I had lunch there yesterday and I thought it was as good as ever. Dare I say that I might even like their egg rolls better than Kow Kow. I saw no problems that would keep me from returning.

stevez wrote:I had lunch there yesterday and I thought it was as good as ever. Dare I say that I might even like their egg rolls better than Kow Kow. I saw no problems that would keep me from returning.

Say it, say it . . . I said as much upthread, so I'm in complete agreement

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ronnie_suburban wrote:Say it, say it . . . I said as much upthread, so I'm in complete agreement

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I think they put just a tiny hint of curry in with the peanut butter when they make the egg rolls. That's what puts them over the top for me.

Someone on this thread asked what Jewish-Chinese food was. NPR's Talk of the Nation did an interview last 12/25 and you can find it if you search NPR and "A Fine Day for Chinese Food." I'd post the link but I don't think that it's allowed on the LTHForum.
An attempt is made to solve the age-old conundrum: Tomorrow will be the Chinese New Year for 4705. Later this year, the Jewish New Year will be 5769. So how did the Jews survive without Chinese food for 1064 years?
Best,
Grandpa Bob

Grandpa Bob wrote:NPR's Talk of the Nation did an interview last 12/25 and you can find it if you search NPR and "A Fine Day for Chinese Food." I'd post the link but I don't think that it's allowed on the LTHForum.

Sure it it.........

"A Fine Day for Chinese Food."

My question is...HOW DO THEY DO IT?

How do they produce a lunch special of hot tea, chicken/celery soup, Kung Pao chicken & pork fried rice, in 15 minutes for five bucks? and...with at least 20 other choices for the same money?

I had my director of sales down from Wisconsin, we had to eat good & fast, & China Chef came to mind. From the time we sat down, we actually had the soup in 3 minutes and the food in ten. Steaming hot & very, very tasty. The director said it really hit the spot & stated the line above.

Like Stevez says, I think (no, I know) this is a better deal than Kow Kow.

Also ran into one of my best buddies with his mom, and they were enjoying lunch together. It's a family place to be, I guess!

Stopped in there today after seeing it mentioned in another thread. Was very good, thanks again LTH for sending me another good place to eat close to work. Had the Pansit Guisado. What a plate of food. The soup was very very good and in a nice sized cup, enough to really enjoy, not a micro cup like some places. I also added an egg roll which was good. Walked out of the place with tip 10.00.

Thanks again LTH

Here is a link for China Chef website, take a look at the"about us" page.
you will see how the restaurant looks like.

www.chinachef.org

5920 lincoln av
morton grove
60053

One of the side features of China Chef is that they have a number of Filipino and Filipino-influenced dishes. Currently, there are a number of Chinese-style dishes on a temporary paper insert in their menu featuring lechon. I had the good fortune the other night to order their lechon fried rice. It was excellent, with big hunks of flavorful roast pork and chunks of crisp fat. An excellent fried rice and probably only available for a limited time.

Best,
Michael

I thought of Chinese food back on the way driving from my mom's house on Xmas after cooking a nice dinner more of our ethnic persuasion rather than "Jewish American Chinese Food". I was dead tired and so stressed this Xmas...
the weather has been so bad and with last minute this or that going on I was too stressed to really enjoy anything. Everything seemed to go wrong for some reason and I was not really in the spirit. I did manage to cook a roast pork with bread dumplings, sauerkraut, baked sweet potatoes and some mixed fresh vegetables with broccoli and brussels sprouts. The pie I picked up at the last minute due to lack of cooking time turned out to be the dreaded sweet potato instead of pumpkin. Did not look at it closely enough. Anyway I digress. Driving back home in the car I began wishing for Chinese food instead of all the Xmas fol de rol that tends to happen. I would have gladly ordered Chinese takeout from a place like this.

So we ate at China Chef this evening for our first time there. It was pretty good - not as good as the places in Chinatown, but not bad.

We started with the pot stickers, which were freshly made and handmade (good) albeit slightly greasy on the outside (not so good). The vinegar sauce was thin and not as tasty as the sauce we've had most other places. We also had an egg roll, which was pretty good but unremarkable.

We had two main dishes. The Mongolian beef was very good, and the beef was very tender. The orange chicken was pretty good, although it was quite greasy. Portion sizes were generous. Both dishes were described as "hot" on the menu, but both were extremely mild. We weren't asked how hot we like food, and apparently the default is "not hot" even though the menu says hot. Next time we'll know to ask for it extra hot.

All in all, dinner was good, with pluses for portion size, reasonable prices, and freshness, but minuses for level of hotness and greasiness. We decided it's worth going back to China Chef, but we'll keep Koi in the rotation too (Koi has been very good, and makes hot dishes hot without having to be told to do so).

