The Pivot
The plan was Mole de Mayo. Pilsen, food trucks, Mexican street energy, the whole weekend wrapped around it. So I rolled out of the house, pulled up the festival page, and… nothing. No schedule, no map, no vendors. Asked Gemini. Sure enough — Mole de Mayo is not happening in 2026. That’s two years in a row now. Sad, because the festival used to be one of the best small-fest crawls on the south side. Maybe it comes back. For now: not a thing.
So the crew rerouted. Four of us — me, Cutie Girl V (CGV), Manh, and Sandy Sweet — pointed it at Chinatown instead.
We walked it. Through the gate, down the main strip, past the overpass. Stopped in a couple shops — bought chopsticks, some good-luck coins, the kind of stuff you don’t need but absolutely take home anyway. Then we cut back to Chinatown Square Plaza, did another lap, and picked our spot.
Lao Sze Chuan. The Tony Hu flagship inside the plaza. The one whose name is honestly a little hard to say out loud, but whose dry chili chicken has a citywide reputation.
We walked in at 10:45 PM. They close around midnight. The place was almost full. Mobile orders were busting out the door — bags stacked at the host stand, drivers in and out every two minutes. That tells you something about the spot before you even sit down.
How It Works
Hostess sat us, brought a little pot of hot green tea — quick, clean, the way it should be — and dropped the QR code on the table. You order from your phone. No waitress hovering, no “I’ll be back to check on you” interruptions. You scan, you build, you submit, you wait.
Sandy was a little salty about the tea presentation. We drank it anyway. It was good.
Waters came out fast. Food came in a Chicago minute — not a “man, it took a minute” minute, the actual quick kind. The kitchen was clearly in the weeds with mobile orders but they were cranking. CGV and Manh slipped out for ice cream while we waited, made it back just as the plates landed.
The Order
On the house (automatic appetizer):
- Spicy cabbage with a tasty topping we couldn’t quite name — sleeper hit of the night
For the table:
- Beef fried rice platter
- Orange chicken platter
- Spring rolls
Individual:
- Potstickers — Manh
- Egg rolls — Sandy
- Brisket and noodle soup (regular) — CGV
- Brisket and noodle soup, Szechuan-style HOT — DC
To drink: Coca-Cola and Sprite. Nothing fancy. It’s a noodle soup night.
The Food, Plate by Plate
Orange chicken was the surprise of the table. Both of us at the head end took a bite and made the same face — me too, brother, straight fire. It actually tasted like orange chicken. Not the bagged, frozen, microwave-orange-syrup version. Real glaze. Real chicken. At a Sichuan flagship, this is not the dish you expect to write home about. We wrote home about it.
Editor’s note from DC: “We forgot to take photos at first — we were so hungry the rice and orange chicken stood no chance. That orange chicken was different. Take my word for it and order it.”
Beef fried rice was solid. Nothing crazy. Decent grain, decent beef, you’d eat it again but you wouldn’t drive across town for it.
Spicy cabbage — this was the automatic appetizer that the kitchen brings out on the house, and it was honestly one of the best things of the night. Crisp, sharp, the topping gave it a punch we weren’t expecting. You don’t order it. You don’t ask for it. It just shows up. And then you sit there going “wait, what is this?” between bites. Love that energy.
Potstickers landed well. Manh was a happy man. Pan-seared with the right crisp, good filling.
Egg rolls — this is where the table split. Sandy came here for the egg rolls. They were her main thing. They missed for her. That’s the most important review on the page, honestly, because she knew exactly what she wanted and it didn’t show up the way she wanted it.
Brisket noodle soup (regular) — CGV liked hers. Comforting, brothy, generous. The brisket inside was excellent — that’s a recurring note from both bowls. The brisket itself is a high point at this restaurant.
And then there’s mine.
The Soup That Tried to Kill Me
I ordered the brisket noodle soup Szechuan-style, which I now know is the menu’s diplomatic way of saying we’re going to put a controlled amount of fire in front of you.
The bowl arrived. It was red. Not “tinted.” Not “rouge.” Red. The kind of red that makes you put your phone down and look at it for a second.
First spoonful of broth: not hot. You think — oh, I’m fine, this is fine. Then you swallow.
And it lands. Mid-throat, then back of throat, then everywhere. Numbing chili heat, steaming, ascending. I choked. I’m not going to pretend I didn’t. Chinatown got me.
But here’s the thing — the soup was delicious. The brisket inside was tender, almost falling apart, swimming in this nuclear-grade Sichuan broth. Genuinely some of the best brisket I’ve had in a soup, and I’ve had a lot of brisket in soups. And the noodles — smashing good. Right chew, soaked up the broth without going to mush, held their structure even after I cut the heat with extra broth. You don’t always pay attention to the noodles in a bowl this loud, but these ones earned the spotlight. So I was committed.
I wanted to dial the heat down enough to actually finish the thing, so I tried to flag down extra broth. With no waiter at the table, this took a minute. Got a little lost in translation at first — communication can be a little choppy in here when the kitchen is slammed — but eventually we connected. They warmed me up a side of clear broth and brought it over. I mixed it in.
After that? Oh my goodness. It was so good. The flavor stayed; the punch came back into range. I ate the whole thing.
