A Place by DaMao — Restaurant in Chicago

Disclosure: I drove 4 hours before I opened the food so I will not post pictures as they would not do justice to how delicious it was and how much better it would have looked fresh.

My wife has been obsessed with this restaurant after seeing how they responded to bad reviews by printing them on the to-go bags! I was on my way back to Wisconsin from Indianapolis and placed an order while in traffic, iykyk.

Order was being bagged when I got there 1 minute before the estimated time! I asked if I could have some extra napkins or something to help keep it fresh for the ride home and she happily repackaged the order in separate insulated bags and said it would be super hot but it would be as fresh as possible so my wife got the best experience she could!

That alone was worth 10 stars for me. This location is pickup only so you wouldn’t expect much atmosphere… the outside is amazing and the pickup area is also well decorated!

When I finally got home we opened the bags and found the famously adorable packaging, my wife was so happy and it warmed my heart so much.

Even after the long drive the food was warm, delightfully spicy and absolutely delicious! This will be a regular stop when we are in Chicago!

Thank you so much for making my wife so happy to see me...

This place exceeded my expectations so much! Hands down the best and most authentic Chinese I’ve had in Chicago. This stuff tastes just like the food I had in Chengdu...it’s sour, sweet, salty, smokey, garlicky, spicy, umami goodness, and when I say spicy I mean OH SO spicy. I got the extra spicy option for everything and they do not dumb the spice down; it had me in tears (in a good way) and was on par with the spice levels of everything I had in Sichuan. I got the douhua, zhou dumplings, and tianshuimian and was blown away by everything. You can really taste the spices like star anise and Sichuan peppercorn in their chili oil and it tastes so fresh, not old and stale like the chili oil I’ve had at some other places. To top it off, it’s super affordable and the packaging was incredibly cute and well designed - every single container was branded and they even gave me a complimentary KN95 mask with my order which made the take out experience feel so much more special during these times. Do not miss out on this place, they are truly a hidden gem...

As an ABC, this is probably my favorite chinese restaurant in bridgeport at the moment. Food is very authentic and tasty. Definitely on the expensive side. I absolutely love and always get the pig feet. The noodle soup is pretty good. I also love their desserts! The dou fu hua (pictured) is one of the best tasting chinese desserts I've had. Two things I wish were different, and then this would be 5 stars: 1) The packaging is cute, but non-microwaveable and not re-usable. I wish they would transition to environmentally friendly packaging. 2) There has not been dine in to my knowledge for a couple years now. I've wanted to bring family/friends here for ages now, and would love to be able to walk over as we live in the neighborhood. Also, I will note, do not eat here if you have a peanut allergy. Even the non-peanut dishes have traces of peanut according to my allergic...