Chicago is a city of unique neighborhoods and niche-y restaurants. I have always been disappointed that many of my friends and colleagues have never explored the many fine dining experiences available in Chicago's Chinatown.
Take a bus, train or cab down to Archer and Cermak, where the "main street" of Chinatown is centered. There are a number of great, authentic eating places where you can experience as much or as little of China as you want . . . they range from the very "normal" American-ized Chinese, to adventurous forays into the most mysterious of Chinese delicacies.
One of the very best of these places is the Happy Chef Dim Sum House at 2164 South Archer Avenue (just East of Cermak). Happy Chef is open seven days a week from 9am until 2am, so there really isn't any excuse not to make it down there. One enters through a parking lot "back door" of the Archer Avenue mini-mall which houses tens of similar restaurants. The Happy Chef is unique in that it has some of the best cuisine in Chicago.
As you creep into the back of the restaurant, you will not be awed by either traditional Oriental-kitsch found in a restaurant of this type, nor higher-end Asian flair that drapes the likes of Shanghai Terrace further uptown. You will be greeted by a busy staff shuttling large, steaming dishes of recognizable and unrecognizable to simple white tables covered with plastic. Not romantic, not cozy, not even comfortable. But the food will make you forgive all of that.
If you are not Asian, or do not speak fluent Chinese, you may have a bit of a challenge communicating your order. However, once you choose from the vast menu (ranging from traditional "Americanized" dishes such as Kung-Pao Chicken to a Live Frog dish), things start moving quickly. Complimentary hot tea and soup arrive as you wait for the bountiful dishes you have selected. The portions are huge, and the taste authentic. Having spent many months in China, I can tell you that will find the ingredients and preparations to equal the casual restaurants of the Cantonese style.
In addition, there is an extensive Dim Sum menu for those who prefer the variety of dumplings for which the Happy Chef takes its name; however, I like the traditional Cantonese, family-style dishes at which this establishment excels.
Note: Sunday night dinner "dessert" consists of a pea-soup looking tapioca with sweet beans; it looks like a heavy sauce you might have with a black bean sauteed fish, and probably something you will tepidly taste at first, but it is a nice cap to the meal of a warm, sweet soup.
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