Pure Spice

I’ve had dim sum twice, and while my first experience went a lot smoother, I have to say I liked certain aspects of this experience more!
There was no line, we were seated immediately. I had to request dim sum menus, so for anyone who wasn’t aware they did dim sum– that would be unfortunate!
The prices were good. However, they were out of most things. We were seated before 7pm, but they were pretty much out most of the items we were interested in– bbq pork, roasted pork, milk tea, milk custard, a couple of other misc. dishes.
I loved the shu mai, their bbq pork buns were the best I’ve had. I experienced many new dishes, but was disappointed they didn’t offer others I had tried elsewhere. Nearly everything I ate was delicious, except the pot of tea wasn’t to my taste.
My low rating comes from the awkward service. She seemed to get tired of telling us they were out of something, and sent another person to do so. As well as the fact they were out of so many things! I realize these things do happen. I’d probably come back. Hopefully my next experience is better and I can write a kinder review!

This is my favorite Chinese food in Portland. It is tucked away in the corner of a busy strip mall but it is worth the walk if the parking lot is full.
I have had many of the dishes but perhaps my favorite thing on the menu is the orange chicken. I know that makes me sound unadventurous but I swear you should try it. I feel like that dish perfectly captures what is great about this place. Nearly every Chinese food place serves an identical orange chicken but not here. It is more aromatic and slightly spicy. You can see the orange zest in the glaze.
This place puts a little extra care and love into their recipes, no matter the dish. It may make you rethink your stance on some menu items you’ve written off as ‘generic’ in the past. This place spices everything up in a new way and should definitely be tried.
Must haves:
Scallion Pancake
Honey BBQ Pork
Orange Chicken
Dry Fried String Bean
Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce

Second stop on my PDX dim sum tour left me thinking, who shrunk the dim sum? This is a medium sized restaurant which was clean but slightly dreary décor. The counter lady, took my order, efficient enough, but as dreary as the décor. Took almost 30 minutes to make the dim sum. Overall all the dim sum was about 10−20% smaller than the average dim sum. Not a huge difference but easy to see and feel if you eat a lot of dim sum. The smaller size is somewhat easier to eat, almost 1 bite size like sushi. So here is how I rated them: siu mai 3.5÷5, har gow 4/​5, bean curd roll 4/​5, pot sticker 3.5÷5 steamed cha siu bao 2.5÷5. Total score 17.5÷25. The cost was around $ 17. Overall, this place is better than average but not awesome. All that said, I would return, just not order the steamed cha siu bao. They don’t make the baked version and in their steamed bao, their isn’t much filling, really doughy. Other than that, it’s worth checking out.

Went for dim sum over the weekend. Everything was very good — and the recommendations to try the fried string beans (which we probably never would have ordered on our own) were spot on. We mentioned to our server that it was our first dim sum since moving to Portland a few months ago; she came over with a complimentary order of BBQ pork — not even knowing that’s my husband’s favorite thing! Our new go-​to place for Chinese.

Rich flavorful authentic Chinese food. Not Americanized at all. The pictures in the menu tell a story. The dim sum is made fresh. Complex and complex hot and sour soup. Must try the fired green beans which aren’t really fried but sautéed in garlic. Probably the best Chinese in Portland. Enjoy!

Went here for Dim Sum w/​two other people. Service was about as attentive as you can expect for one of these spots, waitress was polite and courteous.
We ordered:
Five Spice Duck (10.50 for a half portion, which is a lot of duck. Sauce was great, duck was fatty and flavorful.)
Oyster Sauce and Chinese Broccoli (Around 7 dollars. Probably the best version I’ve ever had. Great ratio of sauce to well-​cooked greens, aka not too much.)
BBQ Pork Bums (2.75, a steamed trio, heavily spiced, total crowd-​pleaser)
Shrimp and Fungus Dumpling (2.75, you gotta like mushrooms for this one. Not my favorite dumpling skin. Unless your a fungus fanatic, I’d skip this one.)
Turnip Cake (2.75, best version I’ve probably had in the States. Top was wonderfully crispy, plenty of soft, savory turnip inside, breaks apart with some force, but firm enough to hold up to your chopsticks. A definite repeat order and excellent candidate for soaking up the nearby chili oil.)
Kim-​Chi (2.75, The last thing to come out, and actually perhaps my favorite dish. Perfect way to cleanse the palate, best version I’ve had from a Chinese place. Tangy, full of vinegar with minimum funk that a lesser kim-​chi might have.)
Overall, having been to both HK Café and here for Dim Sum, I’d say Pure Spice is simply better. They don’t use the carts, which may be a problem for those who enjoy the speed/​theatricality of it, but they actually have a great menu laid out, including pictures of both of their dim sum and regular menu. Dish for dish, you’ll simply have a more relaxed, higher quality experience here at comparable prices. We had no wait time (although it was a holiday/​Monday).
If you like Dim Sum/​good Chinese food and are trapped in Oregon, you should find a way over here.

