Cai

I went here for a NYE celebration dinner. We tried a few dished that we normally wouldn’t have. The waitress was not clear on her descriptions and prices. We had a few fresh oysters, a A (choy) vegetable dish, fish and duck 2 way dish. I think it was all good until we got the bill. The fish was actually $ 100. I never eaten a hundred dollar fish and it wasn’t that great. We feel cheated as we didn’t know the fish that was that expensive and with that price it wasn’t served to us. (cut and portioned out). There was plenty of waitstaff but everyone was standing around not doing much. They claimed the fish was swordfish but clearly it was in the flounder family. I don’t think they know what kind of fish they served us but sure charged us for an expensive fish. I would think that dropping over $ 50/​person they would at least pour some tea for us. I’m a local and if this is how they do business I’m taking my business elsewhere.

Good place for dim sum. My favorites are pork dumpling And egg yolk bun. The shrimp dumpling is not very good, the wrapping is too thick and the shrimp is not deveined.
Been here for dinner a few times and it is just ok. The sizzling black pepper ribs is too salty. the eggplant and fish casserole had pineapples in it, which is weird. the breading on the deep fried squid was too thick. we ordered half a chicken and it was, well, chicken. The mushroom and beef was good. The fried pea tips were good.
This is one of the nicer and cleaner restaurants in Chinatown. I will recommend this place, especially for dim sum. for dinner there are better places. Note that this place is BYOB.

Decent dim sum — the room is more Hong Kong style — think BIG room with many tables, chandeliers and loud, loud tables, big and small, lots of people, Cantonese being thrown around. Food is pretty good. The Har Gow (shrimp dumplings) are probably the best I’ve had in Chicago. Peking duck (!) is pretty good too — they make 2 dishes out of it — the first is the duck skin, carved table-​side, served with steamed buns, Hoisin sauce and veggies. The second is a stir-​fry of the meat served as a lettuce-​wrap. Nice! You can order a ½ or whole duck. It’s worth getting. Beef tendon is prepared with curry and is delicious! Most of the other food is on par with Ming Hin, its chief competition. If you like shrimp dumplings, come here. If you like Macao roast pork, go to Ming Hin.

We came here on Christmas night and the place was packed, however we were able to get seated immediately. No matter how packed this place is, I’ve never had to wait. This restaurant is on the second floor and has a HUGE dining room.
Pros:
–great dim sum selection
–huge menu
–fresh seafood
–no wait to be seated
–service is always quick, friendly
Cons:
–dungeness crab for $ 50 market-​price was OVERPRICED
I am giving this 3 out of 4 stars just because we felt the crab was overpriced. Other than that, this place is a must-​try. Always had pleasant experiences at Cai.

Dim sum the way it should be.
Efficient and discrete service, tasty food
Cheap check. What else you need to spend a great brunch on a wintery saturday

Always a great time at Cai. I’ve been here several times with a bunch of friends and it never disapoints. Love, love, love their Shumai and mochi. It’s always busy, which makes service some time slow with the water and even getting napkins. However, the food is always coming out on good time.
I see the waiters work very quick to quickly seat the next people. Whenever I want dim sum — this is the first place I think of and would go with my friends!
Quick tip — always bring cash and use their parking accommodation (really love that aspect) but you have to show your receipt

Most of the dimsum dishes that we had were good. Luv luv luv the chicken feet, very tasty. Saw their salt n pepper shrimp ($ 8.95, i think) on our neighbor’s table, hugh shrimps n smell oh so delicious… we were full by then. Nxt time for sure. Wait staffs were very attentive, unusual for a dimsum place. Will come back. I gave them 4 stars because we had to order from a menu and there were no carts moving about. I do like those carts…

My Chinese boyfriend’s family brought me here to eat dim sum & dinner on more than a few occasions.
My dim sum favs are the Lo bak go (turnip cakes) & the Gao choi bao (green leek buns). Those two are my all time favorite at any dim sum place no bias! They prepared them just the way I like.
As for dinner my most memorable dish would be Gao wong don (yellow leek w/​scrambled eggs). It’s the perfect saltiness to where you can It eat it with or without rice.
With that said… it’s pretty sad everything else was meh. Goodluck finding parking too. During most hours it’s a pain to drive in circles.

How was it I have tried others before this? Much better than Ming Hin. Fresh shrimp dumplings and very good rice rolls. The dumpling skin is translucent and just the right thickness. No MSG which is amazing. The food is not too salty or greasy. I knew I had come to the right place when I saw little old ladies braved the steep stairs to get their dim sum. This place is authentic Cantonese dim sum down right to chairs piling in bathroom and boxes spilling out to the stairs, but hey no self respecting Chinese restaurants exists without chaos. Don’t skim on the «chili» sauce it’s actually xo chili sauce made with dried shrimp, just delish. I did say it’s on the second floor with no elevator? But come for the food ! You will not regret this. Best dim sum I have had in Chicago (so far)

Not sure why this place has such poor ratings, as I consider Cai to be one of the best in Chicago dim sum. No, you don’t get the carts rolling around like more traditional places. No, the service is not very fast because of their made-​to-​order model. But for any one looking for authentic and traditional tasting dim sum, I would expect there is not many better places than Cai in Chicago’s Chinatown. In fact, the made-​to-​order model is great for those looking for the freshest dim sum because those carts circulate quite a while and the items get cold. A great feature is their menu full of pictures that helps with those unfamiliar with dim sum order with confidence.

