Szechuan Chef

Very nice place to get Sichuan food in Portland. Food is good and options are huge. Try their chalkboard menu in the entrance if you don’t know what to order, those are the best and can’t be wrong to try!

I have been here more times than I could remember but have always failed to adequately check in and review the place because I simply could not wait to dig into many of my favorite dishes here.
The pork belly in garlic sauce appetizer explodes with flavor in your tongue. The pungent garlic floods your taste buds and the fatty pork belly cools your excitement. The cumin deep fried pork ribs is completely devoid of any saltiness and it compensates in the savoriness that it offers; the crunchy pieces falls right off the bone and sweetness of the meat completes the bite.
Other dishes are just as satisfying such as the sautéed string bean, chopped hot fish, and eggplant; however be aware of the oil if you are more health conscious of what you eat!
Overall, it is a go to place for distinct dishes of the east!

Excellent food! Hi quality and fresh ingredients. Quick take out service. Thank you!

Whoo Hoo for Mu Shu!
First time here, and I was left very impressed. A friend suggested our guys night here, and it did not disappoint. This is one of those little hidden gems that really sticks out in your mind as a ‘go to’ place.
Extensive menu with lots of vegetarian options, and everything as fresh as can be. Whilel the rest of our group enjoyed crispy peppercorn chicken and a fresh steamed Tilapia (you’ll see them swimming when you walk in!), I opted for a beautiful veggie platter of Mu Shu Tofu, which was a first for me. Great selection of grilled vegetables, mushroom, and noodle with some sweet and tangy plum sauce you wrap in little crêpe pancakes. Really great! However, the star for me was the Eggplant in Hot Garlic Sauce. Pretty much a favorite for all of us, it makes a great appetizer to share for the table. Just the right amount of spice, sauce, and rice to make it flavorful and memorable.
Dinner comes with complimentary tea. Proper Chinese tea, not the Lipton variety mind you! This place makes for great opportunity to try new things, and split dishes family style which I highly recommend. They also have a bar and plenty of beers if you’re so inclined.
Only negatives were that no specials were explained to us, although they had a huge specials board in front. Just would have been good to know our options after being seated. The restrooms are not the best. A little past their prime and not well maintained. Moldy caulking pulling away from the wall. However this wasn’t such a big deal and would not discourage me from eating here. They just need a maintenance crew to get in here and get to work.
Overall, fantastic little place in John’s Landing. Great value meals, you’ll be stuffed for under $ 15 and their service is attentive and polite. A place like this will change your mind about Chinese food, and with a lot of love and care in the cooking, your taste buds and tummy will be smiling with goodness!

Thank you to the manager Daniel, for taking care of my concerns.

Very authentic szechuan style food. Whenever I am in this part of town I will get lunch, and I have brought several groups of people both family and business. The food is delicious and the service is good. They have really good stir fried pea shoots which you dont see every day. They are delicious, but the one dish I wouldn’t miss is the spicy spare ribs. That dish is the best on the menu!
It is a big restaurant and they will have room for you if you need to take a group of people or its just a couple of you.

Don’t order the «dumplings». They are filled with cheap, pink meat that doesn’t taste like pork. Go for the potstickers instead.
Fried rice and chow mein are alright. For the quality and lack of quantity the price is a bit steep.
Years ago I had the hotpot here and it was pretty bland, but perhaps that has changed.
It would be fantastic if this place started serving dimsum on weekends. They have the space for it, and would be the only close-​in dimsum location.
Very large restaurant with different rooms and great for accommodating large groups. If you’re just looking for a Chinese place that’s easy to get to, go here. If you want good food, head over to 82^nd (Powell’s Seafood, Wong King’s, Beijing HotPot, HK Café) or even Jin Wah out in Beaverton.

Our party of six chose Szechuan Chef to celebrate Chinese New Year.
The sliced fish in gravy and two different dumpling appetizers were stellar as usual. The Honey Walnut Shrimp was different than what you’d normally find at other Chinese restaurants, but very good. The long noodle with beef is a future pass, a few pieces were inedible.
What left a bad taste is when we ordered the crab. The server stressed that the flat price for the evening was $ 40! Nevermind that the going market rate is a fraction of that. It’s that they used the occasion to gauge their customers. This isn’t Western New Year where you get a hat and party favors for the inflated price. Lastly, they ran out of whole fish at 6:30 p.m. You’d think they would have forecasted a demand increase.
The staff forgot utensils, requested hot sauce, and didn’t replenish tea. This restaurant struck out on their big holiday.

