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There is a new Chinese restaurant, Yilin, in Forest Park that has Lao Szechuan-esque less-Americanized Chinese food and is a good option for those in Oak Park/the near western suburbs when you don't want to drive to Chinatown or Westmont. It's in the old Coral restaurant at Madison and Des Plaines. It is run by a very nice Chinese family, and I believe the chef used to work at Tony Hu's Lao Shanghai in Chinatown. I've been there twice, they have an extensive menu, and I recommend the dry chile chicken and Xinjiang cumin lamb (similar to those at Lao Szechuan, Ed's Potstickers, and Double Li); Shrimp with gingko, celery, and lily; and spinach sauteed with garlic. They have some coupons on their website too. Check them out!

Yilin
7600 W. Madison St.
Forest Park, IL 60130
708-488-9100
http://yilinsushi.com/index.html

More discussion on Yilin at http://www.livehereoakpark.com/forum/to ... orest-park.

Around the corner from my house and certainly a very promising looking menu. Thanks for the heads-up!

Ann, I live right around the corner from there too. I hope you're able to try it! But make sure to get the Chinese dishes; I hear the Japanese dishes and sushi are not what to get.

We just had a great meal at Yilin. Not perfect, but easiest the best Chinese between Westmont and Chinatown. If they can keep this up, they've got a GNR in the making.
Hot and sour soup--complimentary with our meal. Not bad, but ultimately disappointing. Heavy on the black pepper, weak on the broth flavor.

Pot stickers-- small and with a finely ground filling. I thought they might be one-dimensional, but in fact they were delicious. I'd go back just for these, and I hasten to note that I now keep a supply of Katy's dumplings in my freezer at all times so it's not like I'm desperate for a decent dumpling.

Salt and pepper fish. . Not quite as crispy as it might be, but very close and fresh and clean and spiced just right.

Dry chili chicken. Plenty of heat, even if perhaps a quarter notch below what you'd find at LSC. Again nicely fried. Very good. Not sure I'll need to go to Chinatown when I need my next chicken crack fix.

Szechuan string beans. Outstanding. Absolutely a match for Katy's in Naperville or LSC, which are my two favorites. Just terrific.

The bill. Look for yourself. .

As you can tell, we deliberately ordered our favorites for comparison purposes. I look forward to exploring the rest of the menu. But I encourage people to get out there. The other people in the place were ordering sushi and sweet and sour pork. For all I know, they may have been delicious. But I'd hate for them to drop the Szechuan specialties for lack of interest.

Those beans looks great. My experience so far has been just the $4.95 lunch special version of the dry chili chicken, which looks lighter than your evening entree:



It featured nice planks of ginger and slivered garlic, and edibly mild, toasty peppers. The chicken was well-cooked but quite bland, not enough salt or sweet. It did come with a complimentary bowl of steamed edamame, an incongruous reminder of the preserved dual nature of the restaurant. My accompanying mango-coconut freeze was flavorful but seemed from a mix rather than fresh, and the tapioca did not speak highly of the turnover needed to make good bubble drinks, at least as of yet. I prefer Hutong so far, but will certainly be back at dinnertime; lunch at Yilin was at least a great deal, and it was nice to see some non-standard offerings.

We went to Yilin about a half-hour before it closed last night. It’s very unfair to judge a restaurant at the end of the week when it’s getting ready to close for a holiday, so I’m going to cut the place some slack and talk about only the good stuff we had there. Yilin does have a huge menu of Japanese and Chinese dishes, so I think it’s likely we’ll return at a more normal time to give them a fair shake.



The seaweed salad, usually doled out in what seems quarter-cup servings, was here a huge mound of very tender mixed sea vegetables, lightly dressed with sesame seed and sweet vinegar. Now, I usually complain about the gargantuan size of many restaurant portions, and I greatly admire Japanese restraint in plating, but I was very glad to see this hungry-man mound of green goodness. Very crunchy and fresh, with slight sweet-sour notes, this salad was a good deal at $5.95.



The sushi chef comped us an octopus salad that might have been the best thing we ate that night. Thin slices of the sea creature, with beautiful, slightly chewy texture. Rarely do I enjoy a dish based primarily on its texture, but this one, I did. Flavor was very good; texture, very memorable.



