Rickshaw Republic - Lincoln Park

retzie wrote:Haha, I thought I was going to be the only one this excited about jelly worms

marothisu wrote:As far as this new place goes, part of their menu is actually Malaysian too but they don't say it for some reason. We'll probably be headed there in the next few days to see how it is. I'm crossing my fingers for it to be really good. Early word is that it is good, but I'll have an expert on the matter with me

Oh man, I miss Malaysian food (I'm from Melbourne, where it is plentiful). My kingdom for a decent curry laksa! I shall not sneeze at cendol, though. At home, you often seen the cendol 'worms' appear in che ba mau in place of the green jelly, too, making a combination of my two favourite desserts

Please report back about Rickshaw Republic's offerings!

We went last night, and it was me and 5 people from Malaysia who've only been in the US for a few years not far removed from this type of cuisine. Indonesian and Malaysian food are pretty similar in some aspects.

When I entered the place, I was actually kind of blown away by the decor. It was really beautiful inside and just decorated really, really well. I was greeted by one of the owners who was very friendly. I noticed they had a little "bar" area in the front which is a really great idea. You could definitely come to this place and sit there ordering food without having to worry about the tables. The next thing I noticed was the place is pretty small right now. It can probably fit I'm guessing 30-35 total people at a time, maybe more. I wouldn't expect every new place to be huge, and based off the fact it was packed when we arrived and it was their first week of service, I'd probably recommend getting a reservation here if you want to go.

We had a big group (8 total) and had to wait probably 20 minutes to be seated even though we had a reservation (we all know how restaurants go sometimes). If they're very successful, I'd think they could definitely expand. We ordered, I'd say, a good portion of the menu and shared it all. I'll just preface this by saying I don't take a ton of pictures of stuff, and I won't post any right now. I'm not going to review every little detail, but will give you a general feel.

First of all, again, the place is small, but absolutely beautiful inside. There is definitely a big time character to this place for the interior and everyone loved it. One of the owners was a wedding event planner/coordinator or something for awhile, so I bet it has something to do with that. It's BYOB and I don't remember us being charged for any of the alcohol we brought (I could be wrong though) so that was good.

Onto the food. We did order quite a bit of the menu:

1) We first started with the satay which we ordered the chicken and beef. Everyone agreed that both were very good and almost at the same level as what you would find in these countries. They did use the word "Very good" to describe it. I thought they were very good and thought the beef was the better choice. Everything was cooked well and the meat seemed tender (but not fall off the bone tender). The price for them was alright. I'd say maybe $1-$2 more expensive than I'd think, but overall not terrible especially if you think about it. Everyone was commenting on how in Malaysia the satay is like 50 cents. I had to remind them that they're in the US now, not SE Asia.

We also had the Martabak (Asian Pancakes) which I thought was pretty good. Not AMAZING, but overall solid, good food and pretty good taste.

2) For main courses we ordered a bit. We all shared a little bit of everything we ordered. We ordered Beef Rendang, Nasi Lamak in two dishes..one for chicken and one for beef, a few Indonesian fried rice, Kalasan chicken, and Rickshaw Noodles.

First I will say the chicken curry Nasi Lamak was really good as was the Kalasan Chicken. My girlfriend and friend were actually surprised at the Kalasan Chicken because it was extremely tender, fall off the bone. The flavor was really good and the words they described of this were "really good" for both the Kalasan Chicken and chicken Nasi Lamak. The hot paste/sauce that came on the side of this stuff was really, really good too. Loved the stuff as did the other people who could handle the heat (if you can't handle heat, don't have it).

Everyone agreed the Indonesian Fried Rice was great too and had a nice balance of flavors. For the Beef Rendang (both the regular Beef Rendang and the the Nasi Lamak version) we all agreed the beef was really well cooked and tender, but the flavors could have been better. This is their first week so I wouldn't expect everything to be amazing, but everyone said they'd "had better." Of course, don't let this sway you. I think as this place continues, hopefully some of their dishes will improve even more and I'd say this is the one that could use the most improvement. The Rickshaw Noodles were good, although the others weren't overly impressed by them.