Incidentally, I think the sobriquet of "Jewish American suburban Chinese" is silly, because it applies to the demographics of a restaurant's location and has absolutely nothing to do with any particular style of food. If a restaurant's food is fresh, light, greasy, spicy, or whatever, those are characteristics of the food, not the clientele.

Was there for the first time Sunday night. I liked everything, but (through that magical process by which some food becomes better when you have the leftovers the next night), the Shrimp in Lobster Sauce the next night was twice as good as it had been at the restaurant.

HI,

I like the BBQ pork and wonton soup very much. It is just like my first Chinese food experiences in the 1960's. Very exotic in my small food world, though a good beginning.

Regards,

Had to go out to Skokie today, so we hit upon China Chef for a late lunch. We saw a line out the door but surprisingly it was folks waiting for take out, the dining areas were only sparsely filled. Still service was slow, it took a while to get anything going. Finally placed an order. Hot and sour soup was right on, we devoured it quickly. I'm a sucker for a good egg roll and these were tasty, crisp, not greasy, nicely filled. I had the squid in black bean and garlic, Mrs. Trpt her traditional Mongolian Beef. Both were huge and relatively well done. Spices were rich but not hot, a little on the sweet side. Squid was scored in a cross hatch, just how I like it, the pieces were huge and had just the right amount of chewiness. Not Chinatown but not bad.
We were the youngest people in the place; there were no couples of childbearing age. Just an observation. We'd go back if we're in the neighborhood, not really worth a trip, but a good choice if we're out that way.

Sometime in the past two weeks China Chef has changed the recipe for their Orange Beef. Gone is the crispy coating. Instead the slices of beef are stir fried in sauce. The waiter informed it was due to ppl complaining the old style was "too dry". You can get it the crispy style on request. I feel the crunch is indispensable.

Octarine wrote:Sometime in the past two weeks China Chef has changed the recipe for their Orange Beef. Gone is the crispy coating. Instead the slices of beef are stir fried in sauce. The waiter informed it was due to ppl complaining the old style was "too dry". You can get it the crispy style on request. I feel the crunch is indispensable.

Good to know, I wonder what other menu items have been altered. You might want to ask and advise back.

Regards,

I stopped by for lunch a few weeks ago and ordered the Pancit Guisado (sp?) Same as it's always been. One of my favorite. Never saw it anywhere else. Art Fong recommended it years ago and it hasn't change one bit (or bite).
Regeards,
GP Bob

Has been at least a year since I've been there, but have been going for the past 10+ years when I'm back in the area.

My favorite shrimp fried rice around. Really like their mongolian beef. Their sole or dover sole (cant remember) is amazing.

BTW for those who grew up in the general area, did you ever go to Dragon Inn in I think Glenview (on Waukegan?) back in the day? We used to eat there regularly when I was a kid.

I can't speak to Dragon Inn when you were younger but I went there a couple years ago and it was horrendous, some of the worst "chinese" food I've ever had. The egg drop soup in particular was vile.

Made my first trip to China Chef last Friday. We got there about 11:30am for lunch. Was kind of empty, but by the time we left it was packed. I think there were only 1 or 2 spots left in the parking lot.

Got the lunch special. First was the soup. I don't know what kind of soup it was, but it was odd. Looked a little like egg drop but had a slight hot & sour taste. It was interesting, but I wouldn't say I actually liked it. But I noticed later they had sizzling rice soup. I'll have to try that next time as it's one of my favorites.

Next was the egg roll. Very good. But no way IMO it was better than Kow Kow. Slight disclaimer though, it's been about a year since I've been to Kow Kow, so it might have changed as some have mentioned. But now way it was better than vintage Kow Kow. The big downside was the sweet and sour sauce on the table was ice cold. At room temperature it would have been much better.

Finally the entree. Based on the recommendations I've read here I went with the Mongolian Beef. First let me say, Mongolian Beef seems to be served a hundred different ways in the Chicago area. This was vastly different than most. And it was unbelievably good. It was so good that I'll probably take the long ride and bring my wife there tomorrow. I would say it's my second favorite rendition I've had.

Unfortunately the place I used to get my favorite is now gone, a place at Waveland and Broaday called New Life. They got closed down by developers and eventually moved to around the 1400 block of Irving. It took them about a year to reopen and it was an awful spot with no parking. They didn't last long there. If anyone is familiar with the couple that ran the place and know where they might have reopened I'd appreciate a heads up.

