Lao Sze Chuan
1633 Orrington Ave, Evanston, IL, 60201
Lao Sze Chuan Menu
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Address :
1633 Orrington Ave
Evanston, IL, 60201 - Phone (847) 868-8989
- Website https://www.evanstonlaoszechuan.com/
- Click To Get Directions
Opening Hours
- Mon :11:00 am - 10
Specialities
- Takes Reservations : No
Delivery : Yes
Take-out : Yes
Accepts Credit Cards : Yes
Good For : Lunch
Parking : Street
Bike Parking : No
Wheelchair Accessible : Yes
Good for Kids : Yes
Good for Groups : Yes
Attire : Casual
Ambience : Casual
Noise Level : Average
Alcohol : Full Bar
Outdoor Seating : No
Wi-Fi : Free
Has TV : Yes
Waiter Service : Yes
Caters : Yes
Categories
Chinese Cuisine
The popularity of Chinese food in America can be adjudicated by the appearance of China Town in many major cities in the United State of America. The popular trend of ordering or opting for Chinese take away food isn't unknown in America. Chinese take away food comes to rescue when you're too tired from work or too exhausted to cook. No one can resist the temptation of eating spicy noodles, shrimp, chicken, beef or pork cooked in the sweet and spicy sauce. The cooking method of authentic Chinese food is a lot different compared to what is served in America.
Generally, Chinese use dark meat small bones and organs to cook dishes but this changes when you are eating American-Chinese fusion food prepared using white boneless meat cooked with broccoli, carrots and onions. Back in China, the food is less spicy and oily as they favor steaming and braising method for cooking the most popular dishes. So, if you have a taste for authentic Chinese food, then try finding a real Chinese restaurant in the city. You can also try the most popular fusion Chinese food like Pecking Duck, Chicken Feet, Hot Pot, Shrimp Dumpling Soup, Mapo Tofu, Wontons, Chop Suey, Egg Rolls and not to forget Fortune Cookies.
There are not many restaurants in America serving authentic Chinese food. A little research on Restaurant Listings directory can help you locate the best Chinese restaurants in the city. Chinese cuisine is continuously evolving, and you can find a variety of dishes categorized as the food for lactose intolerant, gluten intolerant, vegan, vegetarian, and diabetic friendly. So, if you have a group of friends with different taste patterns, save the hassle and visit the nearest Chinese restaurant in your city.
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Barack O.
This cleaned-up North Shore branch loses the rustic authenticity of Chinatown but preserves most of the flavor. I had a phenomenal dish of eggplant. But mapo tofu exhibited out-of-place floral notes, and the xiaolongbao (frozen, not fresh) were flavorless. Service is great. Half the waitstaff, on my Saturday night visit, spoke Mandarin.
(4)Kate L.
Everything is cooked with way too much oil, and the last couple of times I got the Mongolian Beef, it was lukewarm and a smaller portion than before. I wish there was a way we could order a small serving of vegetables. Or at least include some more in meat dishes. The vegetable plates are huge and cost $10+. My biggest complaint is the kimchi fried rice. It is just simply not Kimchi Fried Rice. They fry rice with the spicy cabbage stuff they give you for free at the beginning of your meal. Probably costs them ~$1 to make, yet they charge $10 for something that doesn't even contain actual kimchi! Second complaint is that they charge for white rice. I get it if you're ordering a fried rice or noodle dish, but when you're eating a meat or veggie dish, it should absolutely be included in the already-steep prices. Totally bizarre.
(2)Wen C.
I just don't think the food quality or preparation is good. We ordered potstickers, steamed whole fish, spicy chicken with bone, chow mein, and garlic spinach. The potstickers had an odd sweet flavor and weird consistency to the meat. The whole fish was tilapia, which is the cheapest fish and again a weird consistency from how it was cooked and likely the fish quality. The spicy chicken had very little actual chicken and was mostly red chili peppers and scallions. The garlic spinach was difficult to chew. No one at our table could eat the noodles either. Hey, I'm desperate for a good local Chinese restaurant too, but this was not good food in my opinion.
(1)EAson B.
String bean spicy black bean sauce is one of u must try dishes in this restaurant. My girlfriend ordered the orange beef, meat is juicy and tender. Sauce is very favorful. But when u come to lao's, i strongly sugguest all the yelpers order something sze chuan authenic. Mapo tofu with sole fish, spicy and numb. Twice cooked pork szechuan style, pot belly with fresh leeks. Great with steam rice. btw, the rice is $1 extra. If u feel hard to pick ur items in this huge menu, i strongly recommand you pick something out of the chef recommandation menu
(5)manfred m.
The kung bao chicken was greasy, the Szechuan string beans were as salty as potato chips, and the potstickers were undercooked and doughy. The chicken tasted fatty, and both of us started to feel sick eating the food. The atmosphere is very nice and our server was extremely nice, but I could never go back to this restaurant again because the food was awful, maybe the second worst Chinese food I have ever had.
(1)Steven D.
All hype no substance. This guy must have a great PR firm working for him. Your neighborhood hole in the wall probably does your favorite dishes better. We started with the hot & sour and the wanton soups. My wife said there was some heat but no sour. My wanton soup was like dish water-no flavor. Next we had shrimp in lobster sauce and kung pao chicken. The shrimp dish looked and tasted like they just dropped the shrimp into egg drop soup and added some corn starch. The kung pao looked promising when brought to the table, but had to spit out quite a few pieces of chicken that can only be described as weird. No complexity to the flavor, just a little spicy. Also I didn't like being nickle and dimed. Our dishes were $11.55 & $14.55 and if you want rice with it it's a buck extra. Believe me when I tell you to save your money and go to Panda Express. You'll thank me.
(2)Julianna W.
So good. The szechuan peppercorns make your tongue numb, leaving you in a post spicy state of euphoria. There are so many good dishes, it is hard to recommend specifics, but the dry chili tofu is so silky, the napa cabbage in wine sauce, pork intestine is good, the cumin covered ribs, and the house spicy vegetables. Yum! My daughter loved the orange chicken.
(5)Natalie S.
wow i thought i liked this restaurant but the sweet and sour chicken is such a disappointment. it's so bad that i have to write a review on it. i had it delivered, and it turned out to be these unrecognizable rod-shaped pieces of chicken fried with a thin layer of batter that tasted like NOTHING. the sweet and sour sauce that was put separately in a plastic jar is overly sweet and kind of gross. weird thing is the last time i dined in the restaurant itself, the food was actually surprisingly decent. just dont EVER get the sweet and sour chicken omg it's appalling.
(1)Nathan O.
Mongolian Beef, General Tso's Chicken, string bean.. those foods got 3 stars. That's why I love Lao Sze Chuan. I don't even go to this place yet, I went to other locations though. Can't wait to go there tomorrow night. Order usual stuffs.. all spicy.. Who orders mongolian beef at lao sze chuan? There is the place for those foods with better service and good ambient: PF Chang. But I never want to eat at PF Chang anymore, it's so salty unless you like soda or beer. I'm just happy Lao Sze Chuan come to north suburb (well nearby) of chicago, there are no really good chinese restaurant as good as this. Oh.. can't wait to bite Szechuan peppercorn.. You had me at pappercorn Tony.. you had me at pappercorn.
(4)May K.
Finally a good, authentic Chinese restaurant in Evanston. There are so many Asian restaurants in Evanston, and there are only one or two to which I would even consider returning. The food here is great. However, keep in mind that this is a Chinese restaurant and don't expect American service here.
(5)Joyce L.
This is probably the most overpriced and worst Asian restaurant in Evanston. I ordered pork pot stickers and garlic sauce eggplant. The former is mushy; I hate to say it, but the frozen ones you can get at an Asian grocery store taste much better. The sauce for the eggplant is too sweet and oily. The vegetable itself is tasteless.
(1)Sarah M.
A wonderful restaurant that truly puts their customers first. I placed an order online through Yelp and I can not stress enough that you should NEVER ORDER FOOD TO BE DELIVERED THROUGH YELP! I placed an order and was charged by Yelp immediately, waited hours for the food to be delivered only to find out neither the restaurant nor the food delivery service had any record of the order. Lao Sze Chuan felt terrible about the whole ordeal and replaced order immediately and had it delivered right away. A big yelp fail that was remedied by the good people at Lao Sze Chuan.
(5)Jonathan S.
I have been to hundreds of Chinese restaurants over the last half-century. I judge the quality of a restaurant by testing three dishes; eggplant with garlic sauce, Mongolian beef and dover sole with black beans. I have just returned from tasting all three at this new Evanston restaurant. It is the best meal i have EVER had. The eggplant was succulent and tasty, the sole moist and delicious and the Mongolian beef beyond belief. I can not wait to go back and try other dishes..or more importantly, can not wait to eat the leftovers for dinner. have been to two other Lao places. They were good. This one raises the level of Chinese restaurants in Evanston.
(5)Tom L.
The dishes themselves are quite good for Chicago standard (take that as you will). But they are still quite understaffed even two months after opening. Would recommend doing take out instead of dining in instead.
(3)Gayathri B.
The food is really tasty when you're eating it, but there is so much MSG it messes with your digestive system for days afterwards. A lot of medical studies have shown links between MSG and irritable bowel syndrome, so be warned.
(2)Paul R.
Very good. Not as spicy as I expected it to be, so a star off. Plus, only the first plate of cabbage is comp. Come the fucj on, cabbage is like the cheapest thing in the world, nobody has the time to pay for a second plate of cabbage. But the food is still very delicious. Meatiest pork dumplings I ever did have. Twice cooked pork was tender yet balcony yet just the right type of dry. Everything everyone else ordered looked so much tasty. Soup was TINY, but the house special hot and sour was nutty and distinctive and chock fulla vegetables.
(4)Kathleen W.
I don't often Yelp but came across the Lao Sze Chuan reviews when was looking for their phone number online... woah people! If you don't like Chinese food, eat something else. As someone who does like Chinese food and lived in China for two years, this is authentic Chinese food-- something that is hard to come by in the United States. If you like American Food, or Americanized Chinese food-- or Italian, Japanese, whatever it is-- there are plenty of places to go and be happy. What's with the dissertations about "maybe I don't like Chinese Food." Maybe you have too much time on your hands. Maybe you should go eat your favorite "comfort food." What is it? Mac n' Cheese? As for the service remarks, this is a really great Chinese restaurant. It's not fine dining, the servers haven't been trained as fine dining servers, oh, and you didn't just pay for fine dining, so don't think you deserve it after eating a 14$ entree. Jeez, Yelpers. Find a hobby.
(5)M S.
Really terrible food. We happily frequent the Lao Sze Chuan on Broadway and were looking forward to their opening in our neighborhood .Last Sunday (3/8/14, 5:45) we waited a 1/2 hour for our table and then 1 hour for food (it seems they lost our order because people who were seated 20-30 min after we were were receiving theirs). The signature sweet shrimp was hard and dry/ the coating seemed like it was a dip of Kayo syrup that was sort of cooked. (This is my favorite on Broadway). My husband had a lamb/cumin thing: overcooked lamb shreds and gristle came with uncooked onion pieces and easily one 1/2 a cup of cumin seeds. No exaggeration! The pot stickers were cool and sparsely filled. When we flagged a server and mentioned the wait, he hustled to produce our food thus confirming our guess. At one point I heard a crash in the kitchen and joked that it was our shrimp. The server confirmed it was indeed our shrimp:) It would have gone a long way to making up for all this to have them either compliment the wine, one or two of the entrees, gift us with a return coupon - anything to acknowledge these things.
(1)Sean A.
I guess the problems started when I walked in the door. The place looked somewhat busy, but the staff looked confused and were going in all directions. After waiting at the host stand for 5 minutes I decided to make use of my time and try and look at a menu, but there was not menu to be found. Finally I found one at the large 8 top table to the front that was occupied by one person who looked like he was a delivery guy or someone waiting for takeout. They don't have lunch specials at this place, so don't ask and this will be a loss for them if they want to attract the Evanston noontime office workers. Overall, the food was expensive and not fantastic. I had the orange beef and the fried rice and the total bill was $26.00 and while I had left overs, that is a lot for a lunch for one person. When my order was ready, it sat on the counter for 10 minutes, so it was cold when I got it. Don't really know if I will go back.
