Chef Gao

Several hours after visiting I’m still angry at the rude staff that take the orders.
Demanding a 20% tip for a take out order is beyond belief. Now I appreciate good service gets stops but pushing the screen to enter my order on the screen does not earn you 20% on top of $ 292. Refusing to put in my order unless I pay the person nearly $ 60 on top of the take out price and having staff show me recipts of other people that may have been forced to pay or put a round up amount just makes me think you are greedy and don’t understand. The money I spent to today is the last money I bring.
The Chinese on state street appreciates the business and puts extra in when I spend that much. When I have gone to pay a tip they say no. Your business is appreciated.
Dear Mr chef your food was good but the service is very very bad.

Excellent, authentic Taiwanese food. A family favorite for casual dining and big enough for gatherings. We order family style. Favorites include the potstickers, the green beans, Shanghai noodles, and Kung Pao chicken.

Very good Chinese food. I don’t know how authentic anything I had is or isnt, I just know it was all way better than any other local Chinese I’ve had. I highly recommend the Singapore style pork ribs.
The service was also very good. Our waitress was named Joyce (she said that was her English name.) and we were very impressed. She gave very thoughtful and detailed reccomendations, and she seemed to genuinely care about our experience.
We will definitely be back.

Picked up an order of take out. Packaging; by the time I got home the liquid from the food was completely out of the containers and in the bottom of the bags — thank God there were no holes in the bag or the car would have been soaked.
Food, Once cleaned off and situated to eat: First bite of fried dumplings were pretty decent. Crab ragoons aka cream cheese wontons were alright, nothing special but not terrible. Green beans were good but not worth $ 9. Last, chicken in garlic sauce… was disgusting. Chicken dishes are not supposed to taste like smelly fish. That whole dish was inedible.
I might try again but as there’s lots of other places to try not anytime soon.

First time I tried Spicy Beef Noodle Soup a couple years ago at the Midvale place, it was excellent. Second time, it was horrible and didn’t resemble Spicy Beef Noodle Soup. Wait staff didn’t know what it should he like and stated that Chef Gao was opening a new place in Orem. So this year traveling to Utah I stopped in Orem and the Spicy Beef Noodle Soup was again Not good. In addition the green bean was cold with no pork. Truly disappointed. Current Chef came out and didn’t speak English and wait staff translated that Chef Gao was working in the Salt Lake location. I will give them one more try. As if now Midvale and Orem are the worst Chinese food in the valley.

As A CHINESE, These dishes only worth 2 dollars in China (Each one), but here asked more than 10 dollars, and TASTE NOT REAL !!! I strongly suggest American people, if you wanna eat real Chinese food, go SLC China town, DO NOT COME TO HERE !!!

This review is based solely on service, not food. After walking in the door we were ignored for 10 minutes until I had to go up and ask them if we could sit anywhere or if they were going to seat us. The entire time people kept getting in line to pick up takeout and those people were the only ones in the place that were getting any attention. We were pointed to a table and forgotten. 15 minutes later we still did not even have menus. The elderly couple next to us had menus but no utensils or water and said they had been there for quite some time. We left and nobody noticed.

Came in for lunch on a Saturday shortly after opening, seated quickly. Pleasant service, and great food. We had the cream cheese wontons, eggplant in garlic sauce and Mao’s style braised pork. It came with rice, portions are generous to share. Great flavors and fresh ingredients. We will be back!

Omg! Where do I begin?! It was delicious! It the spot. Seriously best service and the food was authentic and the chef catered to our order and was super nice. It was soooooo good! Will be returning

So good! The cheese wontons are legit amazing. Their sautéed green beans are really tasty; they actually make we want to eat green beans. The portions were very large, so we got to take home lots of food.
The service was very kind. Not always attentive, but it wasn’t a big concern. Also, the majority of the people eating there were Chinese, which is often a good sign, and it’s also just really fun to hear people talking in another language.

Pretty good Chinese food for being in Utah. The prices are good if you come at lunch. My biggest complaint is that most of the dishes have way too much onion that it’s overbearing.

The orange chicken is BOMB. Mongolian beef was subpar at best. I’ve eaten here twice– takeout the first time, in-​house the second time. The takeout experience was easy pretty seamless, no problems there. Eating in was ok… The table was too small to fit everything we ordered… which may only be a problem in America. :)
The waitress did pretty well considering the busy night they were having. She was about as warm/​friendly as my ice water, but she brought us our food efficiently and kept our glasses full. I’ll go back, for sure.

