Three Happiness Chicago Balck Pepper Beef

	Reviewed by : Kamilah S.  On: 3/25/2013 5:39:00 AM BEST CHINESE FOOD EVER!!!!!!! I love this place. Quiet, small, open 24 hours SCORE!!!!! I have been here many times and have never had anything bad. I have only had carry out, one day I may dine in.
	Reviewed by : Weisun C.  On: 2/20/2013 3:37:00 PM This may not be what folks from other cities regard as "authentic," but for Chicago, it's the epitome of our Chinatown, a greasy, brusque, and mostly Cantonese hole-in-the-wall. My first experiences with dim sum in this town began here (never made it to Hong Min before it burnt down).It's essentially a coffee shop layout. So uninformed and skittish tourist will peek in and scurry off to places like Phoenix or Triple Crown. They're probably looking for cart serviced dim sum anyway (not even possible in this joint). If there's a wait, too bad, there's hardly a place to stand 'til a table opens up.So you order directly on a "Xeroxed" checkbox menu (you'd better know your dim sum, even in English, 'cause no pictures on this one). All your favorites, few if anything "exotic," are there. The small plates or steam baskets come out pretty rapidly and hot. Chow down!Now onto the noodle dishes! The OLD Three Happiness (as we veterans call it) has great Singapore noodle dishes and terrific chow fun/foon (broad rice noodle) dishes too. For authentic Cantonese, go for the beef with Chinese broccoli. Roll on out to the sidewalk!
	Reviewed by : Trish S.  On: 2/14/2013 3:14:00 AM I've only had a few items from here but all of them have been pretty darn good. My first batch of egg rolls were burnt which was of course disappointing. The next time I ordered I just asked that they not fry them very hard and they were great! Hot, perfectly crispy, and fresh. I also ordered Kung Pao Chicken (not listed on their carry out menu) and it was great! Spicy but not too spicy and fresh tasting veggies and peanuts. The sauce was also pretty good.The best thing by far had to be their shrimp fried rice. It'd been a long time since I'd tasted some that fresh and without a bunch of grease. I almost ate the whole box in one setting.Each time I ordered I did carry-out and my food was ready in less that 10 minutes.All in all a great little spot to grab some really good chinese food.
	Reviewed by : Edgar P.  On: 2/7/2013 1:31:00 PM One of my most favorite restaurants in Chinatown. The food is delicious and cheap, and the waiters are polite.
	Reviewed by : Seosamh D.  On: 1/2/2013 6:58:00 AM I think this place is the best value in Chinatown.A LOT of places in Chinatown are marked up big time because of it being a tourist attraction. Not so here.The food is ALWAYS good here as is the service too:)I've been going here for years. I don't live in the area anymore but I still visit on occasion.The BBQ Pork, Crab Rangoon and Egg Roll appetizers are killer! All of the entrees I've tried are very good too.Friendly service and always a kettle of tea with the meal too:)Check it out!BTW - it's not between Indiana and Michigan it's between Wentworth and Archer across the street from the firehouse.
	Reviewed by : Ellen M.  On: 1/1/2013 6:41:00 AM Really mixed experiences here - I've had four or five. I'm a fan of beef in my chinese stir-fry, and the beef here doesn't taste fresh at all. I've also tasted the shrimp, chicken, soups, fried rice dishes, and vegetables, and they are all merely adequate. Give its inconsistency, I can't rate it at a three.
	Reviewed by : Tom C.  On: 12/28/2012 2:54:00 AM The "little" 3 Happiness has become my favorite Chicago Chinatown restaurant. So far, I've been well pleased with everything I've ordered and I try to mix it up and order new things. I will say the stuffed to-fu hot pot has become a must-order however, it's that good, and something I've rarely seen anywhere else.Yeah, the place is a dump and a true hole-in-the-wall. I've read some other reviews that say the food was better in the past, and I've noticed that the fairly negative reviews seem to come from people that are ordering the more quasi-Chinese, or Ameri-Chinese items such as egg rolls, General Tao's chicken and beef & broccoli and such.Folks, if you're ordering anything on the menu that's available at your typical Chinese take-outs or buffets outside Chinatown, you probably won't be satisfied with this place. But if you're looking for truly authentic Cantonese cuisine (i.e. the stuff y'all don't recognize as food on the menu with descriptions like wood fungus and such) this place does it better than most others. Yeah, it'd be nice if the place was a bit cleaner or updated and modernized, but it's truly what a stereotypical ole' fashioned Chinatown dive with excellent authentic food is all about.
