OK Restaurant is beyond okay on the decline. I would only suggest OK if you were in Chinatown and everywhere else is packed. It's rolling downhill like a snowball headed for hell's kitchen. And I don't mean it as sinfully pleasing or devilishly scrumptious.
Food delivery was efficient but the food itself is barely ordinary. Our group of six ordered at least 20 dishes. Most of them shared a common similarity. They were either drenched in oil or had a very old-oil, greasy smell. To name a few...cake with sesame paste, vegetarian crepe, pork and mushroom crepe, etc. I was not pleased.
To worsen the situation, a few plates were complete turn-offs. The beef inner parts with turnips and crepe in a mini ceramic hot pot deserve less than a star. Somebody in the kitchen needs to learn to properly clean beef inner parts. The smell was so unwelcoming and strong that we left 90% of it untouched. The beef tripes were no better. They were drenched, soft, and soggy. I was also not impressed with the thousand-layer cake and this huge baked bread stuffed with shredded pork.
OK is not a large restaurant. There are approximately 15 large round tables. The interior design (if there is any) reminds me of the canteens seen in TVB dramas except OK has the dimmer lights with a more shabby feel to it. The two stars go to the parking lot, efficiency in food delivery, and their best dish, the baked barbecue pork buns. (No joke!)
Going down hill fast .... that pretty much sums up my review of this place. Â Went there a few months after it first opened up and just based on the food, would have given it 3-4 stars back then. Â But that was when things were still fairly new and CLEAN! Â The food is still pretty good, but service and cleanliness are quickly declining. Â Went there recently and were seated at a gross, greasy table. Â Picked up my plate from the place setting and it practically slid out of my hands from all the grease at the bottom of it. Â Disgusting way to start a meal, but (and very unfortunately) typical of many Chinese restaurants. Â They are more interested in turning tables over, than sanitation. Â Too bad because the food is decent. Â It is now reminiscent of the now defunct Happy Chef....good food, but bathrooms and tables were gross and disgusting.
Review Source:We went here the other day. Its located at Chinatown but the real awesome thing is that they have a dedicated parking lot. No big deal? Well, if you ever went to Chinatown, parking is a bitch and who really wants to parallel park on a place where they are crazy asian drivers all around? i'm just sayin', plus I'm Chinese myself, so its OK if I say it.
 Food was fantastic. We had a party of 20 and the service was awesome. We got our soups and entries at a quick pace. The food was flavorful and abundant.
 Bathroom review -- The bathroom was rather old-fashion with chipped-off rusted pipes. It smelled of aging pine-sol. The door to the stalls was sturdy, but I wouldnt be confident it wouldnt fall off the hinges while taking a dump.Sit or squat? I will squat and plug my nose... not from the stench that permeates out of my ass cheeks, but from the smell of pine-sol, air freshener, and urine.
Bad Service!
Rude waiter!
The waiter is around 40 something speaks broken English. Shouted at me when I walked into the restaurant to ask me how many people in my party. Used his finger to point me to my table.
Not only this waiter give poor service to customers, but also this jerk is a pervert. He kept staring at women's chest.
This jerk is notorious for this kind of behavior that's why a lot of restaurant owners refused to hire this guy.
Ok. So Chinatown isn't  known for it's superior customer service. Â
Now that we got that out of the way, I came here for some food, dammit!
I wanted some late night dim sum (but not quite late night as it was 8pm) and this is one of the only places serving it up at that time.
It was pretty full when we got there. Large tables filled with families. Â Of course there were only 2 servers working it that night!
Got our food ordered and got my ususal Hong Kong style iced milk tea. Â The food took AWHILE to come out, no joke. Â BUT...when it did come out, it was fresh, hot and super good! My milk tea was also very good and I have high standards for the stuff.
I'm no newbie to dim sum fare and this was damn good stuff. Â This place ain't perfect but when you crave late dim sum, this is the place to be.
P.S-Free parking in their lot. SCORE!
After having a disappointing experience at a previous establishment in Chinatown, I decided on OK Restaurant for their xiao long bao (Shanghai soup dumplings). You wouldn't think that this restaurant is worth visiting because of the name, location, and exterior but surprisingly, this is one of the few places in Chicago for true soup bursting xiao long bao.
