88 Red Lantern

I had high hopes for this place as a reviewer said that one of the founding members of Lao Sze Chuan is the chef here. Unfortunately, my experience fell quite short in nearly every regard.
Upon entering the establishment, the décor resembles a combination carryout/​dine-​in chop suey restaurant. The dining room is not very large and the decorations are fairly plain. The plates, forks, and chopsticks were a little better though, at least being similar to what you’d find in a mid-​price restaurant but not like the special tablesettings you’ll find at similarly priced restaurants in Cook County. The menu was a bit better than many other local Chinese restaurants, with printed pictures (although the pictures could’ve been clearer and some are not on the same page as the menu item). Tables and chairs were a bit plain and service was a bit slow (only a single waitress) although friendly.
The food was a bit of a mixed bag — sometimes good, sometimes not so good — but there were little things here and there that really prevented any dish from standing out.
Egg drop soup: Contained a bit of corn — fairly thin broth that could’ve used a bit of pepper and more egg or starch for flavor and thickness.
Hot and sour soup: Despite all the vegetables inside, also fairly plain and not very spicy. The broth was a bit on the thinner side.
Rice: A bit dry (probably served the same rice as the one used in the fried rice) and could’ve been served a bit warmer.
Chef’s special dry chili chicken: This is the one dish I try at every szechuan restaurant I go to (if it’s anywhere in North America). This was probably the best dish I had here with tender (but not juicy) chicken. The batter could’ve been a bit more crispy and the dish was served a bit on the salty side and a bit underwhelming in spiciness. The flavor of garlic and green onion was drawn out fairly well though.
Lanzhou beef noodle soup: The noodles are thick, cooked just about the right amount. Broth was really light and lacking in flavor. Beef was thinly sliced, so much you couldn’t get much of the fattiness from it and was lightly marinated with five spice powder. The shanghai bok choy was a touch raw but alright.
Never forget chicken chengu style: Unfortunately, a bit forgettable. The chicken was very salty and had lots of bone fragments throughout the dish (as they chop through the bone instead of filleting around it). The chicken itself had a nice and juicy texture but was very oily with a mix of prickly oil and chili oil for flavor. This combination was not overly complex and completely hid the flavor of the chicken underneath.
Fish fillet with green jade and szechuan peppercorns: The fish dish looks ugly but this was actually one of the better dishes I ate. The fish was prepared very tenderly and was not overcooked at all. The flavor was very simple with a strong flavor of prickly oil coming through.
Orange beef tenderloin: Somewhere between crispy and crunchy for the batter but the orange peel flavor was not that evident. A bit on the sweet side for both the batter and salt, but not in a richly complex flavor way (seemed to be from honey and other flavorings like maybe star anise, but wasn’t flavor extracted from high quality orange peel). The beef tenderloin flavor didn’t come out at all, possibly overpowered by the sauce or just is the cut of meat that was used (Sun Shui’s crispy szechuan beef has very clear flavors from both the meat and the sauce).
Overall, I wanted to give a little higher rating since this is a more unique type of restaurant in Lake County (and overall, Chinese food is just not great in this area). But, a combination of many factors including smaller portion sizes, lack of sophistication for dishes in this price range, spotty service (you’ll have to pack your own leftovers), etc. just make impossible for me bump up the rating. Dishes in the $ 12 — $ 16 price range should rely on fresh vegetables, herbs, and ingredient quality to provide the majority of the flavor instead of being reliant on oils and sauces. Without additional elements for flavor or attractive plating to justify the higher cost, it’s hard to recommend this food over taking a slightly longer drive to Arlington Heights for Chinese food.

This place has legitimate Sichuan food. I spent 5-​years in China and feel this place is solid for authentic Chinese.

I ordered the food for Carry Out. One of the Unilocalers mentioned that the owners kid does home work at one of the booths/​tables. Yes, i saw that too. He was practicing vocabulary so i can see how it can be kinda «loud.» I stopped by on a Sunday around 4PMish and no one was there.
The little place seems clean. Small, but clean. At least the dining area is. The lady at the cashier was nice. kind of. This is my first time ordering from them so i asked for a menu to take with for future orders. She told me to just go online to see it. They don’t have any print outs. Ok. really saving on expenses there!
Anyways, my order consisted off; szech. string beans, ba guo egg plant, shredded pork dried bean curd w/​chives, general tso’s, and kung bao trio
All of the food came in the same tiny container. Price wise, i think it is a bit on the HIGH side. Especially with how little the food was. It barely fed 6 people and we ordered 6 items. Everything we ordered was pretty good. Except for the general tso. The batter was very mush and soft so i did not like that at all. I would not order that again. The string beans, egg plant and shredded pork with dried bean curd and chives all went well with rice.
There is Golden Kitchen, which is literally down the street. That place is not bad either. I would give it a try if you’re craving chinese food.

So I heard this was very good and selected mapo tofu, basically large tender chunks of tofu with flavorless ground pork in red chili oil and over cooked the white of a green onion. Disappointed in this dish. There menu is not traditional Chinese American food and had high hopes for this establishment. May revisit.

I went here with a couple of friends for dinner. While most of the food we ordered was decent, a chicken dish tasted off. We washed away the sauce and sure enough the chicken must have been old because it had become pungent. But the reason they get one star was because the hostess had a bad attitude and was rude. We were the only customers there and she managed to ignore us. We tipped a little less than 10% because of that and she scoffed at us when she saw.

One of the best Chinese restaurants for takeout around the Chicago area. Nice people. Have yet to eat in. Décor is average. I like the TV, which shows all of the different dishes they offer as you can’t really tell what is in some of the dishes from the menu. They have a decent selection of authentic Chinese and America Chinese food. Highly suggest trying this place if you’re in the area.