This is the season for pea shoots, and the stir-fried shoots at Yilin were very delicate, with a slight hint of pea-ness, tender and tasty. I’m encouraged by the large vegetable section on the menu, including “Tony gourmet eggplant” (subtle homage to Tony Hu, the mayor of Chinatown chow?).

There are certain locations that for years can seem cursed. Papaspiros, now apparently thriving, moved into a location on Lake Street that had seem a number of restaurants (Tsukiji, Pacific Rim, Green Onion, etc.) come and go before one finally “hit.” Similarly, the corner of Madison and Desplaines has had a number of tenants, most recently Coral, that tried this concept and that and finally gave up and left. I think Yilin may have staying power, and although we now have over 20 Asian restaurants in the immediate area, there’s always room for another good one.

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

The owner (or in any case, Chinese cuisine director) is from Chongqing in Sichuan Province, and she "worked with" Tony, but I didn't catch if it was here or there.

Ah, she must be the nice lady I spoke with last night. She said she was from that area we used to called Chungking. Kitchen crew came out to see my iTranslate app, which several immediately downloaded.

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

I believe the owners said the chef had worked at Lao Shanghai. Thanks for all the reports. I'd like us to support this restaurant since it is the only one with good Sichuan food in the area. Perhaps we could do an LTHF meal at the restaurant so we could all sample a lot of different dishes?

My wife tried Coral while it was still in that space and she didn't like it at all. I'm glad to read that a decent place has moved in. We'll be heading over there one day this week for sure. That does seem like one of those locations that just isn't successful no matter what moves in there for some reason. Hopefully this place will change that. Thanks for posting about it!

We ordered delivery from Yilin last night as neither of us felt like cooking. They are fast getting the food out, that's for sure.

We started with the shumai which were jumbo shumai compared to what I'm used to from New Pot or King and I Thai. The sausage inside was tasty and had a pleasant texture overall with no chewy bits of fat like some sausage tend to have.

They gave us free hot and sour soup which I agree with Ann Fisher's assessment of. It was okay with plenty of mushrooms and tofu but was heavy on the black pepper.

They also gave us an order of edamame which was good.

For the main course(s) I got Mongolian beef - This was good and prepared with the ingredients that I like Mongolian beef prepared with (beef and scallions, not carrots and green peppers and whatever else some places try throwing in this dish to ultimately ruin it.) The main thing lacking here was there is no spicy aspect to it. It wasn't listed as a spicy dish on the menu so that's okay. The beef was tender and there was a lot of it. for overall flavor I do prefer King and I's version of this dish a bit more but Yilin's is still solid imo.

My wife and I also split a couple of dishes just to try several things from here and to have leftovers for tonight.

The beef short ribs in chef's special sauce was good but a little greasy. The ribs were also a bit gristley but we both enjoyed the flavor of this dish. You just had to work at it a bit.

We also split an order of sauteed clams with ginger and onion. This was my favorite first bite out of all of the dishes we tried. I ate one of the clams right out of the container and the ginger really rang through. Delicious.

My only issue with this dish is that about a third of the clams hadn't opened. I know you're not supposed to serve those. I pried a couple open just to see but they were mush and I discarded them.

Granted they give you a really good portion size for everything they serve but that one glitch makes me hesitate to order that dish again. That's just a shame to me as, like I said, it's a great tasting dish otherwise. Had they removed that third of unopened clams and just served what was left I wouldn't have had any complaints about it as there was a healthy portion of clams to begin with.

Overall we enjoyed everything from here. I'm still a bit partial to King and I if I'm ordering delivery from a local place. But, we'll definitely be trying some other things from Yilin to feel out other sections of their menu. I think we'll do a dine-in next time so my wife can try their sushi.

First, I want to thank everyone for finding this restaurant. I had pretty much given up on finding decent Chinese food in the area. I’m glad people were willing to take one for the team and try it. After so many bad meals at other places, I had resigned myself to other ethnic options – leaving Chinese for China Town or further Western suburbs. I’m usually pretty skeptical about places that serve both Japanese and Chinese.

I’d agree with the comment that it is the best Chinese between Chicago and Westmont. I hope that they’re able to stay open. I went there this past Thursday evening around 7:30 on the way home for some carryout. Considering it was a rainy night, they had a decent crowd. Off the top of my head, I’d say there were 4 or 5 couples dining inside. Plus, during the time I was there, around 3 people got carry-out.

