Chef Gao

Reading these reviews makes me wonder if a lot of effort has gone into boosting this joint online by the owners. This place and its food are double awful.
Went there because I used to love a meal at Asian Isle. nothing could be further from that experience.
Potstickers were greasy and hollow, and when I asked my «waiter» for some chili paste he first offered Scirracha, then brought back some more grease in a tiny ramekin with a strange sluice of god knows what in the bottom.
Orange Chicken, in copious amounts was just scary. Rice, overcooked and sticky, served in a soup bowl, with no plate to spread it out on. The variety of size and texture of the meat cuts really made me wonder what I was eating. The flavor was an incoherent mix of sweet, grease, vinegar (?), and uncooked breading. That, coupled with my growing anxiety over possible repercussions from what the sludge flavor was covering up, forced me to leave three quarters of that mess on the plate, pay my bill and leave, never to return.
If the reviews of this place constitute Unilocal recommendations overall, I now know I cannot rely on this as a guide.
Who eats like this?

Worst food I have paid for. I won’t be going back here ever. Lousy flavor, crummy choices and the food made me sick. Gross.

The ambiance was great. They decorate well, and everything is written in Chinese with only a couple of things carrying with it an English translation on the side. Although that may bother some non-​Chinese speakers, I thought it was great because it made the place seem more authentic. The staff seemed really friendly and helpful when I asked them for help picking something of the menu. I ended up ordering the Kung Pao Chicken dish with some Jasmine tea. The tea tasted really good, even if it was just bagged tea, and they gave me a whole coffee pot full of it to drink for just two dollars. The food had really great flavor, and although it cost more than I was expecting, they gave me a ton of it, so I’m going to just eat half and take the test home for leftovers for another day.
All-​in-​all it is easy to give this place five stars. I would recommend this place to anyone looking for an enjoyable Chinese dining experience in this neighborhood.

This place was honorably run, We asked for water, had to request ice then I got six which quickly melted in the tap water. Nothing against tap but at least put it in a pitcher. I ordered the egg drop soup it had no flavor like they just cooked it in water instead of a broth. My husband got the Garlic shrimp which is really teriyaki shrimp. The service was awful. If you don’t like your job just quit. Waited 20min to order, then another 15 min to pay at the end. Save your money.

I have tried 3 different types of meat including orange and Kung pow chicken and beef and broccoli. Really disappointed in all three. Almost all breading and no meat. Chicken was poor quality. Only real positive was the environment for dining in. Sorry Gao.

Everytime I come down with a cold, I have to get something steaming hot, spicy, and soupy.
Their spicy beef noodle soup met my criteria. Even in the midst of the spicyness you can taste the beef broth and some of its fattiness. The best part is the noodles. It’s the type where the broth adheres to noodles and every bite is scrumptious.
As for their fish fillet with black bean sauce, the dish was way too salty for me. Even when I took bites with the rice, it was still salty. I tried a similar this at another Szechuan restaurant and I don’t think it is supposed to be this salty.
Many students from abroad, mostly Chinese surrounded us. I think that’s a sign of approval that this place might be legit.
I can’t wait for my next cold so I have an excuse to go back. Just kidding!

A definite endorsement from me for szechuan food in SLC. The boiled fish was authentic and tasty. All the dishes had no noticeable numbing peppers in it. That might be the locals here do not like the numbing sensation. I have heard often people complaining about that sensation in real szechuan restaurants.
The cumin beef was not bad and had a lot of cilantro and cumin in it. The eggplant with jalapeño was my favorite dish here. The shrimp in garlic sauce was ok. It is not a szechuan dish but never the less we or I ate everthing. The portions here are quite generous which we thought we could not finish but we did.

The food is good but the service is absolutely terrible! The food came over 45 minutes after we ordered. As an apology, they added extra chicken to a vegetarian dish for a vegetarian! They charged us incorrect amounts and charges rediculus amounts for changes ($ 2 for broccoli instead of tofu). They didn’t refill the water and didn’t remove a single empty dish off the table. Even for water they brought new full glasses and left the empty ones. Kind of unbelievable how bad the service was.
Also, to order from the lunch menu you have to pay cash. OR, you can pay almost twice the amount and pay with a credit card but you get the same exact amount of food.

