Lao Sze Chuan — Restaurant in Lake View Township

The owner stressfully walks thru the restaurant putting everyone on edge. The price hikes ($20 for basic fried rice) and hygiene of the kitchen are just bad. I was once served completely rotten eggplant, and a lot of things just taste... old. You will notice this the next time you go, I promise.

The worst behavior is that the restaurant sometimes throws old bags of raw meat out in the alley to rot for weeks until the someone finally throws it away for them. I see it on my walks, last year there was a bag of I think pork bones sitting and rotting there for almost a month.

Pros: the interior is great, the location is fine, some dishes like the mapo tofu and Mongolian beef (when the beef is fresh, it's horrible how obvious it is when the meat is old) are spiced really well. It isn't usually crowded, which is a plus for us, so the vibe is relaxed except when the owner is there. Just seeing him in the window marching around has made me turn away a couple times.

I recommend the owner stop stressing out the servers, make the menu smaller (like 30 items total) so you're not serving so much 6-month old frozen food, and lower the price. $20 fried rice is crazy, the quality doesn't justify it. $9 is cheap take out, $13 if it's good fried rice, $20 for top end fried rice. The quality of this location's fried rice is between cheap take out and good.

The reason why this place is so empty most of the week (besides a good weekend) is because ppl can taste what's fresh, don't want to overpay for normal Chinese takeout level food, and they want a good atmosphere. Relax a little and don't make me as a customer feel all your...

Had a late lunch at around 1:30 PM on a Friday. They had plenty of seats available. The ambience is modern feeling and the place is a nice temperature. They have a lunch menu until 4pm which is great for people like me who like to try many things but don't want to break the budget. Shanghai Spring Roll=Costco makes better spring rolls. Too much celery taste which made it bitter. Crab Rangoon=Too sweet and too much cream cheese. Mapo Tofu=So disappointed with this dish. I love mapo tofu but hate making it myself. Their sauce was way too sweet and not spicy at all. Eggplant (garlic sauce vs)=I love that the eggplant was crispy. I still don't know how to cook it this way. Could have been more spicy. Dry Chili Chicken=DELICIOUS! Now I know why so many people like this dish here. Great spice to it, wonderfully seasoned, makes you want to eat more rice. Cheng du glutinous rice ball=yummy unexpected dessert. I had expected it to be deep fried but it was steamed instead. It was like sesame seed peanut butter. Yum.

Great staff who are attentive and my husband never saw the bottom of his water glass. One of the better places in Chicago that I've had Chinese food. Will go again to try some...

Gorgeous and fresh food, cozy dining room, great smells welcome you as soon as you enter the restaurant. The combination fried rice and three delights with three chilies entree were delicious. The restaurant is decorated richly and feels expensive but unfortunately the dining experience doesn’t match that. We dined on a Friday evening and they were extremely short staffed, literally one waitress running the whole dining room (which isn’t small) and the pickup orders (which was also a lot) and one other person bussing the dishes from and to the kitchen that was all. They basically had to run around to make it. The service was still not slow though, just out of breath and rushed. The menu is extensive with over a 100 items on it, it might be overwhelming for some, it comes as a takeout menu printed on thin paper and twice folded. We never received a drink menu, when we asked they said they had only beer, coke and ginger ale available. The vibes make you think they would have a full bar with a cocktail and wine menu 🤷‍♀️ Overall it felt like watching a movie with un-synced subtitles. I would come back here for the wonderful food and not expect anything more than low key vibes,...