Kwang Chow Restaurant

11/22/08

Not very good food

by psychefolksy at Citysearch

From the high reviews on this site, my girlfriend and I drove 5 miles to eat here.

The restaurant smelled of cigarette smoke, though this was more toward the back of the restaurant. The atmosphere wasn't very appealing. The booth-style seats were low and gave in a fair amount/weren't very supportive. We ordered egg rolls, mandarin fried chicken and sweet and sour chicken. They don't have potstickers. There wasn't complimentary tea. The egg rolls were better than average: they were larger and had some meat inside. We had to ask for sauce (sweet/sour). The mandarin fried chicken wasn't bad but wasn't very good either. It tasted like it had tabasco sauce in it or something, didn't quite taste right. the chicken was pretty soft, which could be good or bad depending on your preference. My girlfriend had mainly the sweet and sour chicken, and she said that it wasn't just not great, she would say it was actually bad (I wouldn't agree that it was bad). She said that she liked the steamed rice a lot, that she could tell when rice was fresh. I didn't like it as much as steamed rice at other chinese restaurants. In addition, the dishes were $10-11, which seemed a little expensive compared to other chinese restaurants I've been to. Compared to 3 other chinese restaurants in Portland (House of Louie, Wong's Garden and Gold Bowl, of which House of Louie was the best IMO) we both agreed that this was the worst.

Can't speak for the food we didn't order, but for what we experienced, I'd say avoid.

04/30/07

Lunch Buffet was not good, small selection, not fresh

by sacorbin at Citysearch

After seeing the great reviews online, I thought this was one of THE places to try Chinese food. Unfortunately, I am again disappointed. I dropped in for lunch at about 12:20 and I was able to grab a table right away.....this should have warned me. If the food is that great, wouldn't there be a wait for a table? Going against my normal rule on dining out ,(do not eat at a restaurant if it is almost empty during a normally busy time of day) I grabbed one of the many open tables. I ignored the slightly stale smell of the place because all of the reviews said it was a funky diner but the food was excellent. I take a tour of the buffet (1 small section of hot food and 1/4 section of cold lettuce/fruit section), not a lot of choices but that's OK, I grab my plate and head to the hot food. Everyone said the spring rolls were awesome and the best they had ever tasted, I am not sure where they have dined at, but they were definitely not the best I had ever eaten. They had good flavor but the filling was not really distinguishable, everything inside was mushy and the outside was very greasy. The noodle dishes were better than the ones at the fast food chinese shops in the malls but the kung pao chicken had no flavor and did not look very fresh. The price of the buffet was the same compared to some of the other Chinese buffet lunch places around the city, but the other palces have a much better selection and better food. Overall it was a very disappointing lunch.

• Pros: Qucik Seating, Easy to find
• Cons: Food not fresh, greasy.