Absolutely delicious! I had crispy garlic shrimp and my hubby had the Kung pow (sp?) combo. Both were tasty. The peppers in the Kung pow even made my Mexican husband's eyes water so be ready for some heat.
We also had pot stickers that were excellent and spring rolls that while tasty, were cold in the middle (shockingly cold). Aside from that we had a wonderful dinner and will definitely return. All that for $34 (included complimentary tea)...Not too bad at all. Â We will definitely be back.
Came here on the coooldest day ever and it was completely empty. Warmed up with some awesome hot pot. I let my more experienced friends do all the ordering, I just made sure they got lots of meat. And meat we got! The best were the balls of meat, the white fish (think it was flounder), and even the sandwich meat (kinda like spam) was good. I can't think of a single thing that I didn't like after we cooked it in the broth. Wish I could give more specific examples but like I said, I didn't do the ordering, just the eating!
Review Source:Double li is a treat! Â It's a really nice place for a date or to get together with friends (BYOB!), although it is unassuming as ever. Â We were adventurous & ordered the pigs ear & oh my it was delicious. Â It is sliced thinly & served cold so it is definitely not what I expected, but it tasted like thinly sliced cold bacon. Â I liked it very much. Â My favorite dish was mapo tofu. Â Poket tofu is also, & they give you a generous amount of veggies with it, but I like mapo tofu better because it is spicy. Â My boyfriend is a big fan of the dry chili chicken! Â They are usually pretty slow to get your check, but the food is so good I usually don't want to leave anyway.
Review Source:NEVER come here. I wish I could give negative stars!
The restaurant was Szechuan-style but all waitresses I saw there were all from northeast China.
The service is terrible.
I visited here with my friend. We asked for extra rice for several times and finally it was served after 15 minutes.
I asked to check then waited another 10 minutes. Then the waitress left again. I gave up and thought I'd better check directly at the cashier's.
Guess what? The waitress said I need to pay more tips! Alight, I then added $1. She was still not satisfied, then she took out a calculator and showed me how much I needed to pay for tip! Since the waitress was from northeast China, where people are well known as rude, unreasonable, and collude with gangdom, I didn't think it's a good idea to argue with her, especially when there was no mobile network coverage in case I needed to call police.
The rating on Yelp is unreasonable high. They must cheated on this.
Save your money, time, and life. KEEP AWAY FROM HERE!!
This restaurant made me remember the saying Don't judge a book by its cover.
I took the red eye flight to Chicago last weekend for a wedding. By the time I was well rested it was pretty late, so my fiancee and I decided to have a late lunch in China town. We found Double Li on yelp and went with gut instinct. We had a hard time finding it due to the way its entrance is set up. Also due to the odd hour, we were the only ones there. The place looked pretty run down and not very appealing. Call it being hungry or adventurous, we decided to give it a shot!
BEST DECISION EVER! We were in a mood for some dumplings and fish in chilli sauce, both of which did not disappoint! The food was delicious and everything we imagined. I wish we had more of an appetite to try something else. The hostess who seemed also like the owner was very warm. We had some fabulous fish in schezwan sauce in Boston, since then we have been craving and looking for that entree everywhere. I can happily say we found it in Chicago. The price was very reasonable and the meal had good portions to it.
For any tourists or local people I would highly recommend this restaurant.
When I walked into this unassuming restaurant by chance a few days ago I knew I'd hit a home run. There were hand-writtten Specials in Chinese characters pasted to the wall, which indicated I would find some authentic Chinese food. All I had wanted to do was to  escape from the 105F heat after traipsing around with a 7 year old to buy a pink parasol to match her cheongsam.  Problem: The 7 year old only eats food that has no color or taste and my 20-something daughter, who was with us, doesn't like anything cooked with oil. I like spicy food, the more oil the better. What to do?
The menu choices and the cheerful willingness of the restaurant to accommodate everyone's wishes saved the day. From the menu we ordered a noodle soup (for the 7 year old), and a vegetable and tofu soup as a back up. The flavors of both were delicate but delicious and everyone loved them. The 7 year old gobbled up the noodles, of course, and even asked for more of the tasty broth. Â
My daughter asked if they could prepare for her a steamed vegetable dish with steamed chicken (not on the menu, for understandable reasons). It turned out to be a good call because the 7 year old surprised us both by woofing the broccoli and pea pods -- and they're not even white! I gave the steamed stuff a miss, but to please me we also ordered a spicy beef dish from the menu that was truly delicious. Even my daughter agreed. The 7 year old passed on that one.