(2)Annie S.
Delicious food and decent bubble tea, but alas, this a great experience does not make. In regard to the Groupon offered by this establishment - SKIP IT. More of a hassle than a deal. I purchased the $25 lunch deal, which has no hours listed on it, nor an indication of a timeframe it can only be used within in the fine print. So of course I arrive closer to the dinner hour and I make sure to show our server the Groupon beforehand to make sure it is ok to use. Server says sure! Well, by the end of the meal, she had changed her mind, and it was NOT ok to use - "for lunch only". Yes, well, you might like to indicate the hours during which you consider a meal "lunch", y'all. I ended up getting a refund through Groupon because the experience colored my impression of this place so that I won't be back. Service was lacking also. Very slow and a language barrier with our server. My friend also placed a takeout order at the beginning of the meal, and they all but forgot about it - we ended up having to bother the host for it because our server had gone MIA. The food, however, is REALLY good, if not authentic Chinese. If you prefer westernized Chinese dishes, you'll dig it. I had the honey crunch sesame chicken - crispy and delicious, and not overly sauced or soggy. A small fly landed on my friend's plate and got stuck in the sauce - gross. While it didn't arrive in the food, the server didn't make an effort to replace her meal or at least get her a new plate, something that would have been appreciated. As a restaurant, I expect the six-legged dinner guests to be at a minimum, if not wholly absent. Mango bubble tea is the bomb - the "tea" itself has a sweet, thick consistency (similar to Joy Yee's) and is not watery at all, and the tapioca was pretty delicious and chewy. My advice? Take your tea and your dish to go, because the food is worth it.
(2)Brent C.
I was expecting a typical Chinese restaurant but I got so much more. The dumplings were interesting they were filled with pork but it tasted like breakfast sausage stuffed inside a very interesting take on this dish. Spicy if you don't like heat stay out of this place. The dry chili chicken was crispy and fried very well the only thing was that I got a lot of breading and chewy gristle and not a lot of chicken. The Mongolian Beef Tenderloin was very good but the meat was very chewy and did not have the texture of tenderloin but it was tasty.
(3)Rodger W.
Very pleasantly surprised!. We elected to dine at the bar rather than waiting for a table. Awaiting us was a spicy fermented cabbage appetizer, which was delicious. The bartender was great, and was willing to let us sample a few liquors that we were not familiar with. The wine list was small, but included great choices across the price range. The specialty of the bar was their house cocktails, and I really enjoyed the raspberry mojito. We selected the baby Bok Choy with garlic and mushroom, and it was fantastic. The spice of the sauce woke up the Bok Choy and mushrooms very nicely. The entres were Ma Po Tofu and the Sole in Chili Bean sauce. The Tofu was good, but the Sole was the star of the show. Perfectly cooked and spiced. The service was exceptional! I will be back.
(5)Taylor W.
Great Chinese! Delicious egg rolls & pot stickers. Relatively -- didn't taste overly greasy like most Chinese restaurants. Our food was ready for pick up in 20 mins!
(5)Matthew L.
After a long day of work I thought to myself nothing would satisfy my hunger more then some nice delicious Chinese food. Being Jewish and having msg coursing through my blood it seemed like the obvious dinner decision. I order the dry chili chicken as everyone seems to rave about it along with some green beans and don don noodles. I enjoy spicy food and have pretty strong tolerance but I also enjoy flavor. Having never tried the dry chili chicken I went a conservative "medium" on the spice level. Upon my first bite, Mount St. Helens erupted in my mouth and the rest of my meal was done for. I'm assuming they messed up my order and gave me the spiciest of spiciest dishes they serve. It's that or they are trying to cover up the mediocre chicken they served me. It is hard for me to gauge whether the green beans or Don Don noodles are delicious or not due to the blisters and numbness that surrounds my oral cavity. They do however at least look good based on presentation. I was impressed with the delivery as it arrived in a expedient fashion and was authentic. I'll have to try this place again another time when my taste buds return and make sure the next dish is actually properly spiced.
(3)Grace H.
I think the food was delicious and the service was amazing. (The waiters were very friendly and attentive! ) At one point, three waiters were cleaning up the table- it was awesome. I went with two friends and we got the string beans, mongolian beef tenderloin, and mapo tofu. Everything was great, but the food is very oily and slimy (which can be awesome), and it's a bit on the pricey side.
(4)Ashley S.
You asked me Lao when this happened. .it happened the day I bought it 3 months ago..I haven't bought nothing from you since
(1)Dennis R.
Don't know if due to this location, an off night, or combination of what we ordered, but Lao let us down. I dined at the Chinatown location once a couple years ago and have been looking for a reason to go back because I loved our dishes. After seeing there is an Evanston location I figured it would be easier to go with my parents from the NW burbs for my birthday on a Saturday night rather than sit in the car in Chinatown due to no waiting area and not taking reservations (terrible mix). The location and decor are nice, everything felt welcoming and modern. I don't mind the Chinatown decor but it's cramped and no fun being seated next to the entrance with cold wind and customers waiting for a table in the doorway. We ordered cocktails, the gin and ginger drink I had was perfectly suited for my taste. After finally deciding what to get from a menu where everything sounds good we ordered pork pot stickers, Shanghai spring rolls (free with Yelp check-in), boilded beef in spicy Szechaun sauce, pork in garlic sauce, combination hot and spicy pot, Szechaun smoked tea duck, and Lao's kimchi fried rice. The spring rolls weren't anything special and the pot stickers were good. We didn't know white rice wasn't included so we ordered the kimchi rice. There was nothing that made the rice look or taste as if this had kimchi besides having little pieces of cabbage. We made some at home last night, our first time, and it blew away what we ordered at Lao's. The duck tasted good but as you can see by the pics there isn't much to it, and you'll want the sauce. The other 3 entrees were alright but had problems, most of all being oil. I know spicy Szechaun incorporates oil with pepper but it was a bit much. The spice was good and I can tolerate hotter, but when oil from each dish pools together on your plate and the rices soaks it all up it was enough for us to take. The pork in garlic sauce was a bit heavy with the sour flavor and prevented us from wanting seconds. I enjoyed the Szechaun peppercorn in the hot pot numbing my tongue as its supposed to, but the dish as a whole wasn't worth ordering again. The dish wasn't the traditional hot pot where you cooked things in broth either as it resembled a stir fry of meats and vegetable. What a dilemma. Do I try the Evanston location again, hoping things won't be as oily? Or do I go through the huge inconvenience of driving over an hour to Chinatown and wait in the car if the weather is bad? Not to mention giving another restaurant a chance. Sigh.
(2)Helen Z.
Most authentic Chinese food in Evanston. I've gone several times since the restaurant opened, and it's never disappointed me. I always get the Cumin Lamb and Sze Chuan Boiled Fish (I can't remember if that's the exact name on the menu, but it's Shui Zhu Yu in Chinese) plus some other dishes depending on who I go with. The boiled fish is really spicy, but that's what makes it really good. If you can't handle spicy food very well, I wouldn't recommend it. The Cumin Lamb is also spicy, but less so compared to the fish. Just a warning, if you've never had cumin before, it might taste funky. Both dishes are spicy in a slightly numbing way, which I know bothers some people. But honestly, that's just the authentic Sze Chuan taste. The service was also pretty good. My most recent visit was Sunday lunch time, and it wasn't too crowded. The server would come by regularly to fill my water, which I really appreciated since I tend to drink a lot of water when I go to restaurants. The place is clean and neat. As a student, I think the price is a bit on the higher end. But it's nice to at least have a decent Chinese food place around here.
(5)La F.
I asked the server if he was to choose between the potstickers & dumplings, which one he would select & he suggested the potstickers. I then began to order the dry chili chicken and the server went out of his way to say it was a breaded dish so I backed out of the dish & looked over the menu again while the potstickers were prepared. The potstickers were not steamed but had been grilled on one side; very oily. I asked the server if the boiled beef in spicy sze sauce had vegetables & he said "yes" so I ordered it. The server told me it was very spicy; would make my tongue numb & I said "OK". The dish only had napa cabbage, was rather oily & was not very spicy so I asked the server if he had made it less spicy to which he replied that "some people don't like their food too spicy". Overall, a disappointingly oily, bland mess.
(2)Steve A.
This latest outpost in a large chain of Chinese restaurants is extremely authentic. And by that I mean that if you're used to Americanized Chinese takeout places you will find it interesting and perhaps challenging to eat here! The space is very nicely decorated, and features a dramatically lit bar along one wall. Furnishings are comfortable and elegant, but despite all the fabrics the space can get fairly loud. Because I was by myself and there is no lunch menu, I chose to try an assortment of appetizers. The wonton soup was some of the best I've had. Chicken egg rolls were tasty, but could have been crisper. The Chinese mustard was authentically hot. Sliced Tender Pork with Garlic Sauce is a cold appetizer. It was very tasty, but it's somewhat like eating lightly cooked bacon, so the uninitiated should be wary. Similarly the Five Powder Beef is served cold, and contains a fair amount of fat. The hoisin sauce topping it was slightly spicy and very flavorful. Both of these meat dishes were very generous portions, suitable for 2 to 4 persons as an appetizer. Be aware that most of the food is spicy, and some is very spicy. The heat levels are indicated on the menu. There is a very thoughtful selection of nice wines by the glass, and the glassware is superb. Service was a tag team approach, and was friendly and efficient. Prices are too high for college students, but certainly reasonable for the work crowd. Because of the large portion sizes it's best to go with four or more people so you can try several things.
(4)Hannah C.
This would be a four-star review if it weren't for the horrible service. After spending 20 minutes (not that I timed it) waiting to meet our server/order, I finally flagged a busboy and asked him to please find our waiter or waitress. He then followed our waitress around until she would speak with him and come to our table. That said, I loved the pork pot stickers and the boyfriend loved the crab rangoon. Neither comes with the traditional sauce - rather they provide the 4 base sauces and let you mix your own, which I deeply enjoy. The dry chili chicken was enough to feed two people (seriously, it was HUGE) and chicken was well-prepared and well-cooked. It wasn't very spicy, but that was okay with me. The boyfriend ordered sesame chicken (much to my dismay) and it was disappointing. Huge chunks of mashed together chicken bits (rather than just cut up pieces of chicken breast like the dry chili chicken) that needed to be cut up repeatedly. They also weren't nearly as crispy as the dry chili chicken. If you're willing to endure negligible service and NOT order your takeout go-to, this can be a really great experience. If you want exactly what you always get quickly, get takeaway from somewhere else.
(3)Jenn E.
Came here with a large group of friends (probably 12 or so) on a weekday night for dinner. I'd been anticipating Lao Sze Chuan since it had opened as all the Chicago natives had talked about how great the food once in the downtown location. We ordered drinks pretty quickly but were disappointed in that it seemed like most of the specialty cocktails they had on their menu the restaurant was missing an ingredient for, so our waitress kept coming over apologizing and asking for alternate choices. Finally one girl at our table just asked what they actually could make and so we settled for lychee martinis around. When they came out, I was not a fan. It tasted like vodka with a canned lychee in the bottom of my glass - nothing special and very strong. We ordered a bunch of dishes to share including chicken and broccoli, kung pao chicken, a spicy tofu dish, vegetarian noodles and hot and sour soup. The soup was decently flavored but given the price I had high expectations. The rest of the dishes were fine but there was nothing really special about the food. Given that the restaurant's atmosphere is fancier than other Asian restaurants in the area and the hype behind the brand, I was surprised that nothing felt different than just generic Chinese cuisine. Service was very good. I'd come back if asked but would pick other Chinese options in the area over this place, if for no other reason than the fact that I could get the same type of food at a cheaper price.
(2)Kristina W.