I think the portions for these were pretty good. The beef rendang looks like it could be small but in the end, it's probably over 8 ounces of beef plus rice. For an average eater, I think that is pretty good.

3) For dessert we ordered the....CENDOL! The size was good to start. My girlfriend's came first which didn't taste amazingly well, but when mine came and I mixed it all up, it was great flavors. I think everyone agreed it could have been colder. Apparently in Malaysia, they use shaved ice while here they used the small cylindrical ice cubes. The Cendol I've had was really cold, but this wasn't very cold. I think that's one thing against it and as my girlfriend said, they put a tad too much pine sugar in it. I'll say she is kind of "sensitive" to sweet foods and doesn't like anything too sweet. I personally thought the sweetness was fine.

In the end, they're also using square instead of a normal POS system. Our server came around with a tablet so we could see the bill and explained everything on the bill. That's pretty cool and saves them money in the long run of course. I'd say that if you have to split the bill evenly amongst people, but need to say "Oh, put 3 people on my card, 2 on his, and 1 each on the rest" then be prepared to calculate it out. I don't think Square has that functionality yet or they don't know about it.

For our service, it was nice and friendly, although I'd say the only thing about it was that silverware wasn't present at the table to begin with and we had to ask for it a few times in the beginning. Then again, we only asked for spoons the first time, so that was our fault.

In the end, for ordering 3 things of Satay, a side dish of asian pancakes, 7 main dishes, and 4 things of Cendol, along with a bottle of wine and some other alcohol, it ended up being $17 after tax per person. That is a great price IMO and everyone was pretty full by the end of it.

All in all, this place is a GREAT addition not only to Lincoln Park, but to all of Chicago. If you like ethnic food, especially Asian food (SE Asian), I really recommend you try this place. They have some work to do, but what restaurant doesn't in only their first week of service? Everyone in my group agreed they would be coming back here to try more stuff which is a great sign. I think this place could be really successful and expand in the future. I recommend you check it out definitely, but make reservations even though they're only in their first week of service.

Rickshaw Republic
2312 N Lincoln Ave
Chicago, IL 60614
(773) 697-4750

Here's a nice article from GrubStreet about Rickshaw Republic which came out today. It tells about their history a little bit and interviews a man who grew up in SE Asia and visits there regularly who ate there with GrubStreet. The article also features a nice little slideshow of the restaurant and food.

http://chicago.grubstreet.com/2013/02/s ... od_of.html

This is really exciting. It looks a lot like the food I'm familiar with from Amsterdam, which has a large Indonesian population, and that was made by Indonesian exchange students I know. I've gone to the Rice Table a couple of times, which is fine, but can be a bit uneven. Even NYC doesn't have much in the way of Indonesian food (more Malaysian food) and I never had good Indonesian food there.

I've been thru here a couple times and am happy to have them around. I'll echo what others have said about the ambiance inside and attitude of the family that runs the place. Both are great. I dined in last week with the lady and we enjoyed what we ate. One of the family members who works the front was very enthusiastic in explaining the dishes, you could feel his passion. Specialty of the house is anything with moms fish cake in it so I went with that wrapped around a boiled egg.


Submarine Fish Cake aka Pempek Telor

This dish was different. It was a little bit rubbery as far as texture goes but I guess that's supposed to be so. Even though it was my least favorite of what we tried, I ate all of it. The noodles with it were served cold. I tried some of the Rickshaw Noodles with pork belly and liked those although the Indonesian fried rice was my favorite thus far. I've returned for it via pick up. Make sure you get some of the killer house sambal sauce on the side. I look forward to further exploring the menu as well as "Mom's Specials" which change weekly depending on what she feels like cooking. I thought the price was pretty fair but it's best to go with a few others so you can try different items. I'll be back.


