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Number four in my series of The Essential Chicago Restaurants. Don't miss a single thrill-packed installment!

I wrote a while back about Ssyal being the least likely place for me to have discovered on my own without my fellow Chowists sussing it out, a Korean healthy soup place on west Lawrence. But in fact, at least I have actually driven past Ssyal on a fairly regular basis, a few times a year at least. Where there are tons of restaurants located in areas where I simply never go at all, which surely all score an equal zero on the Mike-would-have-stopped-in-there-someday scale, the way every restaurant in Youngstown, Ohio or Provo, Utah, no matter how excellent, does.

One is Ed's Potsticker House. Let's count the reasons why Mike would never have gone there:

1) Located very conveniently half a block south of Halsted and 31st, just past the park John Kass said should be named for the Hired Trucks our tax dollars lavishly rented from a Daley pal, and in between body shops and tool & die places on the far edge of Bridgeport/Chinatown;

2) It's named Ed's Potsticker House. As in, House of Greasy 1950s Schaumburg Chinese. At Christmas, my mom makes some 50s-style sausage-and-applesauce-and-sugar buffet dish which I have always called Ed's House of Candied Weenies, as that seems to sum up everything dated about and wrong with, and yet undeniably irresistible about, that dish (fat and sugar-- pass it over here!)

3) Decor lives up to the fusty 50s name.

Now let's list the reasons why I have been there:

1) Because somebody else discovered that it was pretty much the opposite of everything its name implied (who that was and how they found it, I have no idea) and wrote about it on another board.

2) Because a billion incredibly learned posts followed digging deeply into the authentic cuisine to be found there, the derivation of the soup dumplings, the precise transliteration of the Chinese names for the dishes, and tons of other things.

If a place called Ed's can earn that kind of devotion, can warrant that level of minute investigation, then I guess I can get my northside ass down to 31st and Halsted to eat there.

As indeed I did yesterday with GWiv and Steve Z after we followed him to Peoria Packing Co. for a walk-in-fridge-conducted master class in barbecue meat selection. As befits a group of just three, we only ordered a few things at lunch-- only five or six dishes total, practically a mere snack-- so the meal doesn't compare to my first visit, an elaborate lunch for 20 or so. But throughout, Ed's demonstrated not only why it's probably the best restaurant named Ed's you've ever been to or ever will, but that it is one of the most accomplished Chinese restaurants in the city. Hopefully GWiv will provide pictures for some of these (here are some older ones plus the menu), but here's what we had:

Thanks, MikeG, for adding Ed's to the LTH database. Antonius and I have also enjoyed the dishes you mention, except the whole fish, and have two other favorites as well: lamb with cumin, and potatoes with vinegar. (See our Chowhound post from St. Patrick's Day.) An extra bonus from their out-of-the-way location: you can often get a parking space right in front of the restaurant.

By the way, in today's Chicago Tribune there is an article on Chinatown and adjacent neighborhoods. At the top of page 11 Ran Yu, owner of Ed's, is quoted on problems she has faced in Bridgeport.

Mike,

Ed's is truly a treat and one of my favorite places in Chicago. When we were there with Steve Z last week it had been a couple of months for me, I left wondering why I don't go more often.

In addition to the pictures I'm posting today, and the menu site you mention, I have a number of additional pictures Ed's Pot Sticker. This includes one of my favorite pictures, Ed's Corn Cakes, which are surprisingly similar to Johnny Cakes.

Thank you, gentlemen, for the excellent post and photos. I'm looking forward to my first trip to Ed's. Everything looks and sounds delicious.



I am curious about the practice of eating a whole, unbroken soup dumpling. I have never even attempted this, having been warned, on more than one occasion (at different places), that this is not the recommended method of eating one. Particularly because you may very likely burn your mouth.

During my last trip to Phoneix Dumpling House, they went to great care to point out that their preferred, traditional method is to move a dumpling to our spoon, bite off the top, add fresh ginger and vinegar, then eat the whole dumpling from the spoon.

EatChicago,

Phoenix Dumpling House's soup dumplings are served, in my experience, much hotter than most. The first time I had soup dumpling at Phoenix I, as is my preferred method, placed one on a soup spoon, added a bit of chili oil, red vinegar and ginger and popped the thing into my mouth.

Wow! Hot, Hot Hot. Delicious, but hot.