How does Lao Sze Chuan only have 3 stars?! (Well, I guess I shouldn't complain because this means I won't have to wait as long to be seated :D j/k) I've already eaten here 3 times in the past two weeks it's been open, and I'm glad Evanston finally has some authentic Chinese food! (and I have pretty high standards for Chinese food, after 20 years of training by my parents in an Asian-populated region in California). I gave the Chinatown location 4 stars - this location has equally delicious food, +1 star for the fancier ambience and incredibly polite service from all the staff I've encountered. If you want a 5-star experience, order the authentic SZECHUAN dishes... after all, that's what the restaurant is named, right? (aka - Don't order items you can find at Panda Express). Even though they have a huge menu, stick to the House Specials, listed on the left side of the menu. Some of my favorites include: Chef's Special Dry Chili Chicken, Twice-Cooked Pork (回é‹è‚‰), Boiled Sole Fish Filet in Spicy Szechuan Sauce (æ°´ç…®éš), and if you want a non-spicy option to balance out the burn in your mouth, definitely order the Szechuan String Beans (干煸四å£è±†). If you still have questions, the waiters seem eager to help - last Wed, I saw a waiter recommend a few dishes for the table beside mine (who seemed completely lost), and the diners seemed to really enjoy their dishes! The one complaint I would have is the slightly long wait for food, but given the fact that the restaurant literally just opened, I don't hold that against them. The manager told me they didn't do any promotional events, hoping that they could train their staff for the first few weeks - they didn't expect such a huge influx of customers. If the wait is an issue that will ruin your dining experience, wait a couple weeks - but if not, definitely come for this [rare] authentic Chinese food on the Northshore! **Tip: They'll start taking reservations after the first month.
(5)Nola P.
Best Chinese in Evanston!
(4)Eric T.
Second time here and this time I'm pretty impressed. Came here on a weekday lunch and ordered three dishes and a soup to split between 3 people and we definitely could not finish it all. This restaurant is pretty new, so it feels clean and modern compared to most other Chinese restaurants. Nice waitstaff and the food came out pretty fast for our table. We ordered a mapo tofu, spicy intestine, dry chili chicken, and picked cabbage fish soup. Honestly every dish was pretty good. I really liked the mapo tofu from last time and this time it didn't disappoint either. The sauce is pretty authentic, which is what I love, and huge chunks of silky tofu. The chicken was decent but the ratio of chili peppers to chicken was too much, so the actual amount of chicken was pretty small. The intestines were less fatty than usual and spicy. And then the soup was a bit more on garlic-y than having pickled flavor as the soup name would suggest, but nonetheless everything was flavored well. Meal came out to less than $20 per person with tip!
(4)Jenny H.
I used to traipse all the way to Chinatown to eat at Lao Sze Chuan, so I was so happy to see that they were opening a location in Evanston! The food is just as good and met all my high expectations. The restaurant is decorated very nicely with adorable giant panda prints on the walls, comfy chairs, and red back lights. It's a very comfortable atmosphere. It was very crowded, even on a Monday night, but we only had to wait about 5 minutes for a table. At first, they put us at a tiny table at the back, but it was so crowded that we couldn't even sit down without moving the next table aside. I think they saw that we were uncomfortable (our table was literally 4 inches away from the next table) so they moved us to a bigger table originally for 4. We started off with a complimentary spicy cabbage appetizer, which was delicious. It had just the right amount of kick to it. We then ordered Szechuan Spring Rolls (2.50), Hot and Sour Soup (1.95), the Chef's Special Dry Chili Chicken (12.45), and the Crispy Shrimp with Lemon Sauce (16.45). We waited about 20-25 minutes for our food, since the restaurant was so busy. We were surprised that our soup came out with our main entrees since we thought it would come out before. The hot and sour soup was very good, but it was a small portion. Also, our spring rolls never came, but that ended up being okay since there was so much food. The Chicken was delicious! It had two chilli peppers next to it on the menu, but it wasn't too spicy. Also, they were not greasy at all. They were tender and very flavorful. The Shrimp was also excellent. The portion was huge! It was a little pricey, but I think it is worth the price considering how much you get. Oh, and rice is $1 a bowl. At the end of the meal, you get a delicious little guava candy. It might seem weird, but give it a try! It has a very unique taste that I love. Service was okay. I felt a little bad for our waitress because she seemed a little flustered. She also forgot an order for the table next to us, but she was very nice overall. I think they might need to hire another bus boy because the tables were taking a long time to get cleaned, and there were a lot of people waiting. If you are a Northwestern student, don't forget to show your wildcard for 10% off! Overall, a 5 star experience! The atmosphere and the food are excellent. This is truly authentic Chinese food, far superior to any other restaurant in Evanston. Don't be intimidated by the big crowds, and give this place a try! We will definitely be back.
(5)Monica S.
As with all newly opened restaurants, not everything is perfect. I'll come back again, but for now, here's what I like about this location: 1. Delicious food. Even for vegetarians. 2. Nice ambience. Like all other locations. 3. Pandas. There are paintings of these adorable bamboo bears everywhere! 4. Complimentary spicy cabbage. 5. 10% discount with Wildcard. 6. Service staff. With a sense of humor. That's rare. And here are my gripes: 1. No hot pot! 2. $1 for rice with refills. 3. Slow service. They're currently understaffed, so expect 30+ min waits in line and low servicing efficiency. I'd visit in a few more weeks once the hype has died down, and they've had time to work out the kinks to expedite service. Since the pros outweigh the cons, I'm ranking this place 4 stars.
(4)Jane L.
Lao Sze Chuan is the only Chinese place in Evanston that serves authentic Sze Chuan food. While it's a bit on the pricier side, it definitely delivers in terms of taste. My favorites are the twice cooked pork, boiled beef in spicy szechuan sauce, lamb with pure cumin powder and sole fish fillet chili bean sauce. The twice cooked pork is extremely tender and full of flavor. The sole fish is always cooked to the right doneness and sitting in lots of delicious sauce. The lamb is just the way i like it, not too gamey and in perfect portion size. All in all it's always a pleasure to eat there. Their spicy dishes definitely deliver a kick though so make sure you check the spice levels on the menu and that you can handle a kick if you order some of the spicier dishes.
(4)Lola S.
I've been so many times with my boyfriend in this place, and we haven't been lucky all of them! If you are new, and not Chinese, I would recommend you to go for the chef's recommendations! Our favorites are Tony's Chicken with three Chili and Sole Fish Filet with Bean Sauce. They are really good, and they come in generous portions. As an anecdote, I'm from Spain and all the Chinese restaurants are just westernalized. Today, I've been with other Spaniards, and we all agreed that this had nothing to do with "Spanish Chinese Food", and that today was great! The place is always busy at 7 pm, specially during the weekends. And sometimes a bit loud, but it is not bad. In the beginning I said I haven't been lucky all the times... This is because we didn't have the chef's recommendations....which are always the best choice!!! Unless you are craving a particular Chinese dish!
(4)Pari P.
Did you know that Lao Sze Chuan is considered one of the best Chinese restaurants in the US? It's true, check them out online and see how much publicity they've received. Evanston is the newest location that just opened up in March. Out of all of their locations, the Evanston branch is definitely the most hip with their posh interior. Based on everyone's reviews, the feedback is true. The menu isn't as extensive as the Chinatown location but the popular items are there. The service was kind of slow but the food was just as good. We ordered the mapo fish filet and Tony's Three Chili Chicken. Even though the Chili Chicken is listed as a popular item, get Tony's Three Chili Chicken instead. It's lightly battered chicken that's packed with flavor - subtle hints of heat and sweetness. I would recommend the Evanston location if it's close to you but only if you have never been to Lao Sze Chuan. Otherwise for the price, Evanston has a bunch of other good eats for less. Expect to pay around $15 a plate.
(3)Cynthia X.
I liked this place! If I lived in Evanston, this would probably be my go-to Chinese restaurant (and it is for many in this area). They claim they're one of the top 10 Chinese restaurants in the U.S... but I would say they are lucky if they are in the top 100. However, for Evanston, yes, they are in the running for the top 10. Do order: The dry chili chicken (their signature dish) and the eggplant. The dry chili chicken was surprisingly undry (tender) and super flavorful! The portions for the eggplant was large! Don't get: the house special hot and sour soup. The difference between the house special hot and soup soup and the regular is some extra peanuts, cilantro, chili oil and potentially some bamboo shoots and tofu. The portion is TINY for almost $5 for a single person serving. Save yourself some money and get the regular hot and sour soup (if you must that is). Try: The lemon shrimp (their take on the Walnut Shrimp). I didn't order it, but I've heard lots of great things about it. To me though, it looks like honey walnut shrimp, which I don't believe in ordering because it's just shrimp in mayonnaise, and not even real Chinese food. Pro tip: Rice is free if you get take out. They charge you $1 (maybe $2?) per person for rice if you dine in, but it's all you can eat rice (so make sure to order extra to take away to eat with your leftovers).
(4)Jane W.
3.5 stars. I have been looking forward to the opening of this place since the fall. Having tried the other location in Chinatown, I was excited to have some legitimately authentic asian food in Evanston. I went in with low expectations (prepared myself by reading other reviews), but I guess I was lucky and ran into little to no issues in regards to service. We started off with the complementary cabbage. It looked tantalizingly spicy, but ended up being horribly bland and tasteless. Yuck. For the entrees, we ordered the mapo tofu and the boiled fish in black bean sauce (both in the chef's recommended section). I thought both dishes were quite flavorful and great. Portion size is okay, prices are a bit steep (especially for college students). You have to pay for the rice, and you don't get too much. The couple next to us had some major issues with service. They were brought the wrong dish, sent it back, were brought the wrong dish again, and finally sent it back for good. Their waiter, however, was extremely apologetic, comped their entire meal, and refused to accept tip. Overall, I'd say taste of the food is a solid 4 stars. In terms of service, they are definitely understaffed and need to work out some kinks, but since it did not personally affect me (and they dealt with our neighbors' issues quite graciously), I will still say service is 3.5 stars. The biggest deterrent for me is the price. The two entrees alone brought us to almost $30 pre-tip, which for a rather average sized meal is pretty pricey.
(4)Sarah H.
This restaurant used to have reasonably spicy food. The free cabbage at the beginning of the meal gets more mild each time I go. Even the extra spicy hot and sour soup has no spice. The food is bland and uninteresting. It is incredibly disappointing how fast this place went downhill.
(1)Susan C.
My son warned me that the food here would be too spicy for me. First tried it last week getting a combination fried rice entree to go. It was enough for four but the two of us gobbled it ALL down! I couldn't wait to return. Went back tonight...on a bitter cold night, the place had a good crowd. Ordered the lettuce wraps...they give you only (4) already wrapped but its not the usual chopped chicken, but big pieces of chicken, mushrooms and water chestnuts. Delish! We each had a cup of soup. I had miso & hubby had sweet & sour soup....both wonderful. Ordered the same combination fried rice.....was it my imagination or was it not quite as good? Anyway, we will be back to try other things!
(4)Ryan Y.
è€ sze chuan? more like: WOW! sze chuan This place is utter garbage and a poor excuse of an authentic Chinese restaurant. WOW at the fact that they actually consider this real food. The chicken was almost all breading and came out sawggy. The fact that they actually served us this food and expected money for it is absurd. Such a scam, also voted top ten Chinese restaurants in America!?!? Asian Express (davis & oak) is better than this. But the lo mein was nice. a little spicy hehe ;D
(3)Helen H.
Reply: Ok, I can give you the date for sure, but honestly, what can you do about it? You asked me the same question last time when I posted a review on another account. Like I said, this isn't the first time this has happened. The last dish I got 3/4 of it was burnt. I'm totally disappointed. If you're not going to take action about it, then stop asking your customers what happened and stop asking for the day it happened.
(1)Jonathan H.
Fabulous. I lived in Beijing for five months and missed the Sichuan restaurants near our apartment. I've had some similarly good authentic Chinese food near home in baltimore, but it's hard to find and the atmosphere is usually more traditional or conservative (like most "fancy" restaurants in China). I feel like this place has the best mix of cool atmosphere, excellent food, and friendly and attentive service I've had in the states. I had the dry chili chicken and the green bean appetizer (traveling solo for business), and both had great flavor. I love spicy food and the chicken was spot on. Please open your next location in Baltimore!
