China Chef
803 E. McDevitt Ave
517-788-9966
The Chinese restaurant in Vandercook Lake finally opened on Thursday, December 26th 2013. The former site of Mellinger's TV is where the owners set up residence. We've been watching the progress for months, patiently waiting for our opportunity to give it a try.
Saturday lunch seemed a good time to stop in and sample the menu. We arrived at about 12:15pm and parked in the empty lot. We entered and immediately noticed how clean, new and roomy the order counter, kitchen, and dining area was. My family and I were the first diners, but not the first customers, as they were bagging up to-go orders already. There were menus to order from at the counter, which showed a pretty typical selection of entrees, sides, and appetizers. The prices were very reasonable and the man working the counter was friendly and helpful. We found a comfy booth in the roomy dining area and waited for our food to arrive. In the meantime, there was a steady stream of patrons picking up orders and filling the dining room. It's a bustling place!
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| Seafood Flower Basket |
My wife ordered an entree called "Seafood Flower Basket" which had shrimp, imitation crab, scallops, lobster, and lots of veggies in a lobster sauce accompanied by fried noodles and white rice. Everything tasted very good, other than the lobster being a bit tough. It was waaaay more food than one person could eat, so the leftovers went home with us.
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| Sesame Chicken |
My daughter decided on an old stand-by, "Sesame Chicken with White Rice". The chicken was crispy and tasty, the rice was light and fluffy. Her biggest issue was that the pieces of chicken were too big to eat, and the only utensil we were given was a chintzy little plastic fork. She really enjoyed her meal though and had a lot of left-overs, even though this was the lunch portion.
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| General Tsao's Chicken |
I went with one of my favorites, "General Tsao's Chicken with Fried Rice". I also got some fried dumplings, which were different than others I've tried, but good. The "General" was spicy without being too hot, crispy, but not overcooked. The chicken fried rice was very good. This was also the lunch portion, which was too much to eat in one sitting.
Summary: We are very excited to have a good quality, inexpensive chinese restaurant in Vandercook Lake. China Chef looks very promising; maybe more so as a take-out than a dine-in choice. They didn't seem particularly well set up for dining at this point, but there is definitely promise in the spacious dining room if they choose to improve that aspect.
We welcome China Chef to our neighborhood and wish them much success!
Copyright 2013 Leif Borreson
