A Family in the Northeast

This place gave me food poisoning. They just have fillings laying around not temp , they were mixing soiled towels on the floor in a tub with dirty grayish water, soap, and used wooden chopsticks they pulled from the line. They have already made buns in grocery bags that aren't tightly sealed. There was a lady who wiped her nose and continued rolling out dough. I asked for a refund and they refused.

Never had handmade potstickers like these before. It was good! However, we ordered with no sauce and even reminded the workers but they still added sauce.

I absolutely LOVE this place. A family in the Northeast is located in the basement food court of the Richland Center off of S Wentworth Ave.Head down the stairs and you'll find AFITNE at the far end of the food court. You can order at the kiosk and the staff will make everything to order (the dough, the filling, everything). Their items are freshly cooked and pan-fried. The moment you unwrap/inbox or open the container you have to the careful of the steam. Upon first bite, you have to be careful not to burn the top of your mouth. I say these all as pro's because I WANT my buns to be piping hot. The food is amazing eaten right when you receive the order at the food court. (It helps that I can tolerate eating food at high temps, e.g. I don't need to wait until my pho cools down or my hot coffee to sit around before the first sip). Anyway, it is always "love at first piping-hot bite."Since they cook to order and I've only ever seen 2 people working the stall and cashier, there wait times tend to be longer, like 20 minutes or maybe more if there's a line. It's absolutely worth the wait.What we've tried:* beef and cabbage dumplings * fried beef buns* beef flatbreadTheir portions are generous. The ambiance is nothing to write home about but this is a little hidden gem in the basement, and I dare say is on par with a very popular dumpling place on the ground level off Wentworth (that starts with a Q and is an acronym that ends in Y). AFITNE is a no frills, mom-and-pop sort of place where you'll get plastic utensils, and will need a fat stack of those thin disposable napkins to contain all the deliciousness that is A Family in the Northeast.These dumplings, baos, and breads remind me of what my mother-in-law would make when I visit her in the burbs, since she spent her childhood in Qingdao /Shandong province. There is a whole lotta love poured into these baos and it shows. Five shining stars.I'm on IG: @gratuitousgourmande

Homemade dumplings as you see them roll out the dough. Yes, I hear the complaints that their order is taking long but look at the work they put into every order. My favorite is the beef and scallion patties which they wrap the dough around meat stuffing's and flatten to grill ($10.99). I recommend to pay cash as if you use the kiosk, they will charge you 3%. The store next door is owned by the same owner which if you order the flat bread (pork), the protein is from Gourmet Duck.

Bada bing(饼）bada bao（包）from the jiao to the bao and back again all the food here is amazing and freshly made to order. While that freshly made to order does mean it will take a few minutes to be ready it's well worth the few extra minutes. The portions are huge I typically get two meals out of an order.A family in the northeast is located in the Chinatown food court so it does have that food court feel. When I have gone I luckily have had no problem getting a table. But I have been there when it has gotten busy at larger parties had trouble finding seating.You can order from a kiosk or from the staff. I found that the staff do speak English but are more comfortable speaking Chinese so if you don't speak Chinese please be patient. The ordering system will send you a text when your order is ready but when I was there I had 0 signal so I had to keep my eyes open and go up and check the name on the receipt.So many great options in this food court and I think family in the northeast may be my favorite!

It doesn't look like much since it's in a food court in the basement, but their food is some of the best I've had! We spoke to the elderly couple working there in Mandarin, and they were very funny and nice. They made our food fresh so we had to wait a bit, but it was worth every minute. We got the pork and onion pies (馅饼) and the egg and chive pies for my vegetarian friend. They sell it in portions of 4 for $12, and we were able to mix and match.The pork pies were so juicy and perfectly seasoned. The egg and chive pies were not as juicy and were less full, but the filling was still delicious. The dough was thin and crisp, and we stuffed ourselves while they were still piping hot.This place is definitely worth visiting. Next time I come back, I definitely want to get 4 of the pork pies just for myself!

You can order at the kiosk here. They make the dumplings fresh cooked so it takes a little longer to get your food. Pork and cabbage dumplings had a nice flavor and wrapper and was tasty dipped in the chili soy sauce. The pan fried Bao's were quite bready but had a nice flavor from the beef inside and oil outside from the pan fry. These were very large and we had 3 leftover even with 4 of us dining.

Decided to order delivery from this spot and so glad we did! The two orders of steamed dumplings (pork & cabbage + meat three fresh pork) were some of the best dumplings I've had in Chicago. You can tell that the wrappers are handmade.We also got the sweetened soy milk and it had a great flavor without being too sweet. I'm always craving fresh soy milk and will definitely be ordering this again or getting it whenever I stop by Chinatown.

TLDR: unassuming dumpling restaurant that serves delicious, handmade dumplings made to order. Was craving dry hotpot and came to this dumpling place because I thought it would be a good addition to our meal. Instead, it became the highlight of our meal and we ended up ordering more! I first ordered the pork and celery pan fried dumpling. They started making the dumpling then and there; they rolled out the dough and made the filling immediately after I ordered. The skins were crisp and chewy and the filling was seasoned well. After we realized how good they were, we then ordered the beef and scallion pies and the saucy pie. I'm not quite sure what the saucy pie was. I think it was a scallion pancake with some kind of sauce l. If I had to pick one thing that was our favorite, it was the beef and scallion pie. It was surprisingly extremely juicy, almost like a xiao long bao. I would come back just for those. It seemed to be the most popular item as well. Note: I will say that the wait time is quite long; I think it took 2-3 times longer to receive our order from this place than it did the other restaurants. I think this is because each order is made to order and there were only two older women working. If you plan on coming here, be prepared to wait. I do believe it is worth the wait! The restaurant is in the Richland Center Chinatown Foodcourt so seating is shared between all of the vendors in the food court.

Food is fine. For a foodcourt stall, it is pretty fresh. And you get to see them prepare *every single order* individually. So be prepared to wait 45+ min for even a simple order of dumplings.