I think that for many of us, one of the most disappointing things that can pop up while dining out is inconsistency. It can be such a huge letdown. 2 weeks ago, I was ready to declare China Chef's Pork Egg Foo Young my favorite in the Skokie-Niles-Morton Grove-Glenview-Far North Side area. I'd had it a few times over the past couple of months and it was so good, I began to have cravings for it. However, I recently had lunch there and the EFY was nothing like it's been over my last several visits (or over all the years I've been eating there). Not only was it not crave-worthy, it was watery and downright flavorless. Big bummer What happened?! I will say that the potstickers and egg rolls were both excellent -- at the top of their range. But for whatever reason, the EFY was so bad that if were my first time ever ordering it there, it would have been my last time, too.

I'll most certainly be back and I'll eventually order the EFY again but China Chef let me down in a way that was particularly surprising for a place that's been around for nearly 40 years.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:
I'll most certainly be back and I'll eventually order the EFY again but China Chef let me down in a way that was particularly surprising for a place that's been around for nearly 40 years.

=R=

That is surprising. I ate there a week or so ago and ordered the pork EFY as part of the "full dinner" supplement (which includes an egg roll and a cup of soup along with a single patty of EFY added to any entree). It was as good as ever. I wouldn't write off a place with such a long track record of excellence after only one bad visit. Hopefully your experience isn't the start of a bad trend.

stevez wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:
I'll most certainly be back and I'll eventually order the EFY again but China Chef let me down in a way that was particularly surprising for a place that's been around for nearly 40 years.

=R=

That is surprising. I ate there a week or so ago and ordered the pork EFY as part of the "full dinner" supplement (which includes an egg roll and a cup of soup along with a single patty of EFY added to any entree). It was as good as ever. I wouldn't write off a place with such a long track record of excellence after only one bad visit. Hopefully your experience isn't the start of a bad trend.

Oh, I'm not writing it off. I just find inconsistency at restaurants, especially ones that have been around a while, to be supremely annoying. To quote Mario Batali, via Bill Buford's Heat:

“If someone has a great dish and returns to have it again, and you don’t serve it to him in exactly the same way, then you’re a dick.”

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True Jewish American Chinese can be had at Tein Li Chow in the Jewel on Howard in Evanston - I say this because it is the only Kosher Chinese restaurant in Chicago - It is only carry out and it is very good

i had my first, and last, meal at ChinaChef last night. i hadn't heard of it until saturday, when i caught up with this thread. having grown up on chinese american food, i immediately started jonesing for a meal here. well, it was seriously disappointing. my childhood egg rolls did not have peanut butter in them; i've never had PB in an egg roll before, and they overwhelmed any other flavor that might have been in them. the sweet and sour sauce was thin and insipid; the chinese mustard wasn't very hot. there was nothing to perk up these egg rolls. then my friend and i split orders of eggplant with garlic sauce and pansit guisado. i'm familiar with both dishes. the eggplant was hopeless. the chef seems to have replaced the expected garlic with a mild sweet and sour sauce- there was even pineapple in the dish. it was a gelatinous, gooey, boring mess. the pansit looked totally cantonese; we dug deep and found some of the pandit noodles buried below. it was fairly tasteless. the portions were large- but we had no desire to even take doggie bags home with us. luckily, i still have some good memories of chinese american food from my childhood....

Just had another great lunch at China Chef. There is actually some news to report. China Chef is now serving dim sum on weekends. According to the manager it is all made in house. No carts. You order from a menu. I'm going to check it out sooner than later and report back.

I will be there Sunday morning barring any unforeseen emergencies. Dim sum close to home? The mind boggles.

We decided to have a mid-afternoon dinner at China Chef today. We thought they would be fairly empty for a 3 pm seating, but we were dead wrong. When we arrived, the parking lot was almost full, and well over half the tables/booths were occupied... and that was before the group of thirty came in to be seated in the banquet room! Well, good for China Chef! The food and service was as good as ever, which is very good indeed.

Aside from the usual egg rolls (very good) and pot stickers (meh), we had two dinner-sized (nice large portions) main dishes. Since they have orange beef and orange chicken on the menu, we asked if they could do orange shrimp, which isn't on the menu. They did, and it was delicious! Not terribly hot/spicy, just a bit, and we'll ask for more spice next time, but this was still a great dish:


And we also got their Mongolian beef, which is consistently outstanding:

Damn, now I want to go tonight. Orange shrimp sounds amazing!

I want to go too. I've never been here even though I lived in Skokie in the 70's and on the North Shore all my life. I wouldn't attempt it on Christmas though. Too Jewish. But I suppose it's where I belong...