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BINGO TEA | $ R 1130 W. Argyle 773-878-3333
FOOD & DRINK RESTAURANT REVIEW
Bingo knows what you need: Taiwanese cheese tea and Malaysian noodles Resistance is futile. By MIKE SULA
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Clockwise from top left : chicken curry laksa; mee goreng; penang lobak; Kuala Lumpur pan mee; Malay rojak ELISHA KNIGHT
retty soon you’re going to have to confront cheese tea. It’s not as disturbing as it sounds. This successor to Taiwanese bubble tea is relatively new to Chicago, but in its various forms it offers a sensory appeal similar to sipping milky coffee through lip-lathering latte foam. But the word “cheese” is a hang-up in terms of branding. Cheese tea doesn’t involve suspending Limburger in Lipton’s. Rather, the dairy aspect of it is an aerated, milky, lightly salted cream cheese raft, ladled atop your tea of choice—primarily black, green, or oolong, though like much of the universe of milk teas, the possibilities seem endless. Chicago’s bubble tea pioneer Joy Yee has adopted this variant, and a Chinese-based chain, Tsaocaa, opened a shop in Chinatown last month. But the pioneer for Chicago cheese tea is a nascent local chain, Bingo Tea, which opened its first outlet last August in Chinatown Square. The principals, long-time friends Albert Moy and Bin Chen, say they spent a year in Taiwan, learning the ins and out of the specialty along with a course in baked goods like pillow mango, matcha, durian, and ube breads. Seems like a reasonable pairing that might work in more than a few neighborhoods around town and certain suburbs. But last month when they opened their second location on Argyle Street, they had something else in mind: Malaysian food. Up until recently, that was one cuisine—a synthesis of Chinese, Indian, Indonesian, J
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