I am not impressed. I enjoy dim sum all the time. This almost ruined my love for dim sum, almost. Cai is a little more «upscale» and the décor and place looks beautiful. They pack this place to the gills on weekends and you can hardly get by. The chances of getting by a full round table of people are slim to none. The place was so packed that we had to share our table with another party. What the hell?
Food was alright but the service was slow. The servers are so busy that you cant get a word in and when I finally flagged someone down to refill my water, I was already almost done with my meal. Pricing was higher than most dim sum places in the area. I hope they punch up the customer service there and reevaluate the foot pricing, but that’s just me.

My family has frequent the restaurant since it opened, we will not going there anymore. I noticed a downtrend of the service. The last time my family went, we waited for 30 minutes for the dish to arrive. We waited for another 25 minutes to the second dish that arrived lukewarm.
I understand the place gets busy, especially on the weekends. However, the customers came after us and sit near our table were served at a faster pace. The attitude of the wait staff was not pleasant. Needless to say, we were very disappointed.
There are other dim sum houses in Chinatown. We will be taking our business elsewhere.

I’m on a mission to find the best dim sum for the price here in Chi (na)town. For my first stop, it was Cai (how do you even pronounce this?), the banquet style hall where carts do not exist, and a menu with photos are given.
My friends and I showed up on a Sunday morning and waited half an hour before being seated. Most of the workers there were speaking Mandarin, which I found odd, given that dim sum restaurants are usually filled with Cantonese speakers. Already I was a bit hesitant with what the experience would look like lol.
Once we were seated, we got our menus, and checked away at the different dim sum items.
Really, the quality and taste of dim sum is going to differ between people. The selection here is probably second best after MingHin, and is much more reasonably priced. Those that are unfamiliar with dim sum offerings are also at an advantage here due to the fully pic-​ed out menus of each item.
However, service was pretty meh. Our server did not bring out our food for nearly half an hour (on top of already waiting that long to be seated). I flagged down a boss lady to take out receipt and check the kitchen to see why we hadn’t been served yet. A few moments later, some items start coming out, and I had to direct them to the lady to get our receipt back so they could mark what orders were already delivered.
On top of that, they did not cut the chern fun in half like most restaurants would.
It sounds like a lot of complaints, but really, Cai is fine as a dim sum restaurant and a good place to introduce your friends to the cuisine. There’s better spots in Chinatown if you’re willing to pay the price, but I’ll say this is a solid go-​to for future yum cha dates.

Me and a bunch of friends decided to visit Chicago, and what better breakfast than Dim Sum?! We arrived at 9, right on the dot. When we went inside, we were the only ones and it looked like I booked the place to ourselves. They seated us and gave us a menu. What I really like about this place is that their menu have pictures… more places need to do this. We ordered a bunch of things and waited… and waited… and waited. Granted we came right when they opened and were probably steaming all the food. Pretty cool thing is that they use paper instead of cloth to cover their tables, which allowed us to draw on the tables like the children we are.
When food arrived, we were so hungry that we pretty much devoured everything. We really only had one item that we had a problem with, but I have no idea what it’s called in english. Everything was great, I definitely recommend the lychee egg jello thing and also the mango tapioca pudding. For regular food, everything tasted great, I would say better than most in Boston. Can’t really go wrong with dim sum.

It’s been a little while since we’ve been here for dim sum, but this must be the current hot spot for Chinatown dim sum. Seemed like everyone was here for weekday brunch. I’m now retired and sort of lead a life of leisure, and knew why I was here, but what is everyone else doing here? Don’t they need to work? Is everyone else also retired or on vacation? Are they all having long lunch breaks from work? I pondered these questions as we ordered. Anyway, it’s a little pricier here, but we found it worthwhile for the nice touches — spacious and airy, quick service on sauces and water, and all dishes were steaming fresh and hot. Some places don’t offer all the sauces, and it was nice to get hot mustard for a change, as an example. In LA, we found they charge for dim sum sauces! In conclusion, come here if you want to have a good dim sum experience.

Word on the street is that the chef here migrated over from Phoenix (across the street). The dim sum items were delectable indeed. You check off what what you want from their dim sum menu and the waitstaff brings everything out to you piping hot from the kitchen. I like it more than the dim sum I’ve had at MingHin.
Décor wise, MingHin still wins with its grandeur and private party rooms. Though this is not to say Cai is poorly dressed, Cai boasts a sizable 2^nd floor dining room, which flows a lot better for private functions and weddings. But lacks the mood lighting and intricately staged tea sets inside glass display cases that wow people that walk into MingHin. Will definitely come back for dim sum!