Ed's are not served at the same molten lava temperature, but do have a small problem that Phoenix soup dumplings do not have, they are harder to get from the steamer without bursting.

At Phoenix Dumpling House the soup dumplings rest on a layer of cabbage, making them easy to remove, at Ed's the are directly on the steamer and have a tendency to stick. My suggestion at Ed's is to place a spoon directly next to the soup dumpling and roll, gently, into the spoon with your chopsticks. This way the soup dumpling is less likely to break.

I have tried various methods of eating soup dumplings, including taking a small bite from the top, sucking out the liquid, and then eating the dumpling. My preferred method is to just pop the whole thing, but then again some have said I have a big mouth.

As an interesting aside, during a conversation with the somewhat grumpy, but loveable (wonder if she ever worked in a Jewish deli) manager of Phoenix Dumpling she asked, in a mostly rhetorical way, why Americans (yes I know there are many types of Americans, but she that's not what she meant) never eat the cabbage lining the steamer.

Since she posed the question I have made it a point to always eat the cabbage, which is quite tasty.

Enjoy,
Gary

Interesting, Thanks Gary. I'm hoping to get to Ed's soon. This thread has rocketed it to the top of my list.

Best,
EC

My brother and his family were coming in from Ann Arbor yesterday at around noon, so I made the obvious suggestion that we meet at Ed's (Potsticker that is, not Fisher) for brunch. And what a good suggestion it was.

I had fair to middling success trying to duplicate the previously discovered delights. The potstickers, of course, are easy to order (we also tried the vegetable potstickers with crystal shell--they were vegetable potstickers--nothing worth bothering with). We also managed to convey our wish for the scallion pancake with the pork (wow! what a dish!!) and the lamb with cumin. But the waiter taking our order denied knowing anything of corn cakes.

But the biggest disappointment, which turned out just dandy, was that somehow our order for soup dumplings was delivered as an order of dumpling soup (I believe he said "Bejing style"). There's no regret here, however. It looked like anyone else's won ton soup, albeit with a few tantalizing strips of something dark colored and very tasty--maybe wood ears, more likely a seaweed. But it was, by miles, the best soup I've ever had in a Chinese restaurant. The dumpling was good. The broth was ambrosial. When something that clear has so much depth of flavor, you know there's a real cook somewhere who put a lot of time into it. I hope someone else will try it and tease out the specific flavors for me.

We also had a chicken lo mein, suggested by our waiter in response to our request for a dish with chicken and noodles. It too looked pretty ordinary. It too tasted a whole lot better than ordinary. A good suggestion if your party has a less adverturous eater or two in it.

We later met our Ed and a couple of his friends for dinner at Bhabi's Kitchen. It was fine, and Mr. Syed, as everyone has pointed out, is a charming host, and the pistacho naan is fabulous. But all through the meal I kept thinking that what I really wanted was another bowl, maybe another gallon, of that soup from Ed's Potsticker House.

Hi,

I was at Ed's about 10 days ago. As much as we promised ourselves not to order the same stuff again, we pretty much broke our promise.

Who can beat scallion pancakes swabbed with hoisin sauce, stuffed with canadian bacon-type ham and sprinkled with green onion slivers? Followed by mung bean salad, don't forget to liberally apply the fresh made mustard, black vinegar and tahini sauce. Absence of any of the three sauce ingrediants and you are missing the culinary boat.

The fish flavored eggplant isn't at all fish-flavored, the corn starch rolled and fried eggplant is crunchy texture heaven.

Cumin lamb followed by a whole tilapia with homestyle yellow bean sauce. Fight over the fins and cheeks!

You will note we did not have the soup dumplings or their signature pot stickers. We just didn't think about it.

If I got to Ed's more often, I guess I would explore the menu more. My problem is the hits are so spectacular, I need to revisit them first before moving on ... I guess I need to visit a little more often!

moved to Bridgeport in August, drive by Ed's about once a day, if not more, finally made it mid September based on CH touting and was completely disappointed.

the house signature 'potsticker' tasted like burnt dough, it was so bad i left half the dumplings on the plate. the shanghainese jellyfish was... spongy and chewing but completely in the wrong fashion, not to mention not garlicky enough.

the shanghainese smoked fish, was, again, compared to what i had in Shanghai (or heck, even in Taiwan) totally off the wall in the wrong way. Ms. Ran, was indeed extremely gracious but I found the scallion pancakes to be completely unexceptional to my Chinese skewed gastronomic senses. The almost offensive bill came out to be almost $30+tax+tip; worth about $20 in LA...

re: Ann Fisher's comment concerning Beijing style soup dumpling
yes, the black chewy/crunchy stuff is indeed wood ear.