I don’t get the 5 star reviews. Ate here the other day (sorry guys, don’t take pictures at night) and I was just not happy with it.
Why is it three stars? It’s because the food is not good. But why not 2 stars? Or even one? Because the portions make up for it.
Now learn this about me, I love eating to satisfaction not fullness. I enjoy every bite of my food. I am the kind of guy that pays $$$ for a 7 course meal that just leaves me satisfied. That being said, portions don’t away me too much.
Ordered the Mongolian Beef and Lo Mein. I could easily tell things went from thawing to hot wok, to flash cooked, to plate. Classic wok but ingredients just not good.
It’s three stars because it’s good but not amazing. Would I recommend it? No. Probably not. Would I eat there compared to other Asian restaurants in the area? Maybe.
Asian food in this community is definitely one of the lowest I’ve seen. So 3 stars is pretty much a compliment. Chinatown DC has spoiled me.
Recommendations: order 1 dish and share. Save the money.

I didn’t believe it until I ate there. This is the BEST Chinese in Utah County, without a doubt.
Lunch portions are insanely HUGE, the servers were the sweetest and friendliest I have had in a long time. The lunch prices are absurdly low.
Spicy boiled fish, Szechuan noodles, fried green beans.

In my opinion, when you pair high quality, delicious food with amazing service, that is when a place becomes as good as it gets.
Chef Gao did not fail to impress and exceeded expectations as I have had my eye on this new location for a while now and was finally able to try it. We went in to the restaurant on a Saturday evening and i was really impressed with the atmosphere of the place; very open with lots of space which i didn’t really expect seeing as it is located in a shopping center. The place is clean and put together nicely to make for nice ambiance.
The servers were so awesome! They were more than helpful and super friendly as I sought some help in making decisions on what to order. The menu is huge and there is just about every Chinese cuisine available. The last two pages of the menu are in Chinese script so I obviously couldn’t read it. Luckily, I was feeling gutsy and the server recommended one option from the Chinese script part of the menu: she called them «guts» and vouched that they were delicious so I was game, we ordered «guts» as one of our dishes. Im pretty sure they were intestines based on past experience and man were they delicious. Paired with onions and peppers made for it to be a nice spice. We also ordered garlic pork and orange chicken, both of which were amazing.
Each dish is served in hefty portions obviously meant to be shared and price was still fair for how much and the quality served. I think what really got me at Chef Gao’s was the fact that each dish we ordered had its own unique tastes. What can happen a lot with Chinese is everything tends to taste the same culminating for one big and boring sodium bomb. That wasn’t the case at Chef Gao; the orange chicken was sweet, the garlic pork was salty and savory, and the intestines were the perfect amount of spicy.
Let this review go to show that Chef Gao is my new go-​to for Chinese that is for sure.

Chef Gao has finally come down past point of the mountain! We came here for a birthday dinner and really enjoyed it. Just like the Salt Lake locations they have a huge menu (100+ items), authentic food, and great service. We went with beef and broccoli, sesame chicken, a braised pork dish, and another dish that I am sadly not remembering right now… it was good though. We also had the dumplings and some bok choy.
The food came out quickly and was delicious. Much better than the other Chinese you’ll find in the area, though I thought it wasn’t quite as good as the Salt Lake location. The waitress was very, very friendly and another guy was also very friendly. I wasn’t sure if he was the chef or owner or another employee or what, but he was very very friendly and talked to us for a while.
Overall it was a great trip and I plan on going back soon. I’m so glad that there is a decent Chinese option in Utah county now!

The first thing about this place is that it doesn’t have a proper sign up. There is just this canopy up with their name printed on it. The actual sign of this place is dragon house restaurant that was probably the previous restaurant.
Comparing the food their other branch that they have, sweet ginger and chef gao in Salt Lake City, I have to admit that the food here was disappointing. One of the most easy dish and their most delicious dish from the other restaurant, egg with tomato was horrible. We ordered chicken with mushrooms, usually the mushrooms used for this dish should be the dried asian mushrooms, but they used this weird looking mushrooms, also our chicken had some pork in it. The stir fried veggie that we order was also wasn’t pleasing. The veggie tasted stale and also the spice level was ridiculous, my mouth went entirely numb. The only food that we ordered that was good would be the sweet and sour pork.
The staff was super friendly, but I was disappointed at this place. I don’t think I will be returning to this branch ever.