Indonesian Chicken Fried Rice

I was very pleasantly surprised by my maiden voyage here last night, actually downright smitten with the food- I can't stop thinking about it. It was my first experience with Indonesian cuisine, though I was in the company of friends who have traveled Indonesia extensively, so they helped provide context. They agreed that the food was better than 90% of what they ate in Indonesia. As stated above, the room is fancy- very heavily designed with intricately layered woodwork and salvaged materials. I usually prefer eateries that are more visually understated, but the craftsmanship is undeniable and I dug the po-mo street market vibe. We had a chance to sit down and chat with the owner as we waited for our table and he is a very gracious host and was eager to share his culture. He explained that the place is staffed by his family and a peak into the kitchen revealed a very tight ship with mama at the helm. So our expectations were high when we took our seats. And we were not disappointed. We ordered:

Asian Pancakes (Martabak)
Our one appetizer (they were out of fish cake balls). These had a lightly curried filling not unlike a samosa and a crisp wrapper like a fried spring roll. Satisfying, if not remarkable.

Kalasan Chicken
Oh man, fried chicken lovers take note- crisp skin enclosing succulent sweet and sour marinaded meat. Not unlike my favorite pollo frito at Habana Libre back in the good old days. Served with an oily, fiery sambal, this plate disappeared fast.

Beef Rendang
The sauce was sensational. The curries here are clearly home-made, coarsely processed with the occasional strand of lemongrass and deeply reduced coconut milk. My only quibble with this dish is that the cut of beef was perhaps too lean to yield a fork tender braise. It was very good, but the meat had a bit of resistance.

Coconut Rice (Nasi Lemak)
One lesson learned during this meal was an emphasis on textural contrast. This composed plate, centered around lemongrass-y fried coconut rice, was a riot of soft and crunch interplay. Shrimp crackers adorned most plates that evening, but they made the most sense here. Sweet lacquered peanuts and dried anchovies and crisp fried shallots also contributed to the crunch factor. Quick pickled veggies in ground peanuts added a sweet cool tang. And we opted for the curry chicken add on, which was complex and rich in a turmeric and cumin heavy curry, again in a reduced coconut milk gravy. And oh yeah, it was served with a different house made sambal.

Submarine Fish cake (Pempek Telor)
This was our requisite processed fish course since they were out of fish balls. This dish was odd as reported by Da Beef above. Not bad, just an unexpected set of textures. The fish cake, which encased a perfectly hard boiled egg, was not what I would call chewy, more bouncy. Its served almost like a soup, in a bowl with a light soy/vinegar sauce and cold noodles. The flavor profile was much more subtle than the rest of the meal, so it fell to the sidelines.

Bandung Dumplings (Batagor)
This fish cake oriented dish was really eye-opening. Pieces of fishy dumplings were fried crisped and tossed in a spicy peanut based sauce. Served with yet another sambal, this stuff was rich, hot, and addictive. Just fantastic.

I know this place is in Lincoln Park and it seems designed to succeed in bringing a new cuisine to the masses. But the cooking I ate last night was some of the most elaborately textured and brightly flavored food that I have enjoyed at a new restaurant in quite awhile. I spoke again with the owner on the way out and I expressed to him that there is a potential audience out there that would be thrilled to sample whatever the kitchen would dish out and he enthusiastically explained that they hope to offer Rijstaffel, epic feasts of dozens of courses served family style. Sign me up. This place is really promising, I'm excited.

Thoroughly enjoyed my first trip to Rickshaw Republic tonight. Only a few things to add from what's already been posted. We followed the recommendations of those who dined before us with 2 additions off the Mommy Special menu--the Pastel (empanadas stuffed with chicken, peas, carrots, vermicelli, and boiled egg, served with sambal peanut sauce) and the Jakarta Fried Noodles (egg noodle stir-fried with chicken, beef ball, egg, and vegetables). Both were delicious--the crust of the empanadas was a bit chewy--and the filling light but flavorful. The noodles were the soft type (would've only been better if there'd been a bit of wok-type crust on them*) but well-seasoned and full of good stuff. My favorite dishes of the night were the Beef Rendang and the Bandung dumplings (fish and shrimp dumplings served with tofu, in a creamy peanut dressing) which were unlike any dumpling I've ever had before--almost reminded me of an indonesian version of some of the custardy tofu preps I've had at Lao Hunan and the like.

