Saucy Porka Hyde Park — Restaurant in Hyde Park Township

Saucy Porka comes to Hyde Park fuzing latin and asian flavors in a counter-order style atmosphere, taking over the former Bergstein's NY Deli space on 55th street. Their menu is somewhat all over the place, featuring bao tacos (aka. bacos), sandwiches, soups, rice bowls, and a smattering of appetizers. I love bao, and that attracted me to this place, but ultimately their offerings were a disappointment. The meats in these bao are just bland and tasteless, despite being covered in sauce. The tofu ginger bao tasted as if the fried tofu was prepackaged, and it was overwhelmed with an uninspiring bbq sauce of sorts. The barbacoa kimcho bao offered very little asian flavor with subpar barbacoa beef. After eating takeout, my partner said she much preferred my homemade bao compared to these offerings. The Ho Chi Minh sandwich was packed with chicken, but it was nothing to savor, and needed more of the fresh carrot/veggie toppings to balance out the chicken and provide much needed flavor. The star of the meal was the chorizo eggroll, because well, chorizo is delicious! Hyde Park has seen a lot of trends come and go (Pack'd Dumplings, Yusho Ramen, and Cemitas Puebla). Saucy Porka has an advantage in that they are more reasonably priced than these now closed options, but I fear the food might miss the mark in a...

Food 3/5: everything was prepared well. I only question the recipes, not for their fusion, but lack thereof. This is still worth revisiting for Five Spice Duck, which has yet to be tried.

Duck Gumbo: The weakest seasoned of my order, this was more broth than not. Make it like pho and add sides of lime wedges, chiles, jalapenos and/or serrano peppers.

Chorizo Egg Roll: They look like Chili's Southwestern Eggroll but thankfully carry more texture. However, as starchy as they may be, Chili's has more flavor.

Funky Monkey Fries: Best flavor of the three dishes tried. They remind one of Chili's starchy Southwestern Eggrolls.

Service 5/5: nicest people one could find. Very attentive as well.

Atmosphere 4/5: clean although those floors were sticky, perhaps on purpose so that no one slipped? Next: the disposal area. Like a barbecue eatery, there's a trash receptacle with a sign to leave plates and such on top of same. What about a separate container for utensils, like those barbecue places have? That might make things easier for the workers. Last: I wasn't offered a way to tip electronically. Some, such as myself, may want to, but don't carry cash. Please let customers tip the workers...

Tried this wonderfully flavorful and family friendly spot today and the whole family found dishes they loved. Not sure how in the world I missed this spot but Bacos were spicy and sweet, the rice dish with pork was a can’t miss and even my picky middle child ate four different dishes and this dude never samples new stuff. Big compliments to the chef, owner and the great service on a day where we wanted something easy. They even accommodated our families request for no peanuts and tree nuts. We will be back next week for sure and try five more dishes. For reference, we enjoyed Mexi Pho, paella, Puerto Rican rice, bau bun tacos and it was just a healthy good Meal. Whole Family ate all the above for $50 which for a family of five is like hard to beat the value. Appreciated the experience for real. Only part of a meal that wasn’t a 10 out of 10, was the spicy sausage in the paella and that was more of a relative eating. If the other food wasn’t so delicious probably would have...