I don't go to Chinatown very often because there are not many restaurants whose food tempts me back, but I'll certainly be going back to Double Li. In China I've eaten some great food, hard to find in most restaurants here, but that spicy beef dish was the real deal.
Great old-school Sichuanese food, reminds me of home. Everything tasted pretty on-spot, and it's less glittery and commercialized than Lao Szechuan. My only complaint was that the la zi ji ding was a little too dry for my tastes, but that might be just catering to Americans. And the spiciness was thankfully authentic!
tl;dr: Come here for real Sichuanese food! Not your standard American/Americanized fare.
Needed some dinner with my fiance before seeing a movie on a Saturday night and the wait at Lao Sze Chuan was 40 minutes. Â So I pulled up Yelp and tried to find something decent that wasn't going to take forever, and wasn't Phoenix since we eat there all the time and I was insisting on something new.
We found Double Li tucked away in an unassuming area directly across from the arch that takes you into the main Chinatown strip.
*** FOOD (5 stars) ***
First off, their menu is huge. Â Don't be overwhelmed.
The Szechuan Dumplings are what I was hoping for, dumplings served in essentially a soup of sauce that you fish out on a spoon. The sauce was great, but the dumplings themselves were a little light on flavor.
We also ordered a pork dish that I'm blanking on but was essentially julienned pork, celery, and bamboo with a nice sauce. Â And my fiance got a shrimp dish with I think a black bean sauce that was also good.
By far the best dish, and perhaps one of the best dishes of Chinese food I've ever eaten in my entire life (and I have eaten a lot) was their home-style chicken special. Â Picture a metal pot brought to your table and filled with mushrooms, bamboo, tons of dried chiles, a million szechuan peppercorns, and bite-size chunks of chicken (some still on the bone) that is both crispy, and extremely juicy at the same time.
My fiance HATES spicy food and I can't get enough. Â She was brave enough to try this after she smelled how good it was, and because the peppercorns numb your tongue to the heat (and make your mouth tingle), she was able to eat this, and even she agreed it was unreal how good it was.
If you go here, you MUST MUST MUST order this dish. I couldn't stop eating it, literally, and almost ate myself sick.
*** Service (5 stars) ***
Contrary to other reviews, our service was great. Â We had a very nice waitress who explained everything to us, talked to us about the restaurant, the food, etc. Â She even went into detail about how the home-style chicken is made because it is her favorite dish too.
*** Atmosphere (3 stars) ***
They aren't going to win any design contests. Â However if you enjoy small and cozy hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurants with amazing food, this is where you go. Â I personally enjoy that environment.
The first time I came here I wasn't that impressed. Had the hot pot for two.
Second time I came here with two others and ordered some authentic food. Also ordered two glasses of water. The surprise is finding mold (not sure how old it is since I didn't take some for bio sample). I guess this happens when not that many orders ice water. The tea was fine.
Service was slow since there was only one waitress. Took a long time to order and pack to go.
Food: 3. tastes fine but nothing too special.
Price: 4. Â is reasonable for the amount served. Not the best, but doable.
Atmosphere: 3. Pretty dim in there. Also quiet if you don't more than two big tables of Chinese people (not meaning to be racist, but they can be very loud...)
Decor: 2 regular tables and chairs. Not ridiculously comfortable. Had a few paintings around. Tables were sticky....
Service: 3 there were like 4 tables of people (three small and one big one) and the waitress hung around the kitchen a while and it was difficult to get a hold of her. She checked up on us once.
I don't know if I want to come back next time though.
Great spicy food. Excellent cool appetizers!!! I like their those recommended dishes! Please do not mention the pot-stickers or the sweet sour chicken,if you want those you might wanna go another place. BUT, if you really want some great and real Szechuan spice food, come here! BTW, I have no idea why people would prefer Lao SzeChuan, it might be famous but they are more doing the show than the food~
Review Source:DO NOT EAT HERE!!!!!!
The food and service at this restaurant here is terrible. Below are the reasons why.
1) Pot stickers - dough was thick and dry. Meat inside was burned beyond recognition. It doesn't even taste like something from the freezer. There was no taste. Just plain disgusting.
2) Mongolian Beef - very very sweet - tasted like nontenderized meat. It was very chewy, and they added sugar to this dish! Typically this dish should be more dry, and use black peppers and onions for flavor. Nothing of this kind was used for the dish.
3) String beans - they were thrown into the deep fryer, so the string beans was served on a plate with the skins already peeled. Very strange. It was almost crunchy rather than soft.
4) Shredded pork with flat noodles - cooked with ladle upon ladle of vinegar sauce, and Siracha Thai sauce. Huh? this is by far the weirdest dish of all that we ordered.