	Reviewed by : pras n.  On: 11/29/2012 12:29:00 PM I'm not a picky eater but this place is definitely worst I've eaten at on chinatown. Egg rolls were cold and inside was pasty (yuck). The hot oil was disgusting. Main dish was decent but overall quality was sub standard
	Reviewed by : Rafael R.  On: 10/30/2012 1:42:00 PM Horrendous dim sum experience included a vegetarian tofu dish with a long black hair clinging to a chile and bland dim sum dishes. The happi noodles made me sad, as they were overly beefy in flavor, simply disgusting experience.
	Reviewed by : Joel G.  On: 10/28/2012 4:15:00 PM Huge portions, poor atmosphere, solid food, AWESOME EGGROLLS!!! You go here looking for a pile of food and just outstanding egg roles. They are solid size thick roles, must like the peanut butter taste which is typical of good roles. The sweet and sour sauce is a must and the hot mustard is the very hot and very good. I could go here and just eat 4 egg roles. I like to hit this place for a low cost meal then go over to the ICON to catch a movie. All too often I used to forget about China Town and try to think of someplace to eat dinner before a movie... South loop lacks a great location for dinner... a few but not many good ones. China Town is a great alternative. There's two Three Hapiness's restaurants, make sure to go to the small one as the other isn't nearly as good. One is on the North side of the street the other is South side... go south for good rolls and better food!
	Reviewed by : Helen W.  On: 9/28/2012 3:21:00 AM Used to eat here when this was the only Three Happiness and was one of the go to place for good cheap huge portion eats in Chinatown. I ordered the two kinds of mushroom chicken over rice. The black mushrooms were fine, but the other kind was the canned button mushrooms, the chicken all white meat and was a light gravy and light on the gravy. The satay beef over rice was better, not overly satayed, dark gravy and more flavor. Just ok, but many other cafe style places to try first. They do stay open late tho and the place is small.
	Reviewed by : Toby B.  On: 9/25/2012 10:45:00 AM Although the congee was good I'm going to be critical here since there are many other good restaurants in Chinatown. I went here yesterday during my visit to Chicago due to the 'good' reviews. But I was quite disappointed. I had the congee mainly by the recommendation of the host. I asked for century eggs in the congee. It was actually very good. I also ordered the pork-crab dim sum which was ok. It was basically like a crescent shaped shu mai. I also ordered take out - which unfortunately was quite disappointing. Seafood combination, bbq pork with vege and beef with vege. Had them 3 hours later when I got home. They did not taste right. The bbq pork was tough. All the sauces were terribly over seasoned. It was hard to detect the flavors due to the saltiness. The seafood sauce smelled funny. I'd like to think I know what good Chinese food is having been to San Francisco and New York's Chinatowns and even just our local restaurants. Plus what I whip up at home. For a restaurant in Chicago's Chinatown there was no excuse for this.I will say though that the service from the 2 old ladies was very good. But thats not good enough to make me come back.
	Reviewed by : Vincent Y.  On: 9/21/2012 10:35:00 PM Really small and decent. Service was very fast and the food is extremely cheap. I don't think the food was extraordinarily fantastic, but it was good. And there is the fact that it lends its initials to the LTH food forum, and everything else. But otherwise it's a good, nice shop.
	Reviewed by : Pauline J.  On: 9/1/2012 10:07:00 PM If you want inexpensive traditional Dimsum, this is the place to go. They are open 24 hours and the food is so delicious. They can really make some fried shrimp balls and their wonton noodle soup is exceptional.
	Reviewed by : Ron A.  On: 8/31/2012 2:40:00 PM Been going here for 10 years. Food is awesome 85% of the time. Every now and then they wont get your order right or food will be a little subpar. But it takes them 10 min to get on order together for carry out and they are open till 3am. Cant beat that.
