Mapo Restaurant

Mapo Restaurant on Naperville Wheaton Road has quietly built one of the strongest Chinese food followings in the western suburbs, specializing in Sichuan and Hunan dishes that bring real heat and numbing spice to a market often dominated by milder Cantonese-American fare. The Mapo Tofu, the dish that shares its name with the restaurant, arrived in a clay pot bubbling with chili oil, Sichuan peppercorns, and silken tofu that trembled at the touch of a spoon. The numbing, tingling heat built gradually and lingered long after the last bite. The Dan Dan Noodles brought a similar intensity, sesame paste and chili oil coating springy wheat noodles with ground pork scattered across the top. The Kung Pao Shrimp balanced spice with sweet, plump shrimp tossed with roasted peanuts and dried chilies in a wok-charred sauce. The kitchen handles the American-Chinese classics competently, but the real reward comes from ordering off the Sichuan section, where each dish demonstrates a kitchen that understands the layered complexity of mala spice. Four hundred reviews speak to a consistency that keeps this dining room full on weeknights.