Chinese Chef

I was craving a variety of Chinese specialities and this place delivered. We went for lunch and everything on the buffet was fresh. I had delicious Chinese donuts, crab Rangoons, egg rolls and of course two different kinds of rice with chicken and your choice sauce. For two adult buffet meals with water to drink was $ 18.59.
Staff was very attentive in clearing dirty plates.

We’re always happy with the Cashew Chicken… and I love their potstickers. Good food, good price.

Every time we stop in it is amazing. Great food. Great service. We usually get the meal which includes rice, or you can substitute noodles, with crab Rangoon and egg roll. If you eat inside you can also enjoy the salad bar and egg drop soup! The soup is Almost a mix of chicken noodle and egg drop. SUPER AMAZING! Oh and the crab Rangoon is the best I’ve ever had. It’s super fluffy inside with warm sweet and sour sauce so good. We’ve always gotten the general tso with the veggies. It’s great! We go here often because you’ll crave all of their food. Oh and you can pay a little more and get white meat! Chinese food + white meat=happy belly. Love this place. Now I’m drooling. Never write a review when you’re hungry! Lol

Love the food! Especially the general chicken! Clean, fast and friendly atmosphere! Always recommend!

Not impressed. Not what I was expecting. Felt like I was walking into a burger King (an oriental version anyway). I ordered the egg Foo young my wife had the sesame chicken. Neither one of us were impressed. Had better.

Inexpensive and good. Very similar to other Chinese restaurants in Springfield, but they do give you one eggroll and one crab rangoon.

Stopped in on a Wednesday at lunch time. Clean dining area and bathroom, wonderful simple Buffett, we did not order from menu. This is a no frills clean place to eat simple Chinese dishes.

This place is absolutely amazing. You will not be disappointed by anything you choose off the menu I guarantee it. I love this place.

Fresh spicy cashew chicken was great. Egg drop soup needs more flavor

The food here is top notch! And the price isn’t ridiculous! I got chinese at a restaurant at sunshine and Kansas expressway a month ago that was more expensive, and less food, oh and the food wasn’t as good! Chinese Chef is really top of the line in Springfield!

This little Chinese restaurant just happen to be one that I stopped by on my way home one day and from then on I fell in LOVE. Now my husband, mom, and other family members have been there and love it too. It’s probably one of the best Chinese restaurants in Springfield. I’ve never been disappointed with anything that I’ve ordered. Their flavor as well as quality of food is awesome. The cashew chicken is your normal Springfield style which is good, the hot and spicy chicken is definitely hot and spicy for me, sweet and sour is yummy, kung pao chicken is very good if you want something that is not fried, and the crab rangoon is delicious! The price is really good for the amount of food you get and the quality. This is definitely somewhere I would recommend to anyone coming to Springfield looking for some good Chinese food. My husband and I go here as often as we can.

Enjoyed my meal here. I had beef broccoli. Tasted really good :) the place is really clean as well.

In my opinion this is the best cashew chicken in springfield! Love this place and it’s not a bad price either!

Everyone’s got their opinion on which Chinese restaurant is the BEST Chinese restaurant in Springfield. From to China Star to China King to Dragon Inn II to Triple 8’s to Creasian to Hong Kong Inn to the Rickshaw to Shanghai Inn to Peking House to… Okay, I digress, but this one gets my vote.
The thing about Springfield is that people will defend their favorite Chinese place to the death, but the reasons I like Chinese Chef are simple: it’s fast, it’s clean, it’s cheap, it’s got quality white meat chicken, and I firmly believe (like everyone else does for their respective place) its cashew chicken is the best. Sometimes I order it with the sauce on the side just so I can enjoy the fried chicken by itself.
I can also attest to the shrimp fried rice being good, the egg drop soup being great, and the egg rolls being the best I’ve had for such a seemingly obligatory side. They offer up a pretty tasty lunch buffet as well.
The service is hit or miss. It is what it is — I think at this particular restaurant, there’s a bit of a communication gap, but generally I’ve found everyone taking my order to be at least efficient if not friendly.
One reviewer made a really good point that no chinese restaurant in Springfield is deserving of five stars, and I’m going to stand behind that because it’s pretty much true. There’s something slightly and irrevocably mediocre about almost all Chinese dives around here, and we as Springfieldians love them the way we’d love a pet dog suffering from a little bit of mange or a cousin with no life ambition. For me, Chinese Chef is that cousin.