Dining here is exactly what you would expect from a Chinatown restaurant: fish tanks with live seafood, large round tables, and more importantly, excellent food at inexpensive prices. They serve dim sum all day from 8am-10pm with some varieties that I haven't seen before. There is free street parking right outside and a free small parking lot attached to the restaurant for an added bonus.
The xiao long bao has a little thicker skin but are filled with a rich flavorful broth. My wife almost burned her mouth from the amount of soup that came gushing out of the dumpling. This satisfied my long craving for Shanghai soup dumplings.
Although not as good as California and New York, this is definitely one of the best in Chicago. For only $3 for a set of four, you can bet that you'll be ordering multiples. Ok Restaurant is more than okay - it's a special hidden gem.
The restaurant is not all that bad. The dim sum is good here and there are a few different, exclusive dishes on the menu. Dining in for dinner at OK is always a open option for me whenever I am around Chinatown with a empty stomach. To top it off there is a open lot for parking right next to the restaurant which is a plus for me since its free and only a few steps away from the entrance. Â
Overall, this place is delicious and have good service.
p.s. Check out the lobster tank right by the entrance, the claws itself are capable of putting your biceps to shame. joking (they are huge though), but give this place a/another shot, not shoot it down with reviews ;]
2012 YOLO-
UGH... Not good.
I'd never eaten from this place, so I ordered a few things in case there was something I didn't like. I should have just gone to bed on an empty stomach.
The shrimp fried rice was very bland overall. The only discernible flavor was the Chicago-River-iodine-and-chemical taste of of the shrimp. The egg rolls weren't too tasty either. After a few bites I actually scraped out the filling and ate the fried wrapper instead (I was seriously hungry). I wanted to try the Sticky Rice because I love plain sticky rice. Since I've never had it as a dressed dish before, I have nothing to compare it to, so I guess maybe it wasn't bad - I'll just say it was different. I probably won't order it again.
I moved on to the Black Pepper Shrimp, which seemed more like Garlic Shrimp, but was pretty good. That is.... until I bit into a bad - I mean seriously rancid and rotten - large shrimp. Thank God it was SO FOUL TASTING that I immediately ran to the bathroom and spit it out. I mean I was in the bathroom trying to scrape that funky foul nastiness off my tongue with a towel. I can only imagine the Hell I would have gone through tonight and tomorrow if that thing had gone through my system. (I'm still crossing my fingers by the way...).
OH, and when I tried to redeem the grubhub coupon for the shrimp roll, they gave me MORE egg rolls instead. So basically after paying almost $50 for what I though would be a decent dinner, and a couple of days of leftovers for lunch - I managed to eat a grand total of 8 bites of food and two eggroll wrappers all before gagging on a shrimp that tasted how I imagine a turd must taste.
You are really taking your intestinal health in your hands eating from this place.
Tried this place for dinner because it was new and because someone else wanted to try it. TERRIBLE. It looks dumpy on the outside and is the same on the inside. Not expected of a place that just recently opened.
Let's just critique a beef tenderloin dish. It did not taste bad really. The first bite was rather good. After the first bite, it was hit and miss. Why, because it was not all tenderloin. Did they think we would not notice? Impossible not to. Tenderloin, you don't need a knive to break apart and it falls apart in your mouth. The other stuff, you could barely cut with a knife and had to chew on it forever. Bad, cheap meat and then overcooked too.
Now, they were also giving away a free lobster if you ordered an entree. They were probably giving them away as there was no way they could justify selling them to anyone. They had probably been out of the ocean for a long time as they hardly had any meat anymore. Been starving almost to death.
If this place is still alive after 6 months or so, i may give them another chance to see if they have cleaned up their act. Would come back with a camera then too to photograph everything in case they falsely advertise still.
As it stands now, unless things change drastically, I can't see them staying open that long.
First time I went to this place I had a good experience. Â I went with a big group which was made up of some family. Â I liked the food. Â So, I went there again. Â This next time was HORRIBLE. Â My friend and I were the only non Chinese people in the restaurant. Â It was not a busy night. Â For some reason the staff was very attentive to every other table but the one my friend and I were at. Â We had to wait long periods of time for anything and had to ask several times for things before we received them. Â It seemed no matter how polite we were to the staff, they just were not having it. Â I will NOT be going back here even though I do like the food. Â After the way my friend and I were treated forget about it. Â I do not recommend this place due to the very poor service.
