Asian Cuisine Express
This one has been making waves amongst Chicago food people recently. I find this experience to be a telling example of how our appreciation for restaurants depends heavily on our expectations.
If you had come across this place in passing, without specific recommendations from food people that you trust, you would think you found a gem. Some of that is owed to the idea that it is an Asian-advertised restaurant serving al pastor tacos off a spit, and some of that is owed to how these things work. When it becomes a known gem, it is just harder to be moved.
To be clear, it is worth seeking out, even if you are not necessarily close to that particular area.
Most pressing, the little pickled onions that were provided alongside the sauces were incredibly addicting. I had to stop myself from eating these to save room for the actual food.
The tacos were good, but I have to admit to finding the steak taco even better than the al pastor. The sauces were good enough to accompany the tacos, but I thought the orange and the green served a similar function to one another. It would have been nice to have one that cranked up the heat a little bit more, and I found the flavors to be more different than the standard verde or red sauces at taco places that I prefer.
I kept going back and forth on whether I preferred the al pastor fried rice with the house chili oil that they provided or without it. In both cases it made for excellent bites of fried rice. The chili oil bites brought a bit more flavor contrast and a good bit of heat, and the non-chili oil bites gave you more of that true al pastor flavor.
When you see people touting this restaurant, they are primarily focused on the spit-based al pastor tacos, but the lo mein noodles may have been the best dish. The noodles were perfectly cooked, and topped with their chili oil, it was very good Chinese food.
It would be impossible to ignore the price, as the four of us paid around $20 a piece. It is great food for the price, but it would be disingenuous to rate it against higher-priced restaurants rather than its counterparts. It is tacos and Chinese food; if you are paying exorbitant prices for those in the first place, you have already fucked up. That said, it was a reminder to ground myself in the quality of food you can eat for reasonable prices, as it is easy to lose that perspective while trying to judge the alleged best restaurants on the margins.
It also must be said that the vibe is refreshing and fun. It is clearly Asian until you sit down, see the spit, and notice the sauces and pickled onions laid out on the table. The lady serving our table seemed to never stop smiling and had one of those infectiously positive attitudes. It gave off the classic small local restaurant vibe, but it certainly made me contemplate whether we are doing service at higher-end restaurants wrong. I am still contemplating.