Dolo

Really really good. Our new go to place for dim sum. We arrived at 10 a.m. on a Sunday morning. Not surprisingly, we were the only Caucasians who were not accompanied by Asians :)
We had to wait a few minutes to get a table but they provided the menu so we had our selections ready when we were seated. There were a a few of our favorite items missing (water chestnut cake, for example), but it was a good selection.
The service was great – friendly and fast. The waiter discretely added two forks to our chopsticks and napkins, but we didn’t need them.
We especially liked: thai style mochi (whipped cream in center) and sesame balls were done very well. The bbq pork bao was fun but I felt the dough was a little dry.
The crispy rice crepes were wonderful! Great combination of soft and hard with many flavors going on. The shu mai had a lot of shrimp with the pork and were quite filling. My husband enjoyed the sticky rice in lotus leaves.
The décor is very nice. Very limited parking in the small lot (we ended up on the street). A bit loud due to metal ceiling.
For $ 23, we couldn’t eat it all – took quite a bit home.

A small to medium size dining area. There are three private rooms for party of 10+. Dim sum and dinner are very popular.

I ordered the Mango Beef Tenderloin!
Amazing– I’ve never tasted a dish like this before
The Dim Sum is fantastic. Best in Chinatown
FREE PARKING
WIN WIN

Wow… I’ve just had the best dim sum I’ve ever had in Chicago. Actually, it beats a lot of other dim sum in other cities too. There are a few things we ordered that we didn’t like though, but that’s just a flavor preference. Everyone likes different things. The soup dumplings did not have any soup. It’s a Shanghai dish so best not get it here anyway. Dim sum is Cantonese. I wanted to try it though. Lao Shanghai is good for soup dumplings. Pan fried vegetable buns weren’t that great. Not a lot of filling. Beef tendon was steamed well, but I didn’t care for the flavoring. Awesome spare ribs, xo turnip cakes (the one with XO sauce), shrimp and chive dumplings, Shao mai, and other things… Looking forward to coming back.

We arrived ½ hr before closing. Is that a good reason for bad service? Can you or should you expect good service?
Well — I’m always expecting good service — no mater what /​when /​where.
Most of the food was «good plus».
The sesames balls was missing from our order — and when we let them know — they gave us the very best and fresh.
Food: 4.5 stars. Service — 3 minus — so total of 4 stars will be the right one here

At first when I pulled up, I was effy about this place! But walking inside it was very nicely setup!!! The server seated us right away! I thought that we gonna have to wait awhile being that its Mother’s Day but we were seated quickly!!! The table that we got was a bit small
For four adults so we asked to me moved to
A bigger table since well we eat a lot and we need a big table lol!!! The server was very nice and friendly and joking around w us!!! He didn’t believe us when we asked to order more food after our first six entrees came
Out, but we were hungry so had to order more!!! Good was great! However, the Cajun seasoning of the crawfish and shrimp was okay, I guess after eating at so many other Cajun seafood place such as hot and juicy, it’s hard to
Compare that to other place! But the lobster as very good, we had originally ordered two
Lobsters, but we were really hungry still so order another two more! Haha!!! Make sure to
Check in on Unilocal to get 10% off your order!!!

It’s 20% off of dim sum from 2−4pm on weekdays and we were able to return here for this promotion. The quality is quite good here, and they have some unique selections. If you’re lucky, as we were again, you can get one of their few free parking spots right outside the entrance. We had for this afternoon outing:
— turnip crepes
— bitter melon custard cakes
— crispy rice crêpe
— pan fried vegetable pork buns
— siu mai (pork dumplings)
— har gao (shrimp dumplings)
— beef crepes
The first four items are a little out of the ordinary in our experience, and we enjoyed the fresh new flavors of all of them. The pan fried pork buns were presented on a flavorful hot plate of peppers and onions, and resembled a Mexican fajita presentation — quite a different dim sum item. The bitter melon custard cakes contained a sesame paste. The siu mai and har gao were generously sized. Photos provided for most of the items. All in all, a great place to go for dim sum, particularly as noted for a few of those items out of the ordinary.

Very good service. What a surprise, in Chinatown. Esquire rated this as one of the best new restaurants in Chicago. The menu and food is delicious, and fresh!

My friend and I decided to give Dolo a shot because of good reviews on Unilocal.We wanted to try their dim sum but were told that it ended at 4pm.
We ended up ordering:
— Salt & Pepper Enoki Mushrooms
Fried enoki mushrooms tossed with Asian salt and pepper seasoning, pretty big portion for an appetizer. Really good deal for less than $ 5. I REALLY liked this dish. I could barely taste the enoki mushrooms because they are literally super fried, but it was good.
— Taiwanese Style Shrimp
Several pieces of big shrimps breaded and fried, cooked with Asian shredded pork and seasoning. I thought that the shrimps had too much breading, but it was good. I didn’t eat the shells because I was trying to make space in my stomach for other dishes.
— Eggplant and Mushrooms
Pieces of eggplant, mushrooms, peppers with some sort of dark sauce. This dish was REALLY saucey and a little spicy. I didn’t mind the spice but it was a bit too salty for my taste. We couldn’t finish it because it didn’t taste very good.
— Bowl of white rice
Service was good. The employees do hover over a lot sometimes but it’s because they are detail oriented and make sure customers are ok. They all seem to work well together.
Check in offer from Unilocal helped us save 10%. If I am ever in Chicago again, I’d love to try their dim sum. The turnip cake looks delivious!

