TESTIMONIALS

Featured in the Chicago magazine February issue, Yao Yao Restaurant is a welcome Chinatown surprise that offers special and authentic Szechuan dishes. We tried their signature Pickled Fish soup which included 2 full big mouth sea bass fish! The fish broth with the pickled greens was amazing. The show white fish was tastefully done, had no bones, generously portioned and melted in your mouth. They used real fresh Szechuan peppercorns that were fragrant, tingly on your tongue and simply delicious! We also tried the appetizer sesame crispy shrimp which is similar to walnut shrimp but they make it 10x better. Shrimps were huge, had a nice sauce and were cooked perfectly. The restaurant is brightly modernly decorated, very clean and tidy. The owner and server were very friendly and checked on us several times to make sure we had everything we needed. We plan on going back and trying other items on the menu.

Our favorite restaurant in Chinatown. They specialize in spicy fish soup. Make sure to order with the cold spicy chicken appatizer and the Don Don noodles on the side. Very nice decor.

Delicious, Fresh Fish! We got the two flavored dish for about $60. Yes, this is expensive! BUT, we were pleasantly surprised by two HUGE containers of fish. I'm not kidding, our meal for "two" can probably feed SIX. My to-go bag was 15lbs and I only ordered the fish and a dessert! In addition to the outrageous portion sizes, I thoroughly enjoyed how the fish was cooked AND the flavors. The fish was SUPER tender, as soft as silken tofu. I enjoyed that the fish wasn't super processed. Each piece also has fish skin (yum) and some small bones. If you're unsure about bones in fish, you'll be surprised to know that almost every fish in the sea has bones. Our two flavors were tomato and pickles veggies. Each one had a unique flavor profile. The sweet and savory tomato flavor matched the sour and spicy pickled vegies perfectly. I thoroughly enjoyed my meal and will continue to gorge on said meal over the next few days!

We love this place! The fish is so tasty and everything that we ordered was great. So glad we came here and felt so fulfilled! The fish for 2 has a generous portion with two fish inside. The fillet is very tender with hardly any bones. Broth is amazing and hits the spot. The chicken and sweet glass jelly were very good too. Also love the modern decor and colors. This place deserves 5 stars, highly recommend.

This place is amazing (speaking as a Chinese born and raised in China). I think it’s unfairly reviewed by some people who don’t really appreciate authentic Chinese food. Also the service quality may not be stable during the soft opening phase but it’s pretty good and consistent now. Highly recommend to anybody who would like to try the authentic Chinese food.

Modern spot focused on the spicy sour fish soup. The large option for 3-4 people was larger than expected and a crowd-pleaser. The split beef/fish 2-person option was also pretty good, but I'd probably recommend the intended flagship (former option). Side dishes of string bean (subtly, really impressed me), cold jellyfish, and cold Szechuan beef were also overall, excellent. Service was better than expected! Our fish dish was a little late but in lieu of that, we received another side dish of Szechuan chicken on the house. Although the spicy sour fish was on the pricier side, definitely was above expectations.

Best boiled fish in Chicago. The fish is very fresh and tender. Price is reasonable. Portion is huge!!!!!! Highly recommend the fish and cold dishes. Fish is not too spicy so even kids and elders can eat it. If you are a spicy fish lover, ask the server for extra. Tried the 酥肉. It is the only so-so one.

I found another specialty restaurant in chinatown. fish is what they sell. tasty tender wonderful spice to your like. I ask management they don't charge rice for dine in.