Greasy Spoon Chinese, 2600 So. Wentworth [Chinatown Cafe ]

In all the confusion, ah, well, I got confused. I recently saw a
picture on a chicago food website of a mountain of something
I want to eat on a bed of pan fried noodles available at the
Greasy Spoon Chinese joint next to the funeral home
turned into a bar, 26th & Wentworth. Any information please.

Dashboard,

The greasy spoon Chinese diner is Chinatown Cafe and is one of my favorite spots. I should qualify favorite as, to me, Chinatown Cafe is somewhat of a one dish place, chicken sate on a bed of crisp pan fried noodles.

It is my understanding that there is soon to be a tour de force LthForum post on Chinatown Cafe so I will not elaborate.

Enjoy,
Gary
-
Let's talk food, let's have fun.

China Town Cafe
2604 S Wentworth Ave
Chicago, IL 60616
312-791-0366

Hi,

Is this place which serves obscenely large portions attracting policeman and city workers?

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Is this place which serves obscenely large portions attracting policeman and city workers?

C2,

Yep, here's an old c-h post of mine about Chinatown Cafe.

Enjoy,
Gary

--

My guilty pleasure is chicken satay over pan-fried noodles at China Town Café on South Wentworth. Now this may not sound like a dish that one should feel guilty about but, believe me, the way China Town Café prepares this dish, with enough grease to lube a Fruehauf, it's not a heart healthy dish.

CTC starts by sautéing sliced onions, though not to a Trotter like glowing caramelization, but hot and fast so there are burnt edges along with surprisingly sweet oniony notes. Next they toss in chunks of thinly sliced marinated chicken, which also gets the hot and fast treatment, this results in nicely contrasting textures and flavors. But, you say, where is the guilt, it comes in the form of a oily toasted hot pepper sauce that is called Satay Sauce, which CTC uses right from the bottle.

CTC's Satay Sauce is not anything similar to the Thai satay that most are familiar with, this is an rich oily cooking sauce that is loaded with toasted pepper flakes and various indecipherable spices. CTC uses about a pint of this oily sauce per order, well, not really, but the end result is incredibly oily. Still not enough of a 'guilty pleasure' for you, I eat it on top of pan-fried noodles. Yep, pan-fried noodles, a greasy/crispy perfect, tastes ooh sooo good, or however Mr. Food says it, toasty nest of noodles.

Still not enough of a 'guilty pleasure'? I top everything off with a few teaspoons of chili oil that CTC keeps on the tables. Talk about oily, this is a 6-napkin lunch, talk about wounded walruses, this is a pod of beached bleating whales on the shore, this, my fellow Chowhounds, is a Guilty Pleasure.

Couple of quick notes on CTC. CTC serves large to huge portions of very Americanized Chinese food in a no to low ambiance coffee shop setting. Seating is stools at a low counter or communal tables. At lunch, actually I don't think they are open for dinner, and if they are, they close very early, at least 50% of the patrons are law enforcement of some type, along with city workers, tradesmen etc, in other words, large guys who like large lunches.

Enjoy,
Gary

China Town Cafe
2604 S Wentworth Ave
Chicago, IL 60616
312-791-0366
Call for hours

Boy, are you ever in for a treat.

Wiv introduced me to this place, last year. Here are some photos from my first visit:


chicken sate over crispy noodles*


house special soup**

Photos courtesy of G Wiv.

Regards,
Erik M.

* If I am not mistaken, the order of chicken sate in the foreground is a "small," while the order in the background is a "large."

** If I am not mistaken, the bowls of soup pictured are "small" orders.

Erik M wrote:* If I am not mistaken, the order of chicken sate in the foreground is a "small," while the order in the background is a "large."

** If I am not mistaken, the bowls of soup pictured are "small" orders.

LOL! Oh gosh, the belt busting budget meal ... does it qualify as a meal under $5? I remember you both said it was cheap, cheap, cheap for the quantity of food!

Thanks!

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:LOL! Oh gosh, the belt busting budget meal ... does it qualify as a meal under $5? I remember you both said it was cheap, cheap, cheap for the quantity of food!

I do not have a menu at hand, but, yes, it was "cheap, cheap, cheap."

I should also say that it was very good for that sort of thing*.

Here is a picture of the damage and devastation:


leftovers anyone?

Photo courtesy of G Wiv.

E.M.


* Can I use the term "ghetto Chinese" on these boards?