5) Deep fried Tofu with sauteed mushrooms - This was by far the worst dish that was ordered. Waaaay to salty, I can only taste the spices and red/yellow peppers that were used in the dish. Completely inedible.
My family and I had to call the waitstaff over and complain about the last dish: deep fried Tofu with sauteed mushrooms. We said prior to us ordering this dish that none of us can eat anything salty or anything that is spicy. We requested originally to have them cook it without these things; they obliged. However, when the dish was served to us, it was just the opposite. When we requested that they remove the item from our food bill and give us a menu to select something else to eat, waitstaff and management refused.
We were told that no dishes after it has been served can be returned, refunded, or exchanged for anything in the restaurant. Once it's served, its yours. My dad told them to take the item away. The cook and waitstaff came out and stared at us, speaking in Mandarin Chinese thinking we did not understand them. Very sad actually. Next they returned to our table, with our dish again five minutes later!!!! Â The waitstaff mentioned that they had "WASHED" our meal by rinsing the entire tofu and mushrooms in WATER!!!!
We were shocked that they would actually dilute and literally wash down our meal with water and serve it to us AGAIN, especially after we had specifically told them that they should take away the dish and take it off the menu.
We immediately asked for the bill. It turns out for the items we ate as listed above, it cost us $65.00. We were overcharged, because it turns out that not only did the management and waitstaff refuse to take the last dish off the menu, they charged us using DINNER MENU prices!!!! Apparently they have two menus: one for regular customers since they come here for hot pot and order out, and another for dine in menu (for tourists and typical ABC/American Born Chinese) folks like myself.
The service here is just horrible. After the experience, the staff did not even once return to our table. They were busy greeting and saying hello to all the Caucasian /tourist folks coming in to eat. Â Stay away from the waitress who has a haircut resembling that of Darth Vader.
Stay away from this place. This is not a good place for service, or for food.
Food: 4 Stars
Service 2 Stars
Average: 3 Stars
Food:
Really like the food. Â Everything I order from them either has 2 or 3 chili peppers on the menu. Â The spiciness is definitely different from Lao Sze Chuan and to me, some of the dishes are even hotter.
Highly recommend boiled fish fillet in Szechuan sauce. Â Very soft, silky fish with very spicy oil Szechuan sauce.
Service:
I am Asian, I know what one typically expect the service at a Chinese restaurant. A lot of the time I let it slide because as long as the food is good, I don't are if their service is not up to par. Â But the last time I was there, it was Christmas Day. Â The wait time was 1+ hour and there was no place to wait around other than near the door or outside. Â The place was packed and it doesn't look like a lot of the people already seated either placed their orders yet or got their food yet. The server yelled at me because they were short-staffed and all I asked was if I could come back in 1 hour for my table. Â And she did this in front of all the customers. Â I felt embarrassed since everyone was looking at me to see what was going on. Â To make matters worse, she was speaking to me in Chinese and everyone probably thought I said something nasty to her. Â I left the place immediately, but was definitely humiliated by the server. Â Not a good way to treat your frequent customer.
I'd been here about a year and a half ago and really had a lot of different foods and had a great experience all around, well except for a few taste buds burnt to a crisp from the seasonings. Based on my memories of my other visit I decided to go back today and give myself a treat for lunch. I wish I'd have gone to McDonald's instead! The only reason I'm giving the Double Li 2 stars is because the restroom was very clean and smelled of bleach.
I started my lunch with pot stickers. The pot stickers themselves were a little overcooked and a couple of the 6 were downright crunchy. They had very little flavor, so it's hard to say if they were good or bad the taste was so faint. Â As for the sauce that comes with the pot stickers it was OK. It wasn't the best or worst pot sticker sauce I've ever eaten.
For my main course I had sweet and sour shrimp that came with white rice. Maybe I'm just naturally a cheap person, but it seems to me that for $12 for a regular priced meal (as in NOT a $5 lunch special) I'd think it should come with a soup and an egg roll. At the time I was so disappointed in the 2 items I did get that I couldn't figure out what was missing until just now when typing this paragraph. OK, based on that I'm now bumping my review down to a 1 star rating.
The sweet and sour shrimp was totally absent of flavor. Neither the coating on the shrimp or the shrimp itself had any flavor whatsoever except for the oil it was cooked in. I got so desperate for some flavor that I was totally drowning it in sweet and sour sauce and even that was almost flavorless. Normally even in the worst Chinese restaurants the sweet and sour sauce has lots of flavor, but not here today.
