South Loop Food Company — Restaurant in Chicago

My partner and I were so excited to try a new Indian food restaurant we found online. Once we arrived, it became clear it was part of this South Loop Food Company / Picnic Digital Food Hall ghost kitchen. I was baffled to see we could choose from 8-or-so restaurants that on google were all listed as separate stores with no indication they were take-out-only or run in this way. This lack of transparency is deeply concerning. If you’re considering getting food from ANY of these restaurants, sort reviews by most recent. All of the places we were considering had terrible reviews in the last few months, mostly one star, with people complaining about spoiled food, cold food, wrong orders, meat in vegetarian food, and even part of a scrub brush getting into someone’s dish. It is my opinion that this “digital food hall” is operated in an unsanitary and unsafe way. Be careful and consider spending your money...

How Bao Dat at the South Loop Food Company is serving up bao buns, skewers, stir frys, and more for delivery and pick up. As a South Loop resident myself, I think this cloud kitchen is an incredible addition to the neighborhood!

We got to try 3 different bao:

Beef Bao: shredded beef, gochujang BBQ sauce, pickled ginger, fried garlic, scallions

Jerk Chicken Bao: shredded jerk chicken, spicy kimchi scallions (loved the spice level of this)

Lamb Bao: Grilled and braised leg of lamb, tzatziki, tomatoes, pickled red onions, scallions (just like a gyro)

The jerk chicken noodle stir fry bowl was delicious as well! It was loaded with lots of veggies and jerk chicken!

Highly recommend checking this place out for food that has familiar flavors (and maybe some not so familiar) presented in a new way! Can't wait to try more...

Nobody works here after 5pm meaning that the restaurant owners have to fend for themselves and field questions from a lobby full of confused drivers about orders from kitchens that aren’t even theirs. I waited for an hour and a half for an order, but there was absolutely nobody to help me. Finally after being constantly ignored by the one person seemingly in the entire building, I was told that the person who works at the kitchen I ordered from had gone home. Best part is that Uber Eats marked the order as picked up meaning I have no recourse to dispute what happened. Can’t wait for an AI chat bot on Uber to ignore my issues too. These ghost kitchens are a money grab and should be avoided.

Shoutout to Ms. Spice though who is a real person and tried to help me, she deserves her own restaurant outside...