Erik M. wrote:Here is a picture of the damage and devastation:

Erik,

Retrospectively, we didn't make much of a dent.

Yes Cathy, portions are HUGE, cheap and, if you stick to just a few menu items, really good.

I was first introduced to China Town Cafe 15+ years ago by my brother in-law a, now retired, Chicago Police sergeant. I think next time he's in town I'll invite him there for lunch.

Enjoy,
Gary

wow... this place is MIND BOGGLING.

they were indeed open for dinner. closing at 8:30pm. this allowed us to watch Check Please w/ the staff on their non-cabled TV. we mused someone should nominate the cafe as the ambience/food is obviously befitting for the show.

had the required satay chicken over pan fried noodles and some type of fried rice, both small. near the end of the meal, a rather bulky African-American diner in a zoot suit came in with blood profusely dripping out of the back of his head. not sure what happened there, but it was surreal, almost reminding me of Hopper's painting.

Oh my...THIS is what I'm talking about! I'm going to put this on my list to check out when I'm in Chinatown next weekend for the Chinatown Summer Festival!!! (Now where's my bib?.....)

Over the years I’ve passed by Chinatown Café so many times but only recently stopped in. I love the place. Chinatown Café is the Chinese equivalent of Ramova Grill (in both good and bad ways).

My first visit, I made a huge error in ordering my Satay Chicken. When I requested noodles instead of rice the waiter asked, “Crispy noodles?” It turns out this means out-of-the-box La Choy style, not well done pan fried noodles. A few days later I ordered correctly and was much happier. I don’t have a lot to add to what’s been said above. Not sophisticated cooking but very tasty and the portions are astounding. I enjoyed both the food and homey, beat-in surroundings enough that I’ll surely be back. Does anyone have ordering suggestions other than soups and Satay Chicken?

I was surprised to learn that Chinatown Café has only been in business about 25 years. It seems like it has been there much, much longer. Does anyone know what was in its place before?

Chinatown Café, Looking South on Wentworth


Chinatown Café’s Menu (same for eat in and take out)

I am a mere mortal. When I see something which looks appealing, I want to try the very same thing. My recent visits to China Cafe is one such example, though I have yet to eat what I saw in those pictures.

Erik M. wrote:Boy, are you ever in for a treat.

Wiv introduced me to this place, last year. Here are some photos from my first visit:


chicken sate over crispy noodles*

The first time I went to China Cafe, it was a spur of the moment choice without checking this thread to refresh my memory. I clearly remembered the crispy noodles though I was fuzzy about what went on top. I guestimated it was pork with Chinese vegetable. When I got home I learned it was Chicken Satay I really should have ordered. I was back the very next day to order the Chicken Satay where I received this dish, which again does not look like what Erik and Gary received:



I also asked for the house special soup


Photos courtesy of G Wiv.[/

house special soup**

Though mine was again just a lot different:



I did bump into people from the Field Museum and the Chinese American Museum, whom I recognized from a recent Monica Eng article on Americanized Chinese. On their table, and later a duplicate I ordered for myself, was a Lotus root cake that was quite similar to turnip cake except there were either chopped water chestnuts or perhaps it was Lotus root:



They also had scallops, which again I followed their leader:



I admit I did leave behind some of the green pepper.

I looked high and low on the menu for the lotus root cake as well as the sea scallops. The Chinese American Museum and Field Museum people advised they came from the family dinners written in Chinese. So it seems the good stuff is in Chinese. The family menu is below, if someone would translate the Chinese, then you are doing LTHforum divine work!





I can provide a larger image if you e-mail me for your translating convenience.

You know after all my fussing, I do believe I may have walked into the wrong place. I simply do not recognize this facade:

Photo by Rene G


Well at least I found a potentially interesting Chinese menu.

China (Town) Cafe
2300 South Wentworth

Cathy,

Looks like you were a few blocks too far north. The China Town Cafe mentioned here is 2604 S. Wentworth, not 2300...

Something tells me you've got another trip to make

Gleam,

You're right. Something I discovered after putting too much time into my first post. Thank goodness my first sentence proclaimed myself a mere mortal because I proved it by the end!

Regards,

bump.

Not sure how long the specials board has been up n running at Chinatown Cafe. everything seems anacrhonistic in the cafe... I had an extremely appropiate General Tso's Chicken off the specials menu over the weekend. no pix, but it was garlicky, sweet, spicy utilizing dark meat, not overly breaded, well fried and piled mountain high.

it took me almost a year to get back here because the chickie refuses to dine here citing the completely disgusting decor AND food..

