Bryan Y.
Yelp
i had the mandarin crispy chicken lunch special, which comes with a soup (i chose hot & sour) and white or fried rice (i chose the latter). as i entered the restaurant the hostess asked me if i wanted water or hot tea. i opted for hot tea.
first, the hot tea is 2 bucks. not a lot, but i've rarely seen hot tea being charged at chinese restaurants, no less when offered as an option against water. so that was off-putting. the hot & sour soup was fine. i asked for hot mustard, and they gave me little to-go packets. i asked for a red hot sauce like sambal and they offered me chili oil (which was fine). but it was in this little to-go container. and even that didn't have enough chili flakes in it. i don't know, everything was off-putting... obviously their primary business is takeway/delivery.
the chicken was okay. not as crispy as the name of the dish would suggest. the food came out really fast, so clearly all of it is just sitting under some heat lamps or something. the sauce didn't seem to be added on over chicken, i don't know. seemed like it was just in a buffet dish or something. it tasted fine i guess. the fried rice was really under seasoned. the whole time i wished i had ordered white rice. anyway, the whole experience of dining in was pretty sub-par. not terrible, but not good either. price was fine i guess, in this day and age (see lunch menu photo - wait... as a matter of fact, even the menu they offered me at the dine-in was a takeaway paper menu! like, they don't cater to dine-in whatsoever... which is a waste because their space there is quite nice).
it's a shame not that great, because it's very convenient. and lastly, an observation: i noticed that average 3.5 star ratings in portland on yelp usually means the restaurant is not that great. that's just what i've noticed... usually 3.5 means above average, but not in portland. need to heed that more often.