Chef 28

The average rating for this site is right: it just isn’t good. I feel bad writing this, too, because the service is extremely good and friendly. But friendliness does not affect how your tongue interprets taste.
We ordered pork dumplings, bento box, deluxe sashimi, and a nabeyaki udon. The suimai in the bento box was clearly out of a microwave pack (easily recognizeable to anybody who’s shopped in an AZN market). Google image «suimai,» and what you’ll find looks like nothing of what we ate her. Sashimi was by far the most disappointing. It tasted bland and thawed, really B-​grade. Usually I can’t get enough of sashimi. Here, I felt I was forcing it down to get full value for what I was paying. Pork dumplings were the best, but come on. There are a million places I can go for that.
Another minor thing — but perhaps not so much in the Age of the iPhone — there’s no reception in the back of the place and no wifi!
I hope the management does a sweeping self-​examination and improves the quality across-​the-​board. I felt I was eating glorified fast food or something.

Ordered from seamless, the order never came! I called the restaurant at least 5 times every time they would say that «the food would be there soon, in less than 5 mins». 2 hours pass by and nothing!!! Had to call seamless directly to get my money back. AVOID THIS PLACE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE. ITS NYC! THERES ALREADY ENOUGH COMPETITION FOR YOUR INCOMPETENCE.

the food was meh. fast delivery, my brown rice was still hard and under cooked. the beef and broccoli was okay. i won’t order again.

Delicious sushi and Chinese lunch options. Fast service high quality flavorful food at reasonable prices especially for lunch.

I’ll bump my rating up to 3 stars. I’ve gone back for lunch a few times (this literally is the only Chinese restaurant within reasonable distance of my office) and haven’t encountered any ordering problems since that one time. It is prudent to order over the phone though just to be safe.

Ordered a dish without pork.
Got it delivered with pork.
Asked for redelivery and a credit for the dish as they made a mistake.
I was told they’d redeliver but would not give me any sort of credit for their error as a good faith gesture.
Even told them I’d return the original dish, untouched, so they could see I was not trying to get one over on them.
I’ve been a long standing customer but they did not care– per Albert the manager, «We don’t care if you don’t order from us again and don’t care if you are a long term customer. «
Slam! Yup, slammed the phone down on me.
Awesome!
Did complain to the delivery service & will let George the owner know.
Wonder if he will care!
Albert, if you don’t know how to treat any customer, let alone a long time one, don’t work in the hospitality business.
Pathetic.
Update: —
Spoke to the owner, George…
He said «M’aam, we don’t need you as a customer. We have enough.»
There you go! That’s where it all begins.
There are only tons of other Chinese restaurants in the area… wonder who really needs Who more?!

Terrible experience! The food was uneatable and when I tried to return it they gave me a hard time plus charged me for this crap anyway. Please be AWARE and I RECOMMEND YOU AVOID THIS RESTAURANT. There are SO many places in NYC where you can get better Chinese food. This was my first and last time I ate over there.
AWFULL TASTing FOOD AND THE WORSE CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!

Upon hopping on to Unilocal and being reminded to review this place I immediately rated it 2 Unilocal stars and was reminded that 2 stars stands for «Meh, I’ve experienced better»…there are no better words to really sum this place up.
Came here for lunch take-​out with a coworker yesterday because I had a hankering for Egg drop won ton soup and a scallion pancake. There isn’t a neighborhood, take-​out Chinese place in the area that seems like quality, so we hoped this Chef 28 restaurant would be at the very least, decent.
My small Egg drop won ton soup and scallion pancake came out to $ 9.25. Normally this soup is like $ 3 and a scallion pancake is like $ 2 or $ 3 at the most making this order worth $ 5 – 6 at most. These two items together were even more expensive than their lunch specials which come out to $ 8 – 9 and include significantly more food… and bang for your buck.
Even in ordering it was kind of rude when a man looked at me holding a pen as if he were going to write down my order and when I was done telling him what I wanted he picked up his cell phone which rang after I ordered, said something about being busy and then looked back at me asking me to repeat my order. It was only 2 things, his personal cell phone probably could have waited. Rude.
My soup was rather bland and only came with about 3 won ton things. Considering that it was pricier than your average simple wonton/​egg drop soup I was at least expecting a more filling order. The won ton crunchy things that were included were a generous portion and probably meant to be that filling agent in the soup… for me I would have preferred no crunchy things and a more robust amount of pork won tons.
The scallion pancake order was 2 small pancakes. They were super greasy and the flavor was simply okay, nothing extraordinary… which I wasn’t expecting, but again, when something is pricer than the norm one expects it to also be better than normal. That certainly wasn’t the case here.
They also gave me only 1 napkin (1 NAPKIN!!!) and a broken fork. Thank goodness for cutlery being available at my work kitchen or I would have had to go all medieval times on my meal. Not cool… especially when you’re bringing lunch back to the office and paying more for it. I’m not even sure why I’m giving them 2 stars instead of 1… oh yeah, I ate it and both items together did satiate me. I also used the remaining egg drop broth as a dipping sauce for my scallion pancake pieces… that was nice. 2 stars nice.
Next time I’m craving Chinese food (or Japanese since Chef 28 also had a Japanese/​sushi menu as well) at work, I will be sure to go elsewhere.