Dolo is a welcome addition to Chinatown, with delicious food and its own (small) parking lot, which is a huge plus for patrons lucky enough to find a spot. The modern décor and the spacious, comfortable dining area made for an inviting ambience. The service was good, though the language barrier at times led to some misunderstandings and difficulty with ordering.
We came here for the dim sum and ordered our favorites. The standouts included the Shumai (pork dumplings), Har gow (shrimp dumplings), and taro puff. The congee was also good but just a tad on the delicate side. We also ordered the spare ribs, which were underwhelming unfortunately. Overall, though, we really enjoyed the food, and I would rate it as good if not better than some of the other popular dim sum restaurants in Chinatown.

Not in the strip of ChinaTown but very close with free parking. Inside is very clean and modern finishes with cozy seat. The staff were amazing and very kind — even the big boss — Jason — came to the table to insure that we were cared. The seafood entrée we ordered was amazing, specially when it’s kicked with their amazing mix of spice sauce. The portion was huge, one order feed 4ppl — so if you want to know — GO EAT!
Side note — I love the music in the place!

The food was delicious. The atmosphere is extremely cute and the service was spectacular. Absolutely loved the Beef with Mango and the lamb chop was to die for. Really enjoyed it.

As much as I want to give this place more stars I didn’t enjoy eating here.
For one thing,
No one speaks English! Just because I’m Asian doesn’t mean I speak Chinese.
They never gave us dipping sauce for our dim sum.
They don’t have hot mustard
I don’t think I’ll be eating here again.

We just had a pretty solid pre-​Chinese New Year dinner! It was quite empty at 10pm on a Friday, but I assume all reasonable people already had eaten. :)
We ordered:
Salt & Pepper Prawn — 3.5 /​bordering on 4
Pretty standard size and taste wise. Quantity was pretty generous in my opinion.
XO Cuttlefish — 3.5
I really enjoyed the flavor! My +1 thought the whole dish was overcooked. The cuttlefish was a bit rubbery, but I’ve never had it any other way/​texture, so couldn’t speak to that opinion. I wasn’t crazy about the lemongrass… yes, «aromatics» and all, but there was a sh! t ton if the stuff! Honestly.
Sweet and Sour Pork — 3.5 /​bordering on 4
Not fatty nor overcooked and, when piping hot, the coating was crisp and thin. Good flavor and not too saucy.
«French» Filet Sautéed Beef Tenderloin w/​Noodle — 2.5
Supposedly this is really popular, but we weren’t big fans. The beef was tender but was more chewy than I prefer, and was plopped on top of a circular blob of noodles. The noodles were way crisp around the edges and very soft underneath the beef. I love carbs, but totally skipped the noodles. He wasn’t a fan.
Service was friendly: not obtrusive, our questions were answered, and another server (owner?) chimed in when we were undecided about noodle dishes. We asked about the Peking-​Style Pork Chop (photo posted by Kaman T.) AND Tea Roasted Chicken… we didn’t see either on the menu and our server said they didn’t have those dishes. Hmph. They did offer some off-​menu (but soon-​to-​be-​added) items that included a tofu and woodland mushroom dish.
Décor was more modern, but the tables have lots of unsightly water stains (and they’ve only been around a short time?). They have what looked to be a full bar and a TV well into the dining room (kind of clashed with the dining room ambiance, IMO, but I guess if you have a boring date, you can zone out and watch the game). From what I saw, it was clean.
I totally forgot to use the Check-​In deal, gurrr. That just gives an excuse to come again and try the tofu or dim sum.

I was craving dim sum and decided to go here to celebrate my birthday. I know most dim sum places are super busy on Sunday so luckily I was able to make a reservation for my large party. We were seated in a separate room with another large party. It was a very accommodating and intimate setting. I ordered an assortment of dishes for all of us to share: soup dumplings, siopao, shrimp dumplings, sesame balls, shrimp egg rolls, beef, bbq pork and shrimp crepes, spare ribs in black bean sauce, pan fried noodles, fried rice and mango pudding. Everything was delicious! I’ve had my share of mediocre dim sum and this restaurant stands out for good authentic dim sum.
The service wasn’t great — many of the servers did not speak English so it was a bit frustrating, but the great food made up for it. I also checked-​in on Unilocal and got 10% off! I also read that happy hour is 20% off during the week between 2 – 4 pm.
I absolutely want to come back and try their other dishes! Come here for amazing dim sum!

