Pure Spice Chinese Restaurant
| Address: | 2446 SE 87th Ave, Portland, OR 97216, USA |
| Phone: | +1 503-772-1808 |
| Site: | purespiceportland.com |
| Rating: | 3.8 |
| Working: | 9:30AM–9:30PM 9:30AM–9:30PM 9:30AM–9:30PM 9:30AM–9:30PM 9:30AM–9:30PM 9:30AM–9:30PM 9:30AM–9:30PM |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 5
ST
Stuart Greene
I grew up in New York, prowling the back alleys of Chinatown for magnificent dives serving incredible food. Then I spent 25 years in the San Francisco Bay area where you can practically trip over your shoelaces and land in a terrific plate of chow fun. So when I moved to Portland, one of the great foodie capitals of the world, the virtual absence of outstanding Chinese fare came as a complete shock. I recently shared my tale of woe with a China scholar here in Portland and she immediately said, "Theres a place on Division..." and I chirped in, "Yeah. Wongs King – I’ve been there. Its OK." But she quickly corrected me. "No, no. Theres another place, just one block before Wong’s thats really exceptional." She didn’t remember the name, but it was easy to find with Google Maps. That place turned out to be Pure Spice and I have to say, they served up my first truly satisfying Chinese meal in Portland. I went with my daughter, another foodie raised in the Bay Area, and we tried a variety of small plates to get a sense of the cuisine. We started with hand-pulled rice noodles from the dim sum menu. Like the more common chung fun, these were flat and broad but had a ribbed texture that provided a wonderful mouthfeel and held the lightly sweetened soy sauce beautifully, the way Italian pasta is ridged to increase its surface area. Next, a plate of har gow, the classic steamed shrimp dumpling that is often my touchstone for judging Chinese food. These were fresh, with glistening, melt-in-your-mouth wrappers, fresh shrimp (some places uses dim sum as a dumping ground for supplies that are getting iffy), and a wonderful burst of sesame oil perfuming each bite. Another favorite of ours is beef chow fun which should be chewy, slightly smoky and full of tender slices of beef. Pure Spice’s chow fun was nearly perfect – I wish the beef had been cooked for just a few more seconds. It was fresh, well-seasoned, and adequately cooked, but just a tad more heat would have broken the texture down to perfection. We also shared a scallion pancake that was flaky and crisp on the outside and meltingly soft on the inside. This dish is what a tortilla would be if it trekked through Asia, sat Zen on a mountaintop and attained culinary enlightenment. I used to make these at home, but if you don’t have a professional kitchen or serious pasty station set up, the amount of work involved is overwhelming. That’s true about a lot of things in life: the appearance of simplicity often masks a complex and committed undertaking. I’m sure there are other Portland residents like me – whether natives or deprived transplants – who would love to find a truly great Chinese hole-in-the-wall. Pure Spice isn’t grungy like Wo Hop at 17 Mott Street in Chinatown – the mythic New York dive of my youth against which I reflexively judge all Chinese restaurants – but the food is of the same caliber (minus the duck heads and claws floating in the soup...which might actually be a plus). If the quality holds up, I’ll be back again and again.
HE
Henry Ng
What a horrible experience. Where should I start? 1. Were Cantonese so it goes without saying we need bowls to consume our rice. Do they provide bowls, of course not, at least not without asking. Try eating long grain rice with chop sticks on a plate. By the way, the plates were way too small, and square shaped........weird. 2. There were 8 of us in our party, everything was served family style so not everyone knew what food were ordered. Server brought us a plate of lamb which we did not order but no one realized it until 1/2 of it was consumed. At this point the owner/server came by looking totally puzzled then walked away without saying a word. Of course they charged us for their mistake and not even have the courtesy to talk to us about it first. 3. Service was non-existent, they just sat us down, took our order, brought it out and that was it. 4. Ate dim sum there a little while back, everything was terrible, dried, tasteless, some were obviously left overs. I can cook better dim sum by watching youtube. Most items there taste like home made. Thats not a complement. 4. Here is a complaint that is common to most Chinese Restaurants, why is it that they never serve you any water until you ask multiple times? Asians drink only tea? 5. Last but not least, the spring rolls were ice cold inside. Hello owner of Pure Spice, turn down the heat, the spring roll wrappers are more sensitive to heat than other fried items. 6. In conclusion, well never go back and do not recommend this place to anyone.
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Jakelyne Finan
BEWARE ORDERING ONLINE. This company outsources their online carry out menu through "Beyond Menu" which is a brilliantly cool application. The only problem was that after we paid for our order online with a credit card through the service the website provides, we were told they only do "in store" payment when we arrived. My boyfriend gets text notifications from his bank when purchases are made, so we know he was charged for it. Whether they reverse the transactions or not or whatever system they use, they should remove it as an option on their online ordering system. Either that or we were double charged since we paid cash when we picked it up. Food is mediocre. The kung pao chicken had zero peanuts and was more like a spicy chicken stir fry with tons of vegetable filler. The "egg rolls" I think are spring rolls. The pork fried rice was kinda bland. The BBQ pork on the other hand was absolutely outstanding.
CH
christina olson
Literally the worst food and service ever. I cant believe I even have to give a 1 star review. I would never go back and would never recommend this food to anyone. I literally forced myself to try a bit of my dish and regret even that after the taste it left in my mouth. The pork potstickers were undercooked and we had a server and the manager fight with us over whether or not they were cooked. They then took our undercooked potsticker meat into my moms soup. There were so many things wrong with this place. Literally we waited 2 hours for our food and they brought each persons dish out at different times. And then because we had to wait so long a couple of us ate a little of the food but all regretted it. And then they gave us 10% off when we wouldnt eat it and told them it was literally the worst food ever.
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lauren hartman
Unfortunate we were very disappointed. Made reservation and got seated immediately but had to run someone down after 15 minutes to give them our order. Didnt get water until half way through the meal after asking 5 times...We were there 90 minutes and got the main course just before we left...the soup 5 minutes before we left....and took most everything home. Only the beef roll was warm. Calamari was tasty, but only luke warm. Service was awful....literally had to ask for everything like utensils, water...nothing to drink available for little ones but water. Sadly we were excited about a new place to enjoy in SE...but we were very disappointed. There were only 5 of us so its not like we were a huge party!
