Making the most part 2: Lo Garden (Lao Sze Chuan)

This weekend we went to probably the second-worst run science fiction convention I have had the bad luck to attend, "To Be Continued" in Downers Grove. After reading a number of posts here, I came armed with a list to avoid the factory food nearby (Cheesecake Factory, Cheeseburger in Paradise, and other cheesy places).

Saturday night, a couple other victims of this attempt to run a convention joined us at Lao Sze Chuans SW suburban outpost, Lo Garden. 1331 Ogden Avenue Downers Grove, Illinois 60515-2719, ph: 630.663.0303

Posts here and at Chowhound refer to it as LSC, and the menus say Lao Sze Chuan too. We almost drove on, thinking it had changed hands.

We didn't try to find the "Chinese" menu, but it was certainly not the multipage, dizzying array we had on Xmas Eve in Chinatown, although it is still a huuuuge set of choices.

We ordered the Szechuan Wonton (terrific), the dry-fried chicken and chilies, and the lamb with pure cumin. The dry-fried chicken is outstanding, something like a sweetened, spicy salt-and-pepper coating popcorn chicken. I can't get enough of this dish. We ordered the lamb mainly because we knew it was a great dish from Xmas, and wanted to turn the rest of the table onto it. Others ordered tea-smoked duck and the three-chili chicken.

Compared to Chinatown, I don't know that they're at their best game: veggies were not as neatly diced, a lot of fat remained on the smoked duck. The food was certainly outstanding, but presentation was definitely down a notch.

Certainly a great place to go if you're out in the SW burbs, and I'm now the official restaurant-finder for this group of people. I sent at least one other group out there today.

Part of the confusion comes from the fact that LSC used to be further east on Ogden, near Rt 83 and DiHo. The strip mall has been taken over by the car dealership next door. The "new" LSC is a much more modest space in what was already an old-fashioned American-Chinese restaurant. I have not eaten food from the "new" suburban LSC yet, but the old place's kitchen was, more or less, just as good as the original. I did notice lots of handwritten Chinese signs when I looked in not long ago, so clearly there is some other stuff going on in the kitchen.

And, there's always Katy's and Fabulous Noodle, each a stone's throw away.

Lao Sze Chuan moved into the former Lo Garden space. The Web site says they've kept some of the old LG menu.

http://www.laoszechuan.com/letter.htm

If it's like the Palatine location, I expect you can get anything from Chinatown's menu, too.