Note: I just want to welcome the first guest blogger here at foodinmouth. He's writing in from the Windy City, and will be a spot contributor whenever I am lazy. Normally he's saving lives at the children's hospital in Chicago, but today he's telling us about Chinese grub. Enjoy.

At the door of the Mong Kok Café (aka Chi Café) stands a plump rosy cheeked statue. While the campy value of a pudgy Italian chef in front of a Hong Kong Style Café may be lost on me, the rest of the décor at Chi Café is surprising fresh. The room is decorated in a bamboo colored wood paneling mixed with tiling a cool bathhouse style tile. Brightly colored signs covered with happy smiling fruits and stars hang over a large glass partition leaving a clear view of the sparking kitchen. The restaurant like an old school diner is all booth seating. Perhaps coolest of all the tables are installed with utility drawers just below the table tops that hold the utensils and napkins- neato!

The Café itself is on the southwest end of Chinatown Square (2161A S Archer Ave) across from the old Joy Yee's location. What's probably most exciting about the opening of Chi Café, at least for me, is that it occupies a void in the Chicago's Chinatown – casual Hong Kong style café. While it may be getting lot of press these days, Chicago and its food still feels the sting of being "the Second City" when compared to big brother New York. This has been especially true when hunting for certain ethnic foods (Chinese especially). It has only been recently with the opening of places like St. Alps that new places for people to just hang have started to open in Chinatown. It's just too bad I've past the stage in life where I want to hang out with my homes in Chinatown (wassup?!).

The menu which focuses mostly on noodles and Chinese style snacks is very affordable with most dishes costing less than $6. I decided to try the Wonton Noodles, the Stir Fry Fat Noodles in XO sauce, Braised Tendons with Turnips and a watermelon juice.

Braised Tendons is just one of those dishes I just have to get when I see it. I think it's because I like that squishy feeling in my mouth. At Chi Café the tendons were soft, but the turnips underdone. Wonton noodles are actually one of my favorite comfort foods. Unlike my other fav noodle dishes like Pho, I've never really found a place in a Chicago what I can consistently go back to. The shrimp wontons at Chi Café were decent in size and generally above the cut for Chicago. For the price, and for Chicago, Chi Café is a place worth revisiting.

Mong Kok Cafe
2161 S Archer Avenue.
Chicago, IL 60616

Posted by kiditamae on October 9, 2007 at 4:17 pm

• Share this:
• Twitter
• Facebook
• StumbleUpon

• Update: We've revisited Chi Cafe and have some tidbits on their story. The first time we visited the cafe we recognized one of the servers as a guy from Ken Kee, so we were curious if the cafe was opened by the same owner. To satisfy our curiosity, this time we decided to chit chat with him to find out a little more. Turns out that he is the owner along with two other partners. They wanted to open their own cafe with a more modern spin on things. Good for them.

  Grace Yuen Tam
  October 15, 2007 3:33 pm

• Hmmm..I am going to try. Thank you for your information.

  hui Kau
  October 23, 2007 3:34 pm