IMHO, the only truly exceptional style of non steamed/boiled dumplings is Chengdu dumplings. I believe LSC offers this dish, but I've yet to sample theirs.

Tony!

Obviously you are very opinionated about what you don't like. I hope sometime you will provide some hint about some Asian food you do like!

I learn just as much from what people like than what they don't like. I know somedays life is just a glass half empty. I would love to find your glass half full day and bear your soul to what you do like! So what is your favorite Asian restaurant and why?

Respectfully,

Ms. EC and I made our first-ever visit to Ed's this past Friday night, accompanied by the incomparable Wivs.

Ed's was truly a delight. The eggplant is not to be missed.

Instead of the fish in brown gravy, we were treated to a whole tilapia in Szechuan sauce. The sauce was more sweet than spicy and the perfect cap to the meal.

Then go back to LA!

I've really started to look forward to your posts, pictures of pretty girls, panchan photos, trash restaurants I really like, including my favorite 'Little' Three Happiness and pictures of pretty girls.

As EC mentioned, Ellen and I had the distinct pleasure of EC and MsEC's company at Ed's on Friday, it was their first time, and I thought our dinner a perfect introduction to Ed's.

If I had to find fault with our meal the only small peg for me to hang my hat on would be the soup dumplings were not all that soupy Friday evening. There, happy?

As EC mentioned the tilapia in Szechuan sauce was excellent, fish fragrant eggplant aka garlic eggplant, as good as always, which is damn good, lamb w/cumin, tofu/pork meat ball soup, scallion pancakes w/smoked pork drizzled with Ed's house chili oil, all delicious.

Yesterday on the Short-Notice-A-Thon the consensus was carnitas from Carnitas Uruapan were the best, by a small margin, of the three carnitas places we tried. That might be next on your hit parade, oh, and Vito and Nick's pizza has a following as well. Looking forward to your posts on both places.

Note: I've had the pleasure of breaking bread with TonyC a few times, I do not mean the above to sound snarky, but humorous with a healthy dose of WTF.

Enjoy,
Gary

I was up in Chicago yesterday, and had lunch at Ed's Potsticker House. I noticed a dish on the menu called "Sauteed intestines Manchurian style," and couldn't resist the chance to try a new way of preparing intestines. It turned out to be delicious: something like a sweet-and-sour dish, but not too sweet or too cornstarchy, with plenty of garlic. The contrast between the crunchiness of the light breading and the softness and chewiness of the insides was quite pleasing.

I wasn't able to finish the whole dish, alas, because I'd just finished off my order of scallion pancakes with smoked pork (called "smoked pork cakes" on the menu iirc).

My girlfriend, her toddler and I ate at Ed's a couple of Fridays ago. We had the soup dumplings, the cigar dumplings, the crispy eggplant and we ordered the Lamb & Green Onion (rather than the Lamb with Cumin which the waiter said was spicy--we had a little one with us). Everything was delightful but when we took one bite of the "lamb" with green onion both of us sort of paused. Eyebrows went up. It looked like chicken, it smelled like chicken, it had the texture of chicken. It WAS chicken. Or if it wasn't chicken I don't know what it was but it was certainly not in any way related to lamb. I have been eating lamb since I could hold up a fork, my aunt raised them so we got lots of free lamb. And at first I thought, what the heck maybe they ran out of lamb. But it was undercooked so it actually didn't taste so great. When we asked the waiter if it was in fact chicken, he shook his head and was adamant that no, it was lamb. So there we were, in a funny but also awkward Monty Python-esque situation. We didn't make a fuss but we were a little muddled. Hey, I don't know my offal so well and I don't know exotic vegetables but I know the difference between the thing with wings that goes "cluck" and the little furry guy that says "baaaa." Our big joke was "hey, it's no big deal it tastes just like chicken!" But we didn't want chicken. I'd go back, I might even go back and order the Lamb with Cumin to see if that's how you get the actual lamb.

