Gao's Kabob Sports Grill

Came here with friends to indulge in grilled meat. Gao's delivered with delicious, juicy, and fatty skewers!We ordered lamb, beef and pork belly skewers. The lamb and beef were both incredibly delicious when eaten hot -- sprinkle some hot pepper to elevate it! The pork belly was alright in comparison. Stir-fried clams were spicy and salty, so good! And the egg fried noodle were slightly sweet with a hint of vinegar. We also ordered BBQ leaf lettuce, cauliflower, and tofu skin. The lettuce was good but lacked flavor/seasoning. The tofu skin was disappointing. It was a floppy mess and tasted like nothing. Overall, great experience and good service. Definitely satisfied my skewer craving.

If you're craving authentic Chinese BBQ skewers and seafood, this is the place to go. It's tucked away in Chinatown, but the atmosphere is laid-back and lively with music and a late-night crowd. Be prepared for a bit of a wait, as they grill the skewers to order, so don't expect super fast service. Would recommend going with a group so you can try a little bit of everything.

What an amazing dinner GAO's! If you come here you are ensured to leave very very full and happy. The skewers were one of a kind, each meat was delicious in its own way! The seafood bag was amazing and flavorful! The crab legs were huge and had so much meat which is hard to find in Chicago. Highly recommend their Don Don noodles and Kimchi fried rice!

I was surprised that Gao's had such low ratings but we might have just caught them after some revamping. It's not a traditional American sports bar - no TVs playing sports but has some casual vibes with some Chinese tunes that you can bump to. Seating is tight. There were tablets on every table where you order from. We were told it started recently so it might have been in response to the long wait times that others mentioned. You can toggle between Eng and Chi in the upper right. They were bustling for a Fri night and once we clicked in our order, service was pretty quick and friendly. Very flavorful skewer bites. Seasoned with lots of cumin and spices (mild - it builds to a slow numbing burn). I highly recommend the xinjiang lamb special, chicken skin, and the Dan Dan noodles. The broth for the noodles was delicious; I hadn't had it that way before. Fatty beef and lamb skewers were solid. Would not get chicken again just bc the flavor wasn't as good and it was more dry.I would give this place a try if you haven't been here in a while. The food really hits and you won't be hurting for flavor but the portions are smaller bc you're obvi eating skewers so just order accordingly.

Not too terrible for Chicago I suppose. I guess being the only Chinese bbq place here, there's not much to compare to. However, heads up to their extremely long wait time and slow service. We ordered aloe for three and two tables that came after us got water before our prepackaged bottle of aloe arrived...(I literally reminded them 5+ times for our drink) Frequently maybe 2 skewers would come out first and we have to wait for the 3rd of the exact same type, are they not cooked together? Our first 2 beef skewers and sausage skewers came out dry and cold right after we ordered, which leads me to think it was precooked and waiting for us.Overall, I think it's pretty good, just recommend better services and pay attention to what customers ask for. (She would sometimes forget to put down our orders so we wait a long time to need to order again)

I think the food was really good. It was spicy if you can handle heat and live kabobs, this will be the place for you. The service was really good, it just felt a little chaotic because there were several people helping but at the same time, we had a large group. They did have big screen tvs, but they were mainly playing all around the world singing competitions which I thought was fun but it wasn't like a sports grill. I definitely will go there again.

I'm so confused as to why Gao's has bad reviews because it's such a solid skewer place. The name is a bit strange because it sounds like a sports bar, but it's a pretty traditional Chinese skewer spot with K-Pop playing on every TV with Chinese subtitles (LOL). My favorites were the lamb and beef skewers, and they're flavored well. I also loved the thin noodles + scallop dish. Food came out pretty quickly, and they're also open very late night! I would love to come back again.

Ok, so, apparently, there's some "quirks and features" about this restaurant. Let's start by talking about the menu. As you can see, it cost 8 usd to get a bbq cold noodle. Apparently, this is some high-end cold noodle price compared to my hometown. You can purchase 10+ the same exact thing. But it does not stop here. If you can read chinese, the amount of cold noodle is define by "a plate" instead of count. Well, how much is a plate you might ask. Look at the picture, there is a long dish with around 6 of them. So, is it 6? WRONG! It is apparently 3.5. I got 3 small one and 1 mini version of the cold noodle. Why is it like this? I don't know. But I think that's how they define a plate :" a plate with 3.5 pieces of cold noodle"Next, let's talking about soy sauce rice. Just by name you can tell how simple it is. Egg fried rice with soy sauce. How can anyone in the world cook it wrong? Well, Mr.Gao did it. It has no taste in it, it is so plain that I have to add salt and pepper myself to treat myself better with this 10usd soy sauce colored plain rice. Why is it 10 dollars? I do not know. Maybe some high end soy sauce air shipped from Japan overnight? Or maybe there is clearly white rice shown underneath?Of course, we have to mention the kebab. The quality shifts around. Chicken heart has zero taste nor cooked feeling in it. Lamb was just barly ok. I have to say at least they got average beef and pork so I still have something to eat.Finally, let's talk about service. The server have a feel of rude probably due to the exhaust of late night working like the chief here. He barely served me. Obviously they will not ask what you going to drink nor bring up tap water. If you are thirsty, well, you got an iPad. With no free water choice on it of course. The environment was not clean. Almost all tables have residues from last customer. But, I guess that gives you a feeling of your home country outdoor kebab truck, just with a prestigious price tag.Will I recommend this 2 star place? I won't. If you are an American that seeks Chinese style kebab. It is acceptable here. If you are a Chinese, that's a different story. It is not as good as most kebab place you find in China. Do you have a choice to choose at chicago? Probably not. But if you can do kebab or egg fried rice yourself, you are doing better than this restaurant.It is fantastic enough that I don't want to leave a single tip. Oh, how easy can it be to open a chinese restaurant in the east. I can find tons of much better Chinese kebab in California. Sigh.Well they care about yelp, ofc not like all chinese restaurant. Will they improve? Probably not. Will I come again? No.

I ordered spicy chicken with flat noodles, it is flavorful however it's too spicy ( hot) to enjoy.My lips & tongue was on fire even the next day, which is very uncomfortable. This is a type of dish that you will need milk which means you also need a bathroom frequently the next morning

TLDR: the food is amazing and BYOB, worth giving a try. This place has the vibe of a drinking place in Asia. Food is good and come out pretty fast. It's BYOB so it's definitely a good drinking place. Plus it opens super late.