There are days on which Ben Pao, the newest restaurant from Rich Melman’s Lettuce Entertain You empire, is much better than a one-star restaurant.
But there are other days when Ben Pao seems to be aimed at tourists who are too lazy to drive over to Chinatown.
Lettuce Entertain You, which generally has a knack for assembling restaurants that look very polished from Day One (recent examples are Brasserie Jo and Wildfire), seems to have its hands full with its first-ever Chinese concept.
Is Ben Pao (the name means fireworks) Lettuce’s gimmicky take on Chinese food, as seen in kitschy-catchy menu items such as Tony’s Amazing Chicken and the signature Mao-tini? Or is it a stab at authentic ethnic cooking, complete with transliterate-sounding items such as Steamed Fish of Great Flavor and Ice Cream of Coconut?
I don’t know yet. I don’t think anyone over there does, either.
There is still very much an out-of-town-tryout aspect to the place; you get the sense that menu tinkering is going on even as you sit there eating. Indeed, the Ben Pao I lunched at last week is already very different from the restaurant I first visited a month ago.
Rescinded, for instance, is the nominal $1 charge the restaurant was asking for a large bowl of rice; now small bowls are included with entrees. So, too, the 25-cent fortune-less fortune cookies (accompanied instead by “themed” aphorisms of Ben Pao’s own design) have been scratched, in favor of those everybody’s-got-them cellophane-wrapped fortune cookies; these are free.
Meanwhile, the dessert menu has been completely revamped; only one of the desserts I sampled in my three visits is still available.
I’m not even sure that Ben Pao’s future is as a Chinese restaurant. You see a little Thai influence here, some Americanized touches there and wonder if this isn’t a pan-Asian concept aborning.
Ben Pao already is arguably the best-looking Chinese restaurant in town (though I won’t quibble with those who love the look of T’ang Dynasty). The interior is minimalist and moody, its black and gray tones interrupted by high-tech spotlights aimed directly at the center of each table. The tables are black and maple, unadorned but for a short stack of white dishes, napkins, forks and good-quality disposable chopsticks. Tables are reasonably large, except for a handful of two-seaters that are so small that only solo diners will be comfortable at them.
To your left and right as you enter are two semicircular bars, which look like sushi bars but are tea bars, serving hot teas (the menu lists eight varieties), stronger drinks and light appetizers. Straight ahead is a small stepped bridge, spanning a dry creek of flat gray stones, which you cross to enter the dining area. On either side of the bridge, two large columnar water sculptures burble peacefully.
The menu lists more than a dozen appetizers. Best of the bunch is the hot and sour cabbage, a large portion of wilted Napa cabbage doused with a vinegary sweet syrup inlaid with julienned ginger strips and some Thai chilies. The heat from this dish is slow-building but worth the wait.
Bon Bon chicken is a cold appetizer, the hacked chicken served over cucumber slices and dressed with a modestly spicy peanut sauce.
Intriguing are the soongs, a roll-your-own dish in which diners spoon a bit of chicken or vegetable mixture, with a dash of plum sauce, inside a lettuce leaf. It’s a diverting little dish, especially since the kitchen switched to a more manageable buttercrunch lettuce, though our leaves could have done with a couple extra revolutions in the salad spinner.
Good on flavor are the steamed pork dumplings and the Shrimp Roll of Delicate Flavor, but both starters are awkward to handle, falling apart with the least bit of pressure.
Among the salads are two winners: The Chicken of Good Fortune featured excellent strips of very moist meat, flavored with syrup-sweetened ginger; and the crispy duck salad, the tender duck dressed with a very light vinaigrette. Both are preferable to the hot and sour soup, which is neither hot nor sour and has an unpleasant aftertaste.
Entrees are similarly uneven, but there are highlights. The Steamed Fish of Great Flavor gets high marks; on our visit the featured fish was a wonderful sea bass, topped with cilantro, ginger slivers and shiitake mushrooms, and served with a light-bodied wine and fish broth. Tony’s Amazing Chicken may be short of amazing but it’s certainly very good, generous with boneless chunks of chicken swimming in a broth enlivened by a Szechwan-Thai chile sauce (which could have been spicier). The same sauce, dubbed Tony’s Amazing Sauce, is served in a glass bottle with other dishes; it’s especially good with the salt and pepper shrimp, flash-fried in a potato-starch coating and seasoned in the wok with salt and white pepper.
And I very much like the spicy eggplant dish, the eggplant pieces firm and flavorful, flavored with a touch of sweetness and an appreciable spice level. Pan-fried string beans, a Szechwan classic, also is executed well.
On the downside, our hot and sour scallops were so impossibly salty that no other flavors were discernible; and a dish dubbed many-mushroom rice was extremely bland, despite a plethora of cultivated-mushroom varieties. Similarly disappointing was a very limp and flavorless dandan mein noodle dish.
Other dishes — among them an overdry General Tso’s Chicken — are acceptable, but distinctly unthrilling. Ben Pao’s promise — and prices — demand more.
The revamped dessert list shows promise with its ginger creme brulee and pineapple-rum pound cake. The chocolate mousse cake, which boasts a cinnamon-laced mousse inside dark chocolate cake, is very good.
The talent on board suggests that Ben Pao has a future. Though Tony Cheung, a Los Angeles restaurateur, oversaw the creation of Ben Pao (and remains chef-partner), the day-to-day work is handled by executive chef Paul Wildermuth. I’m a big fan of Wildermuth’s work at Hat Dance, which he still oversees, but the strong identity I appreciated at Hat Dance has yet to surface at Ben Pao.
Service is generally very good to excellent. Ask a question about a particular menu item and you’ll get a remarkably detailed response. One night, a waiter advised us that a dish we had ordered was seasoned heavily with cilantro, and was that all right? One waiter even gave us clean chopsticks between courses. I’m quite sure that’s never happened to me before. More pedestrian duties, from clearing plates to refilling water, are handled well.
So, one star. We’ll see how Ben Pao develops from here.
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(star) Ben Pao, 52 W. Illinois St., 312-222-1888. Chinese. Hours: Lunch 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Mon.-Fri.; dinner 5-10 p.m. Mon.-Thurs., 5-11 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 5-9 p.m. Sun. Price range: Appetizers $2.95-$5.95, soups/salads $3.25-$6.95, entrees $5.95-$14.95, desserts $2.50-$3.50; dinner for two of appetizer, soup/salad, entree, dessert, tax and tip: $50. Credit cards: American Express, Carte Blanche, Diners Club, Discover, MasterCard, Visa. Reservations: Accepted. Other: Wheelchair accessible; valet parking available.
Rating system
(star) (star) (star) (star) Outstanding
(star) (star) (star) Excellent
(star) (star) Very Good
(star) Good
Satisfactory
Unsatisfactory
Reviews are based on no fewer than two visits. The reviewer makes every effort to remain anonymous. Meals are paid for by the Tribune.