I attempted to place a call for a pick up order. It took forever to answer the phone then I was informed they no longer do pick up, they only do dine in. There dine in water taste like sewage anyways.
It sounded like it was excuse for not wanting to make my order. I will take my business somewhere else.

Two only real Chinese Reataurant within 10miles radius. Not fancy but they at least have some authentic stuff.

I guess the dishes are pretty exotic for NW burbs standards but somehow I wasn’t feeling the love and value here.
Décor had red hot chiles everywhere and owner’s kid in booth doing homework and playing videos games made going out to eat like an evening at home :(

best szechuan restaurant in chicagoland. just have to be patient on service — it is slow since they only have one chef.

Authentic appetizer: Never Forget Chicken Chengdu Style. As a native born Chengduness, I can say this appetizer (Kou Shui Ji in Chinese) is really savvy and authentic. Vegetarian Chicken is also very good.

I stopped for awhile on reviewing restaurants, but feel like this place deserves the acknowledgment. The food has been the closest thing to Asian cuisine I’ve had around the suburbs here. I’ve been disappointed over and over again when on the search for any sort of ethnic cuisine around here. However, this is a must stop for those days you’re craving some Asian. The food has always been made deliciously and I will definitely be coming here more often. The lady (not sure if she owns the place or not) is so sweet too. I would highly recommend if you’re looking for some authentic Asian cuisine!

One of the few places that really makes the mapo tofu correctly – highly recommend! Aside from that, the rest of the dishes are wonderfully done with authenticity. If you want real Chinese food, this is the place to go.

I have to be very brutally honest with you, I WILL NOT GO BACK THERE AGAIN!!. The service is unbelievably bad!
We waited for our food for 45 mins just for lunch. The server (which I believe is the owner’s wife) not even apologize. When we complaint about we can’t wait any longer, she just outright tell us to leave and go.
Food is good, but expensive for Chinese food.
I think the owner just don’t care about service, since they have their long-​term Chinese clientele.
If you can tolerate long waiting and rude service, then you find the right place.

Red dry chilli chicken is good. Management is not friendly. They are rude. Carry out orders are always delayed. I was ask to pay for something I didn’t order. Make sure you get confirmation of the order otherwise there will be surprise

This is a hidden gem. It was the best Chinese food that we have found without going into the city. Friendly staff and delicious food. We will go back often.

I went to the Red Lantern to eat lunch and it was wonderful. I haven’t eaten there in a while and the place looked like it expanded so it now has seating for lunch and dinner. The old man who I assume is the owner was very helpful and was always there if we needed anything. His wife was also a great hostess. I got the General Tsos Chicken extra spicy and a vegetable egg roll. I’ve never eaten spicy tsos chicken and it was a fire in my mouth. I love spicy things so it was perfect. It was empty in the restaurant except for my friend and I. It’s so much better than «Panda Express». If you’re looking for authentic chinese food then this is your place.

I moved to Lake County two years ago and have been looking for my «go to» Chinese restaurant, and this is it. Authentic Sichuan in Lake County? Yes!
The Mapo Tofu was swimming in red oil meat sauce and was wonderful. Skip the plain Kung Pao and order it Chengdu style: I counted five different kinds of peppers in the dish, including Sichuan peppercorns.

Not gonna lie. the service here is horrible. When my boyfriend and I arrived for dinner on a Saturday night, the place was packed full of Chinese people (which I think is a good sign if you’re looking for real Chinese food). We waited at least 30 minutes for a table and almost an hour for all of our dishes to arrive. I actually left, drove to Tea Harbor to pick up milk tea, came back, and all of our dishes still weren’t ready. I couldn’t be mad though because I’m pretty sure there were only two people working the entire restaurant (and one of them was the chef).
If you’re like me and have never had Szechuan food before, be prepared for a different type of spicy. I don’t enjoy hot foods but but the flavors here were actually really good. I found myself craving more when I got home and I’m glad we had so many leftovers.
Bottom line: the food is good — authentic Szechuan cuisine. Please don’t come here and order Americanized Chinese food (i.e. dishes you can get from Panda Express). The owner saw that we weren’t Chinese and made us try the kung pao chicken, which was extremely boring and not worth coming for. Luckily, we also knew to order the «real» stuff. We tried the beef & tripe, mapo tofu, beef noodle soup, and twice cooked pork. Favorites were the beef/​tripe and twice cooked pork. Delicious! Will definitely be back for more but will either order to-​go or come on a less busy evening.

Red Lantern offers some of the most authentic chinese dishes on the area! Under new management and new chef, they specialize in sichuan (szechuan) cuisines aka SPICY KICK with flavor!
Don’t judge a book by it’s cover. My wife and I came on a Sat night, walked towards the entrance in a strip mall, turned around, re-​read reviews on Unilocal and decided to give it a shot and we are GLAD we did!
We ordered the husband/​wife appetizer (cold spicy tripe and beef), chengdu twice cooked pork and mapo tofu fish. The appetizer was awesome and a must have! The traditional way to cook twice cooked pork is using thinly sliced pork with thick ribbing. mmm my mouth waters just thinking about it. The mapo tofu/​fish is no joke and not for the faint of heart. Traditional mapo tofu is not only spicy but also «tingly» on the tongue via the sichuan peppercorns.
We will definitely come here again and want to get the word out to keep the place in business. This is traditional chinese cuisine and a lot of the dishes may taste different than what most are used to, but have an open mind and open mouth and you’ll be a happy camper ;)