We spent a few minutes after dinner talking design with the owner (the restaurant was designed by Suhail, someone my dining companion and I used to hang out with but haven't seen in a while) and it was interesting getting to hear how everything came together. He also told us of their still-evolving plan for introducing Rijstaffel, hopefully in April, and likely a buffet-type service where they bring everything to the table in small portions then you order more of whatever you wish. Very excited for this!

With free parking next door in the CMH garage, this is a great addition to an otherwise unexciting stretch of Lincoln. I look forward to returning soon!

*knowing less than nothing about Indonesian food, I'm guessing that that would be inauthentic so it's not a knock on the preparation, only what my taste buds missed )

after dinner talking design with the owner (the restaurant was designed by Suhail

For those readers not visually attuned to SUHAIL 's aesthetic > if you were in MOD before it became Violet Hour,
or were in Tizzi Milloul before it became GT FishHouse, or perhaps if you were ever Sugar, or
....well - let's hope Rickshaw Republic (and their clientele) get to fully enjoy what SUHAIL's crafted for them.
As a fellow Metal Worker, I've always appreciated the energy SUHAIL's been able to transmit
(through his vision) to his projects.

reposted from: http://www.fallingbeam.org/post/4434132 ... nasi-lemak

Rickshaw Republic: Mi Goreng, Nasi Lemak, “Murtabak,” RMS 3 LOE 5. Have a pet peeve about restaurants with too low lighting - I’d like to see what I’m eating. This place wasn’t so bad, but it made the last shot of the Nasi Lemak so dark as to be unrecognizable.

This is basically Singapore food court quality, which for Chicago is absolutely a compliment. Coconut rice is very well done, the “Murtabak” appetizer is excellent. Mi Goreng special was good, if not as finely made as I might like. Again, Singapore food court quality. This might convince me to try Penang at their new location.

The lighting is fantastic at the bar during the day, where I ate because it was kind of an impulse meal. I was in the area doing errands and had a craving. Otherwise though, eating alone here isn't the best way to experience it because I didn't get to try a lot- the entrees are very filling.

I enjoyed a chat with Tommy, the patriarch of sorts here. His son Oscar seems to be the mastermind behind how hip the place is in terms of the interior design and website. Tommy showed me a map of Indonesia to show me how hard it is to assemble an "Indonesian" menu, so he said they took a bunch of their favorite dishes and the menu works as a survey of sorts– they track how often particular dishes are ordered and unpopular ones are dropped, possibly to be replaced by the most popular of the "mommy specials."

I enjoyed the Nasi Lemak, which was a heap of coconut rice surrounded by goodies like beef rendang (the beef was a bit dry but otherwise it was good), crispy peanuts and anchovies, some pickles, sambal, omelette, and those addictive shrimp chips


I was curious about the tea and Tommy explained that it is very traditional daily Indonesian tea and that he wants to serve it in the most traditional way possible. He said people asked for things like jasmine tea, milk, or lemons, which are very un-Indonesian, but he wants people to experience the real thing. I liked it, it was a refreshing nicely aromatic black tea without any of the bitterness that would require milk or lemons.


I also had to order the tempeh because I had very delicious tempeh from Indonesian diaspora friends when I was in Europe and was disappointed by the stuff sold in the US, which seems to be made for and by health-conscious vegetarians who don't seem to care that much about flavor (I used to be one, so I know). They said they make it themselves and it indeed had the nice meaty robust flavor of the tempehs I remember.


I'll definitely be back with a larger group to try more things, but so far so good, and better than any other Indonesian food I've had in the US (I hear the periodic Indonesian bazaars in NYC are excellent, but I never made it to any).

Just got back from dinner here and it was a phenomenal meal. Definitely one of our new favorite places in the city.

We had the pastel empandada appetizer (on special) that was on special. For our entrees, we had the coconut, rice above, but with chicken instead of beef. The chicken was also a little dry, but it was an excellent dish overall. Along with that, we had mie goreng, a lo mein-like dish that was also on special, which was phenomenal. I was also pleasantly surprised by the tea which was unique and tasty, even for a rather cheap bagged tea. The service was also great and we look forward to exploring more of the dishes here soon!

