My Place South Loop Restaurant — Restaurant in Chicago

Usually Chinatown food is synonymous with Lao Sze Chuan. It took me 10 China Town visits and a Chinese colleague who hated Lao to visit 'my place'. It's almost impossible to find it- hidden behind a staircase, and even more so to get a seat. But trust me, you won't regret the wait.

The spicy lamb is unbelivable. A tad on the spicy side- cumin notable and very juicy. The pieces will melt in your mouth. Usually very gentlemanly at the table, I was fighting for the last piece.

The ramen was awesome. The broth was perfectly balanced, and ramen well cooked. No poached eggs, but still very good.

The beef is super spicy sauce is not that super spicy. You can handle it. Unlike normal dishes where you get the best taste at first but, this one you have to take the 10th bite. It is submerged in broth with a layer of oil to maintain the temperature. There is a tang of cumin and cinnamon that will make your palettes tender, making each successive bit tastier. It was amazing. But I was not really impressed with the vegetables in it though. Had too many beans sprouts

The omelette with bitter melon was refreshing. Omelette takes away the bitterness and distributes it over the juice. I'm not a fan of melon, but this was indeed a surprise.

The only dish that didn't impress at all was the beef with peppers in Korean sauce. It hash peppers. And more peppers. A couple of ginger pieces.. and a couple of beef pieces. That's was pretty much it....

Passed by this restaurant quite a number of times and saw that it was full... now I know why. The lunch special in this restaurant is available all day and you can get an entree and a cup of drink for under $5, such as a shrimp wanton noodle, beef brisket noodle, roast duck rice noodle or yang chow fried rice.

$5 for a bowl of noodle and drink! I couldn't believe it!! I assumed that it was a smaller portion of the regular dishes and had the expectation of "you get for what you pay for." However, when the dishes came, I was surprised that it was a hearty bowl! More importantly, they taste awesome!

The dish of the night was beef brisket noodle soup where the soup was wonderful. It had a flavorful broth that was beefy and aromatic spices within it. I am definitely longing to return to have this again!

For the drinks, we had the Coffee-Tea Melange (aka Yuan Yang = coffee & tea mixed together) and honey lemon tea. Both were really really good. I would gladly pay for them, but to have them thrown in, it's absolutely WOW.

Now, the aesthetic of this restaurant isn't anything to write about, or one that would lure you in, but don't miss this traditional Hong Kong cuisine restaurant that is extremely affordable, authentic, and spectacularly yummy!

4 stars overall and one additional star for the delicious and...

The food here was amazing! Lots of people say it has authentic Cantonese food. I can't speak to that, but I can say that the meal my husband and I had was great.

We started with the egg rolls. I don't know how to describe the flavors to impart how unique and delicious they were. Obviously they were greasy, but that's kind of what I want in a deep fried food, haha. They also had a nutty flavor, which makes sense, as there was a warning that they contained peanut butter (for allergy purposes I guess). The egg rolls were my favorite part of the meal, and I'm sad I didn't get a picture of them.

I had the Singapore noodles. They had a very strong curry flavor, which is loved. The meat was tender, the vegetables were stir fried but still had a bit of that fresh crunch I love. The only thing I didn't love was the shrimp in my noodles. They tasted a bit bland, like they didn't really absorb the flavors of the noodles. I guess they worked pretty well as a palate cleanser, which is what I ate them as.

My husband got the combination fried rice and it was a delicious and complex blend of flavors that I found unique and lovely.

We had a lovely time. I would...