I wish there was a 3.5 stars rating. Went in to surprisingly empty place so also had attentive staff (given there was a lot of them!). The décor was not too special except the awesome fish tanks… yes my little fishes, you will wind up in my stomach.
Was a bit disappointing to not be there for dim sum but went because reviews were good. The crawfish were great but not as good as New Orleans. The other dishes (beef, soup, fish of what kinda I cannot remember) were good but not notable enough for me to say its worthy of dreaming about it.
Overall OK but I’ll probably explore somewhere else next time.

It’s not often that I’ll rave about a dim sum experience, but this place is truly phenomenal. I’ve had my fair share of dim sum in Boston and New York, and they are all excellent, but Dolo brought dim sum to a whole new level and went above and beyond.
The restaurant itself is classier than most. It’s not your rundown, hectic, Chinatown-​stereotypical restaurant. It’s rather elegant. The tables, chairs, and booths have a classy edge to them, which I know is funny to say! There is also a bar in the restaurant, so I’m sure this place is hopping at night too.
My friends and I shared the spare ribs, chicken feet, beef dish (?) — see pics, shumai, shrimp dumplings (ha-​gao), shrimp crêpe (ha-​cherng), and many other things! The quality of the dim sum here is top notch. The shumai were my favorite. They were so FILLED and ginormous! We paid under $ 40 for three very happy and satisfied stomaches, which in my book, is a pretty good deal. Asians do tapas the best!
If you check in on Unilocal,you get a 10% discount. Alternatively, you can also you get the 10% discount if you pay cash instead of credit card. Their happy hour is on weekdays from 2−4pm, where you get 20% off your bill!
If I lived in Chicago, I would frequent this restaurant pretty regularly!

Real live stream of solo dim sum experience of Dolo. Came in for lunch at 1pm after finishing up at the conference. Chicago does this thing where you tick it off a colored pamphlet… kinda wasteful if you ask me. Anyways I went with the shrimp dumplings, ginger tripe, beef rice crêpe, soup dumplings, and pork n shrimp siumai. They supplied me with my own pot of hot tea, free of charge. The latter being important cause some places are sneaky and charge like $ 4 for that.
Holy wow this dim sum was good. Tripe was so soft and the ginger was equisite. The shrimp dumpling and rice crêpe were average. Soup dumplings were meh, probably wouldn’t get again. The winner of the show was the steamed pork dumpling which was GINORMOUS. 2 giant shrimp inside with the pork, and when you break it apart a little broth comes out. This was honestly so delicious, I wish I had just gotten 5 of those. And I wouldn’t even regret it.
Weekdays they do 20% off between 2 – 4. I arrived a little before that but was honestly too hungry to wait. Instead, checking in gets you 10% off. Next time in Chicago, will definitely come.

Restaurant close to the center of Chinatown with it’s own (tiny) private parking lot? Count me in!
I came here around 8:30 PM on a Saturday night, and while it was pretty loud (we were yelling across the booth) and busy when we got there, by the time we left it had quieted quite a bit.
After looking at the other Unilocal reviews (which actually happened to line up with what our table was thinking about getting anyway), we ordered the Szechuan Style Seafood Eggplant Casserole, the Sweet & Sour chicken, and the French Sauteed Diced Beef Filet Noodle. They came out later to tell us that they had run out of the noodles for the dish (Whaaaaat??? It was only 9 and they close at 1PM). We ended up getting one of their other noodle dishes. All of the food was really good, flavorful & cooked well. Although the prices seem slightly more expensive, they’re actually pretty reasonable considering the portion you’re getting.
Definitely would come back here, if anything, to try the Dolo Seafood Combo which, it seemed like, every other table had ordered.
The décor was clean and modern, from our booth we were able to peek into a private room which looked pretty fancy.

More like a 3.5, but I like to round up. It was one of my friends’ birthday, so we made a reservation for a party of 12. When we arrived, I was surprised to find out that they reserved a room for our party. The room was pretty small for 12 people, but we still managed. We had trouble communicated with some of the workers since they do not speak English, but it was fine since the workers were really nice. I prefer that over rude staffs any day. We ordered a few appetizers to start off our dinner. The assorted house appetizers were ok, but the fried spare ribs were so good.
The Mai Thai was pretty strong, two of my friends did not finish their drinks. We also ordered the seafood combo. Honestly, I had better, but it was decent. Way better than most places in Chicago. The Beef Tenderloin Chow Fun was whatever, I expected it to be better since people kept talking about it. The fried rice and the Crab meat fish stomach soup were basic. Overall, friendly staffs and ok/​decent food. Would I recommend this place to a friend? I am not sure about that. However, would I come back to this place again? Yeah.