Lao Sze Chuan (Downtown) — Restaurant in Chicago

Revision: 1) This review was originally incentivized—In exchange for giving them a 5-star review right then and there at the table, they give you a free order of 4 sesame balls. Think about that when assessing the number of 5 star reviews here.

2. After taking home & refrigerating leftovers, the oil in the “sauces” separated and the sheer quantity and ratio of it to other ingredients was staggering. Everything became inedibly greasy. I tried to strain the Mapu Tofu and the garlic eggplant but it was a lost cause. Srsly, I put them each in a metal sieve over a bowl. The results were not appetizing. I hate wasting food.

3. All of the sauce-oils appeared to be different kinds of LaoGanMa. (Oh and the Hot N Sour Soup is just basically straight LaoGanMa.) Chili crisp in chili oil, chili oil with fermented black bean, the garlic chili oil one, etc. So if you want to save your money and/or your arteries, just chop some tofu or some eggplant or whatever and throw it in a pan with half a jar of the LaoGanMa flavor of your choice.

Service and atmosphere are great, but I will never, ever put any “food” from this restaurant into my body again. Nope. Only the plain rice was actually really good.

4. Cocktails (I use that term loosely.) They had no idea how to make a Negroni, but instead of saying so they just brought a random concoction which included Aperol and gin (also revolting). Vodka martini (slightly dirty) was…also not great 😭

However! Our server Willow was phenomenal and made us feel like regulars. Shoutout to Willow—you’re lovely.

We ordered the hot n sour soup, miso soup, dry chili chicken, mapu tofu, shrimp w lobster sauce, and eggplant w garlic sauce. Yes, we ordered a ton of food for 2 people.

The jasmine rice is top tier. Dry chili chicken is good but the plate is half dried chilis that you don’t want to eat, so not nearly as much chicken as it seems. Mapu tofu texture is really weird. Gelatinous cubes with zero tooth. Tastes good but not like Mapu tofu (more like tofu with LaoGanMa fermented black bean chili oil and some cracked Szechuan pepper). Shrimp w lobster sauce was not remotely as good as literally every other place I’ve had it over the past 8 years, including a sliding scale of hole-in-the-wall takeout. So don’t order that, either. Eggplant was just fried in a bath of LaoGanMa garlic chili oil, maybe with added garlic. And, my siblings in Christ, eggplant absorbs a TON of oil. For the sake of living long enough to see your children grow to adulthood, do not order the eggplant. The miso soup was miso soup; it was fine.

You know what, just avoid this place. There are better Chinese restaurants. Restaurants that aren’t trying to unalive you with gallons of boiling oil. They do have robots which assist the food runners, which is kind of cool but kind...

Once upon a time, Lao Sze Chuan used to be a great restaurant. This place has been my go to restaurant for good fried rice, shrimp, hot and sour soup. I have dined in and had it delivered too. However, no matter how much I have enjoyed their food in the past, I have noticed their food, quality and taste standard deteriorating over time. Which is why I am compelled to write this review because maybe they will read this and many others to improve. I recently visited and ordered my usual soup, rice, shrimp and tried their string beans as well as house special spicy chowmein. The string beans were not crispy or juicy (they literally looked lifeless) and the noodles were the biggest disappointment - they were undercooked noodles, dry to the grain with dry sauce over it. Please see attached photo for reference. Otherwise the rice, shrimp and soup were alright - nothing great or anything as delicious as earlier times. Our server, Olga, was the real MVP. She approached us and welcomed us to the restaurant when there were other servers behind the staircase just chatting among themselves and looked in our direction but didn't acknowledge us as we kept waiting to be served. Olga, came from pouring water at another table and welcomed us from a walk away and quickly took us to our table. She's polite, a good listener and does her job superbly. I have had the opportunity to be served by her in my previous visits as well and she has been consistently wonderful. When our food arrived at the table and we had the first few bites of the noodles, I explained to her the problem with the noodles and she took it back without a fuss. She always checks in and is very cordial. She's the only reason why I even gave this place a 2 otherwise I would have given it a 1. She provided great service and if the food isn't up to mark, that is honestly on the chef. I will not be returning to this restaurant going forward after giving it many chances and am now in a hunt of finding a good...

服务不好。 The service is really bad. I would not trust this restaurant to handle your celebrations.

We come from a tradition where our Chinese family would have grand celebrations at a Chinese restaurant. I was looking to find that here in Chicago and maybe find an inspired cuisine from a new chef as well. Unfortunately, I never even got to taste the food because the service was so lacking. It was bad at all four levels of our interaction.

We had reservations, but no hostess was to be found. When we first arrived, the bartender told us someone would help us, but no one did. When we returned to him he either already did not know who we were or else just feigned ignorance. In any case we were made to feel stupid for waiting until a hostess could be found to seat us. When she finally did come, she sat us in a table without even place settings. We were told a waitress would be there shortly, but we never even saw her. While we were waiting for a simple drink order, we had to see another Chinese couple seated next to us and immediately served. At this point we felt so neglected we just decided to leave and eat leftovers at home.

We called to complain to a manager and he sounded concerned--even to the point of wanting to punish the waitstaff. Even he, however, was not concerned enough to fix the actual problem and forgot about us even after promising to call back and make things better before the weekend ended. So the one thing rare about this establishment? They neglected us at 4 levels--bartender, hostess, waitress, and manager. I do not know why you would possibly expect a passable experience here.

We came to celebrate a decade of our relationship,. We left feeling like garbage not worth the concern of a restaurant at which we were perfectly willing to pay well for decent service. If they even would have done the bare basics, they would've won a loyal return customer--instead I felt inspired...