Shandong Restaurant

Reviews 4

A

A Private User

A year later: I started going to Shandong in March of 2011. I always was going to write a review, I finally decided to right one now after eating their at least 20 times. These are all from my observations, so if I got something wrong, please excuse me. There is only one girl that I remember being their from day one. She is a very hard worker, so much so that I now think she is overworked and management has not noticed. She is always on the ball, where everyone else fails she picks up the slack. She used to be very cordial and out of breath, now she is no longer cordial and out of breath, not mean -- but I dont think she cares anymore, but I really dont blame her, from what I have seen she doesnt have "say" in what goes on. As Shandong has become a lot more busy and popular as of late, there are more people that have been hired -- there are new servers there every time my Wife and I go to eat. I only think there is one MAYBE two original staff, to me that is a sign of bad management. The employees can leave something to be desired, usually one server is assigned to a section in most restaurant settings, the last three times I have went to Shandongs, I have had 2-3 even one time 4 people take up my order, take up the order takers slack, serve the food, deliver the bill and finally take payment. I wish I knew the main chefs name, but there are a couple of chefs that work their, when I used to go to eat a year ago it was the same main chef every time, food was always spot on and amazing quality of food. Now, they have someone else filling in once or twice a week -- and the food quality now goes up and down depending on who is in the kitchen. Shandongs quality is falling -- the service is falling -- and the only people to blame is the workplace as a whole. Without proper management, this place is going to fail. It became very popular very quickly because of the quality of food and the prompt, cordial, and organized service. Whoever the owners are, they need to realize this very quickly or they might be dead in the water. I wont even mention the menus that should have been replaced, or the tea kettles that are broken -- a place of service like this needs to be reinvested in. On one of their bests days, I would easily pay 5-8 more dollars per plate than what they charge now. However, on their off days -- I have had just as good out of a food cart for less money. THAT BEING SAID: When the food and service are on their A game, its GREAT food at GREAT prices with GREAT portions. However, lately they havent been consistent with their service and quality, and it very obvious and can only hurt them. I really believe that they are in that word of mouth faze they are reaping the benefits of their A game quality of food and service, but if you are a first time patron on one of the days that they are not matching their potential, then they are not going to get the continued business that they have thus far been enjoying.

A

A Private User

Im happy to have this place in the neighborhood; its literally the best Chinese restaurant in Portland aside from higher-end places like Ping which cover a broader range of cuisines across SE Asia. Sadly, saying that a restaurant is the "best Chinese in Portland" is truly damning the place with faint praise: Portland has awful Chinese food. Anyone from the SF Bay Area, LA, or Vancouver will find themselves hard-pressed to find Chinese here that is even palatable much less worth eating more than once. Shandong does have some decent dishes, most notably the potstickers and manchurian beef. The latter sports a lovely mildly spicy sauce with a touch of vinegar that makes it addictive. The potstickers are clearly house-made, and done right: moist, browned and slightly blackened, not overly greasy, with a flavorful filling. Unfortunately, they coast on a lot of dishes as well, which are bland and uninspired. Clearly the style in which they cook is set up for the white Portland populace, who have good taste and often are happy just having their Chinese food cooked with ingredients the provenance of which isnt frightening to think about. Sadly, in this case they have decent ingredients and atmosphere, but fall down on the authenticity of the execution. Dry-fried green beans are a solid "meh": hardly "dry" at all, lacking in flavor, without the heavier garlic and seared-in sauce of places that know how to do it right. Other dishes taste okay, but are frankly boring, and at $9-$10 apiece, its hard not to be unhappy about ordering most of them. This place solidly overprices its food; sad to say, but Im much happier eating Chinese in the Bay Area made using meat of frankly questionable quality and provenance just to get something that has the intensity and authenticity of flavor that I expect. Based on the interior of the restaurant, Id say that customers are being asked to pay a $2-3 premium per dish to fund their rather overblown interior decor in addition to the supposedly higher quality ingredients. Hey, its a Chinese restaurant guys, and I dont trust anything beyond formica on the tables and linoleum on the floor. And its not like theyre serving you Niman Ranch pork or organic greens, which might justify the higher prices. So, overall, I like the place, but only order a limited set of favorites and try to limit how often we eat from it due to the high prices. One last thing: their waitstaff tends towards the "annoyingly obsequious" end of the spectrum, and will stop by the table seemly once every 5 minutes to ask that worst of all server questions: "how is everything". Hopefully theyll work towards a happy medium as time goes on.

ER

Erin Markgraf

Love Shandong and have been coming here and bringing friends a few times/month for years. We have even ordered a family Christmas Eve take out feast a couple of times. And, thats where Shandong failed us. We called at 4:00 this Christmas Eve to place our order to be picked up early, at 5:00. The kid on the phone told us that it wasnt necessary to place our order early, we should just call back 15 minutes before we wanted it and he assured us that they could fulfill our order. He also said that he had no way of time delaying an order. (Right? I know what youre thinking.) So we called back at 4:45. And called. And called. My husband and I called a combined 97 times. We never got through. We had 22 guests arriving and no food. So I drove over to make my order in person. Phone guy tells me that they are no longer taking to go orders. I reminded him of what he told us on the phone. His reply? "That was the situation when you called but its no longer the situation." And with that we were left stranded without food for 22 people on Christmas Eve. So, sadly, were done Shandong. And our 22 relatives are done. Shout out to Pizza Nostra for saving the night. Theyre great and were always ordering from them. You should too!

BE

BEBOP 79

<3 Shandong. The food is very good to excellent; it helps to know what to order. My personal favorite is the spicy noodle soup. Be sure to put in lots of the wonderful house made chilis and chili oil; its more smoky than hot and has lots of really nice umami flavor (besides, like all of Portland, "spicy" is not actually that spicy unless you have that midwestern palate that finds bell peppers to be too hot). They also have at least four reislings on offer by the glass, and even the cheapest one (like $6) is perfect with the food. Also have good cocktails. In general, it is not the most "authentic" Chinese food, but that doesnt exist in Portland anyway. But neither is it your crappy sweet fried American/Cantonese "General Tso" kind of nonsense. It is an honest and deftly executed menu based upon the general concepts of northern China, and it excels most when it most fully embraces that (for example that noodle soup). And the staff is super friendly, too.