*, seaweed, some kind of dumpling, and way too much Szechuan peppercorns. The second trip, this dish was different and disappointing, featuring slices of beef instead of chunks and none of the dumplings.

Just a hunch, but given the fact that there is no English on the menu, could you have been served a different dish on the second visit due to a language barrier? This is of course unless you speak mandarin or are sure you pointed to the same item on the menu.

Although it might be bad form to keep posting to your own thread, I wanted to let anyone intrepid enough to visit this friendly but no English menu spot know that that "beef tender with dried bamboo" is another really good dish here. Actually...great (to me anyway).

I'm surprised it took me this long to get here. The lack of English menu should've been enough to get me in quickly. I made up for this last Friday at a dinner with some friends. They were new to Sichuan food, so I ordered some greatest hits: boiled beef, lamb with cumin, twice-cooked pork, string beans, fu qi fei pian, yuxiang eggplant...

Anyhow, here's my crappy cell phone pic:


Food was uniformly good, though not terribly spicy. The boiled beef had a tangle of bean threads and whatnot in it, which was new to me, and which you can see right in the middle of the picture. Other dishes were nearly on par with Double Li, and perhaps a bit cheaper. The menu does have some English on it now, and our waitress had quite good English, so there's no need to hold back. Still, we were the only non-Chinese table, and also the only group without a table-top burner with a whole fish cooking away on it. I look forward to returning for this latter dish, which has some customize-able add-on options. Certainly worth a try in your Sichuan rotation, if you haven't been.

I stopped in yesterday afternoon for a snack, my second visit to Ma Gong. They have new glossy menus with English descriptions and lots of pictures. On the first trip, I didn't mind the adventure of ordering mystery items, and attempting to converse with the staff, but the new menus definitely make it easier. With only 2 data points, I also got the impression that they're hiring younger staff who speak English. They are clearly trying to become more accessible to all.

On the first trip we ordered the fish hot pot. That was the dish on just about every table in the place, clearly it's the house specialty. Unfortunately it was grass carp, probably my least favorite fish. Fortunately, the new menus revealed that the hot pot could be ordered with grass carp, tilapia, or catfish. I'm happy to see catfish as an option, since it is at least a fish with some flavor and texture, and I look forward to ordering that on my next visit. With the new menu, it is now apparent that you can order sides items to cook with your hotpot (see pics below). On the previous visit, we didn't know why everyone had these except for us.

Between the 2 of us we ordered some skewers, lamb, beef, lamb kidney, squid. The range here was $1 to $2.50 per skewer. I'm always hesitant to order kidney, as I've had my fair share of funky kidneys, but these were pretty awesome. No off flavors, prefect texture. The skewers were all around a winner. The wonton soup was flavored with sesame oil and cilantro. The dumplings were a perfect texture packed with lot of meat, I'm not sure if they were house-made, but they seemed to be. At around $4, I was surprised at the size of the bowl. We also ordered an eggplant off the skewer menu which was nicely grilled, and loaded with garlic, maybe a bit sweet and boring, but not a total loss. We ordered the cold tripe and sliced beef combination (first tripe listed on the menu, not labeled as a combination). It was very spicy and the quality rivaled Katy's cold dishes.

Overall I'm very excited about this place. Our total bill was $20 and we we were so full we couldn't finish most of the plates. It is a tremendous value, and I'd say definitely worthy of some LTH love.

Has anyone been here recently.. Just came back from Chengdu, China a couple of weeks ago and ready to eat some good Sichuan Food tonight?

Daniel wrote:Has anyone been here recently.. Just came back from Chengdu, China a couple of weeks ago and ready to eat some good Sichuan Food tonight?

Haven't been there in quite some time. I like, but do not love Ma Gong & La Po. Another place to consider might be Sze Chuan Cuisine. It's at the far southern end of Chinatown on Wentworth.

Sze Chuan Cuisine
2414 S. Wentworth
Chicago, IL 60606
312-791-1882

Daniel wrote:Has anyone been here recently.. Just came back from Chengdu, China a couple of weeks ago and ready to eat some good Sichuan Food tonight?

Since you mention Chengdu, you might be interested to read this thread about a very good Sichuan place in Lincoln Park:
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=39092

Among the many szechuan options in the city, specialties differ, and at Ma Gong the focus is on the "Shui Zhu Yu", and they do a bang-up job of it, the best I've had in Chicago so far. Apparently the carp is better than the average stuff, but I'd still prefer the catfish... that is just me. It is served hot-pot style, so don't forget to order the extra sides (veggies, tofu skins, etc) to throw in. I don't really think it's fair to write off Ma Gong quite yet considering the menu exploration has only barely been touched upon, or written about (where are your reports?). My hunch is that there is a lot to try and would encourage anyone to check it out Ma Gong La Po, get the hot pot and a few dishes not yet written about and start posting reactions here!