Photo: eyeliam
Portland isn’t exactly known for its Chinese food, but we do have some strong opinions. As usual a small group of restaurants received the bulk of the votes.I don’t particularly care for Wong’s King anymore, but if you have never had the huge dining room, dim sum experience, it is a good option. If you are in Beaverton/Hillsboro, the Taste of Sichuan is worth checking out. In 2011 the votes went Lucky Strike, Wong’s, Ocean City. Nice to see Shandong shake things up.
610 votes:
1. Lucky Strike – 21% 3862 Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard Portland, OR 97214 Map (503) 206-8292. Sichuan Cuisine
2. Shandong – 15% – 3724 Northeast Broadway Street Portland, OR 97232 Map (503) 287-0331. Northern Chinese
3. Wong’s King Seafood – 12% 8733 Southeast Division Street Portland, OR 97266 Map (503) 788-8883. Focus on seafood, dim sum. My review
4. Ocean City Seafood – 10% 3016 Southeast 82nd Avenue Portland, OR 97266 Map (503) 771-2299. Varied regions, dim sum
5. Seres – 3% 1105 Northwest Lovejoy Street Portland, OR 97209 Map (971) 222-7327. Szechuan/regional fusion
6. Taste of Sichuan – 3% 16261 Northwest Cornell Road Beaverton, OR 97006 Map (503) 629-7001. SW China
7. Frank’s Noodle House – 3% 822 Northeast Broadway Street Portland, OR 97232 Map (503) 288-1007
My favorites are Lucky Strike and Shandong.
You can see the rest of the 2012 Reader Survey results here.
View Best Chinese Restaurants in Portland in a larger map
Nancy Rommelmann says
Shandong, who knew? Will try.
L'epicier says
The problem is that I am unaware of any Chinese rastaurants that serve only free range beef, local chicken, or wild prawns. Anybody out there?
Food Dude says
Seres at least makes an effort – http://seresrestaurant.com/about-2/
Live To Eat says
I had lunch at Shandong with a friend. Neither one of us could finish our food. It was horrible. I’m afraid to give it a second try. Whenever we have a bad meal we rename the restaurant. Shandung, Dragonsmell, and Il Shiato come to mind.
Jason says
Shen Zhen on 82nd is definitely worth a try as well. May not look like much, but there’s some excellent food there.
matt says
Just goes to show the sad state of Chinese restaurants in Portland.
pdxyogi says
Tried Lucky Strike once. Greasy, and bad service.
Wong’s, while they have been toeing the line the past year with decent reports, has a history of horrible health dept inspections with scores that actually threatened them with closure if they didn’t clean up immediately.
Agree with Matt.
mostly_running says
I’ve tried lucky strike 3 times now. The food was edible the first time, but the service was horrible each time. Really disappointing. I had high hopes when they made the move closer in.
Food Dude says
I agree that Chinese is still sad in Portland, but it is better than it used to be. I haven’t been to Lucky Strike since they moved.
jack says
If anyone care, you should try Dragonwell Bistro (used to call Sangari) in Downtown on SW First and Yamhill, although parking is an issue, the Max line is in front of the restaurant and if you care about the quality of food, service and special authentic Chinese dishes and the atmosphere, You should try it, the taste?? you should decide yourself!!
http://www.dragonwellbistro.com
pdxyogi says
Jack: Thank you for the input, Dragonwell owner.
Live To Eat says
I guess Jack didn’t see the connection in one of the nicknames I posted, above. ;)
Pleen says
My favorite Cantonese restaurant is Pure Spice (2446 SE 87th Ave – off of Division). Please go and try their food! I’m there once a week and I’m worried that they won’t make it because they don’t market themselves at all. Try their cilantro rice noodle, clay pots, sauteed lotus root and Pork w/Japanese tofu. I’m sure their American-Chinese food is good too…but this is the real deal, so ask for recommendations & order something you’re not familiar with!
Carmen says
Thanks for the info. Some of these are fairly close to my house. i know this is not a PDX restaurant, but Hunan Pearl is by far the best Chinese I’ve had since relocating to PDX (I’ve lived in Boston, Orlando, and Atlanta as well, where decent Chinese was just as hard to find). It is fresh and pretty reasonably priced, the staff is friendly and accommodating, but the drive is a it much with a 3-year-old in tow from North Portland. Highly recommend.
PtH says
Sigh.. comments that we have a sad state of (Chinese) affairs in PDX. Just not true. Chinatown Restaurant, EC Kitchen, Chinese Delicacy, Shen Zhen, OM Seafood (how did THAT not get mentioned???), Yummy Yummy, Good Taste, Powell Seafood, Bejing Hotpot, Best Taste, Wing Wa BBQ (technically Korean / Chinese), ….
the list goes on and on (and on). These are all very good, if not superb, authentic Chinese restaurants.
I’ve not found any better Chinese food in Vancouver BC or anywhere in Cali, that’s for sure. You just have to know where to go and what to order (before casting votes on limited information).
I probably seem negative, or bitchy. It’s late, and I just keep getting astounded by the limited restaurants that get not only nominated, but bolstered. I love Lucky Strike, and much of the food is legit, and the service is always absolutely excellent in all of my experiences…. And I love Wong’s King and Ocean City (sometimes). But is that really all people think exist in this town?
Shandong gets props for offering straight up sticky sweet “guilty pleasure” Chinese American fusion without feeling like you’re getting Panda Express General Tso’s. And their soups and noodle dishes are the most creative part of the menu.
bvm says
Lucky Strike was great when it was a hole-in-the-wall in the middle of nowhere with long waits for service. I think the quality of the food suffered with their expansion.
Taste of Sichuan is doing a great job of serving both traditional Chinese dishes and traditional Chinese-American dishes in the same place (and the sizable Chinese-born population in the area seems to agree).
Pleen says
PtH: I respectfully disagree…have you tried Koi Palace in California? This article lists 10 great Chinese restos in Cali that easily top any of the restaurants we have in Portland. Don’t get me wrong – I’m grateful that we have Canto Chinese restaurants in our humble city, but they are nowhere near the quality of the ones listed in the article below: http://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/best-chinese-restaurants-america-are-they-all-california
bvm: Personally, I’m not impressed with Taste of Sichuan. It is the best Sichuan in the Portland area, but nowhere near as good as other Sichuan restaurants nationwide (ex., Peter Chang’s in Richmond & Charlottesville, VA, Mala Sichuan in Houston, TX, China Star in Falls Church, VA). I think people dine at Taste of Sichuan because it is the best this area has to offer, but that doesn’t mean that there is room for (great) improvement. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for competition in this category to heat up and bring in better quality Chinese food.
JandJ says
Sorry, PTH, totally have to agree with Pleen on this one. Taste of Sichuan is pretty decent and certainly one of the best of its type in the PDX area IMHO. However, it isn’t even close to some of the better places I’ve tried in SF, for example (the original Hunan near the financial district immediately comes to mind). I regard your other examples as similar in quality to ToS and again well subpar to many places I’ve tried in California. As good as food is in this town, I remain disappointed that we don’t have Hunan and Sichuan food that measures up to the same quality level.
Portland girl says
Honestly my favorite restaurant in Portland is Canton Grill on 82nd and Divison. The chow mein is to die for, the egg rolls are a little too doughy for my tastes, but overall the staff is awesome and it’s a family business that’s been here since like 1942. My boyfriend says Hong Kong is easily the best, but I always go to Canton Grill, plus their bar is awesome and always busy. Their chicken chow mein is great as is their crab puffs, (OMFG I never leave there without them), give it a shot.