As far as the rice goes apparently they are no longer serving good Asian rice and have gone to using the terrible flavorless American grown variety. If they're going to serve flavorless food the least they could do is serve a good rice with it.
I'm not exaggerating the least bit when I say I'd have enjoyed my lunch much more if I'd have stopped at McDonald's for a double cheeseburger and a coke. I'm not a big fan of McDonald's so that's a pretty good indication of how disappointing this lunch was. Oh, I guess I should give them credit the coke was from a can so it was good.
I went to Double Li's expecting to have a 4 or 5 star eating experience like I did last time I was there and walked away $20 plus a tip poorer. The server was friendly so I felt she earned her tip even if the kitchen staff had tried their best to make it almost impossible for her to have happy customers.
Shame on Double Li I will NOT be returning to this establishment in the future. In the last year and a half they've completely dropped their standards. There are to many other good to great restaurants in Chinatown for me to waste my money at this place again.
P.S. Â Unlike a previous diner I was given both a lunch menu and a regular menu when I sat down. Â I was prepared to insist on it based on a previous review, but they at least did provide both to me. Â So I guess the other reviewers experience is not necessarily the norm here which is good.
Sadly, racism is alive and well at Double Li. Â I have been a lawyer for 25 years, so this is not a charge I level casually.
I went by myself after a weekday work meeting for lunch. Â I was the only table at noon. Â I got the menu -- several pages, no lunch specials. Â I ordered an entree ($10, dry chili chicken) and soup ($1.50, hot and sour). Â I am a white, non-Chinese guy.
Next table to come is was a Chinese couple. Â They were given a one page menu only, and then ordered. The waitress took their menus and slid them underneath a stack of the big menus that I got. Â I walked up and asked her to see one. Â Guess what? Â A lunch menu, with a host of $5 selections! Â I asked her why I was not given the menu, and she said, "Too small." Â (FYI, I am 6 feet tall but not at all big.) Â I saw the portion size of the Chinese couple's lunch, and it looked perfectly standard for a lunch service. Â My chicken dish was larger than I needed, and I finished only about 2/3 of it and half the soup.
This is disgraceful conduct for a restaurant. Â Shame on them.
Also, I can report that the food was OK, but far inferior to Lao Sze Chuan, which is in the big mall two blocks away. Â The dry chili chicken here was breaded, and the breading prevented the dish from being smoky and spicy as it is prepared at Lao Sze Chuan (and in China, as well). Â Soup was standard, boring, nothing special.
Double Li is my go-to restaurant for Sichuan-style Chinese food. I like that it isn't as crowded as Lao Sze Chuan and the food is of better quality in my opinion. I particularly like the Dry Chili Chicken and Kung Pao Tofu. I ordered the Ma Po tofu, but found it to be too spicy for my liking (this is one dish I like better at Lao Sze Chuan because it's not as spicy).
I find Double Li's noodles dishes to be  a bit on the bland side, so you definitely have to ask them to spice them up. Service is good; attentive, but not obtrusive. Overall, Double Li is one of my favorite restaurants in Chinatown and I've been there many times and will continue to do so.
Double Li is a hidden, non-Cantonese gem.
Pepper it up! Turn up the spice notch!
Douse the fire in your mouth? Dare you not. Let the flavors savor.
Some of what we ordered:
1) Beef with Yu Shan Bean Sauce
2) Chicken with Orange Peel
3) Black Pepper Garlic Beef Tender Loin
4) Szechwan String Bean
5) Mapo Tofu
6) Dry Chili Chicken
P.S. If you're not a fan for spicy dishes, I urge you to go elsewhere. Take up the challenge and you may result in perspiration and perhaps a scorched tongue.
P.P.S. Space can get a little tight when you have big groups. Our group of 20 took up the center of the restaurant and I was glad I didn't sit with a lefty. (I'm not discriminating.)
I went here on Friday with my boyfriend on our way to the White Sox/Tigers game. Â We wanted to grab some delicious food in China Town beforehand, and we looked on Yelp for advice on where to head for that scrumptious meal. Â I must say that Yelpers did not do us wrong this time, as we were very pleased with the food overall. Â
Complimentary tea is set on your table, piping hot. Â We ordered spring rolls to start off with. Â Okay - not always the best thing to order as your starter, but some places have really badass spring rolls. Â Not Double Li. Â They just had no flavor. Â The sweet and sour that came with the rolls was delicious though. Â Combo fried rice to share - fantastic. Â Garlic & Pepper Beef Tenderloin - AMAZING! Â A previous reviewer said it was too salty....overall, ours wasn't all that salty, but it was most certainly strong. Â I love my garlic though, and didn't mind sweating any of it out at the game and stinking out all the people around me :)
I'd love to come back here and try more food sometime, including the hot pots. Â I would most certainly return here.