We ordered the Pot Stickers, Mapo Tofu, Szechuan Eggplant, and Salt and Pepper Fish Fillet. We really wanted to get the pea shoots. However, they were out. Overall, we enjoyed everything.

I know people mentioned that the Pot Stickers were small. I wasn’t quite expecting that small. However, I’d much rather have small pot stickers that taste good than the alternative. I also wonder if I’ve become too accustomed to humongous food portions. Overall, the flavor was good. My only ding is I prefer a little more ginger in the filling. However, I can usually say that about most pot stickers. That’s more of a personal preference as my mother’s pot stickers had a pronounced ginger flavor. The ginger didn’t overpower the other flavors but it was definitely present. That being said, I would definitely order these pot stickers again, especially given the fact that pot stickers are a new favorite food for 2 of my children. They also enjoy scallion pancake so I’ll try that next time as well.

The flavor of the Salt and Pepper Fish was excellent. The fish was cooked perfectly. It didn’t feel heavy or greasy. The breading was a little soft. However, I wonder if it might have steamed some on the drive home. It was certainly a good dish regardless. I’d say that it was my wife’s favorite dish for the night.

The MaPo Tofu was very good. I feel Lao Sze Chuan sets the gold standard for MaPo Tofu. I was hoping that if the one of the chefs worked with Tony, they may have picked up that recipe as well. I don’t think they quite hit the same mark as Lao Sze Chuan. My wife, who is picky about black and white pepper, felt that the dish had too much pepper. I didn’t think that the flavorings were over powered by pepper. However, she also commented that this version didn’t have the same sour/pickle vegetable like Lao Sze Chuan’s MaPo Tofu. I agree as I enjoy having that crunch and sour element to balance out the flavors and spice. It also wasn’t nearly as spicy as Lao Sze Chuan.

The Szechuan eggplant was also very good. The dish is marked as being spicy. However, I didn’t feel that the dish was spicy. My four year old ate some of the dish without making any comment regarding the heat. The eggplant was cooked perfectly and the sauce was very good. The menu mentions that the dish was prepared with black mushrooms. I didn’t notice any black mushrooms in this dish. To be honest, that fact didn’t bother me. I enjoy a simple eggplant dish.

I’m looking forward to trying more dishes from Yilin.

I am so trying not to build this place up. Good Chinese in the area is possible, but rarely more than two dishes at the same place. This is mighty exciting to me. On the short list.

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We cannot be friends if you do not know the difference between Mayo and Miracle Whip.

Some hits, some misses--including one that could go in the "worst thing I ate lately category."

We'll take care of the bad news first. At the moment, if your order totals $30 or more, they give you a free order of chicken fried rice. If their goal is to increase customer loyalty, this is a move in the wrong direction. Terrible. I suspect it was made with the leftover sushi rice--very gummy. Otherwise tasteless. The dog liked it, however.

Another miss, though not as bad, was the shrimp dumpling. Plenty of shrimp, but the rice noodle wrapper was too thick and again very gummy. I would guess that they buy them frozen, which could be fine, but not in this case.

On to the good news. We ordered two of the "Chef's Specials" and enjoyed them both. The "Hot and Spicy Shrimp" had enough heat to satisfy my suburban palate and there was a nice balance between the shrimp and the peppers. The sauce was sweet enough to almost make it into the "sweet and sour" category, but ultimately, though it may have been a guilty pleasure, we both liked it a lot.

Another win was the "Beef short ribs in chef's special sauce." Good beefy flavor, bones to gnaw on, and the leftovers were fine on mashed potatoes the next day. .

Finally, the one thing we finished on the spot was the scallion pancakes. Much thinner than we were used to, almost like a crepe, served with an addictive chili sauce. Highly recommended.

It's a great sacrifice on our part, obviously, but we will continue to press on through the menu for the sake of the greater LTH community.

We are huge fans as well and so happy to have great Chinese food in the area. My 5 year old and 7 year old ask to go there every day. They love the sesame calamari (as do I , almost tempura like, very light batter, crispy) shui mai, seaweed salad and gyoza. I really enjoyed the dry chili fish and spicy tuna rolls. Hubby likes Singapore noodles and they have a good version, a nice kick, shrimp and veggies, really tasty. Their fruit smoothies are also delicious, made with fresh fruit and not much else, very refreshing in these hot days.
We will definitely order from there on a regular basis.
LO

Continuing to make our way through the menu, with nothing but good news to report this time.

