Lao You Ju

Lao You Ju was recommended by my father who has dined at probably every dim sum place in Chinatown. We went for my little bro's birthday, which coincidentally fell on the day of the Chinese New Year parade. So the place was packed to the max! Not one table was empty and the place was bustling like a Chinese market. I would recommend going to the bar and putting in your name. Service was really good actually for a Chinese place. You're not going to get the smiley, how are you all doing today?!?!? type of waiter but that's how Chinese places are. The servers were fast, efficient, and brought everything we asked for.

More importantly, the food was great! All the dishes we ordered were executed well. Tasted just as good as any dim sum I have had throughout my 25 years. Get the "Crepes"! (I think that's what the English name is). You have the option of ordering shrimp, beef, fried dough, or BBQ pork wrapped in a "Crepe". The crepe is the softest/most delicious noodle and just bring me back to my childhood. Throw some soy sauce on top and finish it with some hot sauce and you're golden!

Overall, great place to grab some dim sum. I'll be back with my family.

We came here for date night recently and I think this is probably one of the nicest Chinese restaurants I have been to in Chicago - with authentic food and none of the "Americanized" nonsense.

I've gotten used to hole-in-the-wall type Chinese restaurants, but LYJ has a really nice ambiance inside - you will be impressed. It has a tiny bit of trendy going on.

We were quickly seated inside and helped by several servers all eager to take our order. We started off with some cocktails (mine was a raspberry & gin concoction - though the official name escapes me) which was pretty smooth. I don't normally drink gin at all and thought this was fairly manageable.

We started off with thousand year old eggs - something that sounds atrocious, right? They weren't half bad actually. They are just fermented differently - but SUPER spicy (cannot be ordered mild or no spice).  Next up was the mapo tofu - also extra spicy but very good. If you like hot & sour soup, I thought this was almost the same. We also ordered the Taiwan rice noodle dish (not sure if this was it's official name) but it was just a standard thin-noodle dish. My favorite was the salt and pepper pork chop - something that I used to have in my childhood/teens back home and haven't had in a while. I think it could have used just a smidge more salt but otherwise it was a favorite entre. BTW, all of the food came out quickly to our surprise.

All in all, I had a good first impression of LYJ and would be happy to come back and dine here again. The service we had was good and one of the servers we had was more personable than the others.

Thanks to the homie An P, some serious dim summing got did here!

When I walked in I had no idea where my party of 5 was seated. I asked the woman at the front desk if she knew where my party was seated and she told me to have a seat @ the bar. I got tired of sitting for a few minutes and decided to give my good buddy a call and he directed me to where the group was. I didnt just want to start walking around because the place was crowded and I didn't want to be in the servers way.

We ordered the usual good stuff:
Spare Ribs - pretty good
Pork/Shrimp dumplings - pretty damn delicious as I like the pork a little more than the shrimp
Turnip Cake - I tried it for the first time and it was decent
Beef - Awesomely seasoned and the best dish of all
Pork buns - Nice buttered bun with pulled pork inside...yum! sweet & savory
Pig Ears - okay, but not sure I would try again

There were some other dishes ordered that I dont remember the name of, but it was all good

I would definitely come back here as everything was delish. The service started out a little spotty but got much better near the end.