Daguan Noodle

-Grubbing in Chicago

Crossing the Bridge Noodles in Chinatown

It took me forever to try Daguan Noodle in Chinatown. It's been around for what feels like a few years now. It's a perfect example of where the food and restaurants in Chinatown are headed. As it heads into a new generation we're seeing more and more places serving food from the mainland and less of them serving the typical old school Cantonese menu with multiple pages worth of dishes to order. Daguan is new school in that it feels kind of corporate, they focus on just one dish, and they're serving food from the mainland which in this case is Yunnan.You'll find the food from this province  close to SE Asia to be similar to some of the food from there. Yunnan restaurants were abundant when I was in Beijing. So it's not crazy to say this could be the next big regional Chinese cuisine.

 Locals Favorite in Chinatown 

Daguan Noodle serves 'Crossing the Bridge' noodles. You can order them a variety of ways with different broths and different proteins. Crossing the Bridge Noodles are probably the most famous dish from Yunnan. Every restaurant in Beijing I scoped out served this dish but what was cool was they had lots of other regional favorites. In the States and Canada it seems like most every Yunnan restaurant serves pretty much just this dish. I'm not opposed to this as I love specialists and Daguan even got recognized on Michelin's Bib Gourmand list, for whatever that's worth. But for the most part people seem to like it for what it is. The story behind Crossing the Bridge Noodles is an interesting one that can be found HERE. The premise of this dish is you're served a noodle soup with all of the ingredients coming in their own bowl so that you dump them all in when ready to eat. The waitress will bring out a tray of all the ingredients included in the soup which rice noodles are always the basis of. I think I counted more than 12 bowls worth of ingredients. There's fermented vegetables, fresh vegetables, Chinese deli meat, and more. The veteran order at Daguan seems to be the hot and spicy broth ordered with fish. I added a fried pork chop as a side. Very satisfying as I came here with a cold. Noodles are soft and uneventful but the broth is just right. Not too spicy but it clears your nose and will have it running not long after. I'll be back soon for the same thing. More Yunnan food please.

 Crossing the Bridge Noodles (and fried pork chop) at Daguan Noodle

Daguan Noodle
2230 S Wentworth Ave
Chicago, IL 60616
(312) 929-2758
Website