Chef Chen

Very good and reasonably priced food. Customer service has been good every time we’ve gone. Love their sweet and sour fish and their salted shrimp!

My husband and I stopped by to Chef Chen for the first time, after a day in LA.
Our waitress was very helpful and suggested a special for my husband and a mixed fry rice to share between us, while I had the mongolian beef.
We forund everything super good and fresh, the rice especially was very yummy! Unfortunately we were not very hungry so we couldn’t tey any appetitizers… but we will come back!

Service is great, but I hate the food. It’s not good at all… the water cups were dirty too. Eew. Will not come back.

Good service; can request the chef to cook food for your special diet such as low salt and less oil.

Ordered the Orange Chicken, Sesame Chicken, Szechuan Beef, and General Tao Chicken along with some coworkers. This wasn’t without extreme help from our waitress though — she recommended some and told us to stay away from others based on similar tastes, etc. Which was really cool, until it almost became overbearing. But I digress.
ORANGE CHICKEN — Coworkers enjoyed it, but I found it light on flavor. It did have actual orange peel, and full caveat that the Orange Chicken I’m used to is stuff like Panda Express. Definitely not as sweet, which is maybe why it was odd to me.
SESAME CHICKEN — Liked it. Slightly sweet, but not overwhelming. Good texture as well.
GENERAL TAO CHICKEN — Not a ton of flavor. A bit garlicky, which took me aback, since normally it’s sweeter.
SZECHUAN BEEF — I liked this. No complaints.
Overall, the meal was decent, but nothing really blew me away, which is why this is getting 3 stars. Plus, I was disappointed in 2 of the dishes. Might be back, but only if coworkers are pushing for it.

Not a fan. The food did not taste fresh and the portions were very small. Also, this shopping center looks post apocalyptic (seriously its so depressing).

Excellent food, great service, and the prices are reasonable. I often have the fish with black bean sauce, or even one of their hot pots. So far, every dish I’ve ordered has been delicious.

The service here SUCKED big time. The waiter and waitress are rude and obnoxious. Went in on the weekend with family and the female waitress with the glasses refused to let us sit at an empty table in the corner and insisted putting 4 of us with another family next to each other in the mid section. The empty table is suppose to have 4 seats, but they put a fifth seat in the walkway which the restaurant could have been cited for fire code violation. After some back and forth, she had this evil witch look and gave in. But at that point, we were too afraid she’ll spit in our food so we left.
We used to eat here a lot, twice a week in fact. This woman used to be quite friendly. I guess Chef Chen doesn’t care for return business that much so never again going back.

I accidentally ordered takeout from this place for lunch today thinking I was calling 101 Noodle, but I have no regrets. I had the beef rolls (6 slices) and the bean curd with pork lunch special, which came with white rice. The total was only $ 15! Crazy cheap. The beef rolls were good and comparable to 101 Noodle next door. The bean curd/​pork dish could’ve used more salt, but I was happy it wasn’t super oily.

I came here recently with my vegetarian parents and was slightly concerned if they were going to be able to eat anything here. However, one of the waitresses was super helpful and friendly and recommended several dishes that were veg friendly. She was also able to accommodate some dishes and make it without meat products. One of my favorite dishes was a claypot dish w/​eggplants, fried tofu, bok choy, mushroom and basil over a soy-​based sauce. It goes great with rice!
I’d recommend this place — everyone was super friendly and even checked in on you during the meal (not all Asian restaurants will do this and/​or have this type of service). We didn’t have to wait for seating. although, I can imagine a line during prime time lunch/​dinner hours. You can always take it to go instead!
P. S. I believe you need there’s a minimum $ 25 for credit card use.

2^nd time there shortly after 1^st time since we enjoyed the restaurant, service and food. We were eager to go back and enjoy the flavorful food. We have tried the following dishes and all were solid: shredded pork with Peking sauce and white buns, pork spareribs, Westlake beef soup, chicken corn soup, soup and regular dumplings, Chinese green veggies, etc. I haven’t had the beef roll yet but will try in future.
Part of our rotation now.

This place is right next to the 99 Ranch Market. The restaurant offers like a northern Chinese style type of food. When I walked in with my friend, we were seated immediately. Was offered complimentary tea, which was nice to have in a chilly morning/​noon.
The prices on the menus were inexpensive in my point since noodles were only about $ 7 – 8. When we were ready to other, we had to flag down the lady 2 times in order to get her to come help take our orders. We ordered 3 items: braised beef noodle, beef wrapped in onion pancake, and the Shanghai dumplings (xiao long bao)
+beef noodle– the broth was good but the noodle texture was kind of weird and the beef portion was small.
+beef wrapped in onion pancake– the roster beef was hard but the onion pancake was flavorful along with the vegetables inside it.
+Shang Hai dumplings– the dumpling was ripped when it was served which means the juice for half of them was gone. The skin was hard too, chewy.
Overall, it’s a good place/​good prices to have an OK lunch here!

