Taipei Cafe — Restaurant in Chicago

Only good for drinks!!! Teas!!

Ordered the basil chicken entree in a hot dolsot $14.99, their spicy beef tendon noodle soup $15.99 and the oyster pancake $10.99. Two winter melon drinks $5 each. Everything came out to $57 for three dishes and two drinks.

Came on Friday evening, it was busy but we were served quickly.

The basil chicken was a 3/5, too many tiny bones I had to chew carefully to make sure I didn't choke. It was annoying. It also did not come with any veggies just a few pieces of basil, I would have enjoyed a bok choy or maybe broccoli tossed in but no veg.

If the bones don't bother you then I'd say give it a try, the flavor was okay, I did like the garlic and thinly sliced ginger it was savory, I give this dish a 3/5 but would not try again due to the bones.

Their "popular" spicy beef tendon noodle soup was not that great. The beef was old it was not tender. I should have listened to one of the reviews that I read online that said that their beef is not tender and tastes old and rubbery. But I decided to give it a chance because the other reviews were positive.

However, my beef was old and did not taste good. The broth with spicy but it had some kind of sour taste. I prefer yummy yummy noodle in Chinatown. They're beef shank beef brisket are always tender and their broth is absolutely flavorful and costs less too. I would give the beef and tendon soup 2/5 do not recommend.

The oyster pancake is similar to the pancakes you find in the frozen section of the Asian Mart. It was served with a very sweet sticky sauce on top. It tasted soggy and chewy overall and I think partly bc of all the sauce, maybe it should have been served on the side and also bc it was stuffed with ice berg lettuce which I disliked. I give it a 1/5, would not recommend.

For the drinks I ordered the winter melon fruit lemon tea with ayiu which is like a jelly type boba. The drink tasted like a lemon citrus tea and the boba was soft and sweet. $5 for the regular size which is a great deal compared to Chinatown. We also ordered the winter melon mousse drink. It was served with a cheesy salty foam on top very tasty. Also $5 for regular size. I recommend these drinks.

They have a large selection of teas. The regular is $5 and the large is $6. The regular size is a normal size you get in Chinatown but for $3 less. I will be returning to try their drinks.

The red chairs that they have are extremely uncomfortable they're made of this steel material and they dig into your thighs when you sit down. Unless you're a child or a very small thighed person it's very uncomfortable to sit in when eating.

Overall this place was underwhelming, and I would not return for their food only to try their milk and fruit teas.

Parking is very...

It was a Friday night and we caught wind of a new restaurant around Chinatown. I like the food, decor and concept, but the staff could really use a lesson in maximizing table turnover to get more people in and out more efficiently.

We got in around 6:30 and the first thing we noticed was the crowds of people in the entry hall/front bar. They said it would be a 40 minute wait, but it ended up being about 20. I had an Okinawa Milk Tea (the flavor comes from, or is at least based on, a roasted brown sugar syrup) which was fantastic, haven't had anything like it in Chinatown before. My main dish was the BBQ pork rice box. The pork was nice and crispy, but I wish I had a bit more sauce. The egg was flavorful, but not overpowering. The rice was topped with a seaweed-sesame seasoning blend which really brought more depth to the rice.

My biggest gripe came from the service. There was a virtual army of servers, but we had to track down our server after 10-15 minutes of time between finishing our meal and getting the check and again between getting the check and getting cashed out. As tables around us reached similar points in their meal, there was a definite noticable lag time where people would linger after their meal was over despite a crowd of people waited to be seated. The server or wait staff never came to make the closing portion of the meal convenient or quick. I'm not sure if that is a cultural difference, but the outcome is very apparent.

Overall, I like the place, but management should incorporate lessons from American restaurants on simple actions (removing plates as people finish, not after they leave; frequent followup with customers who are near the end of the meal; etc.) that can turn tables faster when training the servers. I would come here again to try some other foods, but I would avoid the big rush times until they get the...

We have visited their Belmont location a few times before we decided to visit their original China Town spot. It is much bigger than their Belmont location and has a much bigger menu. There aren't many authentic Taiwanese restaurants in Chicago, except for maybe Hello Jasmine on Clark, but Taipei Cafe has a more diverse menu and better food value. But if you want to truly enjoy your experience, you have to forget how much these menu items cost in Taiwan. Everything we had were quite authentic except for the hot pot, from the ingredients, to the taste and the presentation. The only slight let down was the Adventurous Hot Pot (大腸臭臭鍋), the main ingredient should be the intestines and the fermented tofu, because the literal translation of this dish in English means "stinky hot pot. The version in Taiwan really "stinks", it is awesome. But it is missing that here. There is no much intestines and fermented tofu but there were Spam, Sausage and even Bean Sprout. You will never find those things in an authentic Taiwnsese stinky hot pot, and it is missing various types of mushrooms, onions and chives. But over all it was acceptable. The bubble tea is literally the best I have ever had in Chicago land. I am taking about the real thing with tapioca , not that funky boba stuff. Making good tapioca is an art, it has to be the right chew. Tapioca it self has no flavors, the trick is to cook it in brown sugar and honey in order to coat the tapioca with those sweet flavors, and there is no need to add additional sugar into the drink itself. This places knows the perfect way to make it, even better than Kung Fu tea does. I will surely come...