My Kind of (China) Town

When I moved to Chicago, one of my first goals was to find a good Chinese restaurant. Maybe not as good as New York, Toronto, San Francisco or even anything in Philly's Chinatown or the local suburban places where I grew up, but something at least good enough. I quickly threw in the towel, however, having counted at least 20 attempts that all ended in failure. At one point I even went through all the reviews I could find and picked what looked like the best bet in the city, for one last try, and it turned out to be a place I'd eaten at years earlier (and which proved disappointing the second time as well). So I gave up. Chicago has great Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese ... but Chinese? I guess not.

So it was a pleasant surprise to discover an OK place here in Oak Park, Szechwan Beijing, with pretty good food and a snazzy new flash-adorned website. I've only eaten there once or twice so far, but it was not bad. Friends were talking about the enormous fish there (pets, not food), and it reminded me to keep the place in mind next takeout night. Maybe come Christmas I'll give it another try.