Chef Gao in Utah county finally!!! If you never heard of Chef Gao before, here is something you need to know.
First, Chef Gao makes authentic Chinese food! None of those Panda Express crap. Even my friends who lives in California said Chef Gao tastes better than most of the Chinese food there in Cali.
Second, the first Chef Gao is actually located at Sandy, it’s called «Sweet Ginger». And then the open the second location in Downtown Salt lake. And then now this one in Orem.
For me and my girlfriend, we still think the best taste is still at the original chef Gao aka Sweet Ginger. Because Chef Gao the owner, he actually still cooks at Sweet Ginger. He’s son (almost as good as him) cooks at the one in Downtown SLC. So the Chef Gao in downtown is the second to the best. The one in Orem they just hired a Chinese chef. But don’t get me wrong, the one in Orem is still really good! I’m just saying if you like authentic Chinese food and have a chance you should definitely try the original Chef Gao — Sweet ginger.
Third, this is not Panda Express aka fake Chinese food. Don’t just be ordering «Orange chicken», «beef and broccoli», «sesame chicken», «honey walnut shrimp» and etc. Try something else!!! Never try, never know right?! Ask the waitress, there are 100+ different dishes on the menu. Try some real Chinese food :)

The Chef Gao empire grows! I think it’s up to three restaurants now, and quality does not seem to have suffered. My husband and I made a large take out order to take to the in-​laws for the usual Saturday lunch. Given our love of the SLC Chef Gao, we were excited for them to try the food. Given the apparent lack of good Chinese food options in this part of Utah County, they were quite intrigued as well. I think all parties were happy.
Because some members of the family are not particularly adventurous, we mostly stuck to the more Americanized favorites: Beef with Broccoli, Cashew Chicken, and Sesame Chicken, but we threw in the Shredded Pork in Beijing Sauce in because we had faith they could handle it. Throw in some fried rice and a few pan fried dumplings, and we had way too much food for eight people. (Yes, the dinner portions here are as enormous as they are at the downtown location.) All were quite pleased by the selections; lunch was a success!
The menu here is, as far as I can tell, identical to the downtown location. I expect the Spicy Boiled Fish is as worthwhile as it is at the other restaurant, but the rest of the family is not yet ready for the joy it brings (I hope that you are.) We did not eat at the restaurant so I can’t speak well to the service, but getting take out was easy enough. Enjoy, Orem, and may the Chef Gao empire continue to grow.

Chinese in Utah County, who would have guessed. Those other places you were going to mention don’t count. Only this one does. Now we just need people filling the place. This is as close as I’d want to the real thing. And yes, I have been through big chunks of China and Tibet. This is supposed to be Mandarin and Szechuan, and that is what the menu is all about. More Szechuan perhaps.
I have yet to do dinner, but the opportunity presented itself for lunch. It was a bit puzzling. I assumed you picked something for $ 5.95, $ 6.95, or $ 7.95 and you get the soup, rice, spring roll, and entrée on a plate. However, there were 50 choices. That’s nuts. It turns out It’s just a smaller version of the dinner served family style. There’s a small cup of lukewarm egg drop to start. That didn’t bode well. The rest of the food was excellent. No spring roll, just a shared rice bowl and dishes of food. I was with two others, so we did some sharing.
Everything said about the Spicy Boiled Fish is true. Hot, spicy, meltingly tender pieces of fish. The broth is something to try sparingly. It’s super strong, oily, and intense. There is an overwhelming background flavor of something very salty/​pungent. Not bad, but it limits how much I want to put down my gob. I still ate more than I should.
The scallion lamb was not listed as spicy, but even it had pieces of red pepper that created an underlying bit of spice. However, it was just fine for my wife that is hot spice adverse.
The Shrimp with Garlic Sauce was indeed exactly as advertised.
Finally, it is authentic in the odd service and no fortune cookie. This is not the place I’ll be bringing my parents who want mild Chinese American, but for the rest of us, it’s a great addition to Utah County. One caveat, it does appear that they have more familiar Chinese American available too, it just wasn’t on the lunch menu. Don’t let this review scare you if you want Chicken with Cashews.
Unfortunately, I’ll be doing carry out for dinner so I can have an adult beverage with it at home.