First, an offer: provide me the explosives and I can take down that giganticly misleading Asian Isle sign.
Good flavors here. My Mongolian Beef was out of sight: tender, spicy and earthy in the way of 5-​spice powder. We got a boiled fish soup that was tasty and featured lots of fish, but had way too much Sechuan peppercorn. A mouth numbing, slightly nauseating experience that takes getting used to.
Otherwise, way too much oil on everything. Beverly Hillbillies’ amounts of oil. I reccomend asking for three paper bags and two plastic just to be sure you don’t stain your seats or clothes getting it home. Even the soup had a sheen of oil on top.
I like the greasiness of take-​out Chinese to some extent but this was a couple orders of magnitude too much. When the inside of your takeout bag turns orange you’re in trouble.
With all this said, I will be back because the flavors are there. Maybe just try other things next time.

I visited this restaurant with a Chinese friend and although I wanted to order the walnut shrimp, I was guilted into ordering the spicy boiled fish (because «that’s not Chinese food» according to my friend) and the green beans. I’m so glad I did because it was an unusual dish I have never seen on the menu before. WOW! I don’t generally eat really spicy food. I recommend you taste it before mixing in all those red peppers they place on the top. I’ only dock one star because I felt like the restaurant was a bit dark and the waiter wasn’t very knowledgeable when we asked about menu recommendations.

My husband and I decided to give this place a shot for dinner one rainy Saturday night. It really hit the spot.
With so many reviews talking about it, we made sure to order the spicy boiled fish and it did not disappoint. Though only a little spicy (maybe they whitened it up for us), it had a great flavor, and it was wonderful over rice. We also got the shredded pork in Beijing sauce, which was just as good. More of a sweet flavor, but totally addicting. We also got egg drop soup, which was solid but not exceptional, and came after the rest of our entrees, which was a little odd.
Portions were gigantic. I think Alan and I could have shared one entrée and some rice and been more than satisfied. Instead, we had a bunch of leftovers that were wonderful for lunch the next day, so I’m not complaining. Prices were very good. Service was okay at best, but you’ll have that.
We’ll definitely be back. So much to try!

Should have been a five star rating except the server seemed rushed and disinterested. Had to ask for soy and chili oil for the dumplings. Had to ask for the white rice that came with the dish, would have asked for a refill on my water but never saw the server again until she brought the check and asked did we need a box.
The food however was outstanding and had the service been on par the rating would have been a 5 star. Interesting take on sesame chicken with a slightly sweet sauce and a LOT thin slices garlic, house fried rice was yum yum and moist. But the shining star was the SPICY BOULED FISH. The waitress said it’s really spicy and I said spicy’s GOOD and it was indeed GOOD.

Chef Gao was… fine. One big plus for them is that I’m intrigued enough to try again. My husband wasn’t a huge fan of his food (too bland), but he ordered Beef with Broccoli which isn’t necessarily exciting to being with. We also got an order of spring rolls and I got the Eggplant with Garlic Sauce.
I’ll start out with some of the good things:
1. They make the food when you order it. It is piping hot and it’s simply obvious that it was just cooked. In fact, it was so hot that I couldn’t set the take out bag on my lap.
2. The spring rolls were the perfect balance of a slightly soft, but super crunchy on the outside, and fresh and crunchy on the inside. The veggies still had some «snap» to them and they weren’t too salty which I often find with springs rolls.
3. I really like their packaging. Dishes are served in tin «pie pans» rather than regular take out boxes. It makes it easy to eat right from the container instead of having to dump it all on a plate.
4. I really liked that the garlic in my garlic sauce was thinly sliced. Often times it is either left as whole cloves or crushed/​diced so you don’t actually get pieces of garlic. These were the perfect balance between the two.
And now for the things that were kind of «ehh»:
1. I assumed the «garlic sauce» that my eggplant came in would be a little more like the garlic sauce you get with Shrimp and Garlic Sauce. It ended up being more of a Chinese Barbecue Garlic Sauce. It’s not really anything they didn’t do a good job of, I just didn’t really prefer it compared to what I thought I was going to get.
2. We tried to order a few different things, but they were out of them. Seasonal Vegetables, Cream Cheese Wontons, Egg Drop Soup, and a tofu dish to be exact. Kind of a bummer, but it was fairly late on a Sunday so I wasn’t necessarily mad about it. As I said before, just kind of an «ehh» thing.
3. There was a little piece of plastic in my food. The reason I’m not super upset about this because there’s a possibility that it happened when I opened it. Plus I’m just not in the mood to let it bother me. If the possibility of cracking the top of your take out tray and possibly getting a tiny piece of plastic in your food scares you, then maybe don’t go here… or just don’t do as I did and set something semi heavy on top of your take out container. The choice is yours.
4. There were no fortune cookies in our take out bag.): I mean, I don’t like them or anything, but I don’t know that I’ve ever had Chinese take out sans fortune.
5. The prices listed online are NOT the same as the prices in store. It’s still not outrageous, but just be wary.
Overall, I thought the food was decent, and I am willing to give this place another try. I am confident that they’ll be able to bump themselves up from this visit. It’s just a feeling, ya know?

