The Hands-Down Best Chinese Restaurant Chain Comes From The Windy City

While some people prefer to dine at local hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurants, others enjoy the comforting uniformity offered by national chains. However, not all Chinese restaurant chains are created equal. To find out which ones to skip and which to trust, Tasting Table ranked 13 Chinese restaurant chains across the country. The hands-down best Chinese restaurant chain is from the Windy City. Lao Sze Chuan, based in Chicago's Chinatown, also has locations throughout Illinois, Connecticut, Texas, Maryland, Ohio, and Georgia. 

We named it the best in the country due to a combination of its customer reviews, menu variety, quality and consistency across locations, and national recognition. We found that diners praised the authenticity and depth of flavor of dishes at each location, and that it was consistently recommended on social media. It also has reasonable prices and a comfortable, unpretentious ambience. 

Its flagship Chinatown location in Chicago has 4 stars with over 1,500 Google reviews, with one diner gushing, "The food is delicious, the portions are generous, and the price is reasonable." In a five-star Yelp review of the Milford, Connecticut location, a diner said, "I needed my authentic Chinese fix, and this Lao Sze Chuan was a delightful find." A diner at the restaurant's Houston location, who rated it five stars, said, "I've ordered the General Tso's Chicken from Lao Sze Chuan several times now and it's always solid. The flavor is great, the portion size is generous ... and the quality has been very consistent."

Lao Sze Chuan's Chinatown location was opened in 1998 by Chef Tony Hu, who was born in southwestern China's Sichuan Province. Just one year after opening, the restaurant earned the title of "one of the best" in the area from the Chicago Tribune. Since then, it has expanded to five other states, becoming a renowned and beloved Chinese restaurant.

Though it's not the oldest Chinese restaurant in the United States, as we read reviews of Lao Sze Chuan we found that it was regularly recommended for its authentic Sichuan menu. Sichuan cuisine incorporates spicy, sweet, sour, and bitter flavors and fermented foods and sauces that are prepared by frying, braising, and steaming ingredients to create highly aromatic dishes. According to the menu for the Chinatown location, one of the most popular dishes according to customers is Chef Hu's Special Dry Chili Chicken. 

This dish is a classic feature in Sichuan cuisine and is also known as firecracker chicken and Chongqing chicken. It typically showcases the numbingly-hot Sichuan peppercorn or flower pepper, and is prepared by deep frying battered nuggets of chicken in peanut oil. The fried chicken is then stir fried with the Sichuan chili flakes, peppercorns, and whole, dried red chili peppers as well as fresh ginger and green onions. Overall, if you're looking for authentic Sichuan-style Chinese food with consistent quality and service, you can't go wrong with Lao Sze Chuan.