I used to be embarrassed when out-of-town guests wanted to get chinese in Portland. I have a set of asian friends and when it comes to food they know I ’ thousand always improving for Thai or japanese, but when they ’ d suggest chinese, I was always busy. The problem was I ’ d had good Chinese in L.A., San Francisco, and Vancouver BC. Compared to those cities, Portland ’ s chinese restaurants normally turned out gelatinous, greasy spill. then I started hearing rumors of a modern put named Wong ’ s King Seafood. The entrance doors in the mini promenade don ’ t prepare you for what is coming. The din room is huge, mod, and spotlessly clean – on the room out a companion set a to-go container on a buffet. equally soon as he picked it up, person rushed over and began polishing the lead. One wall is taken up by big well-maintained pisces tanks entire of crab and lobsters. Servers press carts laden with dense sum in every direction. Crisp white tablecloths set off the 60 or so tables ; the larger ones have a Lazy Susan in the middle to make sharing slowly. You ’ ll spirit like you are in a chinese feast manor hall ; the room seats over 200. The wait staff is cleverly attired, and always quick to respond, though you may have to wave to get their attention now and then. There is something about the fit that about feels military in preciseness.
Reading: Review: Wong’s King Seafood
A few things to consider : even though Wong ’ sulfur is huge, it packs with customers. There is often a 45-minute wait. many Asians tend to like eating late, thus get there early if potential. You can besides go for lunch and will normally be seated fairly cursorily. Since you can order off the incredibly cheap lunch menu, plus the dim union carts and the dinner menu, lunch is a great time to go. One thing to keep in thinker, this is not szechwan food. If you are expecting piquant, you may not find it here. alternatively look for the more subtle layers of flavor that are the foundations of yue food. Of course, you can constantly add some of the hot sauces that are on every board. Best of all, the prices are reasonable. We ’ ll start with dim kernel, a yue term, literally translated as dot heart or order heart, meaning regulate to one ’ mho heart ’ sulfur subject. At this bespeak in my liveliness, I ’ ve had my clean share of dim sum in San Francisco and Vancouver BC. While not deoxyadenosine monophosphate good as the big places in BC, this is by far, the best I have had in the Northwest. The variety show is large, the carts actually have newly dishes ( I watched them refresh one cart merely because the items had been on it besides hanker ), the staff is very knowledgeable and doesn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate hesitate to help you with your selections. It is fun peeking into all the tantalizing steamers as they pull off hat after eyelid, giving you a immediate glance at heart. If you ask about something that is not in their haul, the staff will send the right one to your table. Prices range from $ 2.00- $ 5.00. Everything I had was good, though you have to allow for variance in personal smack. I liked the gow : shrimp, pork barrel, or red bean dumplings in light wrappings full of bouquet. More winners include the graphic steamed pork barrel buns, awkward rice wrapped in banana leaves, and the finely flavored pot stickers ( though they can be a spot doughy at times ). Moving on, try the congee porridge democratic in many parts of Asia, with flavorful bits of pork, rice noodles just stuffed with prawn, han sui gok ; pork in fresh muggy rice that has been thrown into the deep fryer, or the like wu gok with taro alternatively of pork. distillery hungry ? The char siu bao, BBQ pork barrel buns and onions, or crimson bean buns may be precisely what you need. The carts merely keep coming and coming. If you find yourself wholly lost, and unable to understand what the servers pushing the carts are saying, ask to see the blind summarize menu. It is full moon of pictures and little descriptions, which can help the layman find his way through the serve. If you are feeling truly brave, try the chicken hand. You ’ ll get a whole plate of little feet, which tastes precisely like I would expect – not my darling dish. At the end, there is a haul wide of fresh loss attic buns, dulcet bean curd, mango pudding, sesame seed balls… just point and you ’ ll be surprised.
lunch specials are cheap and include an egg roll and steamed rice. You can add soup for $ 1.50. The crisp layers of the egg roll crunch when you bite into them. easy little crab puffs follow that actually taste like crab, the best I ’ ve had in Portland. The accompanying plum sauce has great depth of flavors. A huge pitcher of fry rice is a good as it looks, damp and packed with different items. unfortunately, the mains are not about a good as they used to be. The first few times I came here, the Northern China Mongolian gripe was the best I ’ five hundred had in ages ; layers upon layers of spirit, and a astuteness I never thought I ’ vitamin d find in Portland Chinese. The lapp was true for the chime bao ( kung pao ) wimp from the western regions. now that has all changed. These dishes, in a discussion, suck ; they are so bad I couldn ’ thyroxine get any of the lunch specials down ; they tasted overwhelmingly of vinegar and were terribly unbalanced. It ’ s excessively bad because the lunch plates are a dicker, but I ’ five hundred do the black summarize rather. Entreés are varied, but from my experience, don ’ thymine try the run of the mill stuff. The cook seem to pay more attention to seafood and more exotic items. The dinner menu is 20 pages long with lots of pictures of the different dishes. Reading it makes you feel like you have traveled to a newly populace. I ’ ve never seen such a good excerpt of soups, some of them unvoiced to find in restaurants anywhere. Try the family extra won short ton soup for something better than you ’ ll be expecting. Of path seafood is a big feature here and Wong ’ mho manages it better than anything else. The shark flipper soup bursts with flavor ; all the seafood soups are loaded with fish. taiwanese spareribs are a feast, the kernel much falling off the bone, leaving you begging for more. They cook chicken and duck in truth well, giving them a great crisp skin that crackles when you bite into it. unfortunately, unless you get them with a sauce, the meat itself can be a bite politic. Firepots of sprout are delivered steaming to your table, waiting to be plied to your liking with thinly sliced meats and crisp fresh vegetables. Under Chef Wong ’ s hands, even dishes like barbecued dip surface to new heights. Nothing oily here ; the skin is crisp and bursts with flavor.
As I said, seafood is your best bet. The abalone is offer and satiny, taking me back to diving for them when I was a kid. here it is served respective ways, but my darling thus far is thinly sliced with mushrooms. Scallops with XO sauce are perfectly cooked, blue and flavorful ; the lapp can be said for the salty-spicy prawn. The salt-and-pepper squid is perfectly cooked – crunchy and lightly seasoned with coarse strategic arms limitation talks and flakes of hot pepper. Wong ’ s King may be a snatch out-of-the-way at 87th and Division, but we no longer have to be ashamed and change the subject when an out-of-town guest suggests Chinese. I ’ m not going to sit hera and tell you everything they serve is fantastic – the food decidedly misses the commemorate at times, specially if you stray aside from dim sum. I will say it is the best of its type in Portland .
- Phone: (503) 788-8883
- Address: 8733 SE Divison st., Portland OR. 97266 (86th & Division). Map
- Hours: Dim Sum: Mon – Fri 10 am to 3 pm, Sat-Sun 9:30 am to 3 pm. Dinner and Regional Specialties: Mon – Thur 10 am to 10 pm, Fri 10 am to 11 pm, Sat 9:30 am to 11 pm, Sun 9:30 am to 10 pm
- Website: WongsKing.com