Chef Gao, aka Sweet Ginger #2, was their second location opened near the downtown area. Usually baby Gao cooks at this place while daddy Gao cooks at the old location on 7200. This place seems to be very popular for the oversea Chinese students who may or may not have a rich daddy back home, but every now and then you would see a bunch of BMW, Audi, Lamborghini or Ferrari parked outside at night.
The downside of this location was the lack of night time special after 9pm, and they closes early at 10pm, which was odd because they would definitely get more night time traffic being closer to downtown. We tried many things in our many visits here, and they had been just as good the ones we had at Sweet Ginger. If you never been here before, try the Spicy Boiled Fish. You get a big bowl of them here and they give you a nice tingly feeling which I do not feel anymore after improving my spicy tolerance.
Other dishes worth trying are Jalapeño Intestine– I recommend being bold and at least try a piece, Chef Gao Tofu — one of the best tofu dishes in town, and Shredded Potato — for a fresh taste from the spicy stuff. Green Bean & Pork was ok, and I wish the beans were not so dried. The Diced Chicken can be a bit off here, I guess daddy Gao still make this better at their older location. Rice was charged by the bowl like the fancy Chinese restaurants.
Overall, I would recommend staying within the Mandarin and Szechuan dishes here, best to avoid the Cantonese style dishes such as Beef Flat Noodles (or Chow Fun), since there are better places nearby for them. Service was a bit more friendly here, you get the younger batch of the old staff from Sweet Ginger here, which tend to your need better.

Food are very tasty! All the dishes are yummy and pretty authentic.
It got us surprised to find good Chinese food in the area. Love its Gao’s tofu. And beef and tender are good too! Well cooked flavor.
And they are very nice and got us some hot water to go bc we were on a ski trip.

This place is really, really tasty. I went back and forth in my mind for a time about how I would rate it, but when I step back and think about the flavor to cost ratio, I just don’t see how I can award this place anything other than 5 stars.
The fragrant ribs were ridiculously tasty; same with the cabbage. Yes, you heard that correctly. The cabbage was da bomb. Just go and try it; you will thank me. I also thought the diced chicken with dried chili peppers was really tasty too, but I still lean towards the ribs.
Here’s how it’s done. You take the cup of rice and plop it on your plate; smother said rice with aforementioned cabbage, and go at it. That little treat coupled with the ribs and you’re in heaven. And considering the $ 5 to $ 6 dollar lunch-​special price point, you’ll be sure to return. I know I will!

Color me impressed. Not that I had any particular expectations of what I’d find vis a vis Chinese food in SLC, but I can say with certainty I wish this joint were a little closer to my house.
Chef Gao looks and feels like your standard Americanized Chinese joint. However the food is not so standard. The chef here has no compunctions about using sichuan peppercorns, which can be a very foreign experience to the western palate. For that, I give them props. I have a long and sordid history with these things, and am therefore not a huge fan, but their Mabo Tofu contains a solid dose of them, and I still seriously enjoyed it (if in a smaller-​than-​I-​otherwise-​would-​have-​consumed portion). They also offer other traditional sichuan dishes such as the boiled fish in fire water. If you like spicy, numbing, flavor-​intense food, go that route.
The other dishes I enjoyed here thoroughly were the pork with garlic and another pork with black fungus dish — both of which won my heart and my palate. They liberally use black vinegar here to finish some of the dishes, and that took me immediately back to China. I don’t experience that much at home in Portland, which is sad.
Mad props for some seriously tasty Chinese food. Not the best I’ve had, but worthy of a 4-to-4.5 star rating. Which could presumably ratchet its way up to 5 if I were to try more of the dishes. Solid stuff.

