Sun shui [Arlington Heights]

On a different thread, someone mentioned that CNN had named Sun Shui in Arlington Heights one of the 50 best Chinese restaurants in the country.

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=10168&p=444862&hilit=sun+shui#p444546

Since Sun Shui is only about a mile from where I live, this prodded me into action. Now one meal does not really make it possible to agree or disagree with that "50 best" comment, and I certainly don't know all the other Chinese restaurants being considered -- but I have been eating Chinese food for a lot of years and have been to China a few times, so I'm not entirely without experience -- and I'm happy to say that, given how close it is, it's a really dandy discovery.

It's a handsome place -- more Japanese in it's clean, simple decorations, but with Chinese-influenced lamps in the dining area. There is a glass-backed waterfall in the entry, water flowing into a pond with large goldfish (large, but smaller than koi). The sushi bar is impressive, with a couple of sushi chefs standing at attention behind a wide array of ingredients (at attention until an order is placed, and then the ballet starts). I've heard good things about their sushi from friends, but I'm not super big on sushi, so I'm not the person to judge that. But, having been to Japan a couple of times, I will say that the setup and the skill certainly looked authentic.

When I ordered tea, I was given the choice of green, oolong, or jasmin -- which makes sense, given that one could go either Japanese or Chinese. I picked oolong. It came in a handsome, red and black porcelain tea pot with a matching cup. Nice touch. And the tea was excellent. I was dining alone, which limited how much I could sample, but I started with the pork egg roll. Outstanding. Clearly handmade (though I did ask, to make sure, and yes, it's made in the back), about 2-1/2 inches across, actually more filling than wrapper, incredibly crisp outside and wonderfully flavorful pork filling. Maybe the best egg roll I've ever had.

Main course was garlic chicken. The chicken was abundant and remarkably tender. The veggies were fresh and crisp. The sauce was zippy, as promised, but not blinding. Really excellent. Not as much of a "wow" as the egg roll, but a really solid Chinese dish -- made American mostly by the abundance of chicken.

Now that I know it has good to great food, I'll be back to explore a bit farther. But since it made that CNN list, I thought a post might encourage someone else to try it, to get another opinion.

Even if it's not one of the 50 best in the US, it's lovely and the food is good and I can walk there -- so not a bad situation.

155 W Rand Rd
Arlington Hts, IL 60004
(847) 870-8888

Anyone up for Chinese tonight (4/5/2013)?
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=37381&p=446018#p446018

JoelF wrote:Anyone up for Chinese tonight (4/5/2013)?
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=37381&p=446018#p446018

I wish! Thank you both for the adventurous investigations.

Sorry to just see this now. I'd have been delighted to join you.

Perhaps another time.

...and I'm back.
Hot and Sour soup: hot is good, sour is good, lots of pork, tofu, sesame oil, fungus and scallion... Would be top tier if their stock were richer.

Pork Egg Roll: really good. Not amazing, but perhaps Cynthia set my expectations too high.

Szechwan Chicken: one of their Chinese New Year specials (dude, it's frickin' April), it was described with the same items as Kung Pao, but without vegetables. I asked the server what the difference is, she said that Kung Pao has peanuts. "So does this!" I countered, and ordered it anyway. When she delivered it, she said that this is Kung Pao, but with chiles. "But Kung Pao should have chiles too, right?"

In any case it was very good. A generous amount of cubed dark meat with crispy bits of skin and fat, chiles, peanuts and ginger, with a good wok hay, and a strong hit of Chinese black vinegar. My guess is that this is "authentic" KP, and the other has veg like Americans expect (and the two dollar premium is because this has more chicken). I'd order it again.

The New Year menu also had salt and pepper shrimp, which would have been my second choice.

JoelF wrote:...and I'm back.

Pork Egg Roll: really good. Not amazing, but perhaps Cynthia set my expectations too high.

.

Thanks for the report. I look forward to more dining there.

As for the egg roll -- it occurs to me that anything made by hand as it's ordered, while it has the potential for greatness, also has more potential for inconsistency. I'll order it again and see what I think. (And maybe I was just really hungry and anything would have tasted good.)

This has been our go-to Chinese restaurant for several years, partly because it's close to home, but also because the food is good. I'll agree that the egg rolls are among the best I've had. I know my husband -- who I think would consider himself an egg roll connoisseur -- agrees.

My only consistent complaint is that even when you ask for a spicy dish to be made extra-spicy, it is still quite mild. By my standards, anyway.

Jasubar: yup, same experience here. I asked for extra spicy, and it arrived merely spicy... But they did offer to bring chile oil which was quite good.