1. Though I would not have ordered the hot and sour soup again, Bill did, and I'm happy to report that it was much better this visit and is now on the plus side of the menu.

2. We ordered the "hot and spicy cabbage" off the appetizer menu. At $5.50 it seemed a little steep for something that comes gratis other places, but it turned out to be delicious. . Slightly more pickled than Tony's, with just a hint of sweetness. Equally addictive. The owner explained that in Chongqing it's a traditional breakfast food. "It opens you up." She was clearly delighted that we were enjoying it.

3. We'd been wanting to try a noodle dish, and when we offered the waitress (I think in this case the girlfriend of a son) the choice between "Fried rice cake with qicai and pork" and "Seafood panfried noodle," she strongly recommended the seafood dish. It was a great recommendation. I ended up leaving the dry chili chicken to Bill and just eating the noodles. .

We learned a little more about the family. The manager (who was very conscientiously going through the menu with some gluten-free customers) is the daughter's fiancé. A son is the sushi chef, having learned it working at a Japanese restaurant in downtown Evanston. One of these days we'll get to the Japanese side of the menu. But not yet.

Had Yilin for the third time last night (the second night in a row, so that should say something). I had the sesame beef last night and it was the best chinese dish I have ever had. Sweet, Slightly tangy, slight crunch; awesome.

The night before I had the Dry Chili chicken........too hot for this wimp. Yowza! I almost wonder if it was a mistake.

But even beyond that, it was dry and tough chicken. I got it because so many reviews talked about it, but won't be doing that again. Still the crab rangoon and hot and sour soup were fantastic. Frankly, I wouldn't have ordered the next night had the menu not been left out for me to discover the sesame beef dish which I HAD to try. I'm very happy I did.

I'm really glad I live a block from the place; food showed up too hot to even take out of the bag. Got here in 20 mins at 8 p.m. on a Friday.

So in conclusion: sesame Beef.

My wife and I ate at Yilin 3 times while we were on vacation last week. We started off on Friday the 29th with dinner there right after work. We split a seaweed salad and and order of shumai. I had the teriyaki chicken off of the Japanese menu and was really happy with it. Tender chicken with a really tasty teriyaki sauce. My wife had one of their sushi plate offereings but I don't remember which one but she said it was great.

On Wednesday we went in for lunch. We started with a seaweed salad each this time as we both really liked it on Friday. We also split the Japanese spring roll. (Not the fried roll, the sushi roll) I'm not a big sushi fan but that's one of the better things I've tasted lately. The mayo type sauce that accompanied it really helped make this dish stand out. Highly recommended.

For the main course I had the spicy chicken off of the chinese lunch menu. The chicken was a bit on the dry side but this was still a decent dish.

Yesterday we went with 2 other couples and everyone really enjoyed their meals. I got the Japanese spring roll for myself this time and split an order of the ninja rolls with my wife. (We had both started with the seaweed salad again.) The ninja roll looked like it was mostly rice until you bit into it. Then it oozed a sort of gooey sweet sauce that combined with the shrimp inside really well. Very tasty.

Obviously we'll be back sooner than later.

Long time lurker, occasional attendee to LTH dinners, but a rare poster. I liked Yilin Chinese so much that I had to come out of the shadows and show some love.

It has long been my rule to not even consider dining at a multi-ethnic Asian restaurant as I believe one cuisine is hard enough to master but, encouraged by the positive feedback, we decided to order from Yilin earlier this week and were not disappointed. Like some other posters we had simply given up on ordering Chinese in the Oak Park area and instead make the trek to Westmont or Chinatown for our Chinese fix.

We ordered hot and sour soup (good - improved from the worst posts, but still room to improve), boiled beef in Szechuan sauce, salt and pepper calamari and flat noodle stir fried with beef. Yilin threw in an order of mini egg rolls with our order.

Our standout was the boiled beef in Szechuan sauce. The resemblance to Tony's was unmistakable. I ordered it "very spicy" and was not disappointed in the heat level. Their rendition, an extremely generous portion, was at a level perhaps 85% of what one would expect from Lao Sze Chuan.

The salt and pepper calamari was well seasoned and held up to carry out better than I would have expected. It was good enough that I'd like to try it or one of the other salt and pepper preparations dine-in so I can judge the dish fresh out of the wok.

