Dongpo Impression

-Grubbing in Chicago
Late Night Sichuan Food in Chinatown

The pandemic didn’t completely kill late-night dining, but it drastically shrunk the number of 24/7 spots and permanently shifted restaurant hours into earlier closing times. This was driven by surging labor costs, staffing shortages, and changing consumer habits. It’s slowly getting better but you needn’t look no further than Chinatown for just how few places stay open past 9pm these days. I could count the ones that did on one hand as recently as last year. A few spots have since opened that stay open until 11pm but even still, late night dining in Chinatown isn’t as prevalent as you might think. You basically have a handful of choices after 10pm and today we’re going to visit my go-to option. 

Locals Favorite in Chinatown

Dongpo Impression sits on Cermak and stays open until 12am daily. It’s from the same ownership group as Chengdu Impression and Chengdu Bistro. That restaurant group is spearheaded by Ryan Hu, nephew of legendary Chinatown restaurateur Tony Hu of Lao Sze Chuan fame. All three brands are showcasing food from the Sichuan region of China but the menu varies by location. Dongpo Impression specializes in Meizhou-style cuisine, a distinct sub-regional branch of Sichuan cooking originating from Meishan. Meizhou cuisine features the fiery flavors most people associate with Sichuan food but its overall style is characterized by a balance of savory, sweet, sour, and numbing profiles rather than just heat. As is the case with one of their most popular dishes - Dongpo Pork. 

Dongpo Pork

Dongpo pork aka Dongpo Rou is a classic Hangzhou dish featuring thick, melt-in-your-mouth pork belly braised in a rich and glossy mixture of Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, ginger, scallions, and rock sugar. The dish is named after famous Song Dynasty poet Su Dongpo. It's prized for its gelatinous, tender texture and sweet and savory flavors. I haven’t tried any other versions to compare with the Dongpo pork at Dongpo Impression. If you enjoy chunks of pork belly cooked until the fat melts into a soft and gelatinous clunk that’s tender than this is your type of dish. It’s deeply savory and subtly sweet and at Dongpo Impression it’s served with cubed tofu that takes on the flavor of the sauce.  

Squirrel Fish at Dongpo Impression

Dongpo Impression offers all the popular Sichuan dishes like Dry Chili Chicken, Mapo Tofu and Dan Dan Noodles but they also have a nice collection of dishes you don’t see everywhere. Some of them even come from different regions in China such as the Squirrel Fish. This is a Shanghainese dish that’s essentially a whole fried fish doused in a sweet and sour sauce. It’s typically made with a deboned whole fish with its tail still attached. The meat is scored in a cross-hatch pattern and deep fried so the flesh pokes out and curls, looking like the fluffy tail of a squirrel. It’s drenched in a glossy, sweet-and-sour sauce. The version served at Dongpo Impression is pretty good though it’s boneless and includes two pieces of flounder. But my go-to dish of late has been the Yushang Pork. It was put on my radar by John Kessler at Chicago Magazine. It’s a classic Sichuan dish featuring tender slivers of pork stir-fried in a tangy, spicy, and slightly sweet garlic sauce. The version served at Dongpo Impression also includes matchsticks of zucchini and peppers and wood ear mushrooms that absorb tons of the tangy sauce. I could eat this dish over a plate of rice for breakfast, lunch, and or dinner.

Yushang Pork

Dongpo Impression
228 W Cermak Rd
Chicago, IL 60616
(312) 842-7818
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