Chef Gong Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Lansing Charter Township

OK... Lets talk about Chef Gong. My wife (Who lived in China for years) and myself, who is a lover of authentic Asian food, decided to try this place today for lunch. I have to note this is our second attempt, we tried about a month ago, and got there about an hour after "opening" but it was still closed. However, she has been craving authentic Chinese food, and from all accounts, this was supposed to be the best in town.

I had looked at the menu online, and was expecting the high prices. That did not bother me. Great food and great service should equal equitable pricing. But I digress...

The good. The food. It WAS good. Though my wife ended up not liking her pork, she admitted it was on her, not the food, as she could tell it was cooked well, and authentic. My spicy shrimp could have fed us both, and still took some home. It was good.

Now...the bad. We walked in to an empty restaurant, and got a "To go....or for here" When we said dine in... the server...who very well could have been the owner, grabbed the menus and set us. Not politely... But more... "I don't want you in here, but fine, sit down"

Not once did we get a welcome in, or even a cordial word. There was no "Do you have any questions?" or even "How are you two doing today" To put it mildly...it started out rude...and continued till the end. Let me elaborate.

My wife wanted hot pot...and instead of kindly telling her that that is normally a 2 person thing...he kind of told her NO. So she struggled to find a second choice, and was told that that was not available. Not a "I am so sorry, we don't have that today" just a "I don't have that" in a clipped and rude tone. So she just kind of picked something...which she unfortunately did not like. Again, he could have tried to help her, by asking anything like "What are you in the mood for? What do you like?" etc....instead he just stood there impatiently waiting to leave.

The server brought out her food 7 minutes before mine was brought out. That may not seem like a lot...but in dining minutes, that is a long time. When the food was brought...each time...it was not kindly sat in front of us...it was kind of "dropped" on the table. And off he went. He did refill my wife's water once...not mine.

During this time about 4 other tables were sat, and all of them seemed to have attentive, good service. Not us. Towards the end, we had waited a good ten minutes for him to come back to tell him we wanted to-go containers. He did just show up eventually with 2 boxes. Not once, during the 41 minutes we were there, did he ask how the food was, or if we needed anything. Wait...he DID ask if either of us wanted a fork...I said yes...and never got it....

When he did come back at the end...I did not get the bill, I had a credit card machine shoved at me, and was basically told I needed to tip before I tapped my card. Let me be clear...I never saw an actual bill. He did offer me a receipt AFTER I paid. But honestly, I have no idea what I paid for. Looking at my AMEX bill, I see I was charged 68.03 before the 20% tip (I tip higher for actual good service) And if I am doing the math, her dish was $21.99 And mine was $24.99.... 2 sides of rice at $2.00 each...which after tax would be $54.03. So was the can of coke my wife got $14? OR...did they already add a 20% tip...then expected another tip on top of that?

All in all...I wish the service would have been even adequate...It would have been our new go to spot for authentic Chinese food.

But...Between the confusing total bill, and the curt and rude service...no matter how good the food was. This is most likely a one and done for us.

I can only recommend getting your food to go if you want to try this place...and it WAS good food, but as the service is, or at least was for us...bad, I can not recommend going there for a...

It was my Grandmother's birthday today and we never visited this establishment before today. I have to say, the service was very professional and our waiter was kind. The inside was so clean, almost as if the inside was freshly renovated. The wooden floors match the furniture very well and we loved the idea of putting glass over the table cloth (very neat and clean). Music choice was soothing and made my Grandma feel like she wanted to shimmy and dance (meaning she liked it).

The portion size(s) of the food were definitely fit for a family of 3-6, I think. But no complaints here! We ordered the glass noodle hot pot with flower buns and while my Grandmother found the texture of the rice noodles to feel obscure, she did enjoy the savory flavor of the meat and broth mixed with white rice. Personally, I loved every part of the dish (as someone who has grown to like Asian cuisine and using ingredients in home-style cooking). That meat was so tender, it came right off of the bone and blending in well with its broth. I enjoyed every single bite I could (until we got stuffed). And the waiter was kind enough to let us know it would be a fair wait time before we received our food. We were appreciative towards his actions as we aren't used to eating out often; let alone being treated kindly by staff.

Our appetizer was what I believe to be chicken and leek dumplings. They were fried to perfection with a light and crisp exterior. While eating, I felt as if I were biting into fried chicken. And with the spicy chili sauce, it was even better (still good without the sauce too).

The tip rules were explained in the menu they hand you. Which I find to be reasonable for groups of people. And opening the menu with information about the restaurant was so nice. It felt like we were being welcomed into someone's home.

Their water tasted as if it had been filtered and they provided both silverware and chopsticks so we did not need to ask for either.

Parking in very friendly; however, I recommend for bigger trucks and cars to park in the back as some of the front spots are very close to the driveway. The driveway does lead out to a somewhat busy road. Just a tip if you have a larger vehicle.

I will return to this restaurant for sure, but probably would not eat alone here. The portion sizes are very large, I would say this is a very nice place to eat with family and friends.

9/10 - Highly recommend ~ The front area did look somewhat cluttered with teas and knickknacks.

As to our server, we thank you for your kindness and my Grandmother enjoyed your service. We will be...

Just go there today. Very disappointed. It is the worst resturant that i ever visited. I ordered through phone and want to have online order and dine in because we will arrive at 8pm and it will close at 9pm. So we phone them at 7 20pm. The chef asked us to pay first and promised to start to cook and food will be ready. To ensure he can finish on time he refused several options and change one of the order of sweet and sour meat to crispy meat 锅包肉, so the total increased from 80 to 133. We do not want to risk delay so we accept all even he claim that he do not know how to cook chinese fried rice but can only cook fired rice with meat or egg. Anyway we paid upfront and tell him that we will arrive at 8pm. So after we arrived at 8pm which is Exactly what we said there is no food and only two other groups of people there. we waited for 20 minutes to see the fried rice and the 45 dollar crispy meat. Then he refuaed to offer rice and it will cost another 2 dollars. After both groups left and another 20 minutes he finally present us the rest two dishes which he claim very soon but end up cost one hour and forty minutes. what make it even worse is he treat us as if we owned him 500 bucks and he refuse to offer chair and spoons to us. for five people we end up with only three pairs of chopstic. I think even not 133 dollars but just 13.3 and i can get much better experience on any other place. again，it is the worst Place that I ever go. I feel bad that I cannot give zero star. No body deserves that kind...