Little Chef Chinese Take-Out

I’ve been going to Little Chef for over a year now and I love their food. The orange chicken actually tastes like oranges. I love the egg rolls, won tons and recently the hot n sour soup. Quality is on par with everything else. I LOVE the Chow Mein because you can order it plain or veggies (and meat) which is almost impossible with other places.
The only reason why I do not go as often is because Ocean Beach in general has become dangerous, shady and very unsettling.

Great bang for the buck. Solid portions and yummy food. ALWAYS call ahead your order. If you order at the counter, you will likely be waiting around 20 minutes or so.

It’s tough to find Chinese in San Diego, but these guys meet the grade for convenience, quality and affordability. Delivering just about all the basics and few specials that meet my occasional craving for good olé Chinese Cuisine.

The daily specials are quite good under $ 10 a good deal considering the tasty huge portions. Mary Ann is delightful always friendly and great service. Folks complain about cash only well news flash folks most Asian restaurants prefer cash. So bring some! Anyways I love the kung pao triple, lobster sauce shrimp, and black pepper chicken! Always yummy. It is a true hole in the wall place so don’t expect a 5 star spa experience. The one idiot from out of town whom I actually met and was nice to everyone actually does not like Chinese food and then wrote bad reviews of the place to spite the owner for no reason. The only decent Chinese place in town.

My dentist, Rod Mellor — great! is around the corner on Cable, so when I’m there, I frequently visit Little Chef. Cash only and just enough room to eat in. Many come for take-​out, I eat in to enjoy the locals converse with the super nice lady behind the counter. Ordered Kung Pao tofu, fried, with bamboo shoots specially ordered — no extra charge! Very large serving with steamed rice, very hot, very fresh, very flavorful and very good! $ 7.51 total and great condiments available. Rating is for food, service, unique environment.

The hot and sour soup is the best that I have had west of the Mississippi. I have been struggling with a sinus cold and needed some hot and sour soup and hot mustard to clear the sinuses. This place was on point. I ordered 2 egg rolls and an order of soup. I was happily surprised by the amount of soup I was given. The egg rolls were crisp and tasty but not the best I have had. The soup on the other hand was freshly made and had great taste (which is really saying something due to the fact that I had severe nasal congestion).
I have lived in San Diego for 2 years and had not found a great Chinese takeout restaurant. I think this place is the one. I will try an entrée in the future and update as needed.

Such a great place to get a huge, hot tasty dinner or lunch at a very reasonable price. There is great consistancy here of quality and quantity. Daily specials are a bonus. The dumplings are a favorite, and we always get them. The Little Chef Fried Rice has Shrimp, pork and chicken, delish! Soups are also wonderful and very fresh. All dishes are made to order. Don’t miss this little gem!

Hello tourist & Ocean Beach locals* I have been eating at Little Chef for over 20 + years now* I absolutely love the food and fast service, I’ve tried 90% of everything that’s on the menu & I especially enjoy the daily specials* very reasonable prices for the large portions. I used to live downtown San Diego and currently live in Carlsbad* but I still make the drive down to eat at Little Chef it’s that good and there’s plenty of 2# hour free parking for a downtown beach community. So I recommend you check it out for the Chinese food lover in you From Troy J.

Call the place early to see what they have on sale that day. Yes, they have a special every day. You can get lucky and maybe even have your favorite dish on sale that day. Plus, there’s so. Much. Food.
Recap:
— great Chinese food
— deals every day
— enough food for 2 meals
— cheap
— friendly and quick (why? You can call for take out, duh.)

this place is not state of the art. This place is not going to cater to you and does not have the fanciest signs or equipment.
Food is 2^nd to none.
fresh, white chicken, clean, you have to try to soups, they are the BEST and so clean and fresh. I personally like the salt/​pepper dusted shrimp. You get fried rice with a meal and almsot every meal is under $ 10
can’t go wrong and I LIVE IN OB!

Sunday night cuisine. Lazy, down the street kinda food.
Cream cheese wonton was very cheezy and maybe nothing else? I think I was hoping for green onions in there too like I’ve had other places.
Fried rice was good, veggies, egg, pretty standard. We actually got the shrimp fried rice, but I think next time I’d just go for just veggie. The shrimp reminded me too much of the ones that come pre-​cooked frozen. Not bad, just not worth the extra buck or 2?
I did prefer it over the veggie chow mein that was more noodle than veggies, by what seemed like A LOT.
Standout was the kung pao veggies. Would order this again, for sure. Probably with just veggie fried rice. I loved the water chestnuts in here. The sauce was just right spicy and the veggies were well cooked.
Each item could/​should feed two people, so we kinda went over kill. But left overs weren’t too bad.
The gal behind the counter was extremely friendly, helpful and I’m sorry we ordered so that we were picking up at closing. We didn’t do it on purpose!
The best part were the fortunes. Little Chef sources the most uplifting fortunes I’ve ever received.

