Chicago: Saint's Alp Teahouse

We'd been playing around with the idea of heading to Chinatown on New Year's Day, thinking that only in Chinatown would restaurants still be open, but ended up not going because we couldn't muster up the motivation to change out of our pajamas and venture out into the cold. But the idea of Chinatown somehow took root in our heads and we were there the very next night to grab some grub at Saint's Alp Teahouse:



One of the first things we did was to look through the drinks menu. I'm a straight milk tea fan, but I decided to take a risk and try a flavored one. I went with the hot coconut milk tea:

I love how the hot teas come in a teapot. It makes you feel like you're getting much more than a cup when that's not really the case. Coconut milk tea...yea, not going to try that again. I've had the ginger milk tea before and that was much better, though quite spicy.

Saint's Alp has a $5.95 menu that really reminds me of home back in the Bay Area. For $5.95 you can choose from a variety of dishes, such as this eggplant dish:

Not this beef and mushroom dish, but that's because it came in a sizzling pot:

I saw the exact same dish on the $5.95 menu, just without the pot. Somehow the pot made a $3 difference. Won't be making that mistake again.

There's the beef chow fun:

And the fried squid:

The food was surprisingly decent. I really wasn't expecting too much, but I liked being pleasantly surprised. If I'm ever craving Chinese food, I wouldn't mind hitting up Saint's Alp again.

Apparently Saint's Alp is a Hong Kong chain. I bet the food and drinks are even better there...

Saint's Alp Teahouse

2131 S Archer Ave

Chicago, IL 60686

(312) 842-1886

http://www.saintsalp.com.hk/