Lao Peng You

Lao Peng You is my favorite Chinese restaurant in the neighborhood. The menu is simple but the flavors are incredibly complex. We’ve been going here since they opened but there’s a new House Noodle they debuted this summer that is a fantastic addition to the menu. Their Dan Dan and Cold Noodle are also great. You can’t go wrong with any of the dumplings, but I think Pork and Chive are the favorite in our house. If you want to dine in, make sure you don’t go during rush times. Seating is limited and this is a super hot spot since they were featured on The Bear, so you can expect a decent wait time. The positive spin on that is it’s right off Chicago Ave so there are plenty of bars you could kill time at. Pro move is just ordering it for pick up, trust me it’s still just as good at home. Definitely a must stop when you’re in Chicago!

Lao Peng You is a small family owned business in Ukrainian Village. Opened Thursday-Sunday, the shop is usually filled with people from all over the city. I have been seeing food all over socials so I decided to give it a try. My friends got the beef and onion dumplings, the beef boat noodle soup, the chicken noodle soup and the lamb and cumin bread. Our noodle soups were about $16 each which is good price, however I feel like they skimp on the protein. Especially in the chicken noodle soup. The beef noodle soup was good, although the broth was very very ginger heavy. I’m not allergic to ginger but it was somewhat giving me an allergic reaction, my whole mouth was tingling when I had it. Which was a shame because I enjoyed the dish before it started feeling too weird to eat it. The cucumber salad was amazing, and a huge portion for only $8. The chicken noodle soup was pretty good, I could see that being a great takeout meal during the winter. The dumplings were amazing, honestly the best thing I had during my visit. One thing that I really enjoyed was finding out they give their workers health insurance. I think that should be more of a common practice. I was charged $1.40 to go towards staff health insurance and honestly I wouldn’t have minded if it was $3 per transaction. I respect a business, especially a small business that respects their employees. Overall, good experience. I think i will be back, probably try something new!

Awesome little spot - busy on a Friday night but if you get there before 6 your wait is probably less than an hour. BYOB some wine and enjoy the noodles and dumplings. The sweet tofu dish was just okay, but the bread, noodles, and dumplings were fantastic.

Awesome spot with walk up ordering. Got the pork & chive dumplings and they were fabulous. They come in an amazing broth so you get a whole soup as well. The xi’an bing was so unique and amazing. It’s lamb & cumin bread freshly baked on the spot and its heavenly.

We got the beef noodle soup and the beef & green onion dumplings. The broth, which is the most important component of these two dishes, was disappointingly bland and lacked complexity. The dumplings had thicker wrappers, which worked well in a bowl of broth. They were decent but not flavorful enough to save the broth, which offered little beyond a strong vinegary taste. The house-made noodles were satisfyingly chewy and silky. However, its broth came through strong only with the numbing Sichuan peppercorn but missed all the rich and umami flavors of a beef broth.