Chi Cafe Review

Finding a good meal in Chicago’s Chinatown can be a daunting task, especially for the uninitiated. Spanning 30 blocks, Chinatown is bustling with both car and foot traffic almost every day of the week. Chi Café (2160-A S. Archer Avenue), a hip yet casual spot found within Chinatown Square, a brick-paved outdoor shopping mall off the corner of Archer and Wentworth, is the ideal spot for newbies and veterans alike to mingle over a spread of Hong Kong-style cuisine away from Chinatown’s busy streets.

On a Thursday night, Chi Café’s newly renovated space is nearly full. Luckily, service is quick, and a group of four need not expect a long wait. Inside, a long row of communal tables are flanked by wood-framed blue booths, and at the far end of the narrow room the clang of pots and pans can be heard from the open kitchen. On the ceiling, large branch-shaped carvings juxtapose with metal mesh pendant lights.

While the menu does feature “American Chinese food”—dishes you would recognize from your neighborhood Chinese takeout joint—the real treasures at Chicago’s Chi Café are the Hong Kong-style dishes. The first section of the menu, titled “Special Snack,” features small yet shareable appetizer-sized plates. Yes, you will find safe choices like Egg Rolls and Crab Rangoon on this list, but the majority of the dishes on the snack menu tend toward the adventurous side: Boiled Liver and Kidney, Cuttlefish Balls served plain or with curry sauce, and Deep Fried Dough Fritters.

On this particular visit, we chose the Chicken Wings with Sweet Sake Sauce—a crowd-pleaser even for Chinatown first-timers. These wings are lightly fried without breading before being coated with a sweet and salty soy-based sauce. The wings are not fried long or hot enough to make them crispy, which may be a turnoff for those with an aversion to the texture of chicken skin. However, the wings serve as a mere vehicle for the pleasantly sticky sauce, which diners can also find on the menu adorning fried fish fillets—my personal favorite.

For those looking to keep one foot in the comfort zone, the Dried Scallops and Egg Fried Rice is a fitting baby step into more authentic cuisine. The rice remains white (not soy-soaked as more often seen at take-out joints), yet scented with a whisper of the wok it was fried in. The dried scallop ribbons are not fishy but add a saline edge to the dish. Fluffy scrambled egg whites counter the saltiness, lending reprieve to a dish that may otherwise be overwhelmed by the concentrated flavor of the scallop.

Another authentic dish, one that often pops up on Chinatown’s dim sum carts, is the Beef Brisket with Steamed Rice Noodle Rolls. Tender chunks of beef accompany flat, glutinous rice noodles (chow fun) rolled into little cylinders that trap the five-spice scented gravy. And for those who enjoy the nasty bits—chunks of tendon are cooked down until they mimic the texture of the noodle rolls, contributing a meaty depth to the sauce.

One thing that keeps bringing me back to Hong Kong-style cuisine is the sheer wackiness of some of these dishes. Take, for example, the Deep Fried Jumbo Shrimp in Thousand Island Sauce. The incorporation of such a western ingredient may seem silly—one fellow diner called it “Big Mac shrimp”—but the fusion of western dishes and ingredients with Chinese flavors is a common occurrence (note the chicken wings with sweet sake sauce). In this particular dish, you would be amazed how the breaded, fried shrimp maintains its crisp exterior under a coating of tangy, unnaturally orange sauce. This shrimp is a wonder to experience when consumed (often in one bite) with a mouthful of steaming hot white rice.

On this visit, we also ordered Salt and Pepper Pork Chops, which are sliced thin, pan fried until crispy, and served flecked with sliced raw jalapeno peppers, as well as the puzzlingly named Fish Fillet with Portuguese Sauce, a comforting concoction of lightly breaded and fried flounder served over rice topped with a Chinese-style brown curry.

After a heavy meal in Chinatown, we like to leave the restaurant with a refreshing treat. A Mango Smoothie with Chewy Tapioca Pearls (also called boba or bubbles) is a popular choice, but be aware of seasonality, as fresh fruit is often used to make these smoothies regardless of how ripe the fruit is. For a lighter and less sweet option, try the Passion Fruit Green Tea with Multicolored Gummy Jellies. Visit any given weekend, and you will feel right at home among other post-meal window shoppers, browsing Chinatown Square’s trinket shops and specialty stores, colorful drinks in hand.

The service at Chi Café is not particularly warm, but—if anything—it is fast, and food arrives piping hot. Plan to order one or two dishes per person and dine family-style. On this particular night, we ordered more than enough to feed four adults and spent about $60 plus tip.

Chi Café is open Sunday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 2 a.m., and Friday and Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5 a.m. Drink and food specials are available for breakfast, tea time (late afternoon), and late night snacking.

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