Lao Sze Chuan - Highland Park

The rain was lightly drizzling as we entered the restaurant. We choose a table by a large window and the waiter promptly brought out the menus. After scouring through the large selection of menu items we decided to share a jellyfish appetizer, xiao long bao and a pork ribs dry pot. We were quite intrigued by the jellyfish; it's texture was similar to the vegetables in the appetizer but it was good nonetheless. The xiao long bao were familiar, warm and juicy. The dry pot is what I was looking forward to the most. It didn't disappoint; it was dizzyingly spicy, savory and the pork ribs and vegetables blended well. Not recommended for the faint hearted though. If I could change just one thing, it would be to put more pork in it. Overall lunch was warm, well seasoned, filling and a little adventurous even as the rain continued to drum outside. Definitely want to return to try more things next time.

We ordered Mongolian beef but this is more like onion stir-fry beef and onions are in big chunks and pieces. They also used PLASTICS containers with really HOT soup.. which is scary

They offer a wide variety of dishes, and everything I?ve tried has been quite good. I?m not Chinese, but I imagine a lot of these dishes are more authentic than typical Chinese-American restaurants. One word of caution, when they say spicy, they mean spicy.

The food was fine... however, I?m complaining about the fact that two employees were playing music from their phones the entire time I was eating. This was extremely annoying. I?m not coming back.

We ordered takeout. I was expecting amazing things based on the price. It was just okay. I wouldn 't pay that much in the future for the same food I can get elsewhere around town for less money.