TonyC wrote:Not sure how long the specials board has been up n running at Chinatown Cafe. everything seems anacrhonistic in the cafe... I had an extremely appropiate General Tso's Chicken off the specials menu over the weekend. no pix, but it was garlicky, sweet, spicy utilizing dark meat, not overly breaded, well fried and piled mountain high.

Tony,

You are talking Chinatown Cafe at 26th and Wentworth, right?

Enjoy,
Gary

i did not pull a "Cathy2".

Hi,

Sometime ago, I mistakenly visited China Cafe thinking it was China Town Cafe. I couldn't figure out how to order the food I saw in this post on two visits, not realizing I had gone to the wrong restaurant. Sometimes when you rely on your memory with names and locations fairly close to each other, then you sometimes make some very embarassing mistakes.

I finally did visit China Town Cafe when I very deliberately took the address. Just finding a parking space I found a Streets and San's, several police and a fire chief's vehicle. I walked in to find those very people in the restaurant. If I was allowed a parlor game of match the vehicle to the occupant, I would have easily won.

In a wee departure, I ordered the eggroll:



This was a pretty good Americanized-Chinese eggroll with bits of shrimp, chopped BBQ pork and probably some peanut butter lurking in there somewhere.

We ordered the House Special Soup, which I failed to take a picture. The soup tasted unpleasantly sour and the pork seemed old. We had high hopes that were quickly dashed.

For our main course we shared a regular sized portion of the chicken sate over crispy noodles:



The noodles were not just crisp, they were burnt. The sauce was overwhelmed by salted black beans. While we were glad we decided to share this dish, we left most of it on the plate and didn't request take-out containers for the leftovers.

We looked around to find most of our fellow diners had meals similar to ours. They were eating cheerfully their food, though we found ourselves alone in not being especially pleased.

We did like the egg rolls.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:The noodles were not just crisp, they were burnt. The sauce was overwhelmed by salted black beans.

C2,

At least the portions were large.

Your post reminds me of a long ago interchange on c-h on Tufano's lemon chicken. Pretty much everything the poster didn't like, slightly charred crisp lemony juicy chicken, swimming, along with extra crisp cottage fries, in a pool of olive oil, garlic and lemon juice, with the potatoes on the bottom soaking up the olive oil and chicken juices, was exactly why I love, and continue to love, Tufano's Lemon Chicken*

Seems similar to your description of the burnt noodles with salty satay sauce overpowered by salted black beans. Now, of course, you could have simply caught them on a bad night, but in general I like the burnt bits on the wok seared noodles, like the salty satay sauce, though I cut it with multiple spoonfuls of the very nice table chili oil, and find the dish consistently to my liking.

Ok, I'll dredge up the ol' That's why Baskin Robbins makes 31-flavors of ice cream.

Enjoy,
Gary

*Tufano's Lemon chicken is what Chicken Vesuvio wants to be when it grows up

Tufano's Vernon Park Tap
1073 W. Vernon Park Pl.
Chicago, IL
312-733-3393

Gary,

I like crispy noodles, but these had a burnt taste to them. As we were eating these, we were talking about you. We kept thinking you probably hit them on a better day and we didn't.

No harm, we did like the eggrolls!

Regards,

Saddened to report that today is the greasy spoon diner Chinatown Cafe's last day. I think this is one of the first places I checked out thru LTH. The end of an era.

RIP.

No. NO. I was thinking: no, I'm not going to click, it's going to be bad news. Someone's going to say it closed. The General Tso's chicken brought back memories of 4 years of General Tso's Chicken at Dinersty (Ann Arbor, Umich).

Thanks for this circa 2005 Gwiv

RIP.

Chinatown Cafe closes after 30 years of Chinese-American diner food

Louisa Chu wrote about the closing of Chinatown Cafe, which happens to be run by her relatives.

What popped out at me was this statement:

...
At its peak Chinatown Cafe was packed with cops and city workers thanks to the Yau son who works for the city himself, and Irene's husband Marvin Tang too, a Streets and San dispatcher no less. I used to think they had the safest restaurant in the Chicago at lunchtime, even as cash only.

But in 2008 business dropped off dramatically when the city forbade workers from driving work vehicles outside their districts and installed GPS units. The only time out of area police regulars could stop in for lunch was on their way to or from court.
...

Unintended consequences of good governance? It's always interesting to learn the back story.

Regards,