If you like spice, order it. If you don’t — order it regular like CGV. Either way, the brisket and the bowl size carry this dish. That bowl was huge.
The Verdict (4-Star Chicago Flag Rating)
Four people. Four stars possible from each. That’s 16 stars on the table. Here’s where everybody landed.
Manh — ★★★½ (3.5 / 4)
“Spicy cabbage + potstickers + good vibe. Easy yes. I’d be back tomorrow.”
The man was happy from the automatic appetizer onward. Manh’s potstickers landed exactly the way potstickers are supposed to land — crisp on one side, soft on the other, hot all the way through. Combined with the surprise of the spicy cabbage, he had the easiest night of the four of us.
Sandy Sweet — ★★ (2.0 / 4)
“I came here for the egg rolls. The egg rolls were not it. Everything else was fine.”
Sandy’s the most important review on this page. She walked in with one specific dish in mind. It didn’t deliver. That’s a real result — and on this site we don’t paper over it. The egg rolls weren’t where they needed to be. Sandy still ate, still talked, still hung. But she’s not running back for the egg rolls, and that has to count.
CGV — ★★½ (2.5 / 4)
“Soup was great. The no-waiter, mobile-order-chaos vibe made the whole experience feel a little disorganized.”
Cutie Girl V’s brisket noodle soup (regular, not the nuclear version) was a clean win — broth comforting, brisket tender, generous bowl. But the room itself worked against the meal. The QR-only ordering plus the kitchen being slammed with mobile orders made it feel less like a sit-down dinner and more like a pickup window with chairs. Half her score is what the kitchen sent out. The other half is what the room felt like.
DC — ★★★½ (3.5 / 4)
“Spicy bowl was an event. Service comm was a little choppy. I left full, grinning, and slightly numb-mouthed. Yes, I would come back.”
I had the most dramatic meal of the four of us — the Szechuan-style brisket soup is the most memorable bowl I’ve had in Chinatown in a year. Even with the kitchen weeds and the broth-rescue mission, the food carried the night for me. Yes, I’d come back. Soon.
The Math
- DC (3.5) + Manh (3.5) + CGV (2.5) + Sandy (2.0) = 11.5 stars earned
- Out of 16 possible (4 diners × 4 stars each)
- Crew average: ★★★ (2.9 / 4) · roughly 72% of the four-star ceiling
Would We Come Back?
Yes. We would come back. Three out of four enthusiastic on the return question, and even Sandy said she’d be open to going back for something other than the egg rolls. That counts.
My personal rating philosophy is simple: I rate a place mostly by how happy I am when I leave. Full belly. Happy man. Smiles. By that metric, Lao Sze Chuan absolutely delivered for me — but Sandy’s review matters too. That’s what a four-person rating gets you: the honest spread.
Overall? We were all happy. Four scores, three positive, one disappointed — and the disappointed one still ate, still talked, still left without complaint. That’s a good Saturday night.
The Chinatown Chopstick Score 🥢
A Chinatown-only metric we use at The Grid: 1 chopstick per diner if they’d come back. 4 diners = 4 chopsticks possible. This restaurant earned…
🥢 🥢 🥢 ⃠
3 of 4 chopsticks — would you come back?
| Diner | Back for more? | Chopstick |
|---|---|---|
| DC | Yes — for the bowl alone | 🥢 |
| Manh | Yes — easy yes, tomorrow if he could | 🥢 |
| CGV | Yes — would skip the QR ordering chaos if she could | 🥢 |
| Sandy Sweet | Not for the egg rolls. Maybe for something else, but not for what brought her here. | — |
Coming soon: stars and chopsticks from every Chicago Route audit will compound on the restaurant’s listing profile — so a place’s lifetime Chinatown Chopstick Score reflects every diner who’s walked in and decided whether they’re walking back.
The Bill
$104 total, gratuity included. Four people, full meal, multiple appetizers, two big soups, two platters, drinks. We tipped extra on top. For Chinatown Square at a flagship restaurant with this kind of bowl size, that’s a fair-to-good number.
Who Should Go
- Spicy lovers — order the Szechuan-style brisket noodle soup. It is the dish. Maybe ask for a side of clear broth proactively if you’re not sure how hot is your hot.
- Big tables — kitchen handles volume, plenty of platters work for the lazy-Susan move.
- Late-night — they’re open until midnight and were still cranking at 11 PM. Solid post-event spot.
- Egg roll people — manage expectations. Get them as a supporting actor, not the headliner.
When Mole de Mayo Comes Back
Whenever Pilsen brings the festival back, we’ll be there. But until then? Chinatown Square is one block of restaurants, snack shops, and chopstick stores deep enough to rescue any cancelled Saturday plan. We came for a pivot and left with a story.
Lao Sze Chuan is sitting at the front of the plaza, dry chili chicken still hanging in the window, brisket soup still tracking like a flagship. We’ll be back.
The Fortune
I cracked open the fortune cookie after the bill came. Read it. Read it again. Showed it to the table. Everybody laughed.
“You may find the thrill you’ve been missing.”
— Fortune cookie, Lao Sze Chuan, 11:47 PM
Yeah. Yeah you might.
— DC
Lao Sze Chuan
Chinatown Square Plaza · 2131 S Archer Ave, Chicago, IL 60616
Open until midnight · Mobile-order menu via QR (Chowbus) · Cash and card