Bai Cafe

uh... i don't know what happened here. I'm a business owner so I know prices of rent for restaurants have increased since 2019, BUT the prices they're charging are a little crazy. I'm paying $18 pretax for 8 wings. 8 wings people that's highway robbery. How can lamb kabob and chicken wings be same price. They also run out of things pretty quick, so call ahead before coming

Legit Uzbekistan food. Owners and staffs are all middle easterners. Plov: super tender lamb in the rice. Much better than the Shashlyk lambHoney cake: amazingly soft and just right amount of sweetness. Multiple layers Shashlyk Lamb is kinda dry and hard to chewOromo: mostly just skin. Not much meat in it. Would not recommend Samsa: lovely appetizer. Hard to explain the flavor but I love it. Manty dumpling: very different from Chinese dumplings but also good flavor. Lots of meatReasonable price. Just very difficult to communicate because of the strong accent. Also did not give me or even showed me a receipt so idk if they charged the right amount. No price on their website either.

The food was pretty good but I'm not sure they are really prepared for dine-in customer service. Seems like only one person on staff talks to non-insider diners. The samsa were hot out the oven and peppery and the manty was juicy on the inside. Plov was just fine. Grill items were not available. I think if you're craving this cuisine take out might be the better option.

My husband and I are originally from Uzbekistan and we miss traditional dishes: we were happy to find Bai Cafe and ordered rice pilaf, lagman noodles, steamed dumplings mantu and samosas and were very impressed with a quality of prepared food and a service. We'd love to come back next time we are in Chicago and would love to sit down on a raised floor (traditional Uzbek setting) - we were surprised to see that this cafe had it. Highly recommend to give it a try to anyone interested in traditional Central Asian cuisine!

I've been here several times now it is one of my favorite restaurants in Chicago. The food is made with love and care, it's authentic, packed with flavor, and super healthy. This is homestyle Kyrgyz/Russian/Central Asian food. The place is dive-y but great for large groups.The lamb shishlek and soups are out of this world. The plov is packed with flavor. Im a HUGE fan of Oromo. Honestly I will keep coming back here.

Great quick service . Delicious food. We will be definitely be back. Some things to improve . Kuyrdak was a bit too salty.Achichuk needs more time marinating. Samsa is okay but bigI liked how big and generous portions size were .Pirozhki were so yum.

Cute place with some great ethnic choices. Bread is so good!! We shared borsch soup. Hearty and earthy for a cold night. More cabbage than beets which I am use to, but enjoyed anyway. The Korean carrot salad was ok. But we really enjoyed the Manty dumplings and shashlik chicken. Definitely want to come back and try more. Just FYI my husband went today for lunch because he wanted to show his friend from Eastern Europe but they only had pelmeni. So might be better to go at dinner.

Thumbs up food. Bread soup dumplings lamb with plov - all good. Plus - Nice people. They were out of some things on the menu but all their substitutions were good anyways. I didn't know what any of it would be, so was glad to try it all. Order at the counter, ask for things you need (like little app plates) and help yourself to drinks from the cooler and hot tea or coffee or whatever that was they had there.

08/06/19 - I went to the game w/my friend Kim & watched the Cubs get their butts whipped 11 - 4. After the game we were looking for a place that was open at almost 10pm. What we found was Bai Cafe at 3406 N Ashland Ave about 1 block from where we parked on Ashland.We walked into Bai Cafe it's a non descriptive no frills dining area. We were flagged to the back of the restaurant into a small room that had photo copies of a menu taped the wall written in sum furrin language wit English subtitles next to it. There was a small window opening wit a sweet little old lady who took our order & probably cooked Da food we ate. After ordering we grabbed a seat and our food was brought out to us. After the food was delivered it was pretty much out of sight out of mind. We need napkins & a knife which I had to go to the back & ask forIt was late so we opted for something light to satiate our hunger. There were 3 options for soup. All the soups had a red tomato base w/different options added. My friend got the soup w/rice added. I got the tortellini soup which had onions & small cubed pieces of beef & potatoes. This soup was very hot (temp) & really satisfied my hunger. The soup was homemade by granny in the back and was quite tasty We also had empanadas which we premade and were sitting on a try in the back. My friend got the sweet potato empanada and I ordered the beef empanada, neither one was very good as they weren't even heated and lacked any flavor. Sorry granny your soup was good, but you empanada lacked flavor.Kim got the soup

Great spot if you know what to expect and what you are looking for! This is not just a spot to eat, its much more than that!Food 4 / 5Service 4 / 5 Vibe 4 / 5