Chinese
As a rule, Chinese restaurants in Portland are unspeakably bad. However there are two exceptions of note. The first and most tasty is Wong's King Seafood Restaurant. Until they opened a year or two ago, the best dim sum in Portland was found at a meagre establishment just the other side of SE 82nd. Fortunately, Wong's King has provided us with respite from witless dumplings and soggy buns. An ample variety of dishes is on offer – from steamed chive dumplings to shrimp-laden fried noodles to chicken feet in black bean sauce. Be adventurous. Moreover, it may surprise you to hear that Wong's King also specialises in seafood. While the dim sum has always proven more tempting to me than the live fish, crabs and shrimp in the display tanks, I have no doubt that they're just as excellent.
A short drive down SE 82nd takes you to the unfortunately monikered (and perhaps consequently oft overlooked) Chinese Delicacy. Although actually run by Koreans, the kitchen cooks Chinese food with a greater spirit of authenticity than almost any other in Portland. Nary a trickle of brown sauce here. Hot and sour soup, the nostril-blistering pungency of which frequently reminds me of sewage, is actually quite tasty. Fried dumplings (i.e. potstickers) are especially recommended – Chinese delicacies indeed.
Were it not for the dreadful paucity of choice in this genre, Chopsticks wouldn't even be listed here. In fact, it (along with its Sellwood counterpart Stickers) really belongs in another genre – the nebulous and highly suspect category of “Pan-Asian” cooking. None of Chopstick's dishes are objectionable as such. It's just that by shoehorning entirely disparate cuisines (say, Vietnamese, Thai and Malaysian) onto the same menu, it all ends up being inferior. Worse of all, restaurants of this ilk entirely misrepresent the unique foods of each country by suggesting that they are consonant and interchangeable. There's unquestionably a degree of mutual influence – but at worst it verges on Orientalist anachronism.
Chinese Delicacy: 6411 SE 82nd Ave $-$$
Chopsticks: 3616 SE Hawthorne Blvd $-$$
Stickers: 6808 SE Milwaukie Ave $-$$
Wong's King Seafood Restaurant: 8733 SE Division $$ R
See also: Malay Satay Hut.