(5)Stephanie C.
Once again, a good experience. Service was quick (though they haven't fixed the problem where it takes 3 people to get our waiter to come to the table), and the sole fish filet in spicy sauce was delicious. The food never makes me feel gross afterwards, though it does make your mouth smell like garlic!!
(4)Wenxi Y.
Slow yet delicious. If u order Americanized Chinese food, just don't expect it to be as impressive. Order chef specials and chef recommended. Managers know their sh***t too. Also, the reason why it's three stars now is because people who come order or eat every single day or every other day don't even bother using yelp to comment becuz it's not just a restaurant, it's what you call home. And u don't usually rate ur mom or dad's cooking on yelp, ay?
(5)Alma M.
I had a hankering for spicy noodle soup and decided to give this place a shot with my coworker. We both ordered the beef brisket Szechuan noodle soup and made sure to note "extra spicy." The portion size was huge, could easily serve two. The soup itself was definitely spicy and had lots of delicious beef flavor, definitely addicting. The only drawback is the amount of oil used, there was so much that it seeped through the containers and it was everywhere. My desk was covered in a thin layer of oil, even after washing my hands and using Lysol wipes everywhere I can still smell and feel the oil. Despite how delicious the food was I now have a headache from all the oil. So sad because this place seemed like it had such great potential. Time to try out another place...
(3)Charles Qian L.
The environment was cozy and nice, although the music was a little bit too loud. The dishes are delicious.
(3)A V.
This is our favorite Chinese restaurant in Evanston. We love the Dry Chili Chicken(Spicy!) and the Crispy Lemon Shrimp.....absolutely delicious! The pot stickers are also very tasty. The portions are large and we always have leftovers for lunch the next day...yum!
(5)J C.
Lao Sze Chuan is a beautiful restaurant in downtown Evanston. Great ambiance and good service. Prices are pretty reasonable. Great for groups if you RSVP. The menu is enormous and some of the food is great but I have ordered dishes that were pretty terrible. The worst dish being the crispy duck. Very oily and not crispy at all. Lao Sze Chun would be better off if they created a smaller menu that only includes the dishes they do well, which is why I gave them three stars instead of four. Avoid the dishes you can find at any Chinese restaurant (e.g. General Tso chicken) because the quality won't be any better. I recommend items that aren't as common and that are part of the authentic Szechuan menu (e.g. the boiled sole fish filet in spicy Szechuan sauce is a great dish). The entrees do not come with rice. If you want rice you have to pay extra, which I think that's a little absurd.
(3)Sahil A.
There aren't many "nice" Chinese restaurants out there, but Lao Sze Chuan is definitely one of them. The food is fantastic and in a nice, hip atmosphere. I've eaten here a few times and have always been really happy with my meal, a few must tries: - spicy cumin lamb is probably one of the best dishes I've ever had at a Chinese restaurant - dry chili chicken is fantastic - moo shoo pork, a little different than what you normally get at a Chinese restaurant as it has more vegetables, but I think this is a plus Only complaint is the food tends to be oily even the non-fried stuff. Be careful, a lot of the menu items are fried, and while they're delicious dishes, ask your server if you're looking for non-fried food.
(4)Sir Gull R.
More greasy than tasty. Eating the #1 rated dish was an experience in mental fortitude. While the portion was huge the pool of grease made me wish it was smaller. At one point I felt myself worried about how the rest of my day will go after injesting enough chili oil to run a small lantern. The hot and sour soup was more peppery than hot or sour. All in all it's just average Chinese fair no matter how many awards they claim to have won.
(2)Bethany A.
Legit Chinese food in Evanston! Finally got a chance to check this place out with my family. We ordered cold chicken (mouthwatering chicken?), stir-fried pea shoots, dry chili chicken, Szechuan beef noodle soup, sour cabbage and pork strips soup, and stir-fried lamb with onions and peppers. Also, I really liked the spicy sour cabbage they bring you at the beginning! It was very "kai wei" (something Chinese people say that means something along the lines of "opening your stomach" to prepare for all the rest of the food). Our waiter was also very knowledgeable and my water glass was constantly being filled! They had so many people walking around just doing that because I guess, Szechuan food and everything. Best dish? Easily the dry chili chicken. It's the most ordered dish for a reason - tons of spicy peppers that give the chicken a really delicious kick. It's truly pretty spicy, but perfectly fried to golden perfection and so tender in juicy inside. Also enjoyed the soup and the noodles - the noodles were freshly made, and the sour cabbage soup was nicely acidic and interesting. The other dishes were up to par, but not particularly memorable. Also this place is just kind of pricy, so... I mean if you want your fix, by all means, go for it, but just not somewhere I would go often.
(4)Astrid G.
SALT ON SALT ON SALT on oil on everything else that's bad for your health. I keep giving this restaurant another chance because I'm like "Hey! Maybe I just ordered the wrong food" or "maybe my taste buds aren't akin to that of the mainstream diners". I was reluctant to come here for lunch but it seemed to be the only restaurant that was open in the area on Christmas Day. I went for three items from the popular, recommended list on the menu - dry chili chicken; Szechuan string beans; mapo tofu. Everything was so salty, and I lost my appetite towards the end as my tongue felt numb (?) from the incredible saltiness and just gross overall from how much oil was in the dishes. The only time I had relatively good food here was when I came with my friend who frequents Lao a lot and knew what to order (NOTHING from the recommended list), and another time where my friends and I decided to wing it and order dishes we had never tried before. Not coming back here for a long time, unless my specific friend is coming with me. Gross! Only good thing about my experience was the servers, who were attentive and prompt. **UPDATE** I reheated the leftovers I brought home from yesterday - long beans and dry chili chicken were fine this time, BUT I found out it was the mapo tofu that left my tongue 'numb' and overall feeling gross yesterday. I got the same sensations today and now I'm feeling weird and slightly spinning.
(1)Oliver W.
Disclaimer: I know very little about Sze Chuan cuisine! So probably I'm a bad judge... Lao Sze Chuan was hit-or-miss within a single restaurant visit. I came here with three friends, and we shared 5 dishes. 2 of them were great, 3 of them were ok. The chili pork was definitely good, nice and spicy!
(3)Sharon C.
I decided to give this restaurant another chance after reading some of the rave reviews that were posted on this site, and, to be honest, I'm still not very impressed. We ordered General Tao's chicken, string beans with garlic, beef brisket with beer in a pot, and salt and pepper squid. Our food came out fairly quickly and our server was prompt and easily accessible, which was a huge improvement on my last visit. I found that the General Tao's chicken had a bit of a weird initial taste, but was crunchy on the outside and flavorful. I thought the coating to chicken ratio was weighted a little too heavily on the side of crunchy coating. The string beans were too soggy, but were also well flavored. I didn't personally enjoy the beef brisket. There wasn't that much beef brisket in the pot, and one of my friends complained that the taste of beer in the sauce was overwhelming. I found that there was a lot of fat and skin still left on the beef, and I didn't think it was as soft and flaky as it could have been. The one dish that I quite enjoyed was the salt and pepper squid, but I was a little disappointed even with that. It was good calamari, but that was all it was - there was very little salt and pepper flavor. However, the texture and taste were good, and I would order this again. This restaurant has entered the ranks of "food I would eat if someone else paid," which is the lowest commendation I can give food that I still ate and somewhat enjoyed. It is, however, also an improvement on my previous ranking of "food I wouldn't eat if you paid me."
(3)U.M. S.
This place looks so nice from the outside and it's cool on the inside but the service is mediocre at best. For a beverage I ordered the iced jasmine tea, which was poured from a can in front of me...greaaat glad to know that you guys can't make it fresh. Then I ordered the Pork Fried Rice, Crab Rangoons, Sweet + Sour Chicken, and Chicken Egg rolls. Everything was so deep fried and greasy. It was nauseating to say the least. There was actual grease seeping out of the Rangoons.
(2)Judith K.
We ordered dinner at 4:40pm on a Sunday. At 6:15pm we are still sitting here with 2 very hungry young children and no food! We called multiple times, each time we were told 15 minutes. It is is insane that Chinese delivery should take 1 hour and 40 minutes and counting...hope the food when it eventually comes doesn't taste 2 hour sold ew. ....post meal review: The food arrived (finally). Amazing pot stickers. Other than that we felt it was good not amazing and over priced. Chinese broccoli for $12.45? Fried rice with only egg and scallion for $10.45...ludicrous! I don't think we will order from here again.
(2)Xianyi H.
It took us about half an hour to get the dishes we ordered, but the cuisine deserved the waiting, especially for the smoked tea duck! Hope there would be more well-trained waiters and waitresses on duty. PS: Rice is not free here, which is not the Chinese tradition.
(4)Tian Y.
They are SO understaffed right now, but so if you go during peak meal times, expect to wait a while for food and be served by flustered waitstaff. But they're trying hard and are very friendly, so it's just... they need to hire more people. This is the best decorated LSC by far - just the right amount of light, comfy booths and chairs, nice colors... but it's also the smallest. I'm glad I don't feel too cramped in here along the wall with the booths though. Good for them for not cramming too many tables in. And like I keep saying, all the LSCs are really different, from the pickled cabbage starter to the exact menu and what the chef is good at cooking in each. Maybe the other locations' far distance from me took away some of my critical eye, or maybe this one just doesn't do my favorite dishes as much justice. -The szechuan beef noodle soup here is particularly lackluster, unfortunately. That is one of my favorites at the Uptown location. -And the garlic eggplant had a really generic brown sauce. -The salted egg gravy (comes with seafood or tofu) is a lot more boring than it sounds. Definitely did not live up to its potential. +The boiled sole fish was particularly spicy here, but I liked it. +Double fried intestines are really good here, if you're into that sort of thing! +Bon bon chicken here is really delicious - get it for appetizer! +Average xiao long bao - like, average broth, average filling, average peel. I could probably make this with some average effort. BUT it will definitely satisfy a desperate XLB craving so yay for being able to order it in Evanston. But as the only source of authentic Chinese food in Evanston, and a pretty decent one at that, I am certainly not going to complain. I pretty much know where my next 50 delivery orders are going to come from now....
(4)Shradha A.
We were craving Chinese food and finally landed up here, as one of the few vegetarian friendly Chinese food options. The ambiance is busy but tidy, service is confusing but caring, food is good though. Their spicy is really spicy! MaPo tofu had a numbing peppercorn so funny sensation every few bites but the fried rice was good and the others liked their fried chicken too.
(4)Zee X.
First off, don't expect to walk in to this place---you NEED a reservation. Especially on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. Don't dread--because they also order out and grab your food to go. The only thing with ordering out is, always double check that you have everything. For us, they forgot our soup--but that's understandable, because they are crazy busy. According to their menu, the Chef's Special Dried Chili Chicken is the #1 best seller and the Crispy Shrimp with Lemon Sauce is the #2---it should be the other way around. The shrimp was amazing--it just melted in your mouth. And it's flavor was the perfect balance of sweet and tangy. As for the Chef's Special Dried Chili Chicken, well in our case--there was more chili than chicken--and the chicken itself reminded me of popcorn chicken. I wasn't a fan of the Chef's Special, but the shrimp--damn that was worth it! We also ordered the Crab Rangoon--which was a bit too oily, but the filling was well done. Also the Sweet and Sour soup was spot on. Overall a good Date Night spot. Definitely wouldn't recommend for groups of 4 or more.
(4)Samantha M.
I stopped by Lao for dinner one night when I was craving something spicy. I figured a restaurant known for specializing in spicy food would be a good place to start. I came with another friend and we exclusively ordered off of the Chef's choice menu. I'm not familiar with szechuan cuisine, so I have no idea how authentic the food here is, but I'd say the food was adequately spicy--not overwhelming, but enough of a kick to add some interest. We ordered the dry chili chicken, the garlic spinach, and two orders of rice between the two of us, and it was enough food to leave us completely stuffed. Both were quite flavorful and served pretty quickly after ordering. The service was great, with the server checking in with us throughout our meal, and our water glasses were refilled very promptly. I'd definitely order from here again.