Chef Chen, in the plaza in Jeffrey and Walnut with 99 Ranch. Next to S&W and 101 Noodle Express.
Met fellow Unilocaler and Zot Zot Zot-​er here at Chef Chen. They spoke Mandarin, but some could understand Canto and to an extent, English here. The place is pretty small, with 10 or so tables surrounding it. They have a variety of foods that they make, but they serve mostly Northern Chinese food [potstickers and such], rather than Taiwanese.
Ate these:
Spicy beef noodle soup: It was decent. The beef was alright, while the noodles were Northern-​style noodles (kinda thick but not like Japanese udon thick). It had enough taste in it and could go down but nothing special.
XLB (soup dumplings): no. The bottoms burst open and they spilled out the flavorful soup that goes in the XLB. I wish that they had stayed in, but compared to Din Tai Fung, it’s not anything special. 2 stars.
Pork inside Scallion– Hehe there was one that was huge and had really good sauce. They have the pork that’s nothing too too special, but added with the sauce that’s stuffed in there, it’s perfect. Then you have the cilantro which gives it a refreshing taste: D I love this a lot actually hehe: D
They also have lunch specials if you are interested (:

How do you do 3 ½ starts?
Well, the stir-​fried rice noodles hit the spot; Shanghai style meatballs come with gravy that goes real well with the rice. However, first meatball tasted a bit sour, second one was perfect; tender and fresh tasting. Third meat ball is going home with me.

I tried the rolled chicken sandwich. It was great! The only thing about is that the oils, cilantro, and scallions was overloaded.
The General Taos Chicken was a bit greasy and it was alright.

+ Good food selection
+ Fast service
— Terribly dirty bathrooms
— Limited seating
— Food was just okay, nothing great
I wanted to like this place, I really did. It is close to my home and seems to be popular. Unfortunately the seating is very limited on weekends. I came here twice and my experience was similar both times.
The food was okay, typical of an average Asian restaurant, but the volume of the place coupled with the close quarters due to limited seating turned me off. Having to use the terribly disgusting bathroom probably sealed the 2 star deal for me. I did see them storing a dining table in the mens’ bathroom. Hopefully they clean it off prior to putting it out, but somehow I doubt it. Toss a table cloth on it to cover it and you’re good to go, right?

Combination soup
and the Shanghai Braised Meatball
makes a meal for three
Even though S.W. has the variety and Chong Qing has the spice, I always prefer going to Chef Chen’s for one reason, and one reason only: the combination clay pot soups. Specifically, the Combination Clay Pot for $ 13.99. This guy is SIZABLE, filling maybe 10 bowls with tentacle, fish, chicken, beef, cabbage, imitation crab, and more all in a tasty broth made from the bones of ALL DEM ANIMALS and little crispy bits sprinkled on top for good measure. About halfway through the bowl, I always run out of the watery part of the soup since it’s so darned tasty, so I always ask the waitress to bring me more broth. It also reheats the soup since it takes a while to eat through to halfway.
They also have some other classics that are tasty and never disappoint. Their Shanghai Style Braised Meat Ball for $ 7.99 (also commonly known as lion’s head) is super-​juicy and is fantastic on rice, especially when you pour the sauce on the rice. It comes with 3 large balls, about 3 inches in diameter, which fill ya up pretty quick. It’s also one of the few places you can get a Taiwanese beef roll late at night. Best to eat those FRESH since they sog up when they get cold, and who wants to eat a cold onion pancake anyways? Imagine a thin, fried scallion pancake with one side smothered in Hoisen sauce, topped with small slices of beef and cilantro, all rolled up into an open-​ended burrito and sliced to share. Super-​super tasty.
I have to admit, most of their other dishes are rather plain by comparison. Just stick to their Taiwanese or Shanghainese dishes. Their mapo tofu isn’t spicy, their broccoli beef is oily, and their green beans are pretty tasteless. Essentially just stick to the dishes that they’ve bothered to take photos of… it’s much safer that way. I really wish they’d just eliminate half of their menu.
Service here is really good. But you DO need to look up and actually make eye contact with a waitress to get her to come to your table. They don’t periodically bother you like other restaurants. Thankfully, the waitresses here look around and make eye contact often.

Came back several times recently and was pleasantly surprised by how much things have changed from my last review in 2008. I didn’t recall it having given them 2 stars on my review, but anyway, it’s now 2015 and things are looking up.
The dishes which definitely stand out include:
Beef Roll — not greasy and not overwhelmed by the hoisin sauce
Xiao Long Bao — decent enough
Shanghai rice cakes — really good and ratio of meat/​veg to the rice cakes is very good
Other good items are the dried tofu with shredded pork, the whole fried fish in sweet and sour sauce and also the loofah with edamame and tofu sheet. I especially like the tofu and eggplant pot.
Service was pretty good too which surprised me, but of course I never visit when they are super busy. I like going during off-​hours.

Randomly found this restaurant on Unilocal and decided to pick up some to-​go orders since I was in the area. Ordered:
(1) Cumin lamb — stir fried lamb w/​cumin, tossed with onions and peppers
(2) Beef roll — typical beef stuffed in a pancake roll; fresh and not too greasy
Overall, the food was good. There was no one there when I came to pick up the order around 4:30 pm, probably too early for the dinner crowd!

We came and had three $ 6 lunch specials. They varied in taste from «more-​ish» to «where is the flavor?» The #24 shredded pork with tofu is recommended. The shrimp with tofu is bland flavor braised with more blandness. The vegetable with shiitake mushroom was also pretty flavorless. Could do better. If you want to DIY try chili sauce.
The add-​on order of beef pastry rolls were sweet in taste which is not to our liking. We’ve had better elsewhere.
Service level quickly sinks to disinterest. All in all, not our favorite place. On a positive note their Christmas music is a good selection of cover songs.