My wife and I were joined by four of my in-laws for dinner at The Dream Place in Palatine, IL.
I had been to this location several times in the past when the location was an Indian restaurant, but this was the first time after the new restaurant opened. I asked one of the staff when they opened and she mentioned that it was three weeks ago.
The restaurant was decorated very nicely. It is more upscale than your typical Chinese restaurant. It was nicely and discretely decorated. I was particularly amused with the chopsticks provided. They were essentially a base chopsticks with fresh "tips" that you insert into the base! This way, you get a "fresh pair of chopsticks" but only the tips are replaced and the base unit is reused.
We were pleasantly greeted and shown to our table. There was no music (which I think they need) and very few patrons at the restaurant when we arrived, but it started to get more just as we were finishing our meal. We ordered a variety of dishes and shared them. While I don't remember the actual names of the dishes, they were:
Szechwan Green Beans
Noodle Platter with Seafood
Salt & Pepper Fish
Mongolian Beef
Popcorn chicken with Chili Peppers
Crispy Noodles with Beef
The waitress was very friendly and spoke to us in both Chinese and English and we did the same. She took our order with an iPad and when the time came to pay, she used it as well to process the credit card.
Overall, we all thought the dishes tasted very good, but that the portions were a bit too small for the price. The dishes we picked were mostly spicy, but we noted that the popcorn chicken had more chili peppers than chicken. Lots of onions too, both yellow onions and green onions were in the dishes. To me, that's mostly fillers.
I recommend this restaurant if you are in the area and want an upscale feel but be aware that the portions are small for the price. Taste was good and the service was good as well.
