The striking room at Papajin is perhaps the best thing about it. The twin rows of triangle-in-square pendant lights that run the length of the dark ceiling tie in visually with the white table cloths and dark chairs giving the room a stylish symmetry. The generous spacing between the tables and the full length French doors that open to the street create a welcome airiness in a neighborhood where most restaurants have a nasty tendency to cram patrons uncomfortably close together.
Yet if Papajin is a pleasant enough place to dine, the food is uniformly ordinary. Papajin is a Chinese restaurant and one would hope that the usual dishes are given an extra modicum of expertise here, one befitting its environs, or, failing that, an inventive twist, as is the custom in this neighborhood, but nothing doing. The food is pretty much what you would expect at any Chinese restaurant, not bad, but nothing special either.
Instead of working harder to elevate its signature cuisine, Papajin muddies things up by introducing Japanese food into the mix, offering a full sushi bar. Indeed, half its menu is given over to Japanese items. Excuse me, but isn’t Japanese food as distinct from Chinese food as French is from Italian? Why would I go to a Chinese restaurant to eat Japanese food, unless the proprietors are relying on my ignorance, hoping that I consider all Asian food the same? Come on. Would a serious French restaurant give half its menu over to pasta on the assumption that you consider all European food the same?
The net result is a restaurant that tries to please everyone and ends up failing to distinguish itself for what it's presumably best at, quality, sit-down Chinese, which there is a dearth of in Wicker Park, and which, if anyone gave a stroke, might make a good idea for a restaurant.
Pan-Asian is a culinary concept with legs, but if that’s what’s going on here than where’s the Thai food? Where’s the Vietnamese, and the Korean? Where’s the fusion that would make it exciting and interesting? Not here.
I suspect the proprietors saw a way of tapping into the demand for a trendy cuisine (in this case, sushi) and thought they could get in on the action on the strength of their Asian pedigree. This is a common weakness among restaurateurs in Wicker Park, hearkening to the siren’s call of a flashy trend and diluting their core concept to the point of ambiguity.
In the end, all that's left is the room, which is pretty to look at and a pleasant place to eat, but I wish there was something more compelling on my plate than the same old Chinese.
Papajin
1551 N. Milwaukee
773-384-9638 / Reservations Not Accepted
Hours: M-Th 4pm-11pm; F 4pm-12am; Sa 2pm-12am; Su 2pm-11pm
Features: Carryout, Delivery.
Avg price of a meal for two including drinks and tax $55.00
Website: www.papajin.com
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