When I pass through Springfield, I have to stop for Cashew Chicken. This place fits the bill of great Cashew Chicken, cheap, with a dive like experience. I’ve eaten here twice and I have never been disappointed with the food yet.

Food is ok. It was fast. Cheap and clean.

Had a deal, so I went to check it out. Place was dead, was about 15 minutes before the Superbowl started.
Small menu. Very neat and clean — sparkled almost. Cashier was very nice. No take out menus available. My order was totally messed up…
Menu didn’t have everything w/​the same price on it in different sections. Charged a dime for fortune cookie — didn’t get one, though, and I didn’t see it on the receipt, I did see her ring it up.
I had:
Hot N sour soup: very, very good taste, but very thick, would have been the best I’d had around here if it was a more normal consistency. I could have set some on the spoon and flung it at the wall, and it would have stayed a glob and slid down the wall intact. Crispy noodles good. Note the price on this is a bit higher than most places.
Egg Roll: Tasty. OK.
Pot Stickers: Good, not overly greasy.
Kung Pao Chicken: Uh… cooked well, but it was almost like someone used sweet n sour sauce and added hotness, very odd — quality eats and veggies, though. Bizarre. Bleh. Rice was done well. UPDATE: I had only poured ¹⁄₃ of it onto my plate, writing this, later I find that the bottom half was sweet n sour pork! A (‘retired’) feral cat enjoyed the chicken very much, kept stabbing me in arm wanting more, was more than happy to oblige. Feral cat #2 refused to eat it, however.
Not very happy, even though I only paid half price via special deal, wasn’t even worth that. Probably would rather goto the HyVee Chinese down the street before I come back. The cashew chicken and sweet n sour crowd will love this place.
UPDATE: I called them, they claimed I lie about the food being half of one thing, half of another. I went by, they did at least give me some Kung Pao chicken, it was great, but still one star due to calling me liar, etc. Customer service is zero here.

A lot of the great places that made Springfield Cashew Chicken no longer exist. And for the ones that do a lot of them seriously suck when it comes to making anything that comes close to the original Leong’s Tea House version. I’ve had the original many times over and that’s what I use as my reference point for the prentenders and contenders. Chinese Chef is the closest place I’ve found that meets my expectations. White Meat deep fried chicken? Check! Chinese Oyster Sauce with the right appearance and consistency? Check! Whole cashews and not the left over crap from the bottom of the can? Check! And yes, no MSG. Bonus points for that.
While many will debate and pontificate over who has the best Cashew Chicken in Springfield, this is where I buy mine, even though I have to drive ¾ of the way through Springfield just to get to it.
Note: While I really like Chinese Chef, I will NEVER, EVER give ANY Springfield Cashew Chicken restaurant more than 4 Stars. Only Leong’s would get that coveted 5^th Star, and Unilocal wasn’t around then or else that’s the review they would have received.
Edit: While I live in Vegas I have family in Missouri and Missouri is always home. And when I’m within an hour of Springfield I will make the drive down by myself just to get cashew chicken and nothing else. This review is for March 2012.

Had lunch here today that was pretty good. I like the fact that they don’t use MSG in any of their dishes which has become kinda rare among the Chinese restaurants. The place is always really clean and they’ve won awards 2 years in a row at «Cashew Craze», a local cashew chicken comp.
I had the sweet and sour chicken but I think next time I’ll try buffet

Got to represent for Chinese Chef.
Ever in the midwest? Only in Springfield, Missouri will you find Chinese Chef — Chinese fast food! (yes, there is an actual drive through) I had never heard of a chinese food drive through restaurant until i came to missouri.
The food is not at all greasy, it is definitely that stereotypical kind of chinese food (none of that weird chicken feet or beef tongue) to cater to the residents of the area… they’ve got cashew chicken, egg foo yung, and crab rangoons! Oh my GEE! the crab rangoons are the best ever! i had never heard of them until i came here (i’m sure they have ‘em in CA), but i tasted one, and seriously had to go back for more to satisfy my craving. YUM!