Moon Palace: Chicago, IL

Posted by Carrie March 10, 2013

Moon Palace: Chicago, IL

I've discovered that I have a few albums of photos on my computer that never made it into blog posts and figured it's time to catch up on them. The pictures from this meal went on our Facebook page, but never made it into the blog.

As you may have learned previously from viewing this blog or one of my others is that I am a HUGE fan of the Chicago Cubs. My sister has been a season ticket holder for about a dozen years, so I have the good fortune of being the recipient of a few sets of tickets each year.

Late last summer, she came up from her home in central Illinois, so we could go to a game together. Also joining us was Nala, a super sweet girl from Vietnam who came here as a foreign exchange student several years ago and stayed with my sister. She ended up graduating and staying in the U.S. to go to college here. My 9-year-old son also came along. And rounding out our eclectic group of personalities was Mr. Roeper, who is now retired, but was a math teacher where my sis and I went to high school. I had him for freshman Algebra back in 1987!! He and his wife (who is a retired English teacher from the same high school -- TTHS -- GO WILDCATS!) kept in touch with a lot of former students....and since he's a big Cubs fan like us, he usually purchases a few sets of tickets each summer from my sis, Jen and goes to games.

Mr. Roeper graciously offered to drive that day and we decided we would have something to eat either before or after the game. Mr. Roeper suggested we drive to Chinatown and park there, then take the red line train up to Wrigley Field and then after the day game we'd head back on the train and stop for a bite to eat in Chinatown before getting in the car to go home.

It had been a long time since I'd eaten in Chinatown and the only place I remembered was Three Happiness, which I'd have been happy to revisit. However, Mr. Roeper (as a former teacher of mine, I just can't bring myself to call him George - he'll always be Mr. Roeper) gave his recommendation, Moon Palace, so we decided to give it a try and I've concluded that if Mr. Roeper makes a recommendation, I'll oblige. The teacher's usually right, anyway. :) He certainly was in this case.

So, it was quiet as we stopped in - a little early for dinner time. The place was far from a dingy, shabby place, which is always what I kind of fear when I head into a place in an aging neighborhood in the city that I really don't know anything about. The decor was lovely. The place was bright and modern. The staff was uber friendly. Now all I needed to know was what the food was like.

I'm a lover of spring rolls, so the Shanghai spring rolls were what I ordered first. They crispy outer layer was exactly what I love about spring rolls. They were excellent. No, they were the best spring rolls I've had.

Nala's Noodles

My son's shrimp noodle soup.

Mr. Roeper adores the smelt that they serve there.

I went with the fried rice. I guess I wasn't Mrs. Adventurous that day - unless you count trying the smelt. I just love fried rice, so I went with the familiar and I was happy.

And by the way, for anyone who may be leery of eating in Chinatown, the menu here was in plain English and there were plenty of items familiar to Americans, yet authentic. I have been at places in the past where I had a hard time deciphering what was on the menu or what was being served. Sometimes you get a deliciously pleasant surprise in that scenario. Sometimes its a disaster. I don't foresee any disasters at this place because everything was way above par.