Golden Chef

Not much to look at from the outside. Inside is clean and updated, but only 3 small tables for dine in. I got the Mongolian beef lunch special. You get a choice of entrée, white or fried rice, egg roll, soup, or can of soda for $ 5.50. Portion was large enough for me to make 3 meals out of it. Mongolian beef was spicy with a good flavor. Fried rice was good, but not great. Overall a good value for the money. Service was good. Not overly fast, but good was cooked to order and hot when I got it.

Great neighborhood Chinese joint! Fast, tasty, and consistent with good-​sized portions and good prices. They’re very good at what they do. Great egg rolls, dumplings, Crab Rangoon, Singapore Mei Fun, and create-​your-​own stir fry choices! Great addition to the neighborhood!

Ordered the Cashew Chicken Combination dinner w Shrimp Fried Rice (my choice and I willingly paid extra) and a vegetable Egg Roll. I really liked the egg roll which appeared to be made exclusively w cabbage. A small napkin is included w the hot egg roll, so you do not burn your fingers which was a nice touch. The vegetables and broth, in the entrée, were good w plenty of cashews; but, the «sliced chicken breast» was not edible. The «chicken» was thin w a fatty substance on some of the pieces and rubbery when chewed. I removed the «chicken» and discarded it. The Shrimp Fried rice was small grained, very dark brown in color and had an odd taste. The shrimp was not evenly distributed throughout the dish but instead pieces of shrimp were placed on top of the rice. I will continue to drive to Keystone at the Crossing for my Asian food.

Great hot and sour soup! My favorite around the northeast side of Indy. Nice dining area with flat panel menus and a tv,

This is pretty much an average Chinese restaurant with a little more variety. **I had to edit my review after trying other places and this is the best chinese food I’ve tired so far. Adding another star. Aside from the food, everyone is very nice and they are very quick with the orders.

It’s great to have Asian food in the neighborhood since the closing of Happy Garden a few years ago. The portions are very generous and tasty, the price point is great, the side of sweet and sour sauce with every order is a nice touch, and the staff is friendly. I’ve tried Mongolian Beef, General Tso’s Chicken, Szechuan Beef and pork lo mein; none have disappointed.

Golden Chef has been open just under a month in a small strip center just south of 56^th & Emerson Avenue on Indy’s Northeastside. As has already been noted, they offer a notch above your usual Chinese meals and are definitely not just a standard option. The building it’s housed in includes Dollar General, Papa John’s and the Peace of Mind Pub & Eatery. They’ve done a solid job of sprucing up their space with relatively light Asian touches and 3 four-​top tables. They are clearly designed to be a take-​out restaurant.
In addition to lunch specials ($ 5.50), they offer dinner combos and signature meals along with a create-​your-​own stir fry option. I will admit that I didn’t see the dinner combos until after the fact — I went with a signature combo of sweet & sour chicken for $ 8.35 that comes with either fried or white rice. Additionally, they only serve drinks from either a can/​bottle. As a bit of a plus, they do offer iced tea but it’s over-​priced at $ 1.88.
The strip center in which Golden Chef is located does have a couple of curb cuts along with accessible parking, though it’s not quite ADA compliant. The door is relatively workable (pull, not push).
The good news is that serving sizes are abundant here. While the prices are a tad high, you get quite a bit for the cash and should have no problem squeezing a couple of meals out of one order.
The truth is that Golden Chef really wasn’t created for a guy like me. I chose to eat in, though everything still came in the usual containers. It was also such an abundant amount of food that one small bottle of iced tea left me thirsty — that tends to leave one unhappy.
The service was friendly, but I kept thinking that the nearby JS Garden is more affordable, just as good, and offers far better service. The rice? I chose fried rice that just lacked any distinct flavor and was far too moist for my liking. The chicken was good, but a few of the pieces were rather tough/​crispy. The sweet and sour sauce was a nice addition but, once again, it just didn’t offer me anything that I couldn’t find somewhere else for a better price.
I wanted to love Golden Chef, but I tend to want my dining experiences to be higher on customer service and ambience. If I’m in the mood for Chinese and not wanting to go far, Golden Chef will do but it definitely won’t replace my favorites. The entire bill came in at right around $ 11 — no tip required since nothing resembling service was involved.

It’s nice to see new restaurants opening in the neighborhood. So when I saw a sign that read: Golden Chef– Coming Soon, I was excited. Mostly I love Chinese Food and I really miss a particular restaurant (the name escapes me at this moment Happy Garden… no, that’s not it… they used to be located next to Omalia’s on Emerson Ave). At any rate, I was excited. Today I decided to pop in and give them a try. Golden Dragon is visible from Emerson Ave near 56^th St. It’s located in plaza along with Garrett’s, Papa John’s, and more.
When I first arrived, I noticed the small seating area which is indicative of restaurants in that plaza. Yet it was very clean and bright. I made a mental note to dine in on another day.
The menu items are featured on a screen hanging above the check out counter. It’s fairly easy to read and also provides brief descriptions for their stir fry dishes.
The menu consists of your typical Chinese restaurant selection: egg rolls, general tso chicken, fried rice, etc. They also have lunch specials which I skipped for some reason and settled on the stir fry section. This caught my eye because I don’t recall seeing a Choose Your Own Stir Fry menu in similar establishments. This time around, I decided to select a traditional stir fry meal and opted for the Garlic version with Chicken. This dish had a hot pepper next to it (which I didn’t pay pay attention to when I ordered it) so i was alittle unsure if I’d be able to handle it). I didn’t have to wait long to receive my purchase and soon was off to sample what I hoped would be a delectable lunch. I opened the container to find bits of chicken surrounded by broccoli, bell pepper, carrots, water chestnuts, celery and visible red pepper flakes swimming in a sauce with a red tint. Uh oh. I thought but at least it looked good.
To my relief, the dish wasn’t really spicy at all so if you’re a heatseeker, you may want to skip this one. I am not a spicy food fan so I wasn’t too bummed about this.
I had a 2^nd helping… you know to really assess the overall flavor and realized something. I think Golden Chef is going to be your typical Chinese Restaurant. Somewhere deep inside, I was hoping this meal would present a Wow factor but it didn’t.
Don’t get me wrong, the food is not bad at all and I will probably go back to try something else. I just wasn’t blown away by it. The restaurant (whose name still escapes me lol) has retained its place at the top of my Chinese Food list.
If you go, let me know what you think.

Opened May 25, 2015. NOT your standard Chinese walk-​up. NOT the standard red/​green menu. Recipes are Hong Kong/​Southern China in addition to the normal Americanized Chinese standards.
Newly remodeled space, everything is shiny and new. Very clean.
My dinner meal had huge portions, so it was a great bargain.
They also have a create-​your-​own stir fry option. j
Dine in (3 tables for 4) or carry out.