My daughter and I had lunch there last week. When we arrived we were the first lunch patrons. The owners son was a very earnest young man who did a very good job of explaining the menu to us. Really enjoyed the indosnian fried rice. The fish balls must be an acquired taste because I could barely swallow the bite I took. Very dense and kinda gelatinous in a wierd way. My daughter felt bad and ate the rest of mine. We also had the chicken which arrived at our table room temperature. Im pretty sure that isn't the desired temperature and kinda spoiled the dish. The accompanying coconut rice was delicious. Can't say I will be rushing back.

abolt wrote:My daughter and I had lunch there last week. When we arrived we were the first lunch patrons. The owners son was a very earnest young man who did a very good job of explaining the menu to us. Really enjoyed the indosnian fried rice. The fish balls must be an acquired taste because I could barely swallow the bite I took. Very dense and kinda gelatinous in a wierd way. My daughter felt bad and ate the rest of mine. We also had the chicken which arrived at our table room temperature. Im pretty sure that isn't the desired temperature and kinda spoiled the dish. The accompanying coconut rice was delicious. Can't say I will be rushing back.

About the room temperature thing- Tommy also said this was an issue with customers. They wanted things hot, but a lot of the dishes are traditionally served lukewarm.

I've never had the fish balls but I will have to try. I love weird fishy or meaty gelatinous things.

I'm really looking forward to trying this place and I appreciate people chiming in about certain items being served at room temperature. I've never been to Indonesia and would not have known that (especially since this is not necessarily the case elsewhere in Southeast Asia), despite having eaten Indonesian food in the past. That's just one of the entry barriers to a new cuisine. Look how long it took translated Thai menus to appear and become mainstream.

But for those looking to try Rickshaw Republic, I found this site which is very helpful for those like me who are less familiar with Indonesian food: http://www.expat.or.id/info/indonesianfood.html One particularly applicable note on the site is this one:

Indonesian food is usually cooked in advance and served at room temperature, although there are some dishes that should be consumed hot and fresh from the stove or barbecue.

Happy to be educated - that's one of the reasons I visit LTH.

It was wierd because the chicken was good but since it was room temperature the fat underneath the skin was unrendered or something which led to some unpleasant bites.
.

BR wrote:I've never been to Indonesia and would not have known that (especially since this is not necessarily the case elsewhere in Southeast Asia), despite having eaten Indonesian food in the past. That's just one of the entry barriers to a new cuisine.

In my southeast asia traveling experience, Malaysia is also a very lukewarm food country, and Viet Nam is not without the lukewarmness as well.

During our entire trip to Malaysia we ate at one single restaurant which served food hot. Incidentally, that restaurant with the freshly cooked hot food was the single worst (actually the only downright awful) meal we ate the entire time. The only other hot food was from street vendors, even then a matter of timing, walking up to a vendor who was just pulling food off the grill. In Malaysia the soups where hot, being constantly over the flame staying warm.

Singapore, being a mixture of many cuisines had a lot of hit and miss with food temperatures, most of the hot was served hot due to the food court vendor line being long, a matter of necessity.

Vietnam also had a lot of hot soups, but the other stuff, most notable the grilled items were often only warm at best, usually room temp. I wished more grilled items were served fresh, but sadly most of them were grilled in bulk and served at air temperature. Fried foods were the best bet, generally served freshly fried, though not always. The grilled meats looked as smelled so good being cooked, it was a downright sin to be forced to consistently eat them lukewarm. False advertising, I say.

In the link I posted, they differentiate between foods intended to be served lukewarm, and foods that should be served hot that are nonetheless served lukewarm just because they've been sitting around longer than they should have been. But they note that grilled items are supposed to be served hot. As I think about it more, there were a number of items I was served in Thailand/Cambodia that were served room temperature, but it wasn't shocking to me because they were similar to Thai items served in Chicago that are not served hot, Thai salads for example. Some, like mi krap/mee krob, were even sold on the street in pre-filled plastic bags so there really was no confusion. But curries, noodles, grilled items were all served hot (or should have been). I guess when at Rickshaw, I'll just go with the flow and ask.

