Restaurant Spotlight of the Week

With one of the largest menus in the area, local Chinese carry out restaurant Chef Express supplies its clients with no shortage of choices. The menu, which is conveniently divided by ingredients, each of the main meats (seafood, pork, beef and poultry), having its own section as well as the normal appetizers and side dishes. Most items can be ordered in lunch and dinner portions and all come with white rice as a side.

During lunchtime, diners can choose from 17 lunch combinations, each served with an Egg Roll, Fried Rice and a choice of Egg Drop or Hot & Sour Soup. These meals are available from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. and are very well priced.

The heart of the menu lies in the section labeled "Chef Specialties." This section, consisting of 18 items, features such classic Chinese dishes as General Tso's chicken and Sesame Beef.

One dish, named Treasure's in Bird Nest, features a delicious medley of diced chicken, scallops, jumbo shrimps, roast pork and fresh vegetables.

The Lemon Chicken is served with the Lemon sauce on the side, allowing each customer to choose exactly how much of the slightly sour, sweet sauce they would like their chicken covered in. Plus, by supplying more than enough, the restaurant provides you with an opportunity to try the sauce on some of their other dishes.

Most importantly, every item that might have a little kick is labeled as Hot & Spicy, so those diners wary of such dishes can easily avoid ordering something that might burn their mouth.

Enough about the size and layout of the menu, the best quality of Chef Express is the heaping portions of delicious food. Each piece of meat is cooked until it is incredibly tender, and then soaked in sauce as it sits in convenient carry out packages.

Plus, if meat isn't your thing, there are plenty of vegetarian options and even a low calorie menu for all you dieters. Two Chinese food classics, Lo Mein and fried rice, come with a vegetarian option, and there are soups, combinations and dishes made of exclusively vegetables which consist of Sauteed Broccoli with Garlic Sauce, a few bean curd dishes and Szechaun String Bean, among others.

Any order of more than $12 entitles the customer to the restaurant’s Free Delivery service, but the restaurant, located in Falls Plaza shopping center, can be easily and quickly reached from everywhere in Falls Church for their take out service.

No Chinese restaurant can ignore the vital importance of the fortune cookie, and Chef Express provides its customers with an abundance of the crunchy, sweet, wisdom dispensers, to top off what has most certainly been a delicious Chinese meal. For a full menu, visit Chef Express online at their website, www.chefexpress.com.