Golden Chef Chinese Kitchen — Restaurant in Jefferson Township

I used to order from the Chinese place across the street from Golden Chef (it's in that one strip mall right there). That place was randomly closed a few weeks ago, so I checked out Golden Chef for the first time ever. I'm so glad I did!

The food is good, like what I expect for what I'm paying. It's American-style Chinese food, and all the dishes I've ordered so far are made to scratch that itch. Meat is flavorful, sauces are seasoned just right. The portions are big and it's fairly priced. My husband and I split a small entree, an appetizer, and a small fried rice for dinner, and I still have enough for lunch the next day.

But it's not the good food or the good value that made me decide that I'll only be ordering from this place-- not the place across the street-- from now on. It's the vibes of this place that won me over. The woman at the register is so kind and warm. She makes me feel welcome, instead of like I'm inconveniencing her by my existence. Any time I've made eye contact with someone working in the kitchen, it's that same thing: a genuine smile/kind vibes. The place across the street never felt like that.

Last thing of note-- I used to work in a Chinese restaurant all throughout high school. The food cooks fast! Stir fry = high heat, quick cooking. So yes, expect the food to be done quick. I never have to wait long here when waiting for my food. It doesn't mean it's not fresh. It means they have the raw chicken ready to fry to order. At the place I worked, sauces were typically batch-prepared at the start of the day, and then the sauce would get added into the wok at the end. This is another reason why it can be made from scratch and be fresh, but also be fast. I just order when I get there, instead of ordering ahead.

Anyway, the staff is kind, the food is good (definitely the best Chinese food in Humboldt Park IMO), the service is quick, and it's a...

Placed an order through doordash. I ordered 2 lunch specials both with extra meat. I asked them to adjust the payment as necessary as there wasn't a section to add extra meat on doordash. They did as asked and I received my food but the next day I noticed that they double charged me. This order was supposed to be $34 something and I was charged $69.22. Went through hell with doordash directly and trying to get the problem resolved as we speak. To the owners of this restuarant this was your doing. Be careful how you charge people because of your mistake I'm in the hole $34 and may not even get a refund until next week. Also add an extra meat option in your extra section on your online menu it'll make things alot easier and smoother. I'm very angry that you wouldn't notice such a high price for 2 lunch special with extra meat! That was unacceptable! UPDATE: STILL HAVEN'T RECEIVED MY $34 REFUND THROUGH DOORDASH ITS BEEN 3 WEEKS NOW! I'VE GONE THROUGH HELL THROUGH DOORDASH BECAUSE OF THIS RESTAURANT'S DOING. IM SO PI$$ED OFF! LOOKS LIKE ILL BE LOOKING FOR ANOTHER CHINESE RESTAURANT WITH COMPETENT PEOPLE WHO KNOW HOW TO CALCULATE...

In my quest to find the best Chinese food in Logan Square this was a second place contender. I ordered the usual fried rice, orange chicken, pot stickers along with hot and sour soup and an egg roll. Orange chicken was alright, not the greatest I've had, but still better than 90% of the garbage in Logan Square. Pot stickers were the same usual bland ,wet junk people in Logan Square have come to expect. Egg roll was surprisingly bad as well (don't know how you can screw that up). Fried rice was pretty decent. You can tell it was made the usual lackluster way of soaking it completely in soy sauce until it almost turned completely black, but it wasn't terrible.

This was my first time trying hot and sour soup. It had a peculiar taste, but wasn't as bad a miso soup (which tastes like straight p**s around here no matter where you get it from).

I'd still have to give this place a pass though. Food quality was just between poor and decent. Non-consistent...