Since this restaurant is near my office I ordered lunch for pick-​up through Grub Hub.
It’s been about 2 years since I’ve been to Chef 28, but this spot seems to be pretty consistent when it comes to their food and service. Once I arrived my food was ready to go and the guy in the front simply asked for my name. Before I left with my order I asked for extra duck sauce, which he immediately grabbed and put into my bag.
When I got back to the office the chicken & broccoli were still warm and tasty along with my side of brown rice.
No complaints here!

Very poor customer service and rude manager
They sent me the wrong order and when I asked them to replace it he said he won’t.
Never ordering here again

Just ordered here… they called me prior to delivering… saying the Wonton/​Egg drop mix I want will be .50 more. Please give delivery guy the .50 when he comes! WOW!
Food was horrible, no taste. Pork fried rice, chicken w/​cashews.
Only good thing is the noodles, for the soup.
Never again.
Tasteless.

I have been here several times at off times and only have eaten the sushi. It’s fresh and hits the spot. Not the most amazing sushi in the world but its definitely good and I will come back.

I been here a couple of times for their lunch special. The lunch special is a nice solid option of an entrée with soup, egg roll or a beverage for around $ 10. The portions are a bit smaller than other places nearby but the food is pretty decent. The staff on the other hand, a couple of times I went here I had good service and heck, I would even settle for mediocre service but being racially profiled and receiving bad service go @#$%# yourself.
They made us wait at least 20 minutes for a seat when people after us came in and got a seat. And it’s not because my friend and I were a big group or that the people who came after us were a big group either. We were the same size. We got annoyed when one person came in after us and got a table for four for just for her. They finally gave us seats after we complained but we were right in front of the kitchen and next to the stand where they dumped the food and dirty dishes, like we want to see that when we eat. We then asked for another seat but we got the bar which was hard to eat given the gap between the stool and the table and there were tables for two around us that were empty. Finally, we just got up and sat in one of the tables. Our waiter finally came around and was very uninterested in taking our order and didn’t even come back around once to see if we were okay. We asked several times for a plate and eating utensils. It took at least 4 times before they remembered to come back over with them.
As soon as the bill came, I put my credit card down and my coworker was getting hers when our waiter came and snatched out my hand my card and the bill. If I had not just eaten, words would have definitely been exchange. and not the polite kind either.
While the food is mediocre, I don’t feel like patronizing a business that are rude and unfriendly as not only were the waiters like that but so was the manager.

Explicitly ordered a lunch time special and was charged as if ordering a la cart. It took over 20 minutes to resolve the mix up after explaining what had happened and requesting that I be charged the correct amount.
They insisted it was my fault because the «octopus was not included in that lunch special.» Yet, when I ordered the lunch special, the waiter at no time made it known that by choosing octopus I was nullifying the «special» part.
Your waiters need to speak up and let your customers know what IS and ISN’T included in the options on your menu BEFORE the bill comes.
I will not be coming back here since I can no longer trust your waiters or menu.

I love Chef 28. Not mind-​blowing, but always fresh and tasty enough to hit the spot. The lunch and dinner specials give you a real solid amount of food for a great price. This is a go-​to for me when I need something quick, cheap, and satisfying. Feels surprisingly healthy for Chinese, too, which I love.

