Golden Chef Restaurant in Wheeling

I had heard through word of mouth that the Golden Chef Restaurant on Milwaukee Avenue in Wheeling can modify anything on the menu to be gluten free. I've heard it a bunch of times, actually. Over the weekend we decided to take the kids out for dinner and I wanted to try someplace new. So we took the kids for their first Chinese food!

I asked the man behind the host counter "Can you serve us gluten free" and he said "Yes, anything on the menu." Can you even imagine how good that felt?

My husband has told me for a long time that he does not like Chinese Food. I had a hunch that if we ordered the right dishes that I could convert him, and I did.

We ordered egg rolls (the regular size ones are not GF, we had some mini rolls, I think called Shanghai rolls), sweet & sour chicken, beef with broccoli, and shrimp chow fun (served with rice noodles). The sweet & sour sauce on the table is GF and good. The food looked great- it was obviously fresh and nicely presented. My kids liked the egg rolls the most. My older son actually took a large bite out of the flowered carrot garnish... I don't think that there was any soy sauce in our food, and I wished for a bit of saltiness. I may bring my bottle of San-J tamari with me next time. Or maybe if I had asked there was some in the back.

The owner/chef is Esther Moy, and she came out to talk to me. She said that she studied to be a nutritionist but then married a chef. She said that she is happy to cook gluten free for diners. She told me that she gets customers referred by the Northbrook Gluten Free Store and offered me their business card. She also gave me her business card and an extra menu that I will bring to my next gluten intolerance group meeting. Her take-out menu does have a list of 8 items on a gluten free menu. Although she said that she can make any entree gluten free.

What a great find! We had a great AND safe dinner, my kids tried something new, and we found yet another dining out option. My husband even mentioned that we could consider catering from the Golden Chef for some future event, that was a great idea!