bjt

Hi - This is my first post to these message boards. I find a lot of the reviews extremely helpful because they are written by folks who are knowledgable as well as honest. I am going to give my honest reviews and hope that the knowledge builds over time. My husband and I just tried Ed's for the first time. The soup dumplings were excellent though less soupy than I had expected; they have a very subtle chive and ginger flavouring that is outstanding. Someone else's post about how to "properly" eat the dumplings by using a spoon and biting the top off to put the chili sauce and soy/vinegar sauce is a brilliant tip to enjoy these dumplings. The cigar dumplings were also quite good with a very clean tasting filling similar to the soup dumplings; the pork stuffed green onion pancakes are awesome, though I would have preferred some extra shredded green onions to be added to the dish.

We ordered the seafood hot and sour soup and the cumin lamb also. The seafood in the soup was actually quite fresh and good, although I am used to Moon Palace's hot and sour so was a bit disturbed by the lack of flavoring beyond a lot of black pepper in Ed's version.

The lamb was really a problem - I read the comment posted below and felt like I have to second the possibility that they are not using lamb in their lamb dishes. The main problem with the cumin lamb dish, however, wasn't that the meat was unidentifiable but that they had used about 6 tablespoons of cumin seeds and about 1/2 a cup of whole red chilies in the dish for what was about 8 oz. of "lamb". At that point I think boiled shoe leather would have been a safe substitute. What little "sauce" was in the dish was salty, and the huge chunks of uncooked jalapenos and onions were simply offensive to pick around.

I would recommend Ed's for the appetizers, and would appreciate any other suggestions for main courses there.

Kathleen

Kathleen:

That's you're honest opinion and that's fine; it is right and proper for you to state that here. But this is mine and it differs from yours considerably.

On Friday night, for perhaps the fifth time in the last year plus (about half of the times I've been to Ed's over that span of time), we had the lamb with cumin. It was lamb this time, as it was all of the other times. Yes, there was lots of cumin, yes lots of dried red chiles, yes a fair number of briefly cooked and very piquant green chiles. As in the past, we loved it. The friends we've brought there who tried this dish also loved it.

Now, you make it sound as if the dish was badly executed. Perhaps that is the case but I for my part am willing to go out on a limb and say fairly emphatically that I believe that that the dish is reasonably well executed or better. That is to say then that from my perspective, the dish is well executed and some people, including (clearly) you and the other poster who claimed the meat was chicken, believe it is badly executed.

With regard to what you like and what we like, there is no point to arguing: de gustibus non est disputandum. The only legitimate bone of contention is whether the dish is executed well.

I claim no native expertise in the preparation of this dish but I know I know what lamb is. And lamb with cumin is a very accurate discription of the dish that we've gotten at Ed's these several times. And a tasty dish it's always been... to us.

Antonius

As has been pointed out before, but may be worth repeating, Ed's serves predominantly northern Chinese food. I think it's safe to say that the Chinese food Americans are most familiar with is derived from southern, or Cantonese, style cuisine. While I cannot personally vouch for the recent execution of Ed's lamb with cumin, I can safely say that a)it's been very good in the past; and b)it may taste a little off to folks not familiar with northern Chinese cooking.

Also as has been pointed out, Ed's, while I wouldn't call it inconsistent, is at least slightly variable depending on busyness and so on. So, you might just have gotten the lamb cumin the day it wasn't so good.

I ate at Ed's about two weeks ago for lunch, and thought that both the Glazed Eggplant and the Cumin Lamb were very flavorful and properly spiced. The lamb seemed perfectly fine to my taste. The potstickers were extremely tasty as well, although perhaps less exotic, but certainly deserving of being Ed's claim to fame. My only disappointment was the chive and bacon pancakes which I felt were somewhat bland and dry.

My husband and I made a maiden voyage to Ed's this week. My main aim was to try the fish fragrant eggplant which we couldn't find on the menu. The server was no help, so we had a nice meal but didn't know which of the several eggplant dishes (w/ garlic, w/ oyster, stir-fried Beijing style or something else?) was the one you have been writing about.

We did enjoy our cold spinach salad w/ tangy mustard (tasted like wasabi--wonderful), stir-fried Manchurian Sour Kraut with bean noodle and the fresh and chunky stir-fried vegetables (eggplant, potato and green pepper).