I had dinner here last week. No issues with any of the serving temperatures.

I really liked the fish balls. Definitely not a texture that you get a lot of in Western cuisine, but I found it enjoyable nonetheless.

Oh, and the comment about the poor lighting is completely absurd.

I would venture to say that if viewing the food solely behind the lens of a camera, your perception of both the quality of the lighting AND the food may be somewhat distorted

laikom wrote:
In my southeast asia traveling experience, Malaysia is also a very lukewarm food country

My girlfriend is from Malaysia and has only been in the US for a few years, so I asked her about this. She said most food is NOT served lukewarm and they don't have the idea of cold food either, at least other than maybe a few dishes. She was actually surprised that people think things should be served lukewarm/room temperature. It might be a regional thing...and I'm not speaking for Indonesian food either (which is what Rickshaw is).

marothisu wrote:

laikom wrote:
In my southeast asia traveling experience, Malaysia is also a very lukewarm food country

My girlfriend is from Malaysia and has only been in the US for a few years, so I asked her about this. She said most food is NOT served lukewarm and they don't have the idea of cold food either, at least other than maybe a few dishes. She was actually surprised that people think things should be served lukewarm/room temperature. It might be a regional thing...and I'm not speaking for Indonesian food either (which is what Rickshaw is).

I suppose I exaggerated a bit, I'm sure there was more than one hot food restaurant, for example soups were almost always hot. However, I'm sure I'm not mistaken that air-temp food was very common. Most often it was a buffet style setup. You'd walk around and fill your plate, the proprietor, or usually the kids of, would examine your plate and come up with a price based on looking at the food. It was not limited to the salads, the air-temp setups also included fried foods, seafood, and meats. Here are a few pictures showing the variety of food, all of which was served this style.





I'm not trying to suggest this is the best way to enjoy the cuisine, in fact I wish more of the food I enjoyed was fried up fresh or served hot. I'm pretty sure it was served cool way due to lack of means to keep it hot. I am not trying to defend or criticize the cuisine or rickshaw republic, I am simply making an attempt to add another data point to the food temp conversation.

laikom wrote:

marothisu wrote:

laikom wrote:
In my southeast asia traveling experience, Malaysia is also a very lukewarm food country

My girlfriend is from Malaysia and has only been in the US for a few years, so I asked her about this. She said most food is NOT served lukewarm and they don't have the idea of cold food either, at least other than maybe a few dishes. She was actually surprised that people think things should be served lukewarm/room temperature. It might be a regional thing...and I'm not speaking for Indonesian food either (which is what Rickshaw is).

I suppose I exaggerated a bit, I'm sure there was more than one hot food restaurant, for example soups were almost always hot. However, I'm sure I'm not mistaken that air-temp food was very common. Most often it was a buffet style setup. You'd walk around and fill your plate, the proprietor, or usually the kids of, would examine your plate and come up with a price based on looking at the food. It was not limited to the salads, the air-temp setups also included fried foods, seafood, and meats. Here are a few pictures showing the variety of food, all of which was served this style.

My two cents: The images shown are of a type of "restaurant" or as they call them in M'sia "restoran" known as "economical rice". Basically a Panda Express style of places where the quality is better and you choose 2 meats and a veg type of deal. And yes, the food is usually not served hot.

Most food is not served lukewarm in M'sia and Spore. Hawker centers, restaurants, coffee shops (in SE asia, coffee shops serve more than just coffee/tea), etc all served hot. I think the only other place that serves lukewarm food would be Hainan chicken rice stalls, where the chicken is room temp, but the rice and soup are hot...

Seven of us had a Sunday lunch at RR, and I love the place.
The food is exciting and tasty (although I'd like to see the spice kicked up a couple notches), and the service extremely friendly.