Overall, a pretty decent Szechuan restaurant, especially now that Taste of Sichuan in Vancouver has closed. I think I was just spoiled by Han Dynasty, because no other restaurant can live up to its glory.
Service was good and the food was all that I expect from Szechuan (spicy, greasy and delicious). I just wish I was encouraged to pay $ 1 extra for the hand shaven noodles. I saw the pictures later on Unilocal and they look delectable.

Decent Szechuan food — I really feel like it used to be better in its earlier days, though. Stick to the authentic Szechuan dishes, such as the liang fen and ma la tofu, which are especially good.

This another of those 4.5 star situations, but who’s perfect, and it’s the holidays. Creativity is something I highly respect, and they have all kinds of dishes here; one of today’s specials – which I almost got – was spicy cold rabbit. You don’t see many cold dishes at American Chinese restaurant, but its a staple in China. However, I LOVE noodles, and the hand shaved noodles, for their pasta value, are exceptional. The texture reminds me of kluski my grandma used to make, but these are flat, widish, irregular, and slightly thick. Great hot and sour soup, pot stickers okay. Hunan beef very tasty though not very hot. Great service.

Best Chinese restaurant we’ve ever been to! As other reviewers have said, the hand shaved noodles with pork and the Mongolian beef are delicious. My wife also likes the wonton soup. We’ve eaten here and also done take-​out, and the food has been consistent and delicious each time. We’ll be back!

A-​OK. I had a late lunch on a Saturday and was the only customer in the restaurant. The service was quick and polite. The Kung Pao Tofu was served too hot but tasted good once it cooled. Be aware that the parking situation is a little confusing.

the menu is big.
the dishes are real.
overall, it’s fairly authentic and relatively good.
there are some rare dishes to be had here (pea shoots).
i have yet to be disappointed and the portions are huge.
hot pot is available and pretty good.

Sure, it’s greasy. Sure, the service isn’t top notch. It’s a Chinese restaurant and I don’t really expect anything other than spicy greasy food and mediocre service.
But heck yeah it’s satiating! Matt loves the spicy wonton there, and despite what I warned him, he would always wear a light colored shirt and the chili oil would guaranteed a spot on his light colored shirt. What do I think this restaurant needs? Plastic bibs, like the ones they give you at hands-​on seafood restaurants.
We’ve been here a few times now and everything we’ve gotten so far have been spicy and comforting. It’s perfect for those rainy days! Matt’s stable is the spicy wonton, but he also likes the house special shaven noodle. I like the prawn with sizzling rice, you can choose shell on or shell off. If you choose shell off, they’ll put in deep fried prawns instead of wok fried prawns (I think).
I’ve also had the Szechuan beef noodle soup with hand shaven noodles, but I think I like the Taiwanese flavor better. This one is just expectedly greasy but not very flavorful.
Skip the «Shanghai style pork dumplings» — nothing special, really. They’re not particularly juicy compared to some of the other ones I’ve had.
Their menu is huge so it can be a little overwhelming, but just know that the plates are pretty big, the price is reasonable, and expect to splash chili oil on your light colored shirt, you’re good.

Well first of all, this place was confusing to get to. Even though we were passing through Portland on the way back from our our weekend trip to Seattle. We are not familiar with the city and when we got here, the location was amongst business suites. We walked in and have to literally look suite by suite… We finally found it. We were greeted immediately and was seated. Me and my wife had Mongolian beef. It was serve to us a la carte style. we ate our lunch meal. I have Tasted better tasting Mongolian beef. I say it was pretty average. It was not great it sS good enough.

Good food
Had late lunch here (a little after 2:00p) coming home from Washington to California. Had a little trouble finding the restaurant as it is not a standalone place or located with other retail businesses. It is inside The Water Tower building which is like a professional building. Entered the building and took us inside like a maze looking for the place.
No lunch special served on weekends so we had to order a la carte. Had the Mongolian beef (requested not spicy) and white rice. Tasty and yummy and we were satisfied although it didn’t have any green onions and was a bit greasy. I guess each restaurant cooks it different. Groupon deal came out to more than our meal so we didn’t have to pay anything (aside from the tip). The server and host were nice and friendly always checking on us if everything was good. Restaurant was nice size and clean.