	Reviewed by : Angela P.  On: 8/31/2012 3:22:00 PM I went here with the boys, my cousin and her friend to experience some traditional dim sum. And I just need to say, it was definitely TOO traditional for my palate! Yikes!The place is definitely a little hole in the wall with a guy working at the register and one little old lady as the waitress. (She was AMAZING with my boys, BTW.)We ended up ordering like five different items off the dim sum menu including pork dumplings, short ribs, spring roll, shrimp dumpling and I honestly can't remember what else, it could have even been like seven things.Okay...so...anything with pork, tasted like pig, you know, a little smelly tasting. Yuck, not for me. The shrimp dumplings tasted and smelled super fishy. No thanks. And those short ribs were boiled and looked slimy and white...yes...white...I have NO idea why but I did NOT like it!! Oh, and those spring rolls had that same sort of smelly taste like the pork dishes...seriously...it was just not good for us novices to traditional dim sum. Personally, I will not be going back, but I wish I did like it more because that waitress was SUPER friendly and attentive. Sorry 3HOR. =[
	Reviewed by : Tom H.  On: 7/12/2012 1:53:00 PM "Little" Three Happiness is on the south side of Cermak Road and is not the gigantic 2-storey dim sum palace that sits on the northwest corner of Cermak & Wentworth. Two restaurants with identical names located within a few dozen yards of each other: well, there's bound to be some confusion.This place, the little one, is a teeny terrific hole-in-the-wall Cantonese joint, seating maybe 20 people on a really busy evening, but only if you packed them in shoulder to shoulder. But the food is amazingly high quality. Though they do pander to the clueless with a certain number of dumb things on the menu like crab Rangoon, chop suey and egg foo yung, all staples of a thankfully disappearing "Chinese American" cuisine of hodgepodge origins. The authentically Chinese dishes here, which are many, are so well thought of, in fact, that a group of Chicago food enthusiasts named their foodie web site after this place, http://www.lthforum.com, "lth" standing for "little Three Happiness." For them, this restaurant is the epitome of a small, locally owned, well run ethnic eatery, the type of place we all should be thankful for.I've eaten many a fine dinner here over the years, though I really didn't discover it until my absolute favorite Chinatown eatery, located a few doors west of Three Happiness, happened to burn down one sad evening. I still mourn Hong Min (though I hear they have a small outpost in the far southern suburbs which I've not ventured cross country to try--yet.) For me, Three Happiness comes in a close second, and now first, by default.My latest meal here was a late night stop off: for $18.78 plus tip I got a small chicken noodle soup, order of 3 curried chicken puffs, string beans with minced pork in chili sauce, steamed rice, hot tea, fortune cookie & water.My soup had many large chunks of good white meat chicken (no bones or nasty bits), along with a big mass of thin noodles at the bottom. Though the broth was a bit thin and watery to my taste.The curried chicken puffs, an appetizer of three fried wonton wrappers covering, not surprisingly, curried chicken. They're good, really good.My entree of string beans with minced pork bemused my waiter a little bit as I ordered it, as it's the kind of Chinese home cooking that often isn't even found on many menus. The flavors were wonderful: the earthy note of the beans contrasted with the rich umame of the minced pork (here used as condiment, rather than centerpiece) and the aggressive heat of the chili sauce. The huge platter of green beans is amazing just to look at. I felt healthy munching the green veggies while a bit decadent with the pork sprinkled over the dish.An added attraction for this place is that they are almost always open. The host said they're open all night except for a short period from 6 AM to 9 AM, when they close for 3 hours each morning. So the next time you're starving at 3 AM, don't raid your refrigerator for unknown items wrapped in aluminum foil, instead just head on over to (little) Three Happiness. You'll be glad you did.(One further note: if you are in the least bit claustrophobic, do not try to walk down the tiny hallway to the little bathrooms at the back of the restaurant. I didn't know they even made doors that narrow. Evidently, they do.)
	Reviewed by : Alana T.  On: 4/23/2012 7:43:00 PM I've been CRAVING GOOD Chinese food for a while. I have a friend, she's uppity, I love her for it. However, I asked this friend, where do you get Chinese food from, and she said this place and another place. Now, I said, which is better. She asked me, for what? I said, fried rice. She said, definitely Three Happiness. Their fried rice is really good. Bless my friend's heart. I checked into this spot last night for some egg foo young (not a human) and chicken fried rice.Because I have fat issues, I totally got in my car after my order was ready and praised the Lord because they gave me a plastic fork and I was able to try this as soon as I put my seat belt on (safety first). The rice smelled burnt. It might've tasted burnt, but I can't be sure because I taste food with my nose first. I was starving, so I decided to give it another try when I got home. I get my plate, say a QUICK prayer and hope no one swoops down and takes my food while my eyes are closed. I grabbed my plate, loaded on rice, and foo young (not a human). The rice was very mediocre and the foo young (not a human) was very oily. To top it off, how you gon play a sista and not hook me up with a fortune cookie.Yelp was right about this place, and my friend not so much. Won't be back. Cheap though!
	Reviewed by : Julie M.  On: 4/14/2012 5:18:00 AM THIS IS THE LITTLE THREE HAPPINESS not the big two floor restaurant on the corner! This place is awesome!! We've stopped eating at the Chinese places by our house and only come here (which is a good half hour drive away)! We have eaten here now about ten times and every time it is fantastic! Whether it's 3pm or 3am the food has always been fresh and hot!The only thing I don't like is the career bum that hangs out in front. I know it's not the restaurant's fault though. (and yes, I said career bum - we watched this guy beg for money and then dip around the corner to make a phone call and BS on his cell phone!)
	Reviewed by : Amanda G.  On: 1/23/2012 9:41:00 PM I have been going to Three Happiness since I was a kid. I've always loved going there for the Dim Sum.Three Happiness is not fancy. You go there for the experience. Women pushing around carts of small plate chinese food. Your table is covered in a plastic disposable cover and it's all about the experience.I went to Three Happiness over the holidays with my boyfriend and we were craving some good dim sum. This is definitely one of the best dim sum places in Chinatown.Go for the quality food and experience!
