Lao Sze Chuan - Evanston

(do we really need all these threads? Should we lump all but the mother ship together?)
SueF and I ventured to Evanston last night (only town so far showing Grand Budapest Hotel), and wandered around for a bit deciding on dinner. Farmhouse seemed a little stiff (food sounded good, just not novel), then we spotted LSC, and the decision making was over.

It was around 6:15 PM, and there were a number of people waiting. We were given a choice of the bar, or about a 20-minute wait. I'm glad we took the bar, as we might have otherwise missed our movie. Service was very slow, and full of errors: SueF's tea was not green, they delivered won ton soup instead of Szechuan wontons, a pork and tofu dish instead of the pork and cilantro... and with long gaps between appearances of staff. The music in the place was so loud, we couldn't hear the servers/bartenders announcing the dishes, and they couldn't hear our assertions that it was the wrong dish. Surprisingly, the check was 100% accurate: exactly what we'd ordered. It looked like it was all server error, not kitchen, as I think every wrong dish did have a destination, but not us.

But the food? Spot on. Szechuan wontons were delicate, with a very zingy red oil with a good amount of spicy sludge to drizzle over the dumplings, and plenty of scallions. Crispy Shrimp with Lemon Sauce (aka Mayonnaise Shrimp -- one of SueF's faves) was delicate and sweet, the shrimp cooked perfectly. Double-Fried Pork with Cilantro (Dry) is a variant on Chicken Crack: crispy shreds of pork, flavored but not swimming in hot oil and sichuan peppercorns, with cilantro stems and scallions. Very nice.

I expect they'll get their act together, but at least the kitchen is hitting their marks.

(do we really need all these threads? Should we lump all but the mother ship together?)

Probably not a good idea. Discrete restaurants with very different menus.

Lao Sze Chuan - Evanston
1633 Orrington Ave (north of Davis)
Evanston, IL 60201
(847) 868-8989

So this is basically the best thing to happen to Evanston since... its founding, at least. Same great food and terrible design sense that the world has come to expect from Tony Hu. Very much looking forward to eating through the menu, but pretty much everything we've tried so far has been excellent. (If the dry chili tofu had more tofu and less breading, it would be truly outstanding, as opposed to just really, really good.)

Just a couple notes based on the responses: The menus aren't that different -- Evanston is using a takeout menu on the tables right now, and it's much smaller than the Uptown or mothership menus, but I wouldn't be surprised if it expands once full menus are available. The Downer's Grove one certainly has some legacy to its previous incarnation, but not Uptown or Evanston.

In terms of design, it's not that bad: I liked the back wall with the bamboo "pipes"... but perhaps too much of the place is built around the bar. I couldn't help but note that they were full to the gills, and the TJ's next door, with three times the space, had 1/10th the people.

cilantro wrote:So this is basically the best thing to happen to Evanston since... its founding, at least.

I think the best thing to happen to Evanston food in the past few years is elsewhere in your statement, as it's quoted here.

With friends back in town for the week, we took them to LSC/E. At 7PM on a Wednesday, there was about a 25-minute wait for a table (see elsewhere for discussions of reservation processes)

As usual, SueF ordered Crispy Shrimp in Lemon (Mayonaise) Sauce, I ordered something different: Twice-Fried Sliced Duck, and we split an order of the Szechuan Wontons (having had the dumplings the previous time). The other couple ordered Tea-Smoked Duck and (at my suggestion) Lamb in Pure Cumin, and the Szechuan Dumplings, plus soups.

The only service hiccup was getting two sets of wontons instead of one wonton, one dumpling, otherwise everything came out quickly, hot and with friendly service -- no signs of the train wrecks we had last time.

Food was outstanding: The wontons were practically smothered in the chile and sichuan peppercorn bits, without being outrageously spicy. The shrimp were perfectly crisp. The duck is a new dish I'll put in the "winners" category, with a flavor profile similar to the Lamb in Pure Cumin, but without the cumin, if that makes any sense. Lots of succulent fatty duck breast, and batons of Chinese celery.

JoelF wrote:With friends back in town for the week, we took them to LSC/E. At 7PM on a Wednesday, there was about a 25-minute wait for a table (see elsewhere for discussions of reservation processes)

As usual, SueF ordered Crispy Shrimp in Lemon (Mayonaise) Sauce, I ordered something different: Twice-Fried Sliced Duck, and we split an order of the Szechuan Wontons (having had the dumplings the previous time). The other couple ordered Tea-Smoked Duck and (at my suggestion) Lamb in Pure Cumin, and the Szechuan Dumplings, plus soups.

The only service hiccup was getting two sets of wontons instead of one wonton, one dumpling, otherwise everything came out quickly, hot and with friendly service -- no signs of the train wrecks we had last time.

Food was outstanding: The wontons were practically smothered in the chile and sichuan peppercorn bits, without being outrageously spicy. The shrimp were perfectly crisp. The duck is a new dish I'll put in the "winners" category, with a flavor profile similar to the Lamb in Pure Cumin, but without the cumin, if that makes any sense. Lots of succulent fatty duck breast, and batons of Chinese celery.

I posted about that dish in either the uptown lsc or best thing you've eaten lately thread, definitely one of my favorites.

I went Saturday night. Heads up, go after 7:45 pm or before 6 pm to avoids the huge crush of diners and kids.

We could barely get in the front door. We were told 30 minutes and we were seated around the 20 minute mark. We ordered more food than would comfortably fit on our small table for 2.

The scallion pancake, dry chili tofu, and my friend's potstickers( they were the size of a toddler's fist by the way) were delicious. The star however, was a simple baby bok choy with sautéed garlic. This fell into the category of things I could eat every day and for every meal.

They forgot our spring roll order, but we had way too much food anyhow.

Service was efficient. We will be back. My friend lives in Evanston and I suspect their number is going into her speed dial.

Four family members went this past Friday evening, we had just visited a family member who was at Evanston Hospital.

Thankfully we arrived just before 5pm and were easily able to find a table, by the time we left at 6:15, place was packed with a 1+ hour wait for a table.

Our table split 4 entrees: Lamb w/Cumin, Tony's Chicken w/Three Chili, Crispy Eggplant w/Ground Pork, Szechuan Smoked Tea Duck.

I've had the lamb w/cumin at 2 other LSC locations & this version was weak, still good but not up to par with the other location's version. Our table decided to drop this dish the next time we visit.

Tony's Chicken w/Three Chili was more on the sweet side but still was gobbled up, my brother & I wishing they would just serve a small brown bag of the stuff to much on.

The Crispy Eggplant wasn't so crispy, I think the dish had sat a bit before being brought out, our table didn't mind as the less crispy coating had this salty punch which we really enjoyed.

I'm fairly certain our table also devoured some of the bones from the tea smoked duck as we thought it was that good.

The only, yet major, service hiccup was pouring of wine. All four wine glasses were put in front of me, & the server just started filling the glasses, after the second glass was filled, I stated I'd like to taste the wine. After tasting & stating this is fine, the next two wine glasses were filled. Server then put bottle of wine down on table & left. I guess it was expected that I was to pass out the wine filled glasses to the others at the table.

"Tony's Chicken w/Three Chili was more on the sweet side but still was gobbled up, my brother & I wishing they would just serve a small brown bag of the stuff to much on."

Agreed.

We had take out from LSC Evanston a couple of weeks ago and the Three Chili Chicken sweeter than I expected and did not pack as much heat as I had anticipated. The Crispy Shrimp in Lemon Sauce was also disappointingly sweet - to the point where we did not finish it.

The MaPo Tofu, on the other hand, was wonderful. We will be looking for the items on the menu that are not as sweet in the future.