Really good shrimp dumplings. Clean food. As far as service you have to wait a while to get water.

Delicious steamed buns, string beans, and taro cakes. Pleasant staff who are very efficient! Can’t wait to go back!

This is my go-​to for Cantonese food. I feel like I’m back in Hong Kong when I taste anything from their kitchen. This isn’t a fancy place. If you’d like the experience of home-​cooked Cantonese food, this is the place to come to!

My boyfriend and I love their General Tso’s chicken. My sister is a huge fan of the hand pulled noodle, usually she goes for the pork.
We’ve gotten our Christmas Eve Chinese takeout here for the last two years that we’ve spent the holidays in Portland — though I’ve lived here for 10 years, I’ve usually spent the holidays in my hometown. Each time they’ve been really nice and gotten our food out to us really fast. The combination dinners of ‘American’s favorites’ are an awesome deal when you can choose a main entrée with the addition of egg fried rice and an appetizer of your choice: BBQ Pork or Spring/​Egg rolls being my favorite. We ate our combo dinners completely and though we were left with a belly ache from fullness, there were no regrets.
The chicken is breaded, fluffy but not soggy, and so so so good. I will say, if there is a ‘con’, I don’t like their dim sum as much as HK (But bear with me, I’ve only been to each place for dim sum once). That’s my only criticism.
My favorite ‘American’ Chinese food in Portland, OR! Maybe I’ll get brave and try their more traditional, non-​dim sum dishes sometime… if I can move past the General Tso.

Happy New Year. We decided to try Pure Spice and what a good choice it was! Thanks Unilocal for the recommendation. My favorite was the chive and pork pancake. The pork shu mai was the best I’ve had. Lovely pork ribs. I think the pig’s ears are an acquired taste, not bad but not yummy. Pumpkin pancakes were good. All dim sum items are a flat $ 2.75. What a great bargain for excellent food.

I really enjoy the food here. PDX is limited on Chinese food, especially decent dim sum (HK Café is always PACKED by 9:00am which is a pain in the ass). There isn’t cart service, but they make ordering from a menu pretty easy.

This review is based on 3 visits. Please read about our bad service experience on our third time here.
Not a typical «Americanized» Chinese restaurant by any means. There were a couple of ducks hung in the window, and you will NOT find the typical numbered combination plates. That’s okay, try eating a bit out of your usual comfort zone of combination plates.
For those of us not familiar with the language, the menu has pictures of many of the items and English titles. We didn’t see chicken on the menu at all. That was odd.
Sweet and sour soup was very sour, my date liked the rich consistency with vegetables and noodles.
At our first visit here, I received my main dish before our appetizer came, scallion pancakes. Poor timing there. The scallion cakes were not very scallionie, but I liked the texture and they were nice to have as scoops for some of the other dishes we ordered.
You’ve got to try the dry fried green beans! So good.
On our second visit I tried the Flavorful Chicken. It was a whole bird chopped up. It was great, but really messy.
On our 3^rd time here it was very busy, and service was poor. Not only did we have to ask for water 4 times, but it seemed like we were not given the same level of attention as those of another racial background. We noticed others having issues with the service, and unfortunately they too were the same racial difference as we were. When the first plate came we were asked if we would like forks we said yes they never showed up we had to ask a second time. Not a single word uttered when all these things were brought to our table. This is inexcusable.
I ordered a daily special, roaster pork with taro clay pot. It was good, the taro flavorful. However the pork was very fatty and mostly chewy with gristle. I would not order this again.
My date had shredded chicken in spicy sauce. It was good, but she said she wished it had come on rice or noodles instead of lettuce.
Our guest had beef chow fun, and it was good and that he’d order it again.
Portions are generous and you are likely to take home leftovers.
Overall, great food but one in three visits we got very rude service. They might have received a 5 star if not for our third experience and the observations that others had the same service problems.
My fortune cookie read: «Good beginning is half done.» I suspect something was mixed up in the translation.

Food came out super fast which was good. I had the won ton noodle with duck. It was pretty good, however my duck was kind of cold. I had to drown it in my soup to warm up. We also ordered the beef ho fun and satay noodles. I tasted them and they were alright, nothing amazing. Service was decent. 3 stars because everything overall was just OK.