Run, run as fast as you can away from this restaurant. I ordered General Tso — I don’t even know if what I got was chicken? It was fried to a crisp, hallow inside, with a veiny substance, topped with a slight drizzle of fishy red sauce. Un-​edible. Run.

WARNING***** Average Chinese unremarkable taste, NO Parking, I mean NONE and strike 3, ITS CASH ONLY! You can use the ATM right outside the door for an eye-​popping $ 1.75 service charge. NICE staff made excuses for it all, DONT GO!

Little Chef is a good place to go for cheap Chinese food. It’s set in an extremely small little spot that only seats around eight people. The food is cheap, and most of it is pretty decent. On the other hand, some items are not good at all. The beef they use in their beef dishes is kind of rubbery.
My favorite thing to get is the Hot and Sour Sour with Chicken and Shrimp. It costs around a dollar extra for the chicken and shrimp version, but it’s worth it. This has a traditional hot and sour soup taste and it’s filled with bamboo shoots and other veggies. Add chicken and shrimp and then you get a bunch of white meat chicken and a few medium sized shrimp. What’s cool about this dish is that it comes in two separate styrofoam soup containers, and each one is enough for one portion. That means you get two orders of tasty soup for under $ 7.50.
I also like the Sweet and Sour Chicken and the cream cheese wonton appetizer. This place only takes cash, so plan ahead.

I spent $ 25 on food that was inedible… Flippin’ disgusting! I ate one small plate because I was starving and threw the rest in the trash!

Ordered take-​out from home with a bunch of people, so I can comment on a few options. Ordering was fairly straightforward, and the food was ready on time. The portions, as mentioned below, are massive, and prices are decent.
I was mixed on the beef and broccoli — the broccoli was good, and the sauce was good, but there wasn’t enough of it. The texture of the beef was off — it seemed like they tossed it in a little too much cornstarch before cooking it, and the steamed rice was mildly underdone. So, meh. The dumplings we also ordered were pretty good, the seasame chicken was reported to be good. The house fried rice was also solid. Most things were serviceable, but with no other Chinese in OB, it will do.

There is this wonderful Chinese home style meal that one can find just around the corner of Cable Street and Newport Avenue, right here in Ocean Beach. What a great little place that one can always count on to have just the right flavor and texture to savor and delight the senses of your taste buds!
Every day they have a special and the price is just right. Take-​out or dine in Little Chinese Take Out is just that place that one can walk by and not even notice. Please, stop and if you like Chinese food STOP! It will be well worth your time! We OB’ens have found this little hole in the wall to be a delight. Shhhhh … Really keep it a secret and don’t let it get to their heads… Prices may go up… Hahagag … Enjoy!!!

Let me start by saying this is definitely not the best place to order Chinese food from — but it’s the only one in OB.
My favorites so far: dumplings & wontons. Hands down. Cheap & delicious.
I’ve tried a bunch of stuff off their menu, but I’m going to stick with sesame chicken from now on — I’m not a fan AT ALL of the steamed veggies that come with most meals here, but the sesame chicken has none! Just a massive portion of breaded chicken with rice on the side.
Not a fan of much else, but I’ve tried the Kung poa, it was kinda tasteless. But, granted it will feed you two or maybe three meals.
So 4 stars because of price & quantity. Oh, & because I just found the sesame chicken to be amazing.

I really enjoy Little Chef. It’s a good all around Chinese place and sometimes that is hard to come by! I usually get their sweet and sour chicken and my GF and I share that and cheesy won-​tons. OMG cheesy won-​tons for life please! I could eat these daily and I don’t even like cream cheese or anything creamy at all! But, these are to die for! I have to add quite a bit of hot chili paste to my S&S chicken but, usually after two or even three sides of that it’s the perfect blend of sweet and spicy! They always have a special on the board from their regular menu discounted. I have yet to try it but, if feeling adventuresome and short on cash I may someday! They can be busy and do close early! They take their last order around 8:30 so get there early if you want this food cuz it’s by far one of the earlier to close in OB.

After reading these good reviews my room mates and I decided to try it. And it was down right disgusting!
I’ve had microwaveable Chinese food better than this place. The orange chicken is tasteless and the fried rice has no vegetables or egg! My boyfriend was even convinced that his Mongolian beef was made from liver.
Next time I’d rather order Panda Express. I honestly have not had good this bad in years!