We boxed up our leftovers and nommed on the remains at the game.
One of the best Chinese food places hands down in Chicago! The food here is VERY FLAVORFUL and very authentic. If you are not used to pepper and spice, this place may not be for you. Â Dirty, authentic Chinese, the way I like it. Â My favorites here:
1. Szechuwan Dumplings
2. Garlic Beef Tenderloin
3. Â Green beens w/ pork
4. Eggplant
5. Dried Chilli Chicken
Yummy!! I actually dreamt of the beef here, and I'm not joking!
Honestly as good as it gets! I havent been to china but I can tell you this food is good!! Â I went with 2 other people and we each orders something. Â The portions were such a good size we were able to put everything in the middle and share. Â I LOVED the crab rangoon.
The food came out right away. Â Definitely going back.
I have read good reviews of this place on various websites, but never figured out where the actual restaurant is located. We found it and ordered
Black pepper garlic beef (recommended by toc) Â - too salty, which means it goes well with rice. It strongly reminded me of the salted crispy chicken in Taiwan, but not as good
Beef noodle soup - ok, the noodles could have more bite to it.
The food was ok. Maybe we are not ordering the right ones?
I have to first start off by giving you background on my hunt for great Chinese in Chicago. I had a month where every other day I went to a different restaurant in Chinatown to eat lunch...needless to say I had not landed on anything that would inspire me to write a review. My search has finally led me to a place worthy of my time.
Hands down this place has some of the tastiest Chinese food I've had in a while. Of course not all the things we ordered were mind blowing, but we had Kung Pao, Peppered Beef, Scallion Pancakes, and quite a few other items that I would put in the great category.
Now the hot and sour soup was just like everywhere else...uneventful and well just o.k. And, the use entirely too much celery as a filler on the plates. Which is totally unnecessary because 8 of us ate there for about $100.00 including tip. They could totally just give you the same amount of the main course and ditch the fillers.
The service was a lot like other comments as things just arrived when they arrived. We were ready for it, and just served ourselves family style as it came out. The place is relatively small, and a bit dingy, but normal for a small establishment. The funniest thing was when we finally noticed that "I heard it through the grapevine" was on a short skip repeat for nearly 30 mins. It made it clear to us that service and ambiance are not as high on the priority list as the food..all said and done, I could live that just fine.
My advice chill out and eat good food here. Hope that helped.
My first journey to Chinatown did not completely disappoint. The food itself was a solid four stars. There were three of us and we ordered the lamb with cumin, pork with garlic sauce and the pork intestine with pork blood. Everyone enjoyed their meals.
The down side was the waiting. I was fine waiting for the food, but there was a whole 20 minutes or more from the time the first 2 dishes were brought to the table to the time the last person's meal was presented. I'm giving them a bit of benefit of the doubt, because I know if we were eating our dishes family style, it would not have mattered. But we had to ask where the third dish was and never got an answer just an "Oh."
So if you go (and you should) just be aware that service is a bit flighty and be prepared to just start eating when any dish shows up and share your food with the person who has to wait.
I hate having to be that guy who dwells on the service in his reviews but when the experience of waiting is more memorable than the food, I kinda have to.
Oh, I was also told that it was the cleanest bathroom in a Chinese restaurant my friend had ever seen.
I went back and ordered the black pepper garlic beef tenderloin and the baby octopus.
The beef was good. You can really taste the garlic flavor. I thought the portion was a bit small and the broccoli had a bitter taste too it.
The baby octopus was not too my liking. My guy thought it had a funny taste to it. I thought there would be like a broth to it, but it was dry. Just way too much going on in that pot for me.
I still think most of the dishes were good and worth going back for.
I really really really wanted to like double li. I'm a big fan of szechwan food and have been disappointed by the slow but sure mainstreamization of lao szechwan to cater to the bland palettes of unworthy mortals. I expected more from double li but that did not happen. The food was good, just not clearly better (or more szechwan) than lao szechwan. The boiled fish in spicy broth was my head-to-head comparison. Double Li seemed more authentic (with more szechwan peppercorns) but less flavorful than lao szechwan. I did love the eggplant in plum sauce and the string beans. Twice cooked duck was decent was it seemed that one of the cookings of the duck was a while ago.
I would go there again go to give it another shot but probably not after it. My quest for better szechwan food in chicago continues.
After some yelp researching, we settled on this place for some authentic Chinese food. Â I'm not sure whether I had high expectations, but we found this place to be just OK.
