Chinese tapas represents the most successful fusion of Chinese flavors with a Spanish aesthetic, trumping the Running of the Bowls and flamenco shoes filled with soy sauce. Taste an exciting alliance with today's Groupon: for $10, you get $20 worth of Chinese tapas and cocktails at Lao You Ju in Chinatown.
Merging the concept of small plates with the regionalized ingredients and cuisine of Chinese culture, celebrated chef Tony Hu's Lao You Ju creates a family-style dining experience with an expansive menu of Pan-Asian dishes. Lightly fried Jin-Sha shrimp lounge atop a tasty trail of corn and peppers spread artfully across white china ($10), pleasing the eye while betraying shellfish whereabouts to taste-bud trackers. A spiced red broth submerges the boiled beef tenderloin Chengdu-style in steamy flavor ($9), and a piping metal pan sings a fiery song under the cumin lamb on hot sizzling plate ($9). Chew over plant matters with the chinese eggplant Peking-style, flavored with rumors of onion and broccoli ($8). Chef Hu also coddles singular appetites with house specials such as the spicy pan-fried salmon Szechuan-style, a large plate of sweet and fragrant fillets ($25).
Lao You Ju encompasses diners in the plush hug of red-velvet-covered walls and dark chocolate paneling, accented with modern fixtures like a checkerboard wall and cylindrical chandeliers.
Reviews
where else will you encounter Abalone Hong Kong Style or Extremely Spicy Duck Tongue in Nestle?
Nick Kindelsperger, Grub Street Chicago, 10/27/10
Welcome to Lao You Ju, a dark, sultry, red-velvet-wrapped Chinatown den ready for sake-fueled romance and some insanely imaginative Chinese tapas
UrbanDaddy, 10/12/10
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