We split quite a number of dishes, I may not remember everything:

• Chicken Satay - good, but probably not the best version I'd had of this. Very tasty, nice presentation
• Pork Satay - With a sweet soy (kecap manis) sauce, this was more novel
• Martabak - egg, beef and onion-filled crepe. I liked this a lot, would have liked more than the two bites I had of it when shared 7 ways
• Rickshaw Wings - Very crispy, spicy, meaty, full wings. Very reminiscent of Korean ones, probably my favorite wings in recent memory.
• Beef Rendang - not as spicy as ones I have had or made previously, but this "pot roast with attitude" is a winning dish.
• Nasi Lemak Chicken - Fun, mix-as-you-like with a lot of condiments (peanuts, fried anchovies, pickles, shredded omelet, sambal)
• Babi Kecap - Sweet soy-sauced pork belly, another delicious dish
• Mie Goreng - Sort of a pad thai made with thick spaghetti. I liked it, but I don't know that it would be high on my list for a repeat, just due to the familiarity of the flavors.
• Kalasan Chicken - Probably the least exciting. Moist chicken, but not crispy fried (it was advertised as fried chicken). Very tasty, but not one of the stars of the day.
• Ketan Hitam - Labeled as black sticky rice pudding, it's more of a porridge, almost drinkable. Very sweet. Tasty, but needs something textural.

Service was very attentive: we were amongst the few in the place when we arrived at 1PM, but it was hopping by 2, with no hiccups in service. The servers, while not Indonesian, knew the dishes well. The owner came by and talked to us for a while, very friendly. They're in this for the long haul, signing an 8-year lease.

He's a wedding photographer among other things. He worked hard with an interior designer to get the look of the place to reflect Indonesia, with puppets, bird cages and umbrellas hanging from the ceiling doing double duty as acoustic abatement as well as great decor. There's not a lot of room in the place -- I don't think he can serve more than about 30. It's more fun, and better presented than other Indonesian I've had.

This is in the short list for places I'd nominate for a GNR next year (along with Rand Red Hots), it's great to have them around.

Hey all, longtime reader of this site and always appreciate the recs and info. So I have been searching for Laksa in Chicago ever since having this bowl of deliciousness.


Chicken and King Prawn Laksa from Malay Chinese Takeaway

Unfortunately you have to be in Sydney to have this version. Five months down there, and I found out about this place in the last week. I ate lunch there three days in a row because I assumed (correctly) it would be a long time before I had any Laksa again much less one that was this good.

Apparently, as discussed in other threads, Malaysian food is pretty much non-existent in Chicago, which is a shame. It was my favorite ethnic food down under, although I also had some Thai, Chinese, Sri Lankan, Vietnamese and Indian food that was better than most anything I've tried here. Part of it is probably due to the availability of the ingredients and partly due to the massive number of those immigrants groups living in Sydney, which lead to more authentic menus than our Americanized versions. Also, there is no Caucasian hot when ordering food there. If it says spicy, you do not need to ask for it spicier because it usually comes out hot for a Thai/Indian/Malaysian native so be prepared to sweat.

But I digress. My purpose here is to inform everyone looking for Laksa that Rickshaw Republic has it as a special this week. I have not tried it yet, but am planning on it and will report back. If anyone has had it from there, I would be glad to hear their thoughts.
Cheers,
Radley

Rickshaw Republic
2312 N LINCOLN AVE
CHICAGO, IL 60614
http://rickshawrepublic.com/
Mommy Special
whatever mommy feels like making for the week
CURRY LAKSA – 14
rice & egg noodle soup with shrimp, chicken, fishcake, bean curd puffs, egg, bean sprout, lime, and house sambal

Malay Chinese Takeaway
58 Hunter St
Sydney NSW 2000
Australia

Welcome radley and thanks for the heads up! Rickshaw Republic seems to be doing a lot of good things--this dish looks like a particularly smart call by "mommy" with the crap weather we've been having!

Enjoy and look forward to hearing what you think.

... and a note on the specials: Three other items had been on the specials menu, but they were so successful, RR added them to the regular menu

Had dinner here last night with two friends and really loved it. I had not expected the decor to be so wonderful - really lovely! and the service was top notch. We ordered somewhat randomly - Bala Bala (Vegetable fritters), Martabark (pancakes filled with veg and beef), Rickshaw Wings, Beef Rendang, Coconut rice, Gado Gado. We had brought wine and there was no corkage fee but an ice bucket for the white was delivered immediately along with glasses.