We wanted to try everything and figured we'd order more and have leftovers. Â We got the potstickers, the beef fried rice, chicken lo mein, black pepper garlic tenderloin, and the dry chili chicken. Â My favorite of those were the potstickers and the fried rice. Â I liked the tenderloin but some pieces just had too many spices for my taste whereas I felt that the dry chili chicken could use more flavor - it was just fried chicken. Â I really liked the lo mein noodles, but would prefer them a little less oily. Â There must be something about Chinese food, but I always overeat and then feel it later. Â At the end, I wasn't really excited to take any of the leftovers home.
It was all okay, but nothing stood out to be stellar. Â I would come back if I was in the area, but am still on the search for my "go-to" Chinese place.
Giving a restaurant 5 stars based on only 1 visit and sampling 2 dishes might be a bit much, but I will definitely return for more.
The ambiance isn't exactly anything to write home about, but that's not why you eat in Chinatown. Â Unless you're weird.
You must eat the black pepper garlic beef tenderloin. Â The meat was tender (duh - the menu tells you that), and the garlic flavor really shone through without being overly strong. Â We dipped the uninspired pieces of steamed broccoli ringing the plate into the ma po tofu sauce. Â The latter dish, which is meatless, was pleasantly spicy with a nice peppercorn tingle. Â The portions were huge, so we need to round up a group next time to sample more.
The weird part came after the meal. Â My husband asked for more rice to take home with our leftovers and the server refused. Â This all went down in Chinese, and since he's a little rusty and the server might not be a native Mandarin speaker, he asked again when she returned to our table. Â She said that rice is expensive these days, but we thought it was odd that she didn't just tell us it would cost an extra dollar or two, which we would've been happy to pay.
Aside from that, Double Li was good.
This is an awesome restaurant if you want Sichuan food.
Don't expect a grand atmosphere but the place was quiet and clean. Our waitress was friendly. And there was no line to get into the place. These are not qualities typically found in a Chinatown restaurant.
But, the best thing about this place is the FOOD! Outside of dim sum, I pretty much only eat at Sichuan restaurants when I want Chinese and this place has excellent Sichuan food. I had the Sichuan chicken with chili peppers and the baby octopus. Both were delicious, especially the spicy baby octopus dish. I was surprised at how much seafood they gave us.
The prices are reasonable and the food is excellent. No lines and the place is quiet. This makes it a five-star Chinese restaurant if you're in the mood for spicy food.
This is definitely a five-star Szechuan restaurant. Â The menu has some of the classics, but more importantly many dishes you just don't see anywhere else. Â Be warned, this is not safe Chinese food. Â Everything has very distinctive flavors and textures. Â And don't be surprised by the szechuan peppercorns they use in some of the dishes. Â They're supposed to make your tongue tingle.
If you're interested in trying unique Szechuan flavors, this is the best option by far in Chicago. Try the egg-yolk battered shrimp or crab, the black pepper tenderloin, or the eggplant in garlic sauce. Â All are excellent and not too crazy. Â Then work your way up to the duck tongue, tendon, or home-style octopus (spicy!).
Spicy Sichuan at it's best! The standard fare (hot/sour soup and crab rangoons) were decent, but the highlights are the entrees. Baby octopus was so unique and deliciously crunchy, chewy and swimming in mushrooms and hot red peppers. I recommend getting only one "home style" cooked entree, because the spice is NOT toned down here, you will be sweating. It was nice to have some garlic eggplant to cut the spice with. 3 huge entrees and 2 apps for under $40, so amazing.
Our waitress was a doll, the water and tea always topped off. Can't wait to go back and try the tofu pockets others have raved about!
When it's time for me to go, stir-fry me dry chili style. Like the amazing duck tongue and bella mushroom dish I had last night. Me so cartilaginous!
Three stars, but just for the moment. My first visit, about 15 months ago, was that sort of middling gringo-can't-get-them-to-cook-authentically experience; this time, Taiwanese American in tow, service was just as bad but they didn't dumb down the flavor profiles--always nice to see the HFCS kept away from my food--to the assumed white-people-in-CT levels. I need to go back on my own for a final test...more soon.
The pocket tofus is great, btw--even grandma would love it!
We chose from Ben Li's recommendations on the first page of the Menu. The Crab Rangoon was very good, not the best I've ever had but can't complain there. Some of the other reviews on Yelp recommended the Pepper Garlic Beef Tenderloin, I got that and it lived up to its billing. So we are thinking atleast 4 stars on Yelp.
