Chef Chen’s Wok

This place had a change of ownership, and now it also serving authentic Chinese food. It looks like they did spent some money by renovate this ancient place. But in the end, the food was the best in DC area.
I’m just confused here, why is Unilocal still had the old name up? this place is now called SOUTH CHINA. Anyway, there phone number is (703)751−6688 and is still at the same old location. Be sure to pick up a new menu at its location (there 2 two sets, one for the regular Chinese food and other been the true Chinese food).
This place shadows rest of the Chinese place around here.
Again, Unilocal,you should take them out of the you Unilocaldemic account since they are no longer run by this name!

In response to my previous review I recieved the following message:
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Hi, We were the previous management of Chef Chen’s that you like. We moved to Ho King on may 2012, We are at Ho King now .i so sorry what happened you, If you still like our food, i will very happy to see you at ho king. our address is 514 °F s van dorn st on van dorn station .we do deliever also
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the new location is carryout/​delivery only.

Expensive substandard food.

I’d give the Chen a 6 out of 10. Beef and broccoli was excellent as was the wonton soup, but the chicken lo mien was lacking… chicken. And most important to me, the standard for which I judge all Chinese delivery, the Crab Rangoon was awful. They are the lazy, 1 fold triangle with almost no filling. Come on Chen, you know you have to do the wonton pinch with a healthy bulb of very crabby spread to please the pallet.

[Review for lunch buffet only]
Goodbye ol’ friend. For a decade, Chef Chen (and its predecessor, Charlie Chiang) was a reliable go-​to place for us. They had a wonderful and cheap lunch buffet, augmented by one of the only Mongolian BBQs in the area. We went 2 – 3 times per month. But, in 2011, the quality began dropping off. We start going less. After our last three visits over the course of about four months, it’s clear this is a dying restaurant. The price of the buffet has been raised (though, admittedly, at $ 7.99 it’s still comparatively cheap); the Mongolian BBQ has been removed; the buffet items are stale and dry, and most taste just plain funny. Furniture is falling apart. HVAC malfunctions on hot and cold days. And, what once was a fairly popular eatery is now empty at lunchtime. The people working there seem pleasant enough, but, as far as the food… sorry, there’s nothing else to say except «Stay away.»

This place used to be great! In 2009 I used to order at least once a month, but they have been progressively getting worse.
I always ordered the Kung Pao Tofu and Crispy Purple Eggplant (similar to what you get at Charlie Chiangs). I used to take people here from out of town and it used to blow them away. no more.
The eggplant came with the sauce separately so it didn’t seep into the eggplant and the batter seemed a bit off. The Kung Pao sauce was super light, threw in many more vegetables, and lost the peanuts. We ordered pan fried noodles, which came out as deep fried noodles with again, the sauce separate so the bottom soggy noodles tasted different from the crispy ones on top. I don’t know if its new management or new chefs or what. but this place has really gone down hill over the years.

Delivered when they said they would, food was good. We will definitely call this place again for delivery!

I ordered a pick up from the restaurant. I ordered Hot and Spicy Chicken and Chicken Fried Rice. The food was great, although Hot and Spicy Chicken could have been a little more hot. The person who took the order was nice and told they could make the food however I want it to be, the challenge being conveying them what I really want. Another good thing about the restaurant was they offered 2 free egg rolls with my order (for orders over 15), we have to mention the coupon over the phone. I was very satisfied with my food and service.

I have only been for the lunch buffet.
The food is good, I usually start with some hot and sour soup and some fried dumplings, before I move onto the main course of General Tao’s chicken, Kung Pao chicken, beef with broccoli, pork with hot peppers. You have your choice of fried rice, white rice and Lo Mein noodles to accompany your choices. The buffet also includes the Mongolian BBQ in case I feel like making my own dish.

I was craving Chinese food and decided to try this based on some good reviews here. I would give what I had about a B. I got sesame chicken, and about half of the chicken was what I would call really good quality. The other half was the mostly breading/​potentially fat mystery parts that you find in a lot of takeout Chinese. The egg roll was pretty dry and nothing worth noting.
That said, the food was hot and plentiful. The lunch combos are very reasonably priced.

We have our go-​to Chinese delivery joint, but sometimes I want to see what else is out there. You know, just to be sure that where we order from on the regular is as good as it gets in our ‘hood.
In the spirit of comparison, husband and I decided to try out Chef Chen’s Wok. We ordered veggie dumplings, Home Style tofu, and mooshu shrimp. I was excited to see the mooshu shrimp on the menu since you don’t typically. And we always order Home Style tofu from our regular Chinese spot, so I thought it’d be nice to contrast Chef Chen’s version to our standby’s.
Unfortunately, we were pretty disappointed with just about everything. Delivery took over an hour. The veggie dumplings were filled with little more than cabbage, and the dough was really thick and gummy. On the whole, pretty boring. The Home Style tofu was incredibly bland with no heat whatsoever — our regular place makes a wonderfully spicy and flavorful sauce for theirs, so I was expecting similar. The mooshu shrimp was the best of the bunch but it, too, lacked seasoning. And the shrimp was cut so small it was barely detectable.
I did like the mooshu pancakes, which were thin and soft, and the fact that you can get brown rice with your entrée selections, which we did. It cost us $ 1 extra per serving, tho.
After our experience with Chef Chen’s, I’m still confident our regular Chinese delivery spot is the best of the best where we live.

Yay! I found good Americanized Chinese food, with delivery. And even better, I can order online (through Foodler). It does not get any better. Delivery is fast and friendly, and food was still steaming when it arrived.
I’ve eaten inside once — service was friendly, but the inside could use a good cleaning. I think we were the only ones in there. I’ve had the wonton soup, spring rolls, General Gau’s chicken, lo mein, sweet & sour pork, and moo shi pork and all were tasty.

delivery is pretty good and the food is always hot. Ive tried the sesame chicken and its great. Combos dont come with eggrolls though
I’ve ordered lunch and dinner. So far not disappointed. Great servings. Usually you get more vegetables than meat but not with these guys

I really enjoyed this place. Great service! Nothing too fancy; their dumplings were great and the hot tea was nice. I also had the vegetable soup which was nice. I had a nice meal under $ 10. I will definitely go back again.

this is our go-​to place for chinese delivery. the food is always hot when it arrives and they are FAST. its nothing extravagant, but its solid chinese delivery.
one complaint though — the soup is terrible. i’ve ordered wonton as well as hot and sour and both were not edible. i’m not sure how the egg drop is, but i’m afraid to find out. stick to crab wonton and the veggie dumplings as your appetizers :)

I was sick over the weekend and was craving Chinese food, so I gave Chef chen’s a call. They sent me a flyer by mail a few days before, which is really preferable to the typical stick it to my door (that really annoys me) that most chinese places do. I ordered my typical chinese meal, it was good… it wasn’t anything to completely write home about, but it was still good.