The fritters, wings and beef all were favorites at the table - and the check was only $55 which was lovely indeed. We got there at 5:30 on a Saturday (pre-theater) and it was empty - by 6 it was standing room only (and never a sign that trouble handling such a rush btw).

Definite return visits planned ... and more of the menu to explore (though I am dreaming of the having that beef rendang again today)

A few of us tried Rickshaw Republic the other day and our table had a mixed bag of feelings about the overall meal. Overall, I feel I could be persuaded to return, but I'm not going to rush back.

My biggest complaint is that that a lot of the food (more than half) fell somewhere on the spectrum of too-sweet-for-me to downright candy. The peanut sauce on our tempeh satay was way too sweet. The pickles were too sweet, I would prefer a refreshingly sour pickle to cleanse the palate. The anchovies and peanuts on the nasi lemak were candy coated - a little sugar in ikan bilis is acceptable but these were straight up candied. The Rickshaw Wings would have been tossed into a brown sugar syrup, but luckily we ordered this one later and knew to ask for the sauce on the side. Good thing we did since it was straight up brown sugar.

The Nasi Lemak was probably the biggest disappointment of the night. The rice had next to no coconut fattiness or scent. I had to actually take a second bite to decide if it was in fact coconut rice, then I could detect a faint coconut scent, but not that rich overpowering coconut rice like I would have hoped for. The chicken breast (in all fairness it did say breast on the menu, so i should have been wary) was very dry and jaw-achingly tough. I ate a lot of Nasi Lemak in Malaysia of varying qualities, but all of these details coupled with the aforementioned sweetness to the anchovies and peanuts made me pretty certain this is the worst plate of Nasi Lemak I've ever had or will hopefully every have.

What lured me into RR was the curry laksa special. Sadly, it wasn't so special. It was pretty bland, though I spiced mine up with the 3 sambals offered. I detected neither shrimpy belacan nor laksa leaf flavor. It was garnished with a few sprigs of thai basil in lieu of the Laksa Leaves (a tell that they must be dumbing it down for american tastes). It wasn't so bad, I ate my share because I was hungry, but it was definitely wasn't exciting.

The Martabak (pan-fried stuffed pancakes) and the Nasi Goreng (fried rice) were the 2 highlights of the meal. The Nasi Goreng was very fishy (shrimp paste?), and had good texture and character. The pancakes were fresh, delicious, hot and crisp. The Beef Rengang was very good as well but could have definitely used a bit more spice. The rickshaw wings were huge and the breading thick, crispy and dense. I enjoyed these a lot smothered in my favorite sambal. As critical as I was on the first part of this review, I'd come back for these 4 dishes.

It definitely seems they're taming a lot down for the neighborhood and clientele, and I'm not the one to make the call if that's good or bad for their business, but I personally wish they'd take more risks and do things more authentically.

In case anyone still really cares about some of previous superficial conversations, everything came out freshly cooked and hot (though i'd take those cold dishes in the pictures I previously posted any day), the lighting was ample, and the decor was indeed nice.

Sorry, I didn't get pictures of everything, but here are the ones I did get.

Tempeh Satay w peanut sauce.


Fried stuffed pancake (why are these called pancakes anyhow?


Curry Laksa special


Side of coconut rice


Chicken wings


Some decor:

Had lunch here last wk and thought the best part of the meal was the decor. Of a half a dozen items plus their various components, for my tastes very little was more than decent to good. Certainly nothing crave worthy.

Superficial conversations?

My impression dovetails with Jazzfood's. Nothing remotely caught my attention, all the food was room temp, which I have no problem with, though luke warm water and tea bag is not really desirable. Service was fine, the patriarch took a group of diners on tour, his pride in the artwork decor evident, and the group of 30-year-old nicely dressed women sitting next to us thought Rickshaw was the best thing since frozen low-fat yogurt popsicles.

Won't rush back, but will give Rickshaw another go.