We then got the Baby Octopus Hoe Style, it was brought sizzling to the table and it looked super appetizing. But it had an overpowering ammonia stench, we took a little nibble realized that this wasn't working for us. We reported this to the waitress, she was having trouble understanding English. She brought another guy from the kitchen staff, he tried telling us that this was the way peppers smelt!! We told him that this was ammonia which probably meant stale sea food.
<a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.seafood.nmfs.noaa.gov%2FConsumerbrochure.pdf&s=85357ecdc47ba2a5a23e11a4fac92634f72509999c54b13dc5123496dc6c5717" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.seafood.nmfs.…</a>
They took it back and didn't charge us for it.
The service overall was efficient but we won't be going back because it will bring back ammonia memories.
I think I've found my place in Chinatown. Â Sure, I've eaten some great food, but nothing that's made me kick myself for not trying it earlier.
My boyfriend had mentioned this place right after they opened, and we promptly forgot about it. Â A couple weeks ago, he mentioned it again, and since I just got my tax return, I thought we could go have a nice dinner on Uncle Sam.
Double Li is located on Cermak near Wentworth; there's some meter parking, and it's pretty close to the red line and the archer bus. Â Anyway. Â When you walk in, you have to walk to the back by where the kitchen and counter are to get seated. We got our table, and the server promptly brought us a pot of tea and the menus. Â
The menu is huge, and spans from the standard Ameri-Chinese to more authentic Sichuan delights. Â Save the Ameri-Chinese for your neighborhood joint and stick to the Chef's recommendations on the first page of the menu and you'll be in good shape, because the chef, Ben Li (one of the two Li's) is a formally trained Sichuan chef. Â
Since there were only two of us, we tried not to over-order, and got the pocket tofu, the black pepper garlic beef tenderloin, and the baby octopus in spicy sauce. Â Of course, this was too much food, but we like leftovers. Â
The pocket tofu came out about 15 minutes after we placed the order--this is a beautiful dish. Fresh snow peas, pea shoots, and wood ear mushrooms surrounded little "quenelles" of tofu. This was a delicately flavored dish, with the smooth and creamy tofu balanced by the fresh, lightly cooked veggies, and light white sauce. There was a definite chicken aroma to this dish, but we couldn't agree on whether the chicken was in the sauce (as broth) or in the quenelle itself. Â
We received the black pepper garlic beef next. Wow. This was unlike any beef I had ever tried before. It was super crispy, buttery, and peppery-but-not-hot. It was served with some lightly steamed broccoli to round out the plate. I could only eat a few bites of this as I found it to be too rich for my tastes, but my boyfriend declared it one of his favorites. Â
My choice, the baby octopus in a spicy sauce, came out last. Chef Li delivered this to our table himself. This was served in a pot, with lots of little baby octopuses in a fiery sauce. These were delightful. Spicy, with that kick from the Szechuan peppercorn--awesome. Little tiny mushrooms that soaked up all that oil and sauce at the bottom--awesome. I loved this. Â
Service was harried, as there was only one server working in the entire room of maybe 10-ish tables. But everything came out in a timely manner, and not only did the chef come out to deliver one of our dishes, he came back to check to see if we liked everything and answer some of our questions. So, overall, I thought the service was great. Â
A word of warning: Â this food is not toned down for American tastes. It will be spicy. Sometimes there will be things that you don't recognize. But it will be delicious. Â
I'm so glad we tried this place, after probably at least a year of talking about it. There's so many things to try on the menu, I think we'll be back many, many times to try them all.
Holy moses. I haven't had food this good since I was actually in mainland China years back.
I was out with a dozen friends, to celebrate the return of a friend of ours who happened to live there teaching English at a school in Shanghai.
So in celebration, we order at least ten plates of all different types of dishes - all Schezuan style.
You could smell the dishes a million miles away. Hot, steaming, bubbling for some in their iron cast pots. Spicy tofu, lamb stew, beef with snow peas, chicken and black peppers, and so much more. And much to our surprise, it came in amazingly fast given the vast quantity of food we ordered. I'm talking no more than 30 minutes to serve a dozen very hungry individuals.
And the best part? Or should I say, several. The bill, was very low all things considered. Two, we all wanted to die, but we would die exquisitely happy. Three, for some unknown reason, we kept grabbing more food from the plates even though we all knew we were past our limits. Four, our noses were at one point or another running with complete satisfaction. And finally? There was still an unbelievable amount of food left to eat. Bloody hell.
I should remind you however, that at least half of what we ordered most certainly wasn't on the menu. Given that myself and our visiting friend knew some of the local delicacies served on the mainland, we sorta had a leg up on the situation. Especially when we tried to order in mandarin.
