Ben Pao Restaurant

10/11/09

Great for Gluten Free Night out

by TDuncan at Citysearch

We contacted the restaurant before our recent trip to Chicago to find out a bit more about their Gluten Free dishes. We have not been able to find a good sweet and sour chicken for OVER a year since going gluten free due to our son's Celiac Disease. So, we thought we would ask to see if they could accomodate and accomodate they did.

The VP came out and introduced himself and was very interested in making our son's dining experience with them special AND SAFE!

The sweet and sour chicken was flavorful and plentiful. The sauce was not heavy and the breading on the chicken was not so heavy you couldn't find the chicken. The taste was excellent and our service was excellent. It was NOT loud during our dinner. It was busy and we had no problems with getting drinks refilled or things delivered quickly.

We WILL definitely be back. We had gluten free and gluten filled items at our table and enjoyed them all.

The wheat free beer on the menu is an ale that had lots of taste and I would have never known it was wheat free. My husband ordered the wheat free beer although he didn't need to and really liked it.

He also ordered a chicken that was lightly breaded in an orange flavored sauce that was awesome. Very light again on the breading and lots of great flavor.

Our compliments to Ed Culleeney for making our dinner out both safe and enjoyable!

Kudos to you and your staff,

• Pros: Good service, atmosphere and prices
• Cons: parking like everything else in Chicago!

09/21/09

Bad service outweighs good food

by chicagolawlady at Citysearch

I went here recently for a friend's birthday. Our party was large enough (10 people) that the server received the automatic 18% tip. Throughout the night, she barely paid any attention to our table, and was borderline rude when she was taking our orders. Everything we ordered took an extremely long time to arrive. Also, the restaurant's policy is to only take three types of payment for each table. This makes paying in a group very difficult. I bet this restaurant would be great if you went with small group, but do not go here in a larger group.

• Pros: yummy food
• Cons: terrible service

01/23/09

bad headache

by capitalgroup at Citysearch

have been a fan in the past and have recommended to others, not likely to go back. although totally get chinese new year, this evening it was too loud and had drums that would cause a headache to anyone. after a long week had a table of adults, the drum was stopped at the table, all had their heads down with fingers in ears to stop the level and asked that the drums move slightly forward, the staff, with arms crossed over chessed, dismissed the request, asked for manager who also didnt seem to get it. too bad. after that, the food that had been good in the past didn't seem to compensate for what was an unnecessarily bad evening.