Dined at Sun Shui again this evening. I had thought I'd get the chow fun, but motivated by JoelF's comment about the authenticity of the item he ordered from the New Year menu, I scanned its offerings and decided to go with the Sun Shui House Tofu, figuring the New Year menu might go away (unless "New Year" is their code for "this is more like stuff you'll eat in China). The House Tofu consisted of veggie-stuffed tofu balls that had been lightly fried and then stir-fried with bok choy, shitakes, snow peas, bamboo shoots, and carrots. I had been hankering for some bok choy, so that sold the dish for me. It was mighty tasty. It seemed a bit salty at first, but then I remembered that in China, rice makes up most of the meal, and adding a bit more rice made it perfect. The veggies were perfectly cooked. The tofu balls were semi-soft with a huge amount of flavor added by frying, stuffing, and saucing. So a lovely meal.

As for spiciness -- other than in Sichuan Province, wildly spicy food is for from ubiquitous in China, so it could be that they're making it as spicy as they can imagine. Glad to know they offered chili oil, however. It's always nice to be able to customize.

I'm thinking that one of these times, I'll have to try their sushi, too -- simply because the lead sushi chef, an older gentleman, immediately recognized me as a return customer, and greeted me with a "welcome back" and a little bow as I passed by. I thought that was remarkable, seeing as I've only been there twice -- and I haven't ordered any sushi.

Nice to have this place so nearby. Not going to bump Ed's Potstickers off the LTH map -- but having a place this good be this close is great -- almost makes up for Le Titi being closed.

Was in the area, so we tried this place today. It was fine, but nothing really impressed me or jumped out at me.

They didn't have the chinese spinach with garlic dish, so we got the sichuan green bean. Decent version, but not the greatest. Would have liked this more if it were a bit more puckered and had more wok char.

Had the fish with sichuan bean sauce and the twice sauteed pork. Both didn't quite meet my standards for authentic Sichuan food. I would say that it kind of fell between very American Chinese and the more authentic food you might get at Lao Sichuan or Asian Bistro etc. Both sauces were just not as earthy and beany as I was expecting. There was basically no heat to speak of. And they were both a bit too sweet. Not super sweet, Panda Express-like, but a bit sweeter than I would have preferred. All in all, it was okay, but the flavors sort of reminded me of a Lee Kum Kee sauce right out of the jar. And that's not really what I was looking for. Not bad, but not really authentic Sichuan IMO.

Maybe I should have tried some of the other dishes. Definitely will try the egg roll if I make it back again.

I haven't been in a few months or so, but before that went fairly often. I always found their food to be delicious, especially the crispy Szechwan beef. I also love the fact that there's a sushi bar, with very tasty fish. It's a very good option! The sushi always tastes fresh, and they have expanded the offerings nicely over the years.

I can't comment on the authenticity of the food, as i have never lived in Sichuan, or China. But I've never thought Panda Express. Oh wait, I've never eaten there

The comment about sweetness makes me wonder what part of China the chef hails from. While Sichuan doesn't do much in the way of sweet, Hainan province tends to favor sweeter dishes. So maybe it would be worth asking where the chef (and cooks) come from, because it might have an impact on what they consider authentic.

On my visits, I went more eastern China in my ordering. Haven't tried their Sichuan dishes yet. So one wonders. (And while I don't know a lot of Chinese characters, I do know the characters for Sichuan, and I noted that the Chinese for at least one dish identified as Sichuan--on the New Year's menu--didn't actually use the characters for Sichuan. So who knows.)

It's a mighty big country with a tremendous amount of variety, so it might be very authentic for someone -- thus earning it the accolades from CNN.

Yeah that may very well be true. We only had 3 dishes, and we admittedly took a very Sichuan direction with our choices. Seeing as most others had a better experience, it does make me wonder how the rest of the menu fares (as well as the Sichuan Chicken and Sichuan Shredded Beef that others liked)

Unfortunately my sister is a not a big Chinese food fan. It took me awhile to open her eyes with some great Sichuan cuisine, and now that's about all she'll go for. I'll see if I can drag her back to try some other things on the menu.

Thanks for posting about this place. I'm always looking for spots for pre or post theater options at Metropolis Performing Arts Centre.

Three of us had dinner there last night. We shared a cucumber salad and Meguan Roll for appetizers. My wife opted for the Cashew Nuts with Chicken. Our friend and I each had the Mongolian Three Delight. We were all very happy.

This place was pretty empty for a Saturday night at 6pm. Maybe a fluke. We'll be back.