Lao Peng You — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

It was our first time here, and I really wanted to love this place, and I’m willing to try again but……

We expected more….and it just missed the mark. Upon walking in the interior looks as if you will enjoy a calm, cozy, and family friendly atmosphere.

It was hard to tell what kind of restaurant experience we were supposed to enjoy. I think a carefully curated playlist that speaks to the identity, brand, and story of the restaurant would make the atmosphere gel a little better with the menu and dinning style.

To add a bit of context. You come in and are put down on the wait list, where you can expect to wait for at least an hour. The music is a mix of house, pop, and jazz. Which I generally love but it was so loud it was hard to hear myself in conversation. The dining space is so small you can hear everyone’s conversation, we’re all speaking loudly, because the music is loud, so we speak even louder over each other to hear each other, and it was overwhelming.

There are servers on the floor but you walk up to submit your order as if it’s a dinner, and everything else is self serve. A dinner, walk-up-to-the-counter-and-order-experience could’ve been great, but for the price point, and the wait time, I expected… more.

It’s a challenge to get around the front of house if you’re a thicker girly or bigger person; family with small children; or would generally need accommodations. The chairs are wobbly which made me feel as if I was one wrong move from falling and tipping over. This isn’t the kind of dinning space that would be able to accommodate large parties. I saw a family with a young child and stroller, as we were signing up for the wait list, struggling to move around the space, by the time they were leaving.

For the price point the food was ok. There isn’t anything that particularly stood out to me. It was generally enjoyable, but I left unsatisfied. For reference we ordered the pork and dill dumplings and the beef noodle soup. The noodles were really thick but didn’t hold too much flavor. The beef was good. The dumpling were ok, but at one point all we could taste was dill. The broth with the dumplings was alright.

I think a far better place, worth the one hour wait time, and the price point is Hing Kee dumplings in China Town. They never miss, and we’ve been going there for years. It’s food that hits the soul and is good medicine!

For how much I spent at Lao Peng I expected more, instead I left with a headache, and still hungry. Hoping it’ll be...

Visited twice in one weekend because I really wanted to like this place. It’s a shame since they seem to have great ideas for their menu and yummy ingredients (e.g. decent quality meat) however my experiences there have been very hit and miss.

First time I got the pork and chive dumplings, which were good, and the beef noodle soup. Unsure if the noodle soup had sichaun pepper or something else but the broth had that flavor where it isn’t actually spicy but your tongue is numb and every bite of the noodle soup tasted unbelievably salty. It may have been a bad batch or maybe it’s the pepper flavor I don’t personally like but it literally tasted like salt (no other flavor to the broth). I love the thicker rice noodles so I still enjoyed as much as I could.

On my second visit I decided to get the chicken noodle soup. I asked if it had the same chilli/pepper as the beef and they confirmed yes. I asked if I could get it without it, which they were able to do (I saw the register screen had my order with “no chilli”). Disappointed that it didn’t come out with the thicker rice noodles so I didn’t enjoy it as much .

Whilst it did not have the sichuan pepper in it or the overly salty flavor, it was very spicy… I appreciate everyone’s definition of spice is different but the best I can describe is if you accidentally swallow the soup in the wrong way, you have the overpowering burning sensation through your sinuses and ears, and your lips have a burning feelings afterwards due to the spice. Given the beef noodle soup wasn’t actually spicy, it was considerably spicier. It didn’t bother me as much but if I was someone who asked for “no chilli” because they couldn’t eat spicy food, it would have been inedible.

The other reason why my rating is so low is because I waited about 45 mins for my meal (I was seated at 2pm on a Sunday and didn’t get my meal until close to 3pm). I appreciate restaurants get busy but that wait time for a casual restaurant (where you order at the counter and get your own water and silverware) is silly.

The service staff weren’t necessarily rude but definitely had a “do not care” attitude. No “sorry” for the wait, overall very minimal effort and interaction with customers.

Again, really wanted to like this place as Chicago is lacking good Chinese dumplings. Knowing that I can get food for a third of the price in chinatown or just overall better food and service at a chain like Din Tai Fung, I am unfortunately very...

Inexcusably consistently long wait times. We were told our food would be ready in 60 minutes. We ordered 1 beef noodle soup, 1 beef and green onion dumpling soup, and 1 Xian bing. We come back in 60 minutes, and are told it'll be ready "in just a few more minutes" - add 10 extra minutes for a total wait time of 70 minutes for 2 soup dishes, and 1 piece of bread.

Xian bing - great filling cumin flavor. That being said, whoever's in charge of bing pastry needs to go back to China and pay attention, or quit. The exterior was like a thick cracker, instead of how it should have been: crispy on the outside, and soft and flaky on the inside. Think petrified pillsbury biscuit that could double as a hockey puck. For the quality and size that you received, these are worth $2.50/each, not the $10 they charge.

Beef noodle soup was $19 and had an alright flavor, beef quality was great, and plenty of fresh herb toppings that were packed neatly for takeout. Noodle texture and flavor was that of al dente fettuccine - not chewy, elastic, and bouncy like authentic la mian. I suspect eggs were incorporated in the noodle recipe.

Beef and green onion dumpling soup was $14 and had decent flavor, however I was expecting more intensity based on photos. Dumpling filling ok. Dumpling skins were thinned and already falling apart when we got back home - think leftover dumplings that are kept in the fridge for 2 days then reheated. Not terrible, but not chewy and elastic like they should have been.

Overall glad we tried, but this place reeks of cultural appropriation. The dishes look great online (which is what drew us in in the first place), but taste wise we found ourselves feeling very underwhelmed.

Not authentic. Over priced. Over hyped. Subpar service. Inexcusable wait times. We will not be back.

Also a 4% employee health insurance surcharge is automatically added to your tab. Which felt insulting after waiting 70 minutes for 2 soup dishes and a $10...