As many others have mentioned, spicy boiled fish ins the answer. I think it’s #20 in the seafood section of the current menu, but YMMV.
The space is spartan – not much in the way of décor, and certainly not a very warm and loving atmosphere, unless you come with a big group of happy people who offer to buy you dinner, which was what happened the first time I ate at Chef Gao. Bless you, my dear friends, for picking up the tab. Twenty-​plus smiling faces and that much peppery hot fish will warm anyone. But if you just pop in, don’t expect much décor.
Tonight I was back there and tried out a few other items – one, the mabo tofu, which is very much in the same vein as the spicy boiled fish, filled with Szichuan peppers that numb your tongue, and also the rice cake and pork. I also went with a favorite, the garlic pork with mushrooms. This one has a little sweetness to it, that rides shotgun next to the savory, garlic flavor. That’s nice.
I like have a simple, affordable Chinese place that isn’t some abomination of glorified chicken nuggets in Orange sauce. Parking is easy, the staff is nice, and this is just a terrific spot for tasty, not-​fancy, not-​pretentious, always interesting Chinese food.

I was very excited to try Chef Gao after being so impressed with the food at Sweet Ginger. However, I had a mixed bag of emotions after leaving.
Lets start out with the PROS:
–They used a lot of fresh garlic and dried chilis, which makes me feel alive when I eat them.
–The prices for a lunch special were very affordable. $ 4.99 — 5.99 for most dishes, and it comes with a soup and rice.
–The eggplant with jalapeño lunch special was very good. The eggplant was cooked to perfection with some big garlic chunks, onions and jalapenos. The brown sauce that it was in was a touch sweet, thick and delicious.
Now the CONS:
–Neither the parking lot or sidewalks were shoveled or plowed. Accident waiting to happen.
–The diced chicken with dried chilis was very salty in some bites that it kinda burned your tongue. If it wasn’t over-​salted, the dish would have been sublime. The spicy diced chicken pieces were battered and fried to perfection. So many dried chilis with that wok toasted yummy goodness really gave the dish some heat. The seasoning had a fragrant lemongrass like flavor to it that really made it different.
–The service was not the best. We were waited on by two people but it seemed like they both kinda forgot about us by the end.
— I was sad that I didn’t see some of the menu items that I loved at Sweet Ginger. I saw a picture on the wall of the hot pot to taunt me, but did not see it on the menu. Also, the special board was in Chinese and I couldn’t read it. None of the servers talked about it either. Seems like the majority of the clientele were English speaking here at lunch.
— The lunch special only came with egg drop soup. Which was pretty bland. Wound up getting up and and getting myself some soy sauce and pepper off a table nearby to dump in and make better.
I would give this place another try. They had some other great stuff on the menu that I want to try.

Uh, yeah, Chef Gao is great! Is it the best Chinese food in the Valley? I cannot say that for certain as I haven’t been to EVERY SINGLE Chinese place in Salt Lake City. I have marveled at all the reviews for this particular restaurant. It’s a few comments short of becoming a nasty debate on ‘Politico’, but this is Unilocal,so relax people! It’s food we are talking about, and good food at that!
Here are my two cents: For one, the service was awesome. I went on a Saturday and I was seated right away, offered some iced water to start. I ordered hot Jasmine tea, followed by the Ham Fried Rice, and then the Mongolian Beef Dinner. Bear in mind, the portions are family-​style, so I would advise against coming here alone (lesson learned). Nonetheless, I was into the food.
Taking a look at the Ham Fried Rice, it was exactly what I wanted: Lightly fried rice with tons of peas, onions, carrots, and bits of ham. Ham Fried Rice is what it is, nothing else to say about it. The food was hot, and I don’t recall waiting a long time to be served. Next, the Mongolian Beef: I was impressed. The meat itself was tender and well-​cooked. The amount of red peppers and onions went so great and with it, every bite was so different. Some bites were spicier than others, some were less. You get your money’s worth both with the portions and yes, even the quality.
That’s all for now, but I would recommend, especially if you’re apt to trying something new and/​or near downtown!