Cajun Grill At Union Station

«YUMMY YUMMY RIGHT HERE!!!»
I was here some time ago and I got the Bourbon Chicken. The food was adequate (the chicken was good and the rice so-​so), and the price was fair, but I’ll never forget the guy who shouted «YUMMY YUMMY RIGHT HERE!!!» «VERY HEALTHY!!!» and «YOU TRY CHICKEN???» in an effort to bring people over to the business amidst the chaos within the station. The stuff of legend…

Stopped by for lunch prior to catching the 1:40 train. Husband wanted booty Chinese food, and you can’t get more booty than Cajun Grill. Fried rice looked mad greasy, so I opted for the dried out Lo Mein noodles. I asked for half steamed rice and half Lo Mein, but they don’t do that here. Bourbon chicken was dried up as well; the sauce (probably half sugar, half soy sauce) was the only decent thing. Vegetables were flavorless and dry; no surprise there.
Cajun Grill (poorly) serves (semi) edible food, so if you’re hungry you can get food here. If you’re looking for a good, satisfying meal where you don’t feel guilty afterwards, go elsewhere.

On 1÷24÷16 at about 11:20a I went to this restaurant. The owner had three types of chicken. All of them had toothpicks in them to sample. I asked to sample the bourbon chicken and the Limon chicken. He rudely said «NO YOU CAN ONLY TRY 1». I thought he was kidding. Apparently he wasn’t. I couldn’t support a business that is so rude. I wasn’t trying to make a meal out of 2 small pieces of chicken. Plus why have samples ready if you won’t let people try them…

This place is a complete mess. Works there are completely shitty. The food isn’t that good either and unsanitary. We were going to order something and we were uncertain of what we wanted. So we were deciding, the lady that works there said are u ready, and i said no. After one minute shes asked like 7 time are u ready. Works there are really weird and fucked up.

I like this place.
It has nothing to do with Cajun anything, just so you know, it’s standard walk up chinese food.
The food is pretty good. It’s not traditional chinese, more like american style chinese. The bourbon chicken is dang tasty, fried rice is fried rice and the eggrolls are just fine. If you are a vegetarians the fried veg eggrolls are the best tasting thing on the menu for you. Dollar for Dollar its your best value in union station.
I’ve never had any customer service issues here, but I will say this place is focused on business. Eat it and beat it is the model, which is fine by me in union station. It’s not exactly a place to hang out and enjoy the ambiance.

Here’s a 2 – 3 year old story for this location since I’m in Chicago for a few days for work. I was sitting at one of the tables in the little food court area watching Chen pitch his yummy-​yummy on a stick. A homeless dude walked by, and the front windows on the steam table with the food open outwards, homeless dude does a tractor imitation with his hand and creates a trench through the food and scoops out lunch and keeps walking.
Yummy-​Yummy guy goes berserk in Chinese cussing hard. After everything quieted down, Chen looked to his right, Chen looked to his left, and the trench that existed was now paved over with a big metal scoop all nice and level like it never existed, and all was well once again at the Cajun grill.
NEVER EAT IN THIS PLACE!!!

If you want any type of customer service this is the place that does not have any whatsoever. I was curious as to how their egg rolls were so I inquired about the price and when I asked the cashier (asian gentleman) he told me he had none left. I was confused because he had maybe 15 egg rolls in the platter… and he shooed me away… literally. So I left empty handed… I would give it no stars for service as I never got to have the food but Unilocal is nice to make one star as the lowest.

Extremely rude and horrible customer service. When I tried to figure out what I’m going to order, the old Chinese man was just plain rude and seems annoyed because I took too long. After I ordered, he said «wait over there.» Do yourself a favor and stay away from this place. Their foods are overpriced too.

Don’t waste your money on this Chinese Cajun stuff. Any other establishment in Union Station will serve you better food. I made the mistake of trying this place bc McDonald’s is closed for remodeling. For the same $$$ I can get decent Chinese food at Panda Express just 2 blocks away.

What is CAJUN about this place? It is practically another Chinese takeout at the mall style food. So bad, SO SO BAD. Would not have chosen this place had it been the VERY limited options at union station. Ordered the bubble tea and it was trash. Like ice with no flavor. I was afraid I’d get sick. The coworker didnt really know how to make it, but the owner did not bother to help him. She was just telling him what to do. Traditional Asian owner that had an attitude, this is beyond the whole don’t take it personally, it’s just a different culture. Dried up stale food. Very little options. Very unappetizing. I would go into describing the options they have which looked like 5 options total: fried rice, lo mein that looked dried up and super dark, vegetables (in this case, it is NOT GOOD to eat your veggies), sweet and sour chicken, and another tray of foreign looking objects.

Make sure that you’re near a restroom after eating here. It rips right through you. The old guy that works there has a «hurry up and buy!» mentality like that convenience store clerk in Menace To Society. He might want to tone that down a bit.

«You try chicken! Yummy-​yummy!»
That is how you find Cajun Grill while walking through Union Station. The guy running the place yells this out like a carnival barker. Sometimes it’s just, «Yummy-​yummy!»
Despite the name, they do not serve Cajun food. They do, however, serve some pretty tasty Chinese food.
Come for the lemon chicken, which tastes nothing like lemon but is really, really good. I order it every time I pass through Union Station. They also have delicious almond cookies.

Was thirsty for a mango smoothie and loved past drinks at Asian restaurant so decided to give this place a try. One bubble tea smoothie mango coming right up.
4 minutes later… got it with tapioca. My first time.
…
And my last time.
Didn’t like the drink AT ALL. Tasted purely of ice, artificial sweetener, plus tapioca to cover that up. Yellow like a mango but tasted nothing like one. Probably food coloring I don’t know but never again.