Review Source:This is by FAR THE WORSE Chinese restaurant I've ever been to!!! I had Dim Sum here and not only was the food tasteless but some of the items definitely had a stale refrigerator taste, a testament to food that doesn't move much.... beware of possible food poisoning.
Their decor is so cheap and shabby; bench seats which appear to be cushioned feel like you're sitting on a board and the bench upholstery is filthy!
If I HAD to say something positive about this place... they have a free parking lot.
If I could grant them ZERO stars, that would be my rating, however Yelp requires at least one star. I have now given them one star too many!!!
Horrible food, terrible experience.... pass them by, don't waste your money!
Hmmm....why would you name your restaurant OK.........is it because the food is only ok. I guess it's not false advertisement as my family thought the food was only ok.
Why the 2 stars.....well, service was just eh. But the REAL reason is because we went in the afternoon about 2-3pm and not 1.....not 2....but 3 of the waitresses were mopping the floor while people were still eating. WTF! Are you serious??? First, that smell is nasty. Second, aren't you afraid people are going to slip and fall.
I know chinese restaurants aren't known for service, but a little common sense goes a long way! STOP mopping the floor when you are doing business!
Like:
- Private lot (small though-around 10 cars max)
- Prompt service
- Clean and roomy (booths and round table seating) Â
- Fairly priced items (small: $2.60, medium $3.10, large: $3.60, special $4:20).
- Hot and fresh (no carts) - be patient, could be a decent wait if they are busy Â
- You can order pan fried noodles, etc not on dim sum menu
- Recommended items (Fluffy egg tarts [awesome!!! house special], har gow (shrimp dumplings), shrimp and corn dumplings, spare ribs, chicken feet (for the adventurous) Â
Dislike:
- Not recommended items (beef balls, pork and thousand year egg congee [ok], pan fried yam cake)
- Black tea too rich
Conclusion:
Total bill including tips for 3: $42.00. Not bad for 11 items. Â Good first impression. Would go back again.
OK Restaurant should be renamed to "Super Awesome New Really Tasty Dim Sum Place in Chinatown" because yeah, it's basically just that.
Me and my 2 cousins ordered 11 dishes I think and I'll try to remember them all... but here are the notables!!
-Egg tarts- the house special! The egg custard is so smooth and creamy and rich and literally MELTS IN YOUR MOUTH. I can't wait to go again just to get these!! THESE WERE AMAZING.
-Shrimp dumplings (har gow)- the best I've had in Chicago! It was fresh and the shrimp was seasoned very well. I didn't need to dip it in hoisin sauce like I normally do at other places.
-Shrimp and corn dumplings- this was the first time I've had these and I was delightfully surprised! Unlike the shrimp dumplings, these were patty-shaped, wrapped with a shuimai wrapper, and had corn! Yum!
-Everything else: spare ribs, chicken feet, pork&egg congee, rice crepe with fried dough, shrimp&chives dumpling, some pan fried yam cake (reminded me of mochi) and shuimai were pretty good. They were similar in taste and style as other dim sum places, but they were definitely a lot fresher!!
Other things about the restaurant-
-It's new! and nice!
-FREE PARKING LOT!!!
-You have to fill out a small sheet of paper to order the dim sum. It's fun!
-There is a lot of space compared to other dim sum places in Chinatown! You can actually walk around without bumping into anything.
-There are some booths along the window! I love booths so I was really happy when they seated us at a booth.
-Good service. They refilled our teapots when we put the tops up, promptly took our finished dishes away, etc.
-Not expensive!! Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the bill because my cousin paid, but it couldn't have been more than $40 I think...
Overall, FIVE STARS ALL THE WAY!!!!!!!!!!! And I'm going again very soon!!
(Also, props to DK for telling me about this place!)
The 5 best restaurants in the 2015 Denver Restaurant Week
3,611 Views | Category: Denver
The complete list of 2015 Denver Restaurant Week businesses
1,972 Views | Category: Denver
The tourists' guide to Portillos: 5 must have dishes
3,318 Views | Category: Chicago
Pho = Pronounced "fuh" not "foe" for pho-king sake
2,915 Views | Category: Denver
Indulgery selected to exhibit at Collision Conference
2,987 Views | Category: Press Releases
Not Logged In
BUSINESSES
Local Businesses
Near Me
My Favorites
SOCIAL
Blog & News
MY ACCOUNT
Login
Register
Contact Us
Add Your Business