(4)Chris H.
I am not sure if i experienced them on a bad day but the boiled beef in spicy szechuan sauce was filled with globby bits of beef more fat than beef. Then you have the several cups of chopped lettuce thrown into the broth as filler. I had take out so i could see cup of pure oil dumped into this dish. The chicken cashew nut chicken was also pretty bad. The chicken was so overcooked it was a so mushy it could have been baby food. This is the kind of food i expect for half the price of this place. When entrys are $14 and on the "chef recommendations menu" they should be better than this. I would save your money and go to another Chinese place in town that will probably be half the price.
(2)Steve D.
Lao Sze Chuan finally opened at our neighborhood. Dame u Tony( just kidding), we waited for 9 months...Thank god, the food is just amazing as Chinatown does. Me and my wife were so exciting to check this new place out. It was totally packed on Saturday night. We ordered Mapo tofu with sole fish and crispy shrimp with lemon sauce. My wife was crazy about shrimp. It's something you must try. We will come back and try more
(5)Diane S.
I can't remember the last time I was so disappointed with a meal. I am a huge fan of Tony Hu's Chinatown locations and was thrilled when I heard they were opening an Evanston location. I was delighted to see the hot cabbage salad on the table and eagerly plunged in. It was perhaps twice as hot as the Chinatown locations. I love hot food, but it took a good hour for me to regain feeling in my lips (other than the burn). While the vegetarian spring rolls were passable - nothing special - the mustard came in a jar that had hardened mustard paste on the sides and water on the bottom. This didn't seem to be a separation issue, but rather, a "let's just pour water in and see if we can reconstitute some mustard from the scraps on the side." The General Tso's chicken was an abomination, as in, the worst I have ever had. The "chicken" amounted to, at best, a dime-sized piece of meat, surrounded by a golf-ball-sized piece of fried gooey batter. To boot, we were charged for our small bowl of rice. I will try it once more in hopes that it was a bad night, but one more meal like this, and it will be off my list forever.
(1)Adam J.
2 words- lemon shrimp. Fantastic
(5)Dee W.
Ultimately, I think that Tony Hu needs to take more time to figure this location out. I have now been here four times with two bad, one good and one mediocre. I called ahead and they still don't take reservations. I asked if we had a group of ten and showed up at 5pm, they said that would be no problem. Despite typical Chinese restaurants that have a round table that will seat 10 people, their round tables would only seat 6. They tried to push several tables together but we would have been squeezed so tight that we couldn't' even move our chairs. We ended up at the tables by the wall sitting on the booth seats, which is bad Chinese feng shui. The food started off well but there was a particular dish that didn't taste fresh and was just masked by the spiciness. We tried to tell the server that it there was something off about the dish. They tried to tell us that it was just the spice in the sauce. We have eaten at the Lao Sze Chuan in Chinatown back when it was just Spring World for the past 15 years! We know how that particular dish should taste. The one person in our group who did attempt to eat it and trust them ended up with food poisoning that evening. All in all, we won't be frequenting this location given the poor customer service that my mother (who flew in from California) and in-laws received. There are too many good ethnic restaurants in Evanston/Chicago that don't need poor customer service on top of serving spoiled food.
(2)Max S.
Was looking for a new go-to Chinese place in Evanston, but Lao Sze Chaun didn't come through. Interior is nice and the space is warm, but the food just wasn't that good. The cashew chicken was gummy and soft, and was served sitting in a yellow pool of oil. The egg rolls and spring rolls were pretty generic, and were more on par with cheap Chinese takeout place than a nice Chinese sit down restaurant. The mapo tofu was good, and was definitely one of the highlights of the meal. The right amount of spice and flavor. Service was inattentive. Made me miss Pine Yard...and that's something I never thought I'd say.
(2)Malia M.
Not really sure why this place (incl. other locations) are averaging 3.5 stars. We have been to Lao Sze Chuan a few times now and always had a great experience. Sure, we've had to wait a little while for one dish, but it's consistent with family style if that's how you want to look at this place. The plates are certainly big enough for sharing. This last time we went with a chef friend of ours who was very impressed by the quality of food. To Eat: **Spicy Cabbage (Complimentary) - spicy and perfect foreplay for the taste buds. **Chef's Special Dry Chili Chicken - Perfectly crispy on the outside and moist on the inside **Singapore Rice Noodles - We opted for veggie style this visit and didn't miss the meat at all. Aromatically pleasant, there's a warm spice to it...strange but perhaps a little nutmeg? Something earthly like that. **Hot and Sour Soup - A nice little start for a couple bucks. Go ahead. Try it. **Baby Bok Choi - Fresh, bright green. Very nice taste and good balance for all the other dishes. **Crab Rangoon - Really one of the top Rangoons in the City. Just go and see for yourself. Wait time can be a little long if you catch it during the dinner rush. I'm thinking the seating could be reorganized to accommodate flow and number of guests in a more useful manner. If this place thought a bit more about that, it'd definitely bring the average rating up.
(5)Mac F.
This place is pretty fantastic. Been here 4 times, it never disappoints. Great for kids too.
(5)Shahna R.
Life is too short to eat mediocre Chinese food, so we were thrilled when Lao Sze Chuan moved into Evanston. We used to drive to the Uptown or Chinatown locations, but here it is in our backyard. We waited until the initial hubbub of the opening was over and now make weekly trips to Tony Hu's Evanston food venture. Lao is authentically Chinese with more than a few menu items available for those that are used to Americanized Chinese food - yes, you can eat here too! We count Tony's Dry Chili Chicken, Tofu with Salted Duck Egg, Pea Pod Greens, MaPo Tofu and Whole Fish with Black Bean amongst our favorites, but we have yet to have a dish that wasn't terrific. The service has its kinks, but have you been to Chinatown... let alone China? Service here is stellar in comparison. The servers may not anticipate your every need, but they are responsive and extremely helpful when asked. They also know the food well. With Lao and Joy Yee's in town, we are now complete. For foodies looking for the real deal, go no further. The atmosphere at Lao is great too - comfortable chairs in a cool lounge like setting.
(5)Andrew K.
Just okay. I want a new go to Chinese place in evanston but this has been just ok. I thought the food was better when they first opened. The last two times, the food has been a bit more bland, and for some reason, the dumplings have appeared stale and not freshly cooked. I get the sense they are frying them all at once and reheating. They were amazing the first time. Anyway, they're fine but more expensive and no better than average.
(3)Mimi M.
Dear Lao Manager, I seriously hope you read this. I used to love this place, i frequented the one in china town often and now that you were closer to me, I thought I was in paradiese. The quality of this place has PLUMETED since opening. Also, this restaurant clearly descriminates between asians and non asians .. aka white ppl in terms of quality of food. 1) the Cheng Du Liang feng. I used to get this as take out on its own and was my favorite thing to introduce to friends. For the last 4 times I went, instead of the clear delicious soft jelly, it was some rock hard opaque under cooked nastiness... horrible!!! Either you consciously let your quality slip by making it awfully in the morning or your staff is seriously slacking and you havent noticed. Please help. I love this item and want you to do well. 2) the fish hot pot stew (sheu gu yu pian). This is where its super shameful. When I go with white friends and order in english, your restaurant tries to pass off some weird nasty version of this without oil. It looks disgusting. I've had to complain and then only then does the waitress recognize something is 'wrong'. If I order in chinese it's fine. Please, I know your waitresses recognize what your most famous regional dish looks like. The past 2 times I've taken friends there and ordered my 2 favorite things, they've hated it (unlike the many other times before this). Its embarasing to me how bad the dishes have become and It's embarassing how discriminatory your place is and how much your quality has decreased from your orignial opening/china town location. Get your staff in check and fix the quality of your food, especially why we all know you are possible of so much! Other details: House hot and sour soup: still so good its to die for Service: weird and nosy, they need training on timing of entrance and exit. they manage to both be oddly inattentive after you make your order but overly pushy for you to make your order at the same time. I can't explain how or why they're so terrible - but hence the other reviews, its somehow possible to be both.
(1)Ross M.
Had our first experience with this restaurant last night, delivered to our home via GrubHub. The food was excellent. I don't get how this place has a 3.5 star rating based on the quality of food we had. Should be 4.5 easily based on our experience. I'm not a connoisseur of Chinese food, but everything we ordered seemed authentic, well-prepared and richly seasoned. Some really unique flavors. NOT your standard, greasy Americanized Chinese food. The twice cooked pork was awesome. The Mushu beef was excellent (very flavorful and spicy). The potstickers were big, thoroughly stuffed with nicely seasoned pork and delicious. Each potsticker was about three times the size of a potsticker you get in a typical place. The entrées are not cheap, but they are medium to large portions and high enough quality that they felt well worth the price. One thing I wish I had known is that when they say "spicy" they really mean it. On the dishes that offered a customized spice level, we went for "spicy" (not even "very spicy" which was available) and they were a little bit too hot for me. I can usually happily tolerate moderate to high spice level and Mexican or Indian food. Next time I would back off the spice order a little bit :-)
(5)S J.
If you can manage to get service (this depends on your race apparently) the food is actually good. I saw at least 3 tables of people of Asian descent eating their entree before anyone even came back for my order including soup. Money is green is it not, this is highly offensive and the "host" could not careless.
(1)Neil B.
Ate twice cooked pork and cashew chicken. The pork dish had nice fatty pieces of port with leeks in a spicy sauce. Egg rolls were not overcooked and NOT greasy. Rice was $1 extra per bowl (the waitress cringed when she mentioned we had order it separately.) The food was spread over a very large plate, and not particularly hot to begin with, was ice cold within 5 minutes. The twice cooked pork and leeks was actually a memorable dish, not so much for the cashew chicken. Service was OK and ambiance was nice.
(4)Jenny Z.
Fine for Chinese food in the suburbs, but its very typical. Nothing extraordinary, but they make what they do pretty well. Expensive though for Chinese food. You're paying a lot for the ambience.
(3)Kate G.
Authentic and stylish Chinese restaurant. The waiters and waitresses can speak both Chinese and English. It is a good option for a group of 2-3 or a group of 10+. Love it!!!!
(5)Ling B.
I was trying to make a reservation but they told me no reservation for now. Considering the reviews on yelp are mostly complain about the waiting time, we walked in on 11:30 am and had a early lunch. It was an pleasant experience. We order the hot and sour soup, spicy pot with lamb, chengdu dumplings sze chuan style and crisp shrimp, absolutely enough for two people. The food was so amazing that we finished everything and got too full in the end. The waiter greeted us as soon as we walked in, they were all very nice. It took us 10 minutes to get our soup and dumplings, another 15 minutes to have the main dish which was acceptable to us. Hope they can hire more people, it was crazy busy at the time we left. We will definitely come back , want to try more and wait less.
(5)Andrew S.
While I am no expert on Chinese food, I did try this restaurant about a week and a half after visiting Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in China. I really enjoyed the food in Sichuan province and so I wondered what America's take on this wonderful cuisine might be like. Pretty forgettable, if I must be honest. I wasn't very hungry admittedly, so I only went for the Szechuan-style dumplings (I believe they call them Zhong dumplings in Sichuan) and the mapo tofu, perhaps one of the most iconic dishes in the cuisine along with Chongqing's hot pot and Chengdu's mao cai. The dumpling presentation was actually pretty much identical to what I saw in Chengdu, with several half-crescent dumplings lying partially covered in a red chili oil sauce. The sauce was actually quite good but the meat inside, however, just didn't taste right--it just tasted like plain old Jewel Osco pork with nothing done to it. As for the mapo tofu, this was undoubtedly the most disappointing dish. Honestly, I could tell on sight that it was going to be a disappointment. My frame of reference is Chen's Mapo Doufu restaurant in Chengdu, which has been proclaimed "the" place to eat mapo tofu. Everything was off with Lao's take on it: the taste, the spiciness, the texture, the presentation. While I found Chen's version complexly flavorful, breathtakingly spicy (I had to give up, my lips were completely numb), lathered in a thick, heavy sauce, I found Lao's to be forgettable in taste, moderately spicy, thin and oily in texture, and impossible to eat due to the extremely large pieces of tofu that crumbled upon contact with my chopsticks. Perhaps I will give Lao Szechuan one more shot with a different set of dishes, but I am not overly optimistic.
