Guey Lon

Guey Lon is not a far cry from my experience at Thank You in Logan Square. If Thank You sells completely dried out Chinese food, then Guey Lon makes their orange chicken so soggy that you question whether eating the over-​cooked chicken inside that wilted breading is going to leave you paying for it the next day. So far so good.
The flare from this restaurant is that the interior is very charming. I love the retro design and the musty old-​building smell which begs to make its way onto the silver screen, featured as a front for either money laundering or drug trafficking. Quentin Taratino, are you listening? The bohemian Chinese decorations seal the deal all the way around, complete with Asian designed wooden dividers.
Another thing that made me feel very uncomfortable was that I tried to pay for my dinner, running my debit card as credit, and for some reason her transaction device would not run it that way, forcing me to enter my pin. The lady working was nice enough to walk away from the device while I entered it, but it all still felt sketchy, and I will be watching my bank transactions.
As people have stated before, the woman handling the transaction is very chatty, which makes her approachable. She happened to share that she was from California, which to no surprise, fell in line with my personal opinions of Californians. They are great with small talk, very personable, but never count on them to be your best friend or to possess any sense of loyalty.
Again, I am not surprised that the quality of food turned out to be subpar. No sense of pride put into the food, yet all the confidence in the world presenting it. I managed to finish the chicken but refused to eat the egg roll. My friend had 2 pieces of her pork, and dissected 1 of the 2 mutant egg rolls that came with our meals. We both had maybe 2 forkfuls of rice. Then we threw the rest of it away. I don’t expect everyone to share my views, but I know a lot of Midwesterners will know what I am talking about. With all the other places to go in Chicago, I won’t be back. Sorry.

Don’t understand all the bad reviews here. The only thing I can think of is they were written by people who have only been exposed to the Suburban Chinese restaurant chains. This place has the best Chinese food in the area. All the other Chinese restaurants have exactly the same food on exactly the same menus. This place is different, much more of a home cooked taste.

I love Guey Lon. The best in Chicago. The food is healthier and the ingredients are fresh. Jean, Dan and Jess are the best. Compliments to the chefs.

Maybe I caught them on bad day? The personable owner and I had the place to ourselves and she is quite a character. My stir-​fry takeout came out like over-​cooked stews. I live nearby and I’ll wait another decade before returning.

Worst Chinese food I’ve ever experienced! The quality of the food can be understood by the run down dining room they have. They really don’t care about the food either.

I just had my first visit and I am impressed! I got the Chicken egg foo young lunch special with the egg fried rice and both were delish! The rice alone was very flavorful and not at all oily like some fired rice is. The egg foo young was some of the best I’ve had. It was perfectly cooked… Nicely browned without that burnt taste you sometimes get. And the gravy oh my! It’s rich and flavorful without being salty. The only drawbacks for me were that I didn’t get any hot mustard (I didn’t ask for it — just assumed a packet would be included) and it didn’t come with a fortune cookie, which again, I made an assumption there. However these items are rather insignificant imho so that’s why I still gave 5 stars. Also, the ladies working there were suuuuuper friendly which is also great. I will definitely order from here the next time I want Chinese food. Yum! Oh, it’s also very reasonably priced which is a great bonus.

This food is so awesome here and you’ll love conversing with the owner. She’s a character!!!

This place has great food, but just as nice is the character and charm. It’s been around forever.

Excelente Me encanta Se Vive Un Ambiente Familiar La Comida Me Encanta ??? Sopa de Camarones Mi Favorita… Lo Recomiendo…

Wow this food was amazing. Nothing like all the other chinese places where the food is overly greasy and tastes like it was just heated up right before u picked it up. I could definitely tell they took the time to cook the food and prepare it properly. Word of mouth is the best advertiser and I’ll be letting everyone know where I go for my chinese food.

Wonderful and delightful owner, her name is Jean. The food was prepared to my liking and was ordered to what I exactly wanted. Her suggestions to season my dish made my choices so delicious. I wished there was a Guey Lon in Edgewater as other Chinese food establishments could learn from the treatment that I received while dining here.
The prices for each dish are well worth the value. The extras that are given to customers make you leave feeling like it’s money well worth spent.

I was hopeful being new to the neighborhood that this long time place would be a local gem, it was not. Beat up and old outside and in there is zero charm to the place. The food was bland and and dated.

I struggled with myself a lot before writing this review. I know a wonderful, sweet couple own this place and it’s been a Chicago mainstay FOR YEARS. But we had dinner from here recently and most of it was inedible. I know when people write reviews here about people’s businesses, it should not be taken lightly. These are people’s lives and livelihoods that we have the opportunity to comment on at will. But I decided to share my experience because 1: I would hope the owners would read this and make adjustments and 2: As guilty as I feel, I work hard for my livelihood, too. And most of our dinner we ordered went down the disposal.
Highlights:
My sweet and sour soup was basically what seemed like yesterday’s egg drop soup spruced up with some chopped bell peppers and pea pods with some spice added. It tasted off, and all you can order on the menu is a giant vat of it for 6 bucks. I was excited to have leftovers when we ordered, but when we opened it and tried it, it went in the trash.
The crab rangoon looked good and crispy. But when we took a bite, there was NO CRAB. Just cream cheese with some bits of green onions. So what do you call crab rangoon with no crab? Rangoon?
I could go on… but the worst part was my husband’s shrimp fried rice. He poured it onto his plate and I could tell immediately it was old. The whole dish had a grey color to it, and he was hit with a smell similar to old gym socks. He looked concerned and had me smell it, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. So that got tossed, too. We just didn’t want to chance getting sick.
We all went to bed hungry. And frankly, I was pretty pissed. I like supporting local small places, but we will not be ordering from here again. I am not sure what other reviewers are talking about, with «fresh and delicious» food? We did not experience this. (Maybe we had a new chef on a bad night?) But there needs to be some serious «freshening up» of things over there-​from the quality of the food to their attention to details to the ambiance of the restaurant-​before we consider trying them again.