In Chinese cooking garlic is associated with fish so fish fragrant= garlic sauce. Not a hard and fast rule but that's how it was explained to me when I couldn't find it on the menu at Ed's either.

It's worth a trip back, as I have said before; it's the best eggplant dish I have ever eaten in my life.

In her excellent cookbook, Land of Plenty, Fuscia Dunlop ascribes "fish fragrant-yu xiang wei xing" in the Sichuanese culinary canon to a salty, sweet, sour, spicy blend with the heady fragrance of garlic, ginger, and scallions. "The core seasoning is pickled red chiles, either on their own or mixed with fava beans in sichuanese chili bean paste, which give fish-fragrant dishes their distinctive red hue."

Ed's has a new menu, much more accessible to non-Chinese customers, including a first page of suggested specialites that includes photos. Other things are also more clearly defined. The Shanghai special dumplings for example, now say "with soup inside." There are also banquet menus on the back page that look very interesting for groups of four or more.

I looked again for the corn cakes, however, and didn't find them except as part of "fried fish with corncakes." So we ordered that.



I was a little wary of the fish, which smelled very fishy, not in a good way, as they passed by, but in fact they were very fresh, not to mention crunchy, sweet, and delicious. The bones pulled out pretty much in one piece, though many of them were small enough that I wondered if maybe I was supposed to just eat them like smelt, bones and all.

The other new dish we tried was the potato with chilies. It was an interesting example of expectations based on a menu description. My brother was expecting something like the filling of a samosa. I was hoping for spicy hash browns. Instead, we got peapod shoots with garlic, minus the peapod shoots and plus the potatoes, of course.
Very garlicky. Not very hot, though we only saw a couple of dried chilis hiding in ours and so perhaps it had been toned down a little for us.

Halsted has been repaved in that section of Bridgeport, with parking lanes and bike lanes, so parking is easier than ever. No waiting at all at 11:30 on a Sunday morning. Another excellent meal.

In my countdown to cancer treatment, me and the man went to Ed's for the first time Friday. We hooked up with our friends Mike and Keith, (Mike works for the board of health, carries a badge and can shut a restaurant down, so in other words, it's always an interesting evening out!)

Anyhow, we got the greatest hits so to speak. The lamb with cumin was just a bit too cumin-y for me, but as a power lifting guy, I know what chicken tastes like (protein) and it was not chicken.

The one dish that we ordered that has not been discussed and/or dissected was a cold bok choy and dried tofu dish. It actually was a hit. The dressing had a hint of sweetness that would compliment a spicy dish. Barry, (my man) thought it was a refreshing salad.

Parking, 5 PM on a Friday, was a dream. We actually pulled right in front of the restaurant.

PS...Alinea (the new menu) was delightful. I sadly don't have the words to really give it the tribute it deserves.

PSS...today, my last day of feeling normal for a bit is being spent cooking. We just had some amazing veal chops from Paulina Market, and the bones are simmering into a stock for a risotto later....

My lunch, veal chops stuffed with spinach and prosciutto, served with simple hand formed pasta....
before...


grilled...


dressed...

Wow, it seems like a big weekend for Ed's Potsticker House among LTHers. Mrs. JiLS and I made our first foray to Ed's Saturday afternoon, and it was auspicious. Nothing extraordinary in our ordering, as we stuck with a few of the more obvious items helpfully illustrated on the first page of the menu: signature potstickers; soup dumplings; lamb with cumin; and noodles in beef broth (which was the winning dish in this mix, for us at least). And the place was absolutely PACKED at 2:00 on a Saturday afternoon. Having dipped the big toe in the water and found it warm and inviting, we will be back to try some more adventurous choices (especially the fish selections, which look fantastic, above).

Ann,

I also like the small fish w/corn cakes at Ed's, though I leave the bones, which are just slightly large, at least for me, to eat.


Fried Fish w/Corn Cakes


Last time there I did not see corn cakes as a stand alone item either, though I'd bet if you asked you could get just corn cakes.

Ann, very nice pictures, I think your fish in the foreground is smiling.

Enjoy,
Gary

HI,

Most importantly, did you eat the fins and tail? A fine crunch sensation.

Regards,

I ate the fins and the tail AND the entire head. Crunch!

Delk,

Terrific sounding day, and the veal chops look particularly good. Where did you purchase the chops?

I hope things go well, Ellen and I will think a good thought.

Enjoy,
Gary