(2)Natasha C.
We dined in on a night when we really didn't know what we wanted. It was pretty good. I had the sesame chicken and my husband had the dry chili chicken. We ordered the home style egg fried rice and it did not have any soy sauce. It was magical. I didn't know if they made it soy sauce free for us or if it just comes that way, but that was the BEST egg fried rice I'd ever had. The dry chili chicken was good and spicy. My husband enjoyed the spicy cabbage. The wine was good. Tonight, we are ordering pick up and hope that it is a comparable experience.....Will update soon. Update: I've added a star because they nailed it with the pick up. The rice was cooked correctly. My husband picked up and said that they had something on the ticket that we didn't order, but quickly removed it. When we opened the bag, we found that additional item. Oh well, we gave it a try. They were quick and got the order right. We will continue to order from the Evanston location and pick up. No more uptown orders from us.
(4)Chris H.
Food is delicious, but...service and ambiance need a LOT of work. Waiting area fits four people and they don't take reservations. And no room to stand at bar. That is a bad start. To top it off the wait has the WORST soundtrack ever. The noise in the space is not unpleasant. A buzz. Ceilings high enough and no huge tables (as other reviewers have noted). And there is no bartender, so your wait is made worse by the wait for something to drink. PLEASE get a dedicated bartender, turn off the HORRIBLE music and reconsider the no reservation thing. The service and ambiance should match the quality of the food!!!
(2)Ace G.
I've been here a couple times, and I've enjoyed the food so far. The low rating comes from the poor service on my last visit. I visited this restaurant on a Sunday evening - May 18. A friend and I arrived just before 6pm, at the very beginning of their dinner rush. We were seated with in 10 minutes - so far, so good. Unfortunately, after 10-15 minutes, I had to get the attention of the hostess again as we hadn't been greeted by any of the wait staff. When our waitress finally came, she immediately took our order. My friend's dish came out in reasonable time, but it was loaded with red pepper flakes when he requested the dish to be mild. Additionally, my entree wasn't brought out with his, and I wasn't given an explanation as to why. Another 10 minutes passed, and I had to ask the hostess to find my waitress again and notify her that I hadn't gotten my food. When my waitress returned, she gave me the excuse that my dish takes longer to prepare. So, either they started preparing my friend's dish too early, or they just forgot my order. Either way, someone messed up. "5 minutes," she says. Okay. More than 5 minutes passed, and still no food. At this point, we had to leave to make it to a concert on time, so I cancelled my order. My waitress said, "I'm really sorry." I feel like her apology was sincere, but I was waiting for someone in that restaurant to give me a real reason to come back. Nothing. The wait staff just seems inexperienced and overwhelmed, and who knows what actually happened in the kitchen. This restaurant failed at their fundamental task, which is to put food on the table, and all I got was "I'm sorry." Yeah. Me, too.
(2)Chun L.
The best Chinese restaurant is Evanston. The spicy red curry chicken and raspberry mojito is my favorite thing in Lao Sze chuan.
(5)Kuan H.
Sometimes the service gets really annoying but otherwise, the food is amazing. I usually get take out here so I don't have to deal with the service. But the food is hands down, one of the most authentic Chinese restaurants. I have been to China, to Seattle, San Francisco, New York, and the food is finally comparable in Evanston. Thank you Lao. Favorite dish was duck dish.
(4)Jiaping T.
As a Chinese, I don't think food here is very delicious. There are so many better restaurants in China than Lao Sze Chuan. However, as a Chinese restaurant in Evansoto, I think it is the best!
(5)MJ K.
Lao Sze Chuan's service has improved tremendously since it opened. The wait time is usually a lot less because the "new restaurant in Evanston" effect is now gone. But that isn't to say their quality of food changed. This place is absolutely one of my favorite restaurants in Evanston because of their food, great ambience, and also the improved quality service! Try their dry chilly chicken, Tony's chicken with three peppers, or any vegetable in garlic sauce like the eggplants, green beans, and spinach!
(5)Lisa K.
I've wanted to go as soon as I heard he opened a location in Evanston. My guest and I went on a Sunday afternoon and we were greeted and seated immediately....the interior is beautiful, the staff was friendly and assertive. The food was delicious! will defiantly go back again!
(4)Toby L.
DELICIOUS. as an sf bay area native, it's extremely rare that i'll rave about asian food in the midwest - my friends will attest how often i complain about how asian food in the midwest does not even come close to my picky californian taste buds' standards. first downside. the time. tony hu, why did you take so ridiculously long to open this place up. i've waited eagerly since you said you would open it in november. but i guess my patience has paid off (this also applies to the ridiculously long wait times - 45 minutes on a tuesday night!) the ambiance pays off for it though - it's very comfortable and trendy inside, and so even though it's crowded, you'll enjoy yourself. THE FOOD IS DEFINITELY WORTH IT. do yourselves a favor and order actual szechuan dishes and not "mandarin chicken" or "cream cheese rangoons" - that's not chinese food. unfortunately i had my mandarin-speaking friend order for us, so i actually do not know half of what i ordered. dry chili chicken - deliciously spicy, fried perfectly, and just 100% deliciousness. it's a classic szechuan dish, and i'd recommend wholeheartedly xiao long bao (soup filled dumplings) - the outside was rather thick, but definitely one can tell they were homemade. the flavor was right on the money. of course it does not come close to the legendary din tai fung, but for being in the midwest, it's probably the best i can ever get my hands on when i have a XLB craving during midterm season. dandan noodles - mmmm. i've missed this from being away from home. the noodles themselves were all right, not too special. but the sauce was right on the money. i'm one of those people who like spicy food, but need a break from time to time, so i had a mild version of it. still deliciously authentic. summary; be prepared to wait an eternity for an open table, but once you're seated, order away! you will not be disappointed (as long as you don't order "fake chinese food"). i'm so glad this place opened up in evanston! (there goes some of joy yee's business)
(5)Arisa T.
Before this place came to Evanston, my second home was Koco Table. Now I get to alternate between two of my favorite restaurants. The food here is very authentic. General Tso's chicken is not something you could calibrate this place with. Here are some of my favorite dishes I've tried here: Mongolian Beef, Sauteed Spinach, Szechuan Smoked Tea Duck, and Xiao Long Bao. My SO likes the American-Chinese stuff and he is head over heels with the Cashew Nut Chicken and the Crispy Shrimp with Lemon Sauce. The spicy stuff here is actually spicy, so if you do not have the tolerance, I would not recommend you to try the Dan dan mian or the Ma po tofu. The service here is really great and they will always give me extra guava candies when I ask for them after meals. Also, you should not come here for fancy cocktails - they have them but they aren't that good. In addition, you should not be surprised if you order the same thing twice on different occasions and they come out as completely different dishes. The wonton soup I've ordered had different skins each time and the cashew nut chicken had different veggies in them. All in all they taste amazing so it's nothing to complain about.
(5)Frank Y.
Lao Sze Chuan is a well known chain from celebrity chef, Xiao Jun Hu (a.k.a. Tony). The original location in Chicago was in Chinatown. At an earlier visit, I tried the kung pao chicken via take out. I am a big fan of Chinese American take-out style Chinese food. This dish was just OK. The chicken was breaded and a bit soggy. On my second visit, my wife and I followed one of the reviewer's advice and ordered exclusively from the Chef's Recommendation section. We got: Spicy chili cabbage appetizer -- delicious and spicy, like a Chinese kimchee Egg Drop Soup -- very good with corn Wonton Soup -- my wife liked it, esp. the fresh ginger, vegetables, and 2 lg. wontons Chef's Special Dry Chili Chicken -- spicy, crisp, and good. The chicken was a little dry. Twice-Cooked Pork Szechuan Style -- tender pork with leaks, very tasty! Szechuan Green Beans -- had Szechuan salt, bacon?, and the sauce was mostly fish sauce. A little bland for my tastes. Overall, not bad. Some folks say that it is authentic especially for Szechuan Chinese food. I have had better Chinese food in Chinatown (for example, Phoenix). For a semi-chain Chinese food, I prefer Joy Yee's. AND WHAT IS UP WITH THE NON-STOP TAYLOR SWIFT MUSIC?!!
(3)Angela C.
Lao Sze Chuan has the best (spicy and non-spicy) Chinese food in Evanston, but they charge higher prices for their portions. Food aside, the interior is nicely decorated, although I think the bar with its two TVs don't quite complement rest of the space. Even stranger, you have to be 21+ to sit at the bar, even though you can skip the alcohol and just order food. Regardless of whether you sit at the bar or a table, I've found the service to be slow.
(4)Sandy M.
I'm torn about this place. I came with my family on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend and patiently waited for a table. Once seated, we ordered everything once our waitress greeted us. Appetizers started coming out before the two bar drinks that were ordered. I loved the pot-stickers but the egg rolls were cold in the middle. Most of our entrees were delivered and sitting at the table before we were given dinner plates. We finally had to flag down our waitress to get our last entree. We ordered the dry chili chicken, which they are known for, but it had way more chilies than chicken. I've seen pictures of this dish and ours looked nothing like the others on this site. All the food had good flavor but the service was less than stellar. Our waters were never less than an inch low...seems like the busboys need to be more proactive in helping the servers on busy evenings.
(3)Cynthia E.
The cumin dishes are all terrific, the hot and sour soup is one of the tastiest I've had. The red curry shrimp is addictive, and I just enjoyed the pork chow fun- delicious!
(5)Jill E.
Huge menu so you have to experiment to find the things that you like, but I'm happy to have a great Chinese place near where I work in Evanston, finally!
(4)mc c.
I was very gung-ho about this restaurant since I love their spice level and dry chili chicken etc. However, I ordered a non-spicy dish, sweet and sour shrimp and was shocked when I found that a giant looking breaded shrimp was actually only breading except for the lower 1/4 of it. I would stick with basic dishes here where nothing is "hidden"
(3)Sunrise P.
I was extremely excited that Lao Sze Chuan opened in our vicinity, since I have been looking forward to an authentic Chinese restaurant in our neighborhood for decades. I took a trek down to this place one evening with my family to taste the food. The moment we walked into the restaurant, the hostess greeted us and seated us right away. We ordered four entrees: lamb with cumin powder, fish in black bean sauce, chef's special dry chili chicken and garlic peapod leaves. The lamb was tender and tasty with the right amount of spices and it was cooked with peppers and onions. The fish was covered with a great amount of sauce and the chef's special dry chili chicken had hot peppers and was very spicy. This choice would be great for people who loves spicy food. Overall, the food was marvelous and the service was fantastic. We definitely would be back to this restaurant soon.
(5)Katherine L.
Food is great. Service is great. Ambience is great. Favorites are twiced cook pork, string bean with black bean (appetizer); dream girl cocktail is a Chinese version of the sangria - but with orange and lychee fruits in it. Will come often.
(5)Wyatt G.
Food is wonderful, service is prompt and very friendly; it's a bit unusual for a Chinese restaurant to have loud pop/rock music playing in the background it's allover a great restaurant. I highly recommend the Mongolian chicken. Full bar, next time I have to try the cocktails.
(5)Sarah Z.
We have been twice to this Evanston location now and I leave the experience with disappointment, sadly. The first time we went, we very much enjoyed our soup and dumpling appetizers. My wife really enjoyed her szechuan chicken. I personally can't handle food that hot and tend to favor French and Japanese food. So I ordered the Mongolian beef, which was really underwhelming and lacking flavor. Basically it was quite average, not even as good as PF Changs at that dish, which I'm guessing they wouldn't want to hear. The second time we went we decided to try the shrimp with lobster sauce and it had almost no flavor at all. Because I like French food, I enjoy subtlety and complex flavors. This dish lacked even a first layer of flavor. Really awful dish. Now, I know everybody says you have to order the Szechuan dishes or chefs picks. Two things, to counter that... 1) if it's on your menu, make it great. Otherwise get rid of it. I expect a restaurant to be professional and properly execute the dishes on their menu and 2) the Mongolian beef is actually on the chefs picks and it was less than mediocre really. I think Gordon Ramsey's advice for them would be to drastically reduce the size of their massive menu. Offer the Szechuan dishes that are beloved and offer a few milder options that they have perfected. Then get rid of the rest.