Our third entree, popular with our kids, was flat noodle stir fried with beef. While not my top pick of the three, it was satisfying and head and shoulders better than any similar dish in the area.

We will be back regularly as I'm thrilled to have a quality Chinese restaurant in my back yard. The location has turned over multiple times in recent years. I truly hope Yilin gets the patronage it appears to deserve and is here to stay.

Per a LTHer rec., I ordered the sesame beef. It was outstanding. In terms of flavor and quality, far above anything I have had locally. The hot and sour soup needs a little work. Not bad, but not much flavor. We also ordered pot stickers and egg rolls. They were tasty, but be warned that they are tiny (think slightly larger than a #2 pencil) and the order wasn't overly generous. These minor complaints aside, I'm looking forward to trying some of the other items highlighted above. It is a treat to have a place as good as this in a neighborhood that had become a wasteland for fans of Chinese food.

Finally got to Yilin.

LOVED it.

Go here.

For the area, it's GOLD. Didn't try too many things, but everything was quite decent.

Pot Stickers and Egg Rolls:

Pot stickers were mild, smallish, but very good. Egg rols (sent out gratis,) were piping hot. Decent, NOT BAD AT ALL, but I wouldn't order them next time. Pot stickers, yes.

Stir Fried Flat Noode With Beef:

Asked for added broccoli with this one. Decent prep, very mild. If I were to get this again, (and I probably will,) I'd need a side of chili oil. I asked if they had chili oil, and of course, they did.

Tonight's star, Dry Chili Chicken:

Before ordering, I told the s/o that the rumor was that they were kinda skimpy with bringin the heat. I figured that this dish would be tame - kinda like the lauded LSC chicken crack. Yilin's version was POPPING with szechwan peppercorn tongue numbin goodness. It didn't have the sweet tinge that LSC has, but as it was,I liked it more than LSC's version. The dry chili chicken here will be a baseline order for me at this place. LOVED it.

I don't know if I can do Chinese food at any other place in the area now. Seriously. From what I tried today, it seems this place is legit. Can't wait to go back and try more. Chinese food in this area has gotten a serious boost here. Sadly, the track record of turnover at this place's location makes me think I need to go back as often as possible before it's a Greek diner or something.

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We cannot be friends if you do not know the difference between Mayo and Miracle Whip.

When I ordered the dry chili chicken it looked nothing like that... all the chicken pieces were much smaller and more uniform looking... like cubes. I really liked all the other things I've had, so I guess its time to try ordering this again.

We also had the flat noodle with beef. Interestingly enough, I was thinking that next time I'd ask them to add Chinese broccoli to it. Fine. Not something I'd write home about, especially since the noodle menu also includes the seafood pan-friend noodle I loved SO much last time. But Bill loved it. Maybe next time I'll ask them to add Chinese broccoli and black mushrooms and see what I think.

In my effort to keep going through the menu, we ordered another vegetable dish. On the manager's recommendation we tried the tong cai stir-fried with garlic. . Delicious. Very mild flavor, a little chew, and LOTS of garlic.

As we were finishing up, the owner's wife came by and told me they now have steamed bao. They're not on the menu, but they come with seven or eight different fillings, including custard, coconut, taro, and barbeque pork. We took an order of the barbeque pork home and heated them up in the microwave tonight. Very good.

But my new favorite, and a recommendation I make without hesitation as even better than the dry chili chicken, is the dry chili short ribs. .

If, like me, you love the gnaw meat off a bone, this is heaven. The pork is done, but not dry or tough. The crunchy crust is sublime. Just pick it up with your fingers and eat it like candy. You can thank me later.

Unable to make a kind dinner invite for the same day, I stopped by Yilin for a $5.25 lunch yesterday and found it excellent again. Good and patient service, extremely tender, sweet, and crunchy sesame beef (of a quality I don't expect on a cheap lunch menu, comparable to orange [peel] beef at Lao Sze Chuan), and hot and sour soup instead of the edamame I received on my initial lunch visit. Moreover, they had a nice toasty chili oil on request which counterbalanced the flavors perfectly. Lamb Xinjiang style is calling to me next. I've also heard surprisingly nice things about the sushi.

Also had lunch there on Tuesday. Dry chili chicken was much better this time around. It also had hunks of garlic as opposed to slivers of ginger... not sure which is the "correct" way but I enjoyed it much better with the garlic.

