Steve Dolinsky's Top 5 Chinese Restaurants in Chicago

For Chinese Food Week, we reached out to a number of chefs to find out their favorite go-to order at their favorite go-to takeout spot. But we also wanted the insight of another local food expert so we turned to Steve Dolinsky to create one of his top five lists that he's been pulling together for the last year or so.

Dolinsky is no stranger to Chinese cuisine and has definitely spoken his mind about his likes and dislikes. So we feel he'll point you in the right direction, which is mainly toward Chinatown, but also gives props to one spot in Uptown. With that, we turn it over to the Hungry Hound.

1) Lao Sze Chuan:
For spicy, piquant, crunchy and aromatic dishes that don’t hold back the heat levels for amateurs. Also a great assortment of rarely-found Chinese vegetable preparations and hot pot for a group.

2) Sun Wah BBQ:
For the incomparable Peking duck, sold by the truckload and deftly sliced as a first-course with puffy gua bao, then wok-fried with vegetables for a hearty second course and boiled into a rich stock for a bracing third round.

3) Shui Wah:
For homemade dim sum made to order, that is, you fill out the tidy card and they bring you the steamed or fried mini-treats as soon as they’re ready. Try the crispy calamari “fries” dusted with chili powder.

4) Sweet Station:
Where my trusted colleague Kevin Pang gets his Hong Kong café groove on, and the poached, hacked chicken will make you realize what you’ve been missing all these years; the beguiling dipping sauce is pure bliss. Who knew the Chinese could make a sweet tea as good as down South?

5) MingHin:
Part of the new regime of higher-end, creature comfort-driven Chinese restaurants that are ditching the fluorescent lights and egg rolls, and instead, are bringing with them the 21st century dishes from Hong Kong and Shanghai.

[Photo: Sweet Station]