This is my new favorite less expensive take out Chinese restaurant! The owner is a sweet old lady, I think the cook is her husband. I drove by looking for something to eat one day and Unilocal pointed me here. Since I didn’t call it in ahead of time I had to sit and wait 15 minutes or so while the order was cooked. Well it’s a time portal in there, they say they serve tableside, takeout, or delivery. But it’s a trip inside, the old, old décor all very dated. I can’t even explain it. It ‘s not a negative mark against this place, since I view it only as a takeout and delivery spot, but definitely gave me a weird vibe when I walked in. It took a lot of faith in my fellow Unilocalers to push me to order and eat there.
The food was good, mongolian beef spicy, egg roll, and crab ragoon were the things we ordered the couple times we’ve been. Both times the food was identical and pretty good, not overly greasy, not overly spicy. The egg rolls and crab ragoon are sized and priced correctly and everything seems homemade. The beef used was perfect and tender, not shoe leather.
I would be happy to come back again if I’m in the area and looking for some Chinese food.

I went to Guey Lon’s based on the favorable reviews the middle of May and thought it was terrible. I have never had egg rolls like theirs, it had the strangest taste, the waitress said we make our own so you decide for yourself.
I ordered the Mongolian Beef and thought it was a bit too fatty and chewy for my taste. The portions are huge, I like the way they give you the crispy noodles along with the fried rice, nice touch but I would never go back there again.
What I did like about the restaurant is that it has a nice old school feel to it and the waitress is a hoot, funny and informative, very accommodating. Regardless I ‘m still not going back.
Don’t park at the McDonald’s across the street they will charge you $ 193.00 in towing fees. The restaurant has signs all over letting you know not to park there.
Try Lo’s China Kitchen at Irving & California instead if your in the neighborhood. It’s a simple no frills place, dine in or carry out. The lunch specials are the way to go with egg roll included.
Another Chinese place to avoid is Lee’s Chop Suey at Diversey & Western (kitty corner form the Golden Nugget Restaurant) The worst fried rice on the planet.

Got take out for dinner here– cashew chicken, veggie egg foo yung. We live in the neighborhood, so we’re looking to see what’s around. We had intended to eat in, but the lack of any other clientele dissuaded us.
As others here have noted, Guey Lon doesn’t appear to put alot of emphasis on the atmosphere.
The staff was pleasant and took an interest in my wife’s vegetarian diet, which we appreciated.
The food was very fresh, but extremely bland. I’m not sure why it was so bland, but perhaps next time we will request that it be made spicier. However, I should emphasize that the cashew chicken dish featured many vegetables, all of which seemed very fresh and full of color, and they even took well to re-​heating two days later. all in all, I would give this place another try, but I was little surprised at how little taste the food had.

So Guey Lon was ALOT better back in the day but it is still pretty good.
The fried wontons are to DIE for, just so unbelievable good!
Fried rice is DELICIOUS its not that dark brown color, and just has such a better taste than your traditional fried rice.
Egg Rolls are HUGE!
Orange chicken, sesame chicken-​fantastic!
Mongolian beef, beef and brocooli– wonderful
everything is very good, generous portions!
Although sometimes I feel that it is a hit or miss with this place.

Guey Lon is my favorite Chinese restaurant in Chicago. (Maybe because I tried it and loved it so much that I haven’t many others). They know their customers and take good care of them. Sometimes Jean gives me coupons for free egg rolls which makes me run back there soon after! I took my best buddy there last week and we ended up going again two days later, he can’t get over how good their chicken is. Try it out!
Be sure to check their schedule before you go as they changed it recently and are closed a couple of days of the week.

I was really excited based on the Unilocal reviews, but this place just didn’t hit the spot for me. I had the pork fried rice and the hong su chicken. The rice was more steamed than fried. The chicken was bland and unexciting.
The place has a great throwback décor that could be jazzed way up with a little work.
Sorry guys, but this newbie to the neighborhood needs to keep looking for a local Chinese joint.

I know it was just a bad night and bad ordering choices. But I feel the need to warn all those who go after me… NEVER ORDER THE SHRIMP AND VEGETABLE TEMPURA!
It is basically a GIANT TUB of deep fried, greasy mess. I was expecting a light tempura batter with fresh, crisp vegetables and shrimp. Instead I got this heavy greasy bucket of horrible over fried food.
We ended throwing about 75% of it out-​just ate the shrimp and a few of what was basically onion strips and french fries.
On a positive note-​this meal pretty much turned me off of fried food forever.
My husband’s Oyster Beef was really good though. So they only drop one star.

What a great place. Great Mom and Pop Place (Jean and Dan, are perhaps the friendliest). 51 years, Guey Lon has served Cantonese cuisine in this Jefferson Park neighborhood. And a Taste Of Chicago stable for years.
One thing to remember here, everything is made homemade from scratch. So if you are looking for fast food in 10 min. forget it., take it elsewhere. But, if you want good home-​cooked type meals then come on in a sit a spell. This place is worth it.
Egg Rolls Rock. Take Out and Dine In only
This little place is great.