I can confirm this. It's pretty darn good. As good as Bua Hana, down the street. Not GREAT, but better than expected, as you mention.

Myself and a few of the Oak Park Boys went here on Tuesday night. I'm sure others can give their own opinion, but I think mine was the least favorable of the bunch.

I think places like this suffer from a vicious cycle. They have ideas and aspirations to do things one way and then run against an audience who wants things another way. For instance, I asked early on, if they had the classic, beef and maw. The friendly waitress admitted that they did at one point, but no one was ordering. She insinuated to me in a few other ways that people just were not "getting it."

So, they try. It's a decent try. I guess it's a bit better than what can be otherwise found around Oak Park/Forest Park, but I'm really not interested in a decent Chinese restaurant. I want good as in Lao Sze Chuan good. To me, nearly all the food tasted one dimensional. Take dry chili chicken. What makes this dish so special at LSC is not so much the spice but the interplay of spice, crunch and a sure hand with the sugar bowl. Yilin could not trust it's audience to go for all. Likewise, boiled beef, mispelled on the menu as "broiled beef", about my favorite dish at LSC, just lacked the assortment of goodies, peppercorns, dried chile flakes, cilantro, what-not that makes the dish bounce around your mouth. Maybe I just did not see it, but Mapo tofu missed its ground pork and with it, the element that makes it such a great "vegetarian" dish. Finally, whole shrimps, cooked salt n' pepper style, tasted rather off to me. On the plus side the marinated cabbage was well done.

I wish I could say nicer things about this place, but I need nicer food to do that.

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Think Yiddish, Dress British - Advice of Evil Ronnie to me.

The Local Beet's very big list of 2013 Farmer's Markets

Was at Yilin on Sunday for dinner with the wife and daughter.

We started with the hot and spicy cabbage and an order of Crab Rangoon. Both were very well done. Cabbage is nice and crispy, dressed with a spicy, sweet, semi-vinegary sauce that I found very nice. Neither too spicy or too sweet, with a nice vinegar kick that I personnaly like. Crab Rangoon seemed freshly made and were lightly fried and not greasy at all. They came accompanied with a sweet and sour sauce that was not your typical bottled variety that everyone serves, but had more "body".

For dinner we had a squid dish that I believe is called "Fireworks tree silvery flower". It was nice large pieces of squid tossed with peppers, carrots and other vegtables in a lightly spicy sauce. The squid and vegtables were perfectly cooked. The squid was tender and flavorfull, not rubbery or checwy like it can be. Vegtables all were fresh cut.

Our other dish was Garlic Chicken, which was the traditional chicken with green and red pepper an other vegtables in Garlic sauce. Also well done. Vegtables fresh, chicken well cooked and seasoned. Overall a good solid dish, not spectacular, but well executed.

The wife and daughter also each ordered a "Fresh Fruit Smoothie", a pineapple and a watermelon. I wouldn't really consider them "smoothies", as I dont think there was any type of dairy in them. They were however very good and very rereshing. Both obviously made from fresh fruit, they tasted like pureed fruit, blended with ice and who knows what else? The watermelon basically tasted like watermelon puree as did the pineapple.

We brought some Sushi home for the boys, Philly rolls, spicy tuna rolls, spider rolls. All were made with fresh ingriedents. The spicy tuna had a nice kick to it, proabaly a little more than I have tasted in the "average" spicy tuna roll at most places. Others were fine. Fresh and well made.

Overall, I really like this place. The owners are trying really hard. The food is solid, like a lot here have said, it's better than most, if not all of the other Chinese places in the area. If you go to their website (yilinsushi.com) there is a promotion coupon that will give you $20 on a return visit if you spend $20 or more.

They're still trying at Yilin. We've been back several times. The hot and spicy cabbage continues to be terrific and the hot and sour soup very good. They'd told us to expect some menu changes in January, and tried to tempt us with a pretty unimpressive "beef stick" last time we were there that didn't make up hopeful. But the menu changes seem to be minor, and although the beef stick is on there, our favorites remain as well.

For the first time tonight we tried the moo shu pork. Excellent. The best I can remember having in Chicago. What really set it apart was that the cabbage retained some crunch and the ingredients all retained their distinctive tastes and textures. If you're in the mood for moo shu--a good cold weather dish--by all means try it at Yilin.

That's all I need to hear - I'm making a point to get there by the end of the month.

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The cake is a lie