Earlier this spring devotees of the skull-buzzing flavors of China’s Sichuan province were dealt a nasty surprise when it was discovered that Ben Li and Wan Cai Li, partners in Chinatown’s great Double Li, had abruptly abandoned their dark, claustrophobic Cermak Road restaurant to open 8000 Miles, a Chinese-Japanese fusion joint that might as well be halfway across the planet. Ben Li’s black pepper beef is great, but traveling to far-west-suburban Roselle for it would be like flying to Beijing—hardly worth the effort, considering only five more of his Sichuanese dishes made it on the menu, which also features sushi, pad thai, and General Tso’s chicken.
This last quality is certainly evident at Yan Bang Cai, both in taste and spirit, as the restaurant is thematically aligned with the Zigong salt mines that at one time made the city one of China’s wealthiest. A framed cover of Mark Kurlansky’s Salt: A World History hangs on the wall in case you don’t get the point.
This electrifying hallmark of Sichuanese cuisine isn’t as prevalent across the menu as it was at Double Li or is at Lao Sze Chuan, which might have been what a server meant when he described Zigong food to me as “flexible.” It certainly isn’t present in the Zigong Salt Miner’s Beef Noodle, which is nonetheless worth ordering for the thick, chewy, pappardelle-like noodles, tender chunks of braised beef, and crunchy sections of Chinese celery.
228 W. Cermak 312-842-7818yanbangcaichicago.com