Lao Peng You - Chicago

I really wanted to visit this restaurant for long time. Unfortunately I wouldn’t go back: I love asian food and I am familiar with all kind of asian food. But I can confidently say that it was pretty far from authentic asian food.First of all, every dishes we ordered were heavily salty.. even preserved plum drink was somehow salty too. The cold noodle was flavor-wise good.. it was chewy, crunch and refreshing but too sauce made it salty. Dumplings were homestyle and warm but I wish it wasn’t drained in the salty and sour broth. If I knew it was served like that, I would ask broth on the side. Dumpling itself was pretty savory and salty enough. Lastly, Rou Jia Mo was totally different than what I thought. We ordered pork one and it was sour and just not good. We couldn’t finish it.

Everything about this place rocks. The mushroom and chive dumplings were to die for, and the noodles were outstanding.

We had lunch here on a Saturday. Wait time was a little more than 45 minutes; we waited at a nearby coffee shop until I got the text alert that our table was ready.There is no hostess; you walk up to the counter when you arrive and they will either have you choose a table or let you know how long the wait is. Water, utensils, napkins, extra bowls everything is self serve.Food: Pork and chive dumplings probably my favorite out of everything that we ordered. They were good at first, but they come out in a very salty soup, and the longer they sit in the soup the more they'll soak it up. I ate some toward the end of the meal and they were very salty. I'd advise taking it out of the soup and saving it for later if you're not going to eat them all right away. Beef noodle soup not that much noodle, and the soup wasn't flavored right. Dan dan noodles this dish was not spicy enough and way too salty at the same time.Service was friendly, but I'm rather disappointed with our first experience here. It's generally so well reviewed, I would be willing to give it another try but during off peak hours because I definitely would not wait 45 minutes again for this.

They are my absolute favorite. Food is excellent, my favorites are the mushroom chive dumplings, milk tea, and vegetable noodle soup (triple spicy, it's already flavorful. I'm just a spice lover). The staff have great vibes and a positive attitude, and this is the first restaurant where I will confidently say this. Prices are reasonable because it's an independent business and they use some of the money for staffs medical insurance.

I wanted to try this place after seeing it in The Bear. The place was pretty small and there was a bit of a wait to get a table, but the wait wasn’t that long. It was pretty loud and it was a kinda difficult to hear the servers over the music and other patrons.I had the Beef Noodle soup and Beef dumplings, and they were really good. I was disappointed with the lack of beverage options. It was either slightly chilled tap water or tea (iced, milk, or hot). I ordered milk tea since there weren’t many other options. I felt that it didn’t go well with my meal. A couple non-tea options would’ve been nice.I would definitely try this place again, but I’ll probably just order take out. It didn’t have the best atmosphere for a dinner date.Vegetarian options: There were many vegetarian/vegan options.