The $5 Lunch: Chinese Chef

Chinese Chef offers lunch for less than a 5 spot

(Let’s face it: There are times when you’re starving and you’re just not rolling with much cash. Pop out the plastic? Well, no; got a bill to pay on that. What can you do with the one bill sitting in your wallet–say, a five-spot? Glad you asked. We’re on a mission to find the places in the SGF that will feed you a decent meal for five dollars or less, with tax.)

Chinese Chef has two locations for access to a quick lunch on a five-spot – one at Battlefield and Campbell, the other near Sunshine on Enterprise. It’s not necessarily a special, as it’s the everyday price, but the ‘Chef’ offers single, but sizable, servings of Cashew Chicken with a side of rice for $3.89. The mounds of gravied chicken and rice are pretty much even in stature and should be enough to keep your motor running through the afternoon. Cashew Chicken connoisseur and long-time SGFer Matt McClelland once reviewed the dietary staple for S.A.U.C.E.

“The breading on the chicken (all white meat) was nice and light, while the chicken remained tender – normally hard to find in fried white meat. The sauce, or gravy depending on your generation, was not too thick, thin or coagulated. As far as flavor is concerned, this sauce was very well balanced.”- McClelland

The total: $4.15 for Cashew Chicken and Rice (with tax)