3.5 This place is great for being a nicer venue (there was a wedding reception during dinner service), and it had decent food… but that’s about where it ends for me.
The food was average, but I just seem to expect phenomenal flavors at Chinatown restaurants. In essence, I expect Chinatown Square restaurants to provide the gold standard of what authentic Chinese cuisine has to offer.
I came with a party of 14. We had a shmorgasboard (i’m sure i botched that) of plates that kept arrivng, and barely made one pass around the lazy susan. Surprisingly… a bowl of rice came 5 plates later, and it was hardly enough for the table (I’m asian. Please don’t skimp.)
There was a beef and peapod affair with meh-​gritty-​beef. There was a pork belly dish that was doused with a hoisin-​type sauce, and all i really wished it was, were duck instead. The true winner was the walnut shrimp.
Honestly, I feel like I’d give a more accurate review if I were to try their dim sum service… but based off of this alone, 3.5.
IT’s BYOB, seats are clean, cushy, and well-​kept. They serve lumps of sugar for your tea, and give plenty refills on that. Our bill WAS very affordable. We were full, and somehow walked off with a split of $ 15/​person. That said… pricing is reasonable.

Pretty good dim sum with large selection but I still prefer it when they push the carts around. I know that’s probably less efficient, but I’m a simple visual animal and my neurons process better when there’s a 3D image in front of my eyes.

My new favorite dim sum spot is now 2000 miles away. *sniff*
Came to Cai after reading various reviews etc. Service was alright (typical dim sum restaurant service: great if you’re used to waving your arm around to get someone’s attention). The setting was nice, white tablecloths and well-​lit due to the large windows we were sitting by. The food though, oh the food…
LOVED:
Custard bun with egg yolk — Everyone’s favorite. If there’s one thing you must get, it’s this. It’s your typical steamed bun with custard filling, but the egg yolk really takes it to another level — it adds a savory richness that brings balance to a typically one-​note sugar sweet custard.
Haw gow — shrimp dumplings in crystal wrapper — tasted fresh with appreciable chunks of shrimp inside and had a «bouncy» texture (it’s a good thing!)
Curry Squid/​cuttlefish — I thought this was fantastic! The flavor of curry sauce/​broth was perfect — not too salty and full of curry flavor. The cuttlefish was cooked just right (ok, maybe a tad on the extra chewy side) but the flavor of the sauce made up for it
Good:
Xiao long bao — soup dumplings. Thicker skinned, but wonderfully rich with porky broth.
Loh mai gai — rice wrapped in lotus leaves with mushrooms, pork, etc. Usually a solid dim sum item. Didn’t disappoint here.
Congee with preserved egg — Large bowl, so it was pretty filling. It had the right amount of seasoning and was a nice
Chinese broccolli — gotta get some greens! Standard vegetable fare. It’s nice that they serve the oyster sauce on the side instead of drizzling it over. The broccoli (gai lan) was actually naturally sweet so it was nice to eat it plain.
Egg Tarts — yum! Rich and custardy with flaky crust.
Okay:
Tripe — I’m a bit particular on this dish. This one seemed a little overcooked in that the tripe had no crunch. A wee too soft.
For 4 people, we ended up paying 15−20ish. It’s a little more than what I’m used to, but totally worth it.

Cai was highly recommended to me by some friends as their favorite dim sum restaurant in Chinatown, and after visiting a few times myself, I couldn’t agree more. The food is extremely authentic, reminiscent of the dim sum I often ate with my grandparents back in China. They have a diverse menu with all the staple dim sum dishes listed, complete with pictures and English translations for those who do not speak Chinese. It was also impressive that they had xiao long bao (soup dumplings) and liu sha bao, since those are items rarely found in Chinese restaurants in America. While they weren’t nearly as juicy as the ones I’ve had in China, I was still pretty happy to find them here in Chicago.
For first timers, I would definitely recommend the two dishes I listed above, along with egg tarts, the rice wrapped in lotus leaf, rice rolls, shrimp dumplings, and the bbq meat buns.
I visited around 1pm on Sunday and the restaurant was crowded and noisy, but that’s part of the full, authentic dim sum experience. I had to wait around 20 minutes, but thankfully, my party of 5 got a table to ourselves (I’ve had to share before, unfortunately). Cai uses a paper ordering system instead of having employees push the traditional carts around, so we couldn’t just point to what we wanted and eat it right away. After submitting the order, some of the items came out within minutes, but we had to wait another 15 minutes for the rest of the dishes to come. There was no concept of serving everything at once, which is pretty typical of dim sum meals. However, our servers consistently stopped by and were great with refilling tea and taking away the empty dishes.