By far one of the worst places for Chinese food. I have an iron stomach (never had food poisoning in my life), so the fact that I had a bad stomach ache after this is a sign.
General Tsao chicken was SWIMMING in grease, and the chicken was very poor quality. Greasy and soggy. It wasn’t crispy. Dumplings tasted old and like they weren’t cooked all the way. I don’t even know where these dumplings came from but they were just… not good. Especially the veggie and chicken ones. The pork ones were palatable. The fortune cookie was flat out STALE.
The only decent items were the brown rice and plain salad. Hard to mess those up?
Will say that the dinner deal is a good deal though– for around $ 11 plus tax you get an entrée, rice, soup, and a salad.
Maybe it was just an off night?

I got pick-​up from this restaurant, as it’s near my office.
The guy in the front was a bit pushy. I couldn’t immediately understand him, but he was asking me for my name, as he was sorting through all the take-​out orders. It didn’t leave me with a good impression, though.
Luckily, once I got home, the food definitely satisfied. Something as simple as chicken and cashew was done pretty well. They do not skimp on quantities.
Definitely pricey, but it’s on par with other places in this area.
I would order again or even get a meal here again.

I ate here at 4 p. m today, I have food poisoning… so thanks for that.
I had to ask for the air conditioning to be turned on, it was about 95 in there, the employees are sitting around fanning themselves, or asleep. yes asleep at the tables.
these things alone, upon walking in… I usually would have left, but I was right by work and had little time… so I decided to give the sushi a chance.
Wish I hadn’t. I knew by the first bite it was to warm, and kind of squishy… also it’s flavorless… if I took a bite not knowing what it was, I could have never told you it was salmon. strange. I ate it bc I was hungry… then I ordered a yellow tail scallion roll, i figured, you cant mess that up, and it was only 4 $… well I ate one bite, knew it wasn’t good, ate one more bite… and was like NO. No more. It was TERRIBLE. and hot, and mushy… not even sticking together… i knew i’d be sick later, and I was right.
The only good thing, the bartender was really sweet.
But based on the fact I have food poisoning, Im gonna have to stick with 1 star and tell you not to eat here.

In my ever expanding quest to munch on the tastiest boxes in NYC I decided to check out a new box. There are so many varieties and different types of boxes out there in NYC! I must munch on them all!
Checked out Chef 28 today, as this restaurant is close to my office. They serve both Japanese and Chinese cuisine. Between both menus there is a lot to choose from. I looked over the lunch specials and saw that it is available until 3:30 so I went with their bento box. Salman teriyaki, California roll, fried veggie dumplings, brown rice. Also came with miso soup and a salad first. To me it was decent, and the salmon was cooked perfectly, if a little more on the healthy prep side. This I like as one can do without all the extra oils and salt added to food nowadays. The dumplings had a nice taste to them too.
Lunch specials here run in the $ 8 — $ 10 range. Maybe a little pricier then other similar places a few blocks over, but not by much. You do get a lot of food overall with the lunch deal. Not bad, not bad at all.
When you walk in you have to step down. Décor is dark and has some cool architecture to it. A long bar runs down one side and the sushi bar follows it. Not a lot of tables and chairs though in this place. Might be a tight squeeze for larger groups
Big flat screen above bar. Older Asian gentleman who works there was watching «Eraser» with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Had to hang out for a few minutes and watch with him. Get to Da Choppa!

Can you say SPARE ribs. I haven’t been here since they renovated a few years ago– though I wouldn’t call it cheap even at lunch.
Lunch specials run under $ 10, but by not much.
I went with the spare ribs, wonton soup and fried rice for $ 9 and added on a spring roll.
The «Chef» serves those big greasy fried wontons that I love. Oh yeah they have Japanese food too as many Chinese restaurants do in Manhattan though I went with the original cuisine of the «Chef»
Soup was good with big wontons.
RiBs were hog heaven– Meaty, sweet, carmelized– pretty freakin’ great actually.
Fried rice had egg and peas so I could do without that, but those ribs will bring me back for a repeat meal from the «Chef» on 28^th.