	Reviewed by : Michael Nagrant  On: "Dim sum" is a Cantonese phrase meaning "touch the heart," and this spot touches it like no other place in Chinatown. "Little" Three Happiness (so named because there's a huge Three Happiness across Cermak) is so revered by local foodies, ...?
	Reviewed by : nathanstull_citysearch  On: 2002-11-05 Went here on a calm Sunday morning. We ordered 6 items and couldn't even finish them because it was so much. All of the selections were well-made and very tasty. But, the best part came with the bill. All of it (and we had a rather large ...?
	Reviewed by : txtran  On: 2005-06-11 The food served here was quite impressive. There is a lunch menu with items at $3.95. I ordered the Beef Fried Rice (Hong Kong style) that was big enough for three people! I also ordered the Deep Fried Shrimp Ball from the dim sum menu ...?
	Reviewed by : dman671  On: 2006-02-26 I unfortunately eat out 4-5 times per week. This was by far the worst service I've ever had! Even when talking to the manager about the sauce the waiter spilled all over my jacket was beyond ridiculous. She was completely unwilling to ...?
	Reviewed by : A TripAdvisor Member  On: 2006-11-09 I've heard this place is dirty but after finding a dead spider cut in half at the bottom of my soup, I didn't realize just how dirty they are. Chicago health inspector has been called on them before and I called this time for the spider. ...?
	Reviewed by : A TripAdvisor Member  On: 2007-03-27 After going to some restaurants in Chinatown i wass pretty disapointed; when i went to Little Three Happiness... well lets just say you HAVE to get the Salt and Pepper Scallops. you definetly have to get it... if you are looking for a fancy ...?
	Reviewed by : AlanG1085507  On: 2007-12-20 hearted. Carts of both recognizable and mysterious offerings parade by. If you are not sure what something is, don't ask unless you speak chinese. Beware of the elctrical cord across the wet bathroom floor. ...?
	Reviewed by : JonathanG5785  On: 2007-12-21 family's destination of choice in Chicago for fine dim sum. Of course, the space is typically gi-normous, and the service has the charm and efficiency of an American diner done Chinese-style, but all this makes for the kind of dim sum experience every child (and ...?
	Reviewed by : JaguarGirl  On: 2008-04-15 because even though the decor is lacking, the food is always good. Ha! They came back and told me the food was "TERRIBLE!" I was so embarrassed, won't be sending anyone else. Chinatown overall is hit or miss. The best Chinese Restaurant in the southern part of downtown has to be ...?
	Reviewed by : pinknose  On: 2008-09-25 Today was the 5th or 6th time this year I've eaten there. The place looks like a dump, but the food has always been exceptionally tasty. Today we had lunch specials. The curry beef, ( which is half way down on the right side of the menu) for ...?
	Reviewed by : Pat Wu  On: 2009-03-14 over the past 8 years. I travel to Chicago every year for a meeting and we eat here at least 2-3 times while on that trip. It is the best in China town. Lots to choose from. Great Job. We will see you next week! ...?
	Reviewed by : phixed  On: 2009-07-08 Sometimes it can be impossible to get a table for dim sum at Phoenix during the weekends and this place is a nice alternative. The food is good, prices are fine and staff very helpful. While the rice noodle shrimp and gai lan are ...?
	Reviewed by : Rey  On: 2009-07-31 Truely some of the best Chinese food I have ever tried. Don't be fooled by the small appearence of the restaurant, this is one of those examples good things come in small packages. Almost forgot try the orange chicken it's delicious!!!!!! ...?
	Reviewed by : Kyle McCoy  On: 2009-08-10 The dim sum here for lunch is great! If you aren't familiar with dim sum, its the Chinese equivalent of fast food. The difference is - they bring the entire menu to your table! You pick and choose what you want, and pay per item. ...?
	Reviewed by : TyR1723  On: 2009-09-24 that there are two Three Happiness Restaurants, there is the one located on 2130 S. Wentworth Ave and the one located on 209 W. Cermak Rd., they are owned by different owners. The one on 2130 S. Wentworth is considered the "New" Three Happiness whle the other is the original. ...?
	Reviewed by : notcooking56  On: 2009-10-27 I love me some dim sum. I come here a few times a year. It's not bad at all. My only complaint is that I have to stop by a bakery when done to get baked Char Sui Bao. Growing up in So Cal, it's at all the dim sum places. ...?
	Reviewed by : Anonymous  On: 2009-09-07 yo the salt n peper pork wit xtra onion n peper is da bomb,str fry clams,salt n peper shrimp n the escargo is fire if u know what i mean pussys?

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