Favorite Chicago Chinese Food 2017: Tienstin Restaurant

My 2017 top 10 places for Chinese food and boba in Chicago

1) MCCB
2) A Bite of Szechuan (RIP)
3) Yu-ton Dumpling House
4) Tientsin Restaurant
5) My Place
6) Town Kitchen (RIP)
7) Hello Jasmine
8) Dolo
9) Phoenix
10) Taipei Cafe & Bambu

Prior to MCCB opening, my favorite place for Chinese food was the Richland basement food court.  It should be no surprise then that a few places from the basement ended up on my 2017 top 10 list: Tientsin Restaurant, Town Kitchen, and Hello Jasmine.  Honorable mentions go to Tienstin Potstickers, Snack Planet, and the original dry hot pot stall.  I'll cover all of the basement places in due time, but first up is Tienstin Restaurant.

Though I typically order from multiple stalls for a single meal, Tienstin Restaurant is the one I order most often from.  Their strengths are their dough-centric items and noodle soups.  Here are the things I like the most from Tienstin.

Beef Rib Tomato Soup

If I had to describe this dish to someone I might describe it "Chinese spaghetti with red sauce," and I don't mean that in a disparaging way.  This bowl of noodle soup is warm and comforting.  The sweet and tangy tomato-based broth, pairs nicely with chunks of braised beef rib.  I like the fact that they leave the cartilage on the meat for some added texture.  Noodles, one of the few dough-based items not made from scratch, come from Korea and have a nice chewiness to them.

Xian Bing

Have I had better xian bing?  Probably.  Have I had better xian bing in Chicago?  No.  Can you even find another place that serves xian bing in Chicago?  I'm not actually too sure.  Is Tientsin's xian bing a little greasy on the inside?  Sometimes.

But really the only question that matters here is: is Tientsin's xian bing tasty and should you order it?  Yes.

This is probably the dish I've ordered most from Tientsin, and I think it's listed as "beef pancake" on the menu.  The texture on the dough has a good resilience to it and crunch from the pan.  The filling is extremely juicy, well-seasoned, and scaldingly hot.  I like to eat this with some black vinegar to balance things out.

Stir Fried Pancake W/ Pork & Cabbage

Much like other things that I enjoy from Tienstin, the star for me in this dish is the dough.  The combination of chewy and crispy is great, plus you get crunchy from the cabbage.  Add in a decent amount of wok hei and you have a winner in my book.

Boiled Dumplings

Tienstin's dumpling game is underrated and overshadowed by Qing Xiang Yuan's popularity.  There's nothing really special about their dumplings, just that they're consistently solid.  Plus, you don't have to hassle with uncomfortable seating, an obnoxious electronic tablet-based menu, and a horrible FOH like you do at Qing Xiang Yuan.

Favorite Chicago Chinese Food 2017: MCCB

My 2017 top 10 places for Chinese food and boba in Chicago

1) MCCB
2) A Bite of Szechuan (RIP)
3) Yu-ton Dumpling House
4) Tientsin Restaurant
5) My Place
6) Town Kitchen (RIP)
7) Hello Jasmine
8) Dolo
9) Phoenix
10) Taipei Cafe & Bambu

I’ll admit it: I was jaded when it came to Chicago Chinese food.  Having grown up in the SGV and making regular trips back there after moving to Chicago, the gap in quality was too large to warrant eating Chicago Chinese food on a regular basis.  However, through the help of my wonderful fiancée cluing me in to the latest restaurant developments in Chicago’s Chinatown over the past few years, my opinion has changed quite a bit.

So why am I resurrecting a long dormant blog when Chicago will never be able to compete with the SGV’s sheer number of options and variety of regional specialists?  Because I truly believe that any of the places on my top 10 list could be dropped into the SGV and hold their own and some could even beat out the local competition.  For the first time, I feel like Chicago Chinese food is finally worth talking about, and I hope to eventually write about most of the places on my list.

I’m sure there are many people who will argue that Chicago Chinese food has been worth talking about since a certain convicted felon opened his popular line of restaurants or even earlier than that.  Perhaps, but that’s another reason why I felt like talking about these places.  More often than not, I disagree with local Chicago food critics, writers, and personalities on Asian food.  Our taste in Asian food is just different, and I want to provide a different perspective so that the overlooked places that I enjoy get more visibility.

Up until last summer, if you asked me where to find the best Chinese food in Chicago, I would’ve said the Richland basement food court without hesitation.  Choose wisely, and you can put together a fantastic spread better than any sit down restaurant in Chinatown.  However, if you were to ask me the same question today, my answer would be MCCB.

The idea behind MCCB is to offer Chinese food executed at a higher standard than what’s typically found in Chicago.  Though the chef is Cantonese, the menu freely roams across China.  As long as you know how to navigate the menu, MCCB delivers on its mission to execute at a high level.

Ingredients are cooked with precision, flavors are impactful, and textures are engaging.  The thing that really makes this place special for me is its ability to consistently execute at this level.  I’ve been to MCCB at least a dozen times since their soft opening last summer, and not once have I encountered an issue with the cookery or seasoning.

Even though I’ve eaten here a lot, there are still a couple areas of the menu I need to explore.  That being said, here’s a short list of some of my favorite things to eat there.

Pig Oil Green Onion Cold Noodle

Noodles tossed in rendered lard and what I’m pretty sure is Maggi, topped with sesame seeds and green onion.  The first time I ordered this, I was slightly disappointed to be honest.  Based on the name, I had hopes that it’d be similar to one of my favorite noodle dishes of all time: onion sauce noodles from Emperor Noodles in the SGV.  Sadly they didn’t share much in common, but the more I dug into the bowl of MCCB's noodles, the more it grew on me.  Now, pig oil noodle is a mandatory order for me every time I go.

MCCB White Soup Beef Maws & Tripes

This dish is a masterclass in showcasing offal.  Swimming in a soul-soothing white pepper broth, each type of offal is perfectly cooked and provides their own unique texture.  Quite possibly one of the best offal dishes I've eaten anywhere.

Whole Fish W/ Chinese Sour Pickle & Whole Fish W/ Spicy Szechuan Sauce

I personally prefer the pickle version, but they're both good and have nice mala.  In my opinion, the version of these dishes that live under the “Whole Fish” section of the menu are better than the ones under the “MCCB Entry” section.  The ones under "MCCB Entry" are served in a heated vessel which can sometimes lead to the fish being overcooked and the sauce reducing to spiciness levels that I can’t handle.

Traditional Hong Sue Pork

Pork belly braised to perfection.  Each layer of fat melts like butter and the lean is juicy, tender, and well lacquered.

Chengdu Spicy Dumplings

The dumplings and chili sauce aren’t as good as the old A Bite of Szechuan, but they’re still a good rendition.  I much prefer these to the ones at Damao and found those to have a rubbery texture and borderline inedible level of saltiness.  I really don’t get the hype behind Damao as I didn't enjoy anything I ate there.  Maybe they had an off day when I went, but that just reinforces one of the reasons why I think MCCB is the best Chinese restaurant in Chicago: consistency.

Freezing Okra

Chilled okra with soy sauce and wasabi.  Sounds lame and simple, but there’s just something addictive that I can't explain when those 3 things are combined.

Eggplant in Spicy Garlic Sauce

Light, fluffy, and not greasy at all.  You have to eat this while it's scaldingly hot because once it cools down to a certain point, the eggplant can collapse on itself.