But I digress.
The restaurant doesn't look fancy or anything. It's a no frills, family owned establishment. It just so happens though, that they're not willing to alter or water down traditional recipes just so foreigners don't have to chug down a case of antacids or have a heart attack. And that's something you should always look for. Real, unadulterated, Chinese food. Schezuan style.
And for the love of god. Vegetables with meat. If there's more, then eat more. There's a reason why asians have such a high life expectancy.
My friends talked me into having a group dinner at Double Li one short week after having had a terrible experience at Lao Szechuan across the street.
Long story short, my visit to Double Li redeemed the standing of Szechuan style Chinese food in my eyes after an angry week of being "done" with Lao Szechuan.
The five of us had three dishes I would recommend.
1) chili chicken
2) fish with tender tofu
3) garlic pea shoots.
Chili pods in chili chicken would have benefited from stir frying whole, but the crispy, fried skin on chicken was tender and juicy. Very nicely seasoned.
Fish with tender tofu was prepared in a style similar to MaPo Tofu. The dish features silken tofu and an abundance of Szechuan peppercorn -- it numbs the tongue and is a marker of authentic Szechuan cuisine.
The pea shoots were not the best, or most tender I've had, but totally serviceable.
Other stuff to know: the managers answered the phone in Chinese. My friends who called earlier (and asked in English) had difficulty figuring out if they are BYOB. I called and asked in Chinese -- they were quite nice -- and was told they are.
It's a bit of a hole in the wall, so it's not a great place for dates, but rather for groups of friends. Though my expectations were at a historical low my recent experience with Szechuan at Lao Szechuan) the food far, far surpassed them.
Maybe Double Li's flavors don't jive with what I want because I can appreciate what they are doing. I simply am not so excited about the tastes.
We ordered the black pepper garlic beef, the bacon with peapods, and eggplant (we got cucumber). The beef was great and about as peppered as anything that I have eaten. The bacon dish was not to my liking. It was too wet. It may conventional in this cuisine to sauce everything, but to me it forced the bacon to be soggy and gave it an off flavor.
Given the vast praise, a second trip is in order. Maybe I need to adjust my order.
I've been warned that this place really means *business*. Â I.e. when they put that little chili next to a menu, they really mean it. Â Mind you, I grew up with spicy food -but let me tell ya, Double Li's little sign of chilis on the menu would really bring tears in your eyes -and runny nose.
Now, the place was empty - on a Saturday night. Â But don't let it fool you .. the food (for those digs *really* spicy) is good!
We ordered the Rabbit chili as an appetizer (it's from their cold appetizer selection -though I think, I'd like it more if it's warm). Â Then we had the Dried Chili Chiken and the Baby Octopus (hotpot). Â While I really love them both, I think the word 'baby octopus' was kinda deceiving. Â I was jokingly said that they were easily adolescents, not babies. :P Â But nonetheless - they are sooooo good and HOT!!
I'll be back for sure .. for as long as I can find a company who can handle the real hotness of Szechuan food.
After finishing a stint in Shanghai this summer, I had to find a local place to find Authentic Chinese food. I did some searching around, and ran across Double Li restaurant in Chinatown. After eating there, I know I have found the place.
I took a group of friends to this place, in hopes to show them what REAL chinese food was like. At this point, I wasn't sure how authentic it would be, but based on some info I read, I had high hopes and expectations. The restaurant itself is basically an unadorned, simple dining room tucked inside the lower floor of a larger building. Though plain, the dining room was clean, organized, and quiet.
A few key dishes I had to order included some roasted duck, Ma po Tofu, and a sichuan (szechwan) fish dish (shui zhu yu, or "water boiled fish). This dish consists of a type of catfish, which is boiled in a light oil with various chilies and peppers. One of the peppers is called the sichuan peppercorn. It has an interesting numbing effect when eaten. Truly a unique sensation! We also ordered bitter melon, some garlic-flavored beef tenderloins, and a few others. Ordering was a bit difficult, since most of the items were written just in Chinese. But, the waitress was kind enough to help out without being impatient. I also got to use a bit of the Mandarin I picked up, but the staff understood English much better than what little I learned.
The food was brought out as it was prepared, so we didn't wait for everything at once. Since everyone was sharing, that was not a problem.
So, does Double Li meet my criteria for having authentic Chinese cuisine? Without a doubt! Save the bitter melon (a bit too bitter for my taste), everything was delicious. And, if you aren't quite ready to try some of the more interesting dishes, they do offer a selection of more familiar dishes. You won't regret this culinary voyage to the far east.
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