Chicago's winters occasionally make you feel as if your ears will fall off. With a negative-10 degree wind chill biting at your face, the perilous journey from car to restaurant can turn ugly. You'll question your life choices, scold everything in sight and fantasize about warmer climes. Happily, if you make it to the restaurant, and that restaurant is Chi Cafe, you'll be warmed, both emotionally and physically, by the immediate offer of an endless mug of piping hot tea and (possibly) put your escape to Aruba on hold.
Tucked away in Chinatown Square, an open air mall on Archer Avenue, Chi Cafe provides a clean, modern setting to enjoy an abundance of Chinese dishes. Booths, each with its own secret drawer with utensils and napkins, line walls of a light, pastel blue. An orange trim plays off the large, geometrically inspired light fixture over the center of the room. Behind the glass in the back corner of the dining area, the activity of the open kitchen offers alternative entertainment to the Chinese programs playing on the television. As you contemplate the setting and the expansive menu, the friendly wait staff will make sure you're never lacking for tea.
The menu is expansive, to say the least. Chi Cafe offers everything from authentic dishes to popular American favorites with a selection that will take you 10 minutes to look over. From 16 soups ($3.95-$6.95) to congee, a type of rice porridge in 13 different varieties ($1.75-$5.95), to flaming mini wok dishes, which just sound fun, you'll find every dish you might want from a Chinese restaurant and plenty of new choices. House specials include bitter melon with pork stomach, sizzling pig's intestine ($6.95) and duck's tongue with fresh mushroom. Less organ-centric dishes include hunan beef ($7.25) and fish fillet with ginger and onion (most entrees run $5.50-$8.95), both excellent choices, albeit less interesting than tasty jellyfish. Choices aren't a problem at Chi Cafe, but making them might be.
Delivery available ($2 charge).
Centerstage Reviewer: A.J. Weiss