(2)Steve R.
Ive been coming here almost every weekend for lunch. Im not the spicy lover but me and the gf always order the dry chili chicken and or orange beef which are both nice and crispy. Nice vibes and decor but could use more comfortable bench seating. The times that things werent perfect with orders, servers were always eager to resolve. Im going to keep coming!
(5)M Y.
Pretty good. Was there for lunch on a Sunday - great and prompt service. I have never been to the other location so I didn't know what to expect. Overall, I will return, not run - will walk. Yes, the cabbage slaw was a great way to start. It came right when we sat down. A nice touch to get a feel for what flavors they serve - which is on the spicy side. This helps you eliminate many "red pepper" signs on the menu. We ordered the spring rolls to start - not good. It tasted as though it was frozen and then fried. We also ordered the mongolian beef and the fried wide noodles without the beef, added chicken instead. She suggested we ordered rice - didn't realize it was extra. It's Chinese food, it should come with RICE - like tortillas to Mexican food. My son liked his mongolian beef and I really liked my noodle dish - perfect consistency. Though our service was fine - we were one of the only 5 tables at this time, I felt it wasn't all it was hyped to be. Their menu is extensive and confusing. You're better off asking for recommendations (what I did). Is it me or is it on the pricey side for Chinese food? The dishes are well over $10 each. Not use to this for Chinese food and the food was comparable to the quality of less expensive Chinatown restaurants I often visit. I will say it is a great addition to Evanston and on my list to try again - could be more of a date place and not so much a "carry-out"/"family favorite" type of restaurant.
(3)Jordan Z.
The dry chili chicken is a favorite...I get it extra spicy....trust me when I tell you that it is spicy......the wonton are good too.
(5)J M.
Unfortunately the experience I had at this restaurant was not up to my expectations. The food did not take all that long to be prepared, however when I received my Kung Pao Chicken, the meat was raw. It was very chewy and there was no doubt about the meat not being cooked thoroughly. When we pointed it out to the waitress, she said she would take care of it. About 10 mins later, she brought the plate back, suggesting all was good. It only took few seconds to realize that they microwaved my original plate, and few closer looks to see the meat was still raw. We had to ask the waitress to replace the meal completely. They brought us a newly cooked dish with actually cooked chicken. I finished about half of the plate and it is needless to say there have been only handful of times when I have had a worse stomach pain than the day following a visit a this restaurant. Never again. Check what they serve you!
(1)Trevor G.
I needed something quick and tasty while my wife was in labor at the hospital. I was told to expect it in 45min-1hour (I saw the reviews were good, so I decided that I could wait that long). Let me list the ways this all went wrong 1) It took an hour and a half 2) The driver went to the wrong entrance of the hospital (I specified exactly where to go, even giving them directions on how to get to that entrance) 3) I was told that everything would be in the bag- there was no soy sauce, or any sauces at all for that matter and last, but certainly not least 4)They gave me the wrong food. I asked for Almond chicken and they gave me orange chicken (which I personally can't stand). When I called back I was told they don't make Almond chicken (then why did you let me order it!!!!???) Basically, I wasn't able to eat dinner (I only had a small window of time). I was told they would give me a free item the next time I am there- the issue is I don't live around here and won't be back.
(1)T S.
We went for dinner on 5/3 (a Saturday night). Very inconsistent experience. Staff seemed uncertain and a bit confused. There were a lot of wait staff, runners and 2 hostesses. Did not see a manager in front of the house at all. Service was off and lacked professionalism. We ordered an app that did not arrive. As we were finishing our entrees I asked about it. At first our waitress wasn't sure we had ordered an app, then she remembered and said she'd look into it. The app arrived after we were presented with our bill. When our entrees arrived. One of the entrees delivered was not something we ordered. When we told server he started to argue that we were wrong. Finally waitress came by and told server we were correct. Additionally one of our entrees could be ordered non-spicy (as per menu). So we ordered it non-spicy. It was quite good but 5 alarm heat. Our other entree was very good. Unfortunately two other service issues. We got drinks at bar before we were seated. We finished these halfway through our meal. Waitress did not come to check on us and see if we wanted more drinks until we had already finished our entrees. Finally, check was presented quickly after we finished but no one asked us if we wanted to order dessert which was our intent. Should also add they took the late arriving app off our bill. In sum; very good food, but inconsistent unprofessional service resulted in a sub-par experience. Potential is there but they have a lot to improve on.
(2)Grace C.
I have been back several times since the first review. My friends convinced me to. It's much better and more comparable to uptown location. Definitely need to still work on the dried chili chicken though. The pieces are super small.
(3)Sam S.
The food here is just so frakking good. The spicy cabbage they put on your table alone is worth coming in (we ordered and inhaled a very large bowl of it). The peanuts with dried tofu appetizer and the spicy fried rice were two other highlights although there wasn't a bad dish on the table. I've been a fan of their Chinatown location for years and the food is just as good in Evanston, although the decor is much trendier.
(5)Neil P.
I don't understand the dichotomy in reviews: half seem to like a lot, half seem to be very unhappy. I have been a big fan of their Chinatown location and am happy to have a local place. The Don Don Noodle (spicy) is one of my favorite dishes ever, in any cuisine. We've eaten in and had delivery and experienced nothing but the best.
(5)Mary C.
Despite the long wait, in which I think it's worth it. The food was good. I really enjoyed my visit. The service was nice and the atmosphere was more youthful than the other lao sze chuans. The decor is nice. I like the panda wall decor, very oriental. I strongly advise my fellow yelpers to sign with them on the waiting list first and then have a nice stroll around the area or grab a drink at the bar to wait for ur table. Try the lycheetini strong but sweet
(5)Chris M.
We stopped by Lao sze chuan at 6pm on Sunday. The host got us a round table by the window. They served spicy cabbage immediately... the cabbage was so so hot.. We were greeted quickly. Since We are not familiar with Szhchuan cuisine, our waitress recommended pot sticker as appetizer, and Crisp duck, lemon shrimp, Mogoliaon beef, sole fish in black bean sauce and string bean as entrees. The food came out quickly, but the pot sticker were cold inside. Our server took it away and got us new one which were much better. We got our entrees soon after our plates got changed. The Mongolian beef was tender and tasty with the right amount of spices and it was cooked with pepper and onions just as the server described. The lemon shrimp was crisp and sweet and tasted like heaven on a plate. The crisp duck was spectacular. Perfectly cooked and juicy with crisp skin. The sole fish was a little bit too salty maybe because too much soy sauce. The green bean was fresh and worth the try. Venue: clean and organized. Ambiance: music was too loud, not for old people like us. Their phones kept ringing and the noise was unpleasant. Food: every dish we got was well-prepared and richly seasoned. Not a bad choice for Chinese food. Service: fantastic, polite, smiley and attentive. Our waitress was so so patient to answer every question we asked with great details and offer suggestion from each section of the huge menu ( we feel so so sorry Charlene we six old folks spent twenty minutes to order). She frequently checked back to see how our meal is, refilled water glass, and whisked away used dishes and napkins. When the table got too crowed she replaced every big plates with small plates to fit the table which was so helpful. Thank you very much Charlene, 5 star service experience, you deserve 100% tip. We definitely will come back soon.
(5)Haley H.
I had a very disappointing first experience here. I went there on a Friday night and they were very accommodating to a solo diner so I had high hopes. The first question my server asked me was "spicy or not spicy"? And the menu is split between those two options as well. So of course I said spicy. I'm Asian -- I love spice and can handle almost anything. I say "almost" because of what I was about to be served. I wanted to be adventurous and went with the server's recommendation for both appetizer and main course. I have no idea what I had for an appetizer. It's the first cold "beef" appetizer on the menu. It was a cold salad that had a lot of thinly sliced gelatinous head-cheese-like strips. But it contained the restaurant's signature hot chili oil that was spicy without having any flavor. My server told me the same chili oil was in my main dish -- mapa tofu with sole filets. It sounded great and looked great but when I started eating it, again it contained the hot chili oil but had absolutely no flavor. I couldn't taste anything but a fiery burn in my tongue. After only 3-4 bites, my mouth was literally numb. Although, I wanted to keep eating because I was hungry, I couldn't. I just couldn't. I was really hoping for some great food on the rare occasion I had a quiet few hours to myself and I was very disappointed. My server never returned to even give me more water after my entree arrived. It almost felt like he was inflicting his grudge on the world by making me suffer with the deadly spicy dishes. Someone else even took care of my bill. I'm giving the one star to that nice guy who helped me with my bill and wrapped up my mostly uneaten dinner. As much as I hate wasting food, unfortunately, those leftovers went right into the garbage can as soon as I rounded the corner.
(1)Cindy C.
This place does not deserve 3 stars. The food was delicious and the service was neither slow or rude. Hands down the best Chinese restaurant in the north shore area. 1. Wonton soup: it was ok but it was not great. 2. Dan dan mian (sze chuan style): spicy and appetizing. It was good. 3. Xiao long bao- pretty darn authentic. It's not din tai fung or Shanghai good but it's definitely the best I've tried in Chicago so far. 4. Crispy shrimp with lemon sauce- i liked this dish. It's a great dish that the kids will love. I usually make this at home but I can't get the crispy crunchy texture like they do. 5. Sze chuan string beans- loved it. I loved having string beans as a vegetable dish, so different from the normal Chinese broccoli type veggies. The sauce wasn't spicy and it was flavorful. Overall, I was impressed with my meal and I'll be coming here often for sure.
(5)Eugene W.
I have been to both the Lao Sze Chuan in Downer's Grove and the one in Chinatown. This one is definitely not as good as the other ones. I went for lunch on a weekday, so it didn't take very long for our food to come out (as others have complained). The facilities were also nice and clean. Nonetheless, the food portions were tiny. For a restaurant charging $11 to $15 dollars for each dish, one dish should be enough to fill me. Unfortunately, it didn't. The Special Dry Chili Chicken is definitely my favorite item on the menu. I get it almost every time I visit Lao Sze Chuan. My order of the chicken was disappointingly not spicy today. I don't have extremely high tolerance for spicy food, but as a Szechuan-style restaurant, they should definitely be making their signature spicy dishes hotter. The chicken that I got was less spicy than flaming hot cheeto fries. The beef flat rice noodles are also a good choice if you are wondering what to order, by the way. Anyways, the food was only average, and the quality and quantity of the food was not worth the money that we paid. I am disappointed, and will visit the other locations in the future.
(3)Pamela H.
Had lunch here last week with a friend. Both of our dishes were terrible. The only reason I gave it two stars instead of one is that maybe we just happened to order the worst dishes on the menu. I got the vegetarian hot pot. It had about 100 red chili peppers, jalapeño peppers and a whole container of chili pepper seeds. It also had 100 seeds that looked and tasted like black peppercorns you had to look out for. Now I know it was supposed to be spicy but my complaint is about the awful texture this created and that the peppercorns stuck to the vegetables. Yes, I wanted spicy but no I didn't want a bowl of peppercorns. And, I save the best for last, it was not a broth or sauce it had on it but several cups of oil, mostly chili oil. Mmmmm a bowl of oil with peppercorns in it for lunch. Also they charged an extra $1 for the smallest bowl of white rice even though the dishes were $11-16. It was lunch so I also expect faster service. I had to flag down our waiter to get the check and again to get him to finish ringing it out. So instead go to any of the other good restaurants in Evanston there are plenty.
(2)Vishal K.
Been to this place a bunch of times now...and I keep on coming back for Tony's recommendations!! Be warned: spicy means proper spicy!!
(4)Das T.