Ok, so the sign says Cajun Grill, but I was hard pressed to find anything Cajun about it. The Asian fellow behind the counter yelled at me and my wife to try a sample of something brown on a stick, which we promptly did. It was decent, Lemon Chicken, was not greasy, tangy, lemony, and with the right ratio between meat and breading. Since no one else in the Loop was, for one reason or another, willing or able to take money from us in exchange for food, we figured we’d give the «Cajun» place a try.
The proprietor was quite talkative and entertaining. He hit is with the hard sell which, under different circumstances might have been super annoying. We were distracted, though, by still trying to figure out if there was anything actually Cajun about the place, or if the guy just thought more expedient to leave the old sign up and cook whatever kind of food he wanted to offer. There was a «bourbon» chicken as well, which was also good, so that’s kind of Cajun. Portions were generous, and determined by your answer to the question, «How hungry you are?» Answer with care.
If you need something to eat at Union Station and want to avoid McDonalds (and the Metro Grill is unequipped to accept your preferred method of payment) Cajun Chicken will give you a good bang for your buck.

Gotta hand it to the guy who named this place…“Cajun Grill” sounds like you’re going to get some good Cajun food from Merlotte’s down in Bön Temps, Louisiana, but nope… this is a straight up Chinese restaurant.
So me, my boo and a buddy of mine were on the beach all day slapping vballs and watching Nelly perform at a volleyball tournament. The Nelly concert was fun, but it just went by too quick, he pretty much played all his popular songs in a 25 minute mash-​up. He didn’t even play Apple Bottom Jeans… my boo was not happy about that. He also pretty much hollered at two woman in the crowd for like 20 minutes, told them to come back stage and «bring your id», all while on the mic. Side Note — Smart guy for making them bring their ID, can’t be going all Lawrence Taylor on us.
However, our fun had to come to end and we had to catch a train back to Suburbia, America. We were starving and being from out of town, we were wanting a nice out door place on the river, maybe a good slice of Chicago Pie! But not on this day, the man behind the counter tempted us with his free sample and BAM! Our drunken taste buds would not let us leave this place! Actually it was really more that we thought we only had an hour to get to our train and finding a local place would take too long… however, turns out we had 2 hours.
So basically the food was pretty good, but I was starving and drunk so that could be the reason? My buddy ordered the creamofsumyoungguy and he loved it! He said it was way better than when he eats that at home.
The service was ok, although my baby momma couldn’t understand him. It was really expensive though, it cost $ 20 for 2 of us to eat.
So the reason I’m giving this a 1 star is because of the review I just read about this place, apparently the guy behind the counter is racist against filipino’s?
YOLO.

This is a guilty pleasure of mine. Their lemon chicken and blackened chicken are very good and very tastey. It’s the best chinese food I’ve yet to have downtown.
Now for the negatives. Their service can at times be pushy, and generally speaking, they seem to have a general distain for their customers, or perhaps people in general, which I personally find somewhat amusing. They’re also hustlers, because if you want more than 1 item you’re going to pay over $ 8. Throw in a beverage and you’re pushing $ 10…for good chinese food, yes, but overall, that’s a few bucks more than I’d like to pay on my lunch break. I somewhat enjoy ordering a free cup of water from the old man owner, just so I can see the look of disgust on his face. I think a year or 2 ago he refused, saying they didn’t have a free cup of water and making me pay for bottled water, but lately anyway, I get my free cup. It’s like the battle of cheap-​asses, and I usually win. It’s the little things that make me happy.
Anyway, the service is poor (but entertaining) and the food is overpriced, but if I need my Chinese fix I don’t go anywhere else. Their food is really good, which is the point of lunch for me: to eat something tastey.
So in spite of the fact that I hate myself everytime I eat here (never more than once a month) and that I lose a little faith in humanity everytime I interact with the staff, they do make damn good lemon and blackened chicken, so… the latter fact usually gets the best of me… for better or worse… probably worse.

It is what it is… I was there and hungry and for take-​out Chinese it’s pretty good. I got the bourbon chicken and would again. Tasty brown rice, and the steamed veggies were good, but mostly cabbage.
Damn better than the McD’s or pizza hut!
Take it in-​context of being in Union Station… its better than the other options, in my opinion.

I’ve eaten here before and the food is okay. However today I experienced something incredibly rude and racist from the old Chinese man at the counter.
I had just finished lunch and they were offering free samples. So I took one. As I was about to walk away, the old man at the counter asks «Are you Indian or Filipino?» I thought he was going to make small talk. I told him that I am Filipino.
At that point the conversation took a rude turn when he said «You don’t buy! You go away!» I tried to explain to him the meaning of a free sample unsuccessfully. At which point the old man said «Filipino! You go away! You don’t buy! You go away! Filipino!»
Not wanting to get into it. I walked away while he kept yelling «Filipino» over and over again.
I’m never eating here again. Oh and I’m posting my negative experience on Unilocal

Don’t eat here. I walk by this place everyday. I’ve seen the staff picking their nose over the food and even watch them sneeze on it on multiple occasions without covering their face.
Stay away!

I came here, as you’d expect, because I was damn hungry and in a rush. I got along with the owner real well. I’m a med student, his daughter is a surgical resident. You know, your expected medical chatter.
However, the food was. okay. The vegetables could be better chopped and steamed longer, and a lot of the food was greasy.
Caveat emptor.