First, this restaurant is giant, at least compared to the tiny Chinese pop-​up places I’m used to! I brought my family here for my mother’s birthday and it was exactly the authentic, downright yummy Szechuan food we were looking and hoping for.
If you are hungry enough and are at all interested in noodles, beef, soup, or spicy things, you MUST get the Szechuan Beef Noodle Soup with hand-​shaven noodles. Don’t pass on the hand-​shaven noodles! They are 10x better than standard noodles, thick and chewy and so satisfying to bite into, and well-​worth the extra $ 1. Each order comes in a massive bowl so it is definitely very filling.
My only gripe with the noodle soup is that most of the beef is actually beef tendon. It probably should’ve bothered me more but I was too enamored with the soup’s flavor and noodles.
Our other dishes, the Chong Qing Hot Chicken and Stir Fry Snow Pea Shoots, were also delicious. I highly recommend the garlicky snow pea shoots.
Service was also very friendly and accommodating. The moment we walked in with a cake our waitress asked if we wanted to put it in the fridge. She also checked up on us frequently, chatted with us, and at the end of the meal brought out our cake again with a new set of plates and silverware. All in all, a great experience!

Bad reviews give me a headache, and this one is no exception.
A little history–
Sichuan (Szechwan) is colloquially known as the «heavenly country» due to its abundance of food and natural resources. One ancient Chinese account declared that the «people of Sichuan uphold good flavor, and they are fond of hot and spicy taste. Most Szechuan dishes are spicy, although a typical meal includes non-​spicy dishes to cool the palate. Szechuan cuisine is composed of seven basic flavors: sour, pungent, hot, sweet, bitter, aromatic, and salty. Szechuan food is divided into five different types: sumptuous banquet, ordinary banquet, popularized food, household-​style food, and food snacks.
Okay so you got all that? This restaurant just added a lot of oil and spiciness which translates into a greasy hot mess.
It’s located in a very odd place. When we walked in it was full of Asian patrons and I got a little excited because that typically means a restaurant is authentic if the people of that culture gather there to eat.
I needed to go to the restroom and that’s when things started to go south. The restroom smelled literally like a sewer plant. I gagged the whole time I was in there and breathed through my mouth just to pee. I couldn’t wash my hands fast enough. Dirty restrooms and bad smells in restrooms freak me out.
The menu is vast and huge.
My boys visited this place one time before me and raved about the spareribs and how much they thought I might like this place so I began with the egg flower soup and it was delicious which is why this review gets one star.
My favorite thing on any Chinese menu is barbecued pork. I judge every Chinese restaurant by their barbecued pork — and barbecued pork should be served cold, medium sliced, with red sauce, hot Chinese mustard, and a small bowl of sesame seeds for dipping. This barbecue pork was hot, very thinly sliced and dry, dry, dry — and oh so chewy.
Simply gross.
I then ordered the pork dumplings as I had heard they were pretty great. They arrived in their bamboo steaming bucket with the dumpling sauce that typically accompanies this dish. Upon first look the dumplings looked perfect — I let them cool down for a few minutes and took my first bite and got a mouthful of steam water it was disgusting.
I had asked for a glass of apple juice because there was no bottled water and a small bowl of sesame seeds which I never received. It’s the little things along with poorly prepared food that really disappoint me and piss me off when I’m spending good money at a restaurant.
My son ordered pork fried rice which was gummy, tasteless, and foul. My husband ordered the I think crispy fried pork belly which he said was great. I didn’t try it because at this point I had lost all confidence in this place.
They will prepare your food with no MSG if you ask. Although I’m not really sure if they’re paying attention when they take your order so you might need to reiterate that more than once. The portions are also huge. Maybe they think quantity is a substitute for quality?
We were sat near a big group of dirty dishes which was not terribly appetizing.
This place was just a dud. Sorry about that.

I rate this place a 4.5
I really like this place. The veggies with every meal is fresh and the meats are delicious. I always get the hot and sour soup and I really like it. I also always get the Szechuan chicken meal mostly, but everything I’ve ever gotten from here has been great. Despite the fact that it’s kind of pricey to for Chinese, all of the food is so fresh and is a regional cuisine, that I don’t mind the money. (Also, white rice doesn’t come with the meal unless you come during lunch which is a bummer because the high price should include rice with every meal).
Also, the service is really great. All the waitresses were extremely nice and friendly.