While I've mostly had great experiences with Lao's in Chinatown, this location still needs some work. I love the modern decor and the beautiful big renderings of panda bears on the walls. Feels very contemporary. Everyone is extremely nice and service was mostly excellent. But I do think the food overall is not on par with the Chinatown location. The exception being the always-excellent garlic peapod leaves. Tony's chicken here was pretty dry. The orange chicken was quite flavorful, but a little gummy. The pot stickers were big and the sauce was delicious, but the pork inside seemed sort of bland, again, compared to the other location. Most other dishes seemed to be similar in that the sauces were pretty good, but the overall quality did not measure up to Tony's original spot in Chinatown. I'll keep trying because I'm glad to have them here in Evanston...I just hope they find a way to get better.
(3)Melanie S.
Well, I'd like to write a good review but now will not get the chance. I tried to make a reservation two weeks in advance for a party of ten. Had so been looking forward to trying this place. The person who took my call said he couldn't take a reservation despite the website indicating they would. Somehow he thought walking in at 7:30 with ten people and 'hoping' a table might be open was a good idea. Very disappointed!
(1)Dave Y.
No one here barely speaks any English. I placed an order for pick up and was told it would be ready in 10 minutes. I go there to pick up the food, fighting traffic, looking for parking, only to be told that my order was never received -after having to ask 3 different times what is going on with my order because their English so difficult to discern. I'm never going there again.
(1)Danny K.
WORST dining experience ever. Was very excited for a lunch b/c had heard great things about this place. Went in and got seated quickly and placed order right away b/c had heard wait time can often be long. After 30 minutes thought it was weird that our appetizer order of crab rangoons had still not come out especially as we had already asked about our food. Asked again and the staff said it would be right away. Then staff came back 5 minutes later saying our ticket order had never been processed. Talked with the manager who assured that the food would be out shortly b/c we stated we could only wait another 40 minutes. Waited another 10 minutes and finally got our appetizer after waiting there for about an hour. Asked about the main entrees and was told it would come out but never did. It would have been okay if we didn't see multiple parties who came much later than us getting the exact same entrees we had ordered. One couple who came in about 30 minutes after us got all of their food before we even received our late crab rangoons. Overall really bad service but even worse if you look like a student. All older patrons were taken care of much better so NOT NU friendly. Would have given maybe another star if we had been able to actually try any of their main dishes. Definitely will not be going back anytime soon. Will stick with joy yees and phoenix inn where service isn't great but phenomenally better in comparison.
(1)Jeff M.
Tried to call for take out, but they didn't answer phone, so went and ordered takeout. Was told it would maybe take an hour, but they would call when the order was ready. I went ahead and ordered (and paid). And went home. An hour and a half later, after no call, and not answering my call (greater than 10 rings), I go back, and my order is on the counter. They claimed they called, but my cell doesn't have a missed call or vm, and the number is correct on the order. Pretty rude if you ask me. The food was warm, not hot. Hot and sour soup good, dry pepper chicken not my thing, good sautéed spinach. Hard to go back unless they get their act together, even with good food. My experience is similar to the other poor reviews.
(1)Daniel K.
I was excited for Lao to open after having some of their food at Taste of Chicago last year, but my first experience with the one in Evanston was absolutely terrible. The food took 45 minutes to come out and our waitress seemed really flustered with the amount of people there were. The restaurant is definitely understaffed right now and it can get pretty chaotic around peak dinner times. The seating can be improved as well--the larger tables in front seem to have ample room but if you're seated towards the back, your table will be about a foot away from other tables. This makes for a really cramped environment and it almost seems like they tried to cram as many seats in as possible in the back as an afterthought. It also makes it harder for the waiting staff to see when you need help. Finally, the food came out and I was really hoping that this would be Lao's redemption. I got mapo tofu and dried chili chicken (which were both listed as one of the chef's recommendations). The dried chili chicken was pretty good, but the plate probably consisted of 40% dried chilis and not enough chicken. The mapo tofu was the saltiest thing I've ever eaten. I'm the type to eat pretty much anything and I definitely do not have much of a discerning palate, but even I thought the food was borderline inedible. I contemplated sending the food back to the kitchen, but I didn't feel like waiting another 20 minutes, so I just asked for the check and got out of there. I really hope this place improves soon because their food can be very good. For now, though, Lao is just an overpriced and understaffed restaurant with small portions and terrible mapo tofu. Please, if you listen to any part of this review, listen to this: do not get the mapo tofu. It is so salty.
(1)Don D.
This place is ridiculous. We came here at 7:45pm and waited at the door for 15 minutes. No one greeted us and I could see there were at least 3 empty tables. OK, after 15 boring minutes at the door a waiter showed us to a table which was empty the whole time. We ordered some dishes hoping the food would not let us down. Then, there was the 45minutes of boring wait for the food. We asked the waitress why our food was slow. Her answer, without an apology shockingly, was they had to serve the takeout order first?! Finally, the food arrived. Let's say the food wasn't as good as we expected. The intestine was over fried and the rice wasn't fully cooked. I have been to the one in chinatown and the food and service was much much better. Don't go to this place if you value your time.
(1)Christine C.
I went here spontaneously and I was pleasantly surprised. I ordered the dry chili chicken and beef in garlic sauce worth an order of rice for a dollar. We got the dry chili chicken because it was on the chef's recommendation list. I wasn't much of a fan of this but I really loved the beef in garlic sauce. It had a spicy yet savory flavor to it. The dry chili chicken had a spicy flavor but it didn't taste spicy, but more of a sour taste? It's hard to describe. I really enjoyed the service here. The lady came numerous times to ask if we needed anything, which I appreciated. The atmosphere is pretty loud so it's sometimes hard to here the other person talking. I recommend it for a casual date or if you don't want to do a lot of talking. HA The lighting creates a great ambiance at night time. One thing that bothered me were the tables. Maybe it was just our table but every time we tried to move the table would shake and almost knock our water glasses down. Other than that it was a pleasant experience. I recommend this place.
(4)Karen C.
We have eaten/ordered from Lao Sze Chuan 3 times...so this review is not ill considered or hasty. All but one item from these three meals (3 guests each time) was abysmal. Oily. Overly hot ("medium" spicy dish inedible for a person who usually adds hot chilies to everything). Poor cuts of meat, which are flavorless. On two occasions, at least one of us became ill, and others had unpleasantness I won't describe. We ordered chef's recommendations and "standard" items like Kung Bao Chicken, so I can't say that one way of ordering might be better than the other. We won't return. I would recommend that you find an alternative, too.
(1)X W.
The food here is excellent- good balance between flavor the spice. Service was friendly and fast and the restaurant decor is very pleasing. The following negative reviews should be ignored. Most of them must have been written right after opening. We can't wait to go back. We eat Chinese food wherever in the world we are and are thrilled that there is a new option in Evanston.
(5)Clarence L.
I rate the food very highly. It was delicious and very spicy (if you like that and I do). However, it goes down hill from there. We sat next to the bathroom and got an occasional whiff. The noise level was such I could not hear the waiter, nor the person across the table from me. This is a Chinese restaurant. So, how can they charge you a dollar for a tiny bowl of rice? That is a sin in China. We felt very rushed. Two of the three main dish came out minutes after the hot and sour soup was served. The third one came out after most of the meal was finished. The restaurant is nicely decorated and has the appearance of fine Chinese dining. My experience was anything but a fine dining experience. It was such a relief to step out of the restaurant and into the fresh air of downtown Evanston and the calm traffic noise. It felt like walking out of a night club rave.
(1)Michelle H.
There is a Lao Sze Chuan back home, and I have missed it, so I was super glad when it came to Evanston! The food here is a huge step up from Joy Yees, although the restaurant itself has limited seating and can get pretty busy during the weekends. The wait staff here has been extremely nice, and the manager is very generous!
(5)Sourma K.
There was much hype about this restaurant based on all the previous accolades, so when it came to Evanston I was naturally excited. But that enthusiasm immediately diminished the moment our waiter told us the dumplings were not available (mind you it was only 3pm. So we went on to order the spring rolls (fried) and only 2 on the plate which were barely hot and barely worth ordering again. Then came the main dishes: stir-fried beef with thick rice noodles which was very good, I will give them that but he problem was my dish came way before the second dish, orange chicken. I believe that would be customer service no-no 101? The orange chicken finally came after about 5 minutes or so. That dish wasn't anything to write about either which I won't bore you with the details.
(3)Melanie C.
What a waste of time is the title of my review. The only reason I created my own yelp page was so that I could write this very review. My family and I entered Lao Sze Chuan and we were very excited try a new restaurant in Evanston! Little did we know, they were not as excited to see us. We were a party of 4 and we walked in around 6 PM and looked around the restaurant and there was an open table for 5 and and open table for 6. We walked up to the host and asked for a table and they asked us to wait for a table for 4 to become available. We were in a bit of a rush because we had to be somewhere at 7:30 PM so we asked about the open tables and they told us we could not sit there. I assumed they were reserved so we sat back for a little bit and waited a minute or 2. The table for 4 people that they wanted us to wait for was still completely being used by it's occupants and wouldn't be free any time soon. So I went up to the hostess and asked about the other tables. I said, "Are those tables reserved?" To which they replied no. I asked if we could sit at the table for 5 and they refused to seat us. Why would they not seat a party of 4 at a table for 5? My family eats a lot! I guarantee we'd make up for the lack of one person. They continued to urge us to wait for the table for 4. The host told us "if we know the menu already we can order fast when we sit down." My family and I felt like they were treating us very rudely. However, they were consistent. A party of 3 walked in behind me and they told them the same exact thing, but they left. We waited a few more minutes but when it was clear the table for 4 wouldn't be available any time soon we left. All I can say is, WHY??? Why wouldn't you seat us? It was very rude and I will never come back to your restaurant. On a side note, we left and went to Joy Yee Noodle in Evanston! We had an amazing meal there!
(1)Sunny W.
The food is amazing. The Mapo tofu with fish is creative and excellent. Don't miss the real Chinese food just because of the waiting time. I believe they will improve the service and get everyone the delicious food in shortest waiting time.
(5)Minhee K.
My boyfriend lives just a few blocks away from here and i was suprised to find out this place used to be Hana restaraunt. Well not that suprised cause Hana was horrible lol. We had the dried chili chicken appetizer (large portion) which I asked for extra extra spicy and totally wasn't spicy at all. Also got honey ginger beef I think the name was, it was only sweet and no hint of spicy, tasted great though. I love love lovee spicy food but I think this place caters to "american" style spicyness which is equivalent to that spice kick BBQ sauce has, in all honesty. Also got the lemon shrimp which was very good, a bit overwhelming but the flavors are great with some rice. I've had walnut shrimp at other places in China town and this lemon shrimp tops it, not as much mayo. And it's pretty crispy. Only downfall for me was the fact that nothing was even near "szechuan" style spicyness. The server we had was also intentitive, but maybe too much. We felt rushed and bothered by her, the awkward comments from her just made us uncomfortable. Overall I wouldn't mind coming here again, just won't expect spicy food.
(4)Kathy C.
I don't order many things in Lao Sze Chuan. All I need is their dry chilli chicken! It's soooo good. The peppers are spicy and the chicken is just crispy enough on the outside while tender on the inside. I finish 3 bowls of rice with just one order of dry chili chicken! Definitely recommend the chicken, I heard the fish is good too.
(5)Pali Z.
well I were looking at those pervious reviews and did not get much hope since most of people were complaining they are understuffed and have to wait way too long to get the dishes ready. ( since it just opened for few days , so I guessed its understandable to have those problems , thus decided to go there) However , after I visit there in person I would say its really worth to go there !! excellent service!! I will say it is way better than other Chinese restaurant. Also if you are a fan of spicy food, I will definitely recommend you to go there , Love their appetizer spicy cabbage , remind me of kimchi , taste even better though.the restaurant itself look sort of crowded ( but I guess its almost full of customers made it look crowed, overall its a really cozy place and it has great ambience ) along with all those delicious food I will definitely visit there anytime soon.
(5)