My friends gave Pure Spice mixed reviews, completely different end of the spectrum from «love this place» to «terrible…simply terrible». I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and gave it a try, went with a friend for lunch when our initial plans fell through. She was craving Canto food. Between the two of us, we ordered shrimp dumplings, chicken feet, fried dumplings with ground pork, rice rolls with Chinese donut, pumpkin pancake, beef roll, and half a roasted duck. Even with the smaller dim size servings, needless to day, it was too much food for two people. Was it bad? No. Was it good? No. Just typical OK dim sum. Since it wasn’t a weekend, they made the dim sum to order which took longer but I feel that they probably use frozen products because it didn’t taste freshly made. The Chinese donut was so soggy in the rice roll and everything kind of had a tapioca flour taste to it with a slightly different but distinct flavor. It all pretty much tasted the same, nothing was very unique. The duck was nicely fatty and tender – just what you want in roasted meat (did not serve it with the plum sauce). The beef roll was the biggest disappointment, the meat was dry and the roll itself was bland. It filled me up. It’s not great or terrible, but I wouldn’t come here again for dim sum. Maybe I’ll give their lunch/​dinner menu a try.

I never came here because the name sounds like an Indian grocery store, not a Chinese restaurant, but I was looking for a new dim sum place to try, and Unilocal seemed to recommend it. When you first walk in, no one acknowledges you at door. It wasn’t very crowded and they seemed totally confused when we said 2 people. Eventually they sat us in the rather empty back room (which smelled like diapers and fish.) To order, you fill out a card with the dim sum you want and proceed to wait 30+ minutes for a couple of steamed dumplings while the table full of Chinese people who arrived 15 min later gets almost all their food at once. (Their table ordered a large quantity of noodles, meat, etc which take much longer to cook than a pre-​made bun that just needs to be steamed.) You get one item at a time: after 30 min we got 1 of the 7 items we ordered, 15 min later we got item #2, 10 min later items #3 and 4, 5 min later item 5, and 10 min later item 6 (lotus leaf sticky rice which was still frozen in the middle). We cancelled that order and our remaining sui mai since an hour to microwave food is unacceptable. I know it’s not uncommon for Chinese restaurants to give preferential treatment to Asians, but it’s not a business model I can continue to support, especially when the food is mediocre. The only good thing was that the price is lower than other places in the area.

I loved everything I ate here. A friend suggested it, telling me it was delicious and not like all the other dim sum places. He was right.
I met him for lunch and was a little surprised to find Pure Spice tucked away almost right next to Wong’s King. Next surprise, no line. It’s a small space, clean, quiet. There were no carts coming around so we just ordered a couple dishes at a time. I loved every single one!
They have some of the old regulars that all dim sum places offer, but I was happy to find several dishes I’d never seen before. We tried a good number of them and I liked every single one. I had a couple old regulars too and loved them. The seaweed wraps were my favorite of the new dishes, and pork shiu mai was the best of the old stand-​bys, absolutely delicious.
We’ll be heading back for another try again soon. I’d also love to try their non dim sum menu, it looked great, but I felt this review was needed ASAP to share the love that is Pure Spice food.

Came here and had their Singapore noodles. Not as good as the one I’ve had at Spicy Talk in Redmond, WA but since that’s three hours away this will have to do. The aroma’s are comparable but I think they can kick up the flavor and spice. I’ll be back to try their dim sum. Thrillist had them on a list for Portland’s best dim sum.

This place is awesome when it comes to dim sum! They have everything that King’s across the street has, but this place is cheaper, friendlier, and best of all, no line/​wait ever! I’d rather not review this place because by bringing it more attention, there WILL be a wait soon enough, but I wouldn’t be doing this place justice.
Not only is their dim sum above average, but its only $ 2.75 each! Their chicken wings are fingerlickin’ good and only $ 6 for 6 wings, they have spicy and regular… go for the spicy, you won’t regret it!
All in all, this place is a must try and for cheap prices, no wait time, and delicious meals, why not?! One of the better Asian restaurants in Portland, Or.

This is our go –to Chinese restaurant in Portland. It’s authentic, creative, and dishes are well prepared.
It’s hard to recommend dishes because there are so many good ones. Try coming here during the day for the dim sum menu. Try a few things and find out which dishes you like. For dinner come with a bunch of friends. If there are specials on the whiteboard, definitely try one or two of them. Some good standbys are the Singapore noodle, the dry sautéed green beans, the clams with blackbean sauce, spicy lamb dishes, and much more.
Come with a bunch of friends and experiment!