Evergreen Restaurant — Restaurant in Chicago

I've experienced wildly inconsistent quality with their dishes. Specifically, they can one day really nail their (1.) crispy duck stuff with taro root (荔茸香酥鴨) and (2.) "bird's nests"/taro baskets, and I'll feel my ancestors smiling from beyond. The next time, these same dishes can be slightly bitter, overly greasy, lacking in the correct flavor (I don't know how to better express this in English), and/or soggy. It's not just these two dishes, though -- some of the other dishes I've ordered have suffered from this lack of quality control, though to a lesser degree. Despite, I can firmly say that most of the dishes I've had tend to be better than not. Their food is just a gamble, and that's also why I can't in good conscience rate it higher than a 3.5.

Their service has always been really warm even from my first visit, which is a bit surprising to me. In my experience at restaurants like Evergreen, it usually takes a little while to build rapport and friendship with staff and/or management. (I've come to assume that it's a cultural thing.) They, however, were extremely engaging and sweet immediately. Another thing is that they package to-go orders with care. I love "bird nests"/taro baskets, and I've had some restaurants place the entire thing in one container, which ruins the whole thing because it leads to the basket getting soggy. Evergreen, however, has always wrapped the taro basket gently in tin foil and then put the wet part in a separate, leak-proof container. They seem to care about their customers.

Physically, the restaurant is a bit dim from the lack of windows and the restaurant's strange choices of color for their lighting. I might be alone in this experience, but these factors and the liquor counter in the corner makes it feel like it's a cross between a small Chinese banquet hall and nightclub. I feel my claustrophobia bubbling up when I'm dining inside, so I always feel slightly on edge and can't say that I've ever dined in 100% comfortably. (This will not be everyone's case, though.)

A final note: it's really disappointing that their taro-stuffed duck isn't more consistently good because it's not a dish that many restaurants are willing to offer. It's almost cruel because when they get it right, they really hit it out of the park; but when they don't, the nature of this dish makes it really...

Evergreen is one of the older restaurants in the Old Chinatown area serving a diverse, expansive menu of primarily Cantonese staples. While I really liked some dishes (namely, the Fried Egg Tofu and Fried Taro Basket), other dishes were just so-so. The interior is arranged in classic, spacious Chinese banquet style, and the service is quick and direct.

Food I tried: Wonton Soup: Refreshing and aromatic, but there are better wonton soup options out there in Chinatown.

Fried Egg Tofu with Pea Pod Tips: Really good and would recommend!! Pea pod tips were well-sautéed; the egg tofu was full of flavor and had a great crispy exterior texture combined with a soft, silky interior texture.

Szechuan Eggplant: As a lover of Chinese-style sautéed eggplants, I was disappointed by this dish. The mix of eggplants with American broccoli didn’t work for me, and the eggplant wasn’t soft / fried enough.

Deep Sea in Basket: This is a creative dish that I haven’t seen before in other restaurants in Chinatown— it’s sautéed seafood placed in a “basket” made of taro. The basket was the best part in my opinion— it was both soft and crunchy, and had a nice subtle taro flavor, like eating taro chips.

Mongolian Delight: This was a standard, but very solid and flavorful dish of sautéed veggies and beef. The beef was tender and the flavors were rich.

Thai Pineapple Shrimp: Didn’t love this dish; it was originally supposed to be mango shrimp, but they ran out of mango and substituted pineapple. I didn’t love the monotonous flavor combination of the sour/tangy pineapple with the mildly sour/tangy sauce.

Split between 4 people, the total came out to ~$30/pp including tax/tip, which was solid considering we were all extremely full afterwards and still had leftovers...

My family ended up ordering food from this restaurant the day before Thanksgiving. The lady who answered the phone and took my order was kind and patient. We had a pretty big order and she made sure everything asked for was included, to the point she repeated the order back to me a second time. She stated the order would be ready in thirty minutes and when I got there the order was ready for me to pick up. She repeated the order back a third time, I did my check and everything was there as ordered. The service was fast, the lady was very friendly and the restaurant which had a small crowd around this time (3:40PM) was very clean. The food was delicious, my chicken fried rice made hot and spicy was really good, my father enjoyed his shrimp egg foo young and just loved the pepper steak with tomatoes and green peppers. No one had one complaint about all the food served and eaten for the next two days. The only problem being with the restaurant it is a bit of a distance from where we live in the city, but hopefully we will be returning back real soon. Five ⭐️ are in order for a really good meal and efficiently...