What's good here?

I’m from Portland, Oregon, but you probably can’t tell from reading my reviews. I’ve lived in Portland my whole life, but for some reason, I don’t know of very many places to eat there. Once I move back to Portland after graduation, I definitely need to explore the food places there. One place I do know about is HK Café (4410 SE 82nd Ave., 97266) – Overall restaurant rating: 3.5/5. I haven’t had dinner there, but whenever I’m in Portland, my family always takes me there for dim sum. Dim sum is great for breakfast or lunch because the portions are small and served with hot tea! Dim sum food is served on rolling carts with servers pushing the carts and yelling out what they have on their carts in Chinese. Then they stop by your table and show you what dishes they have on their cart and you point to the dishes you want. My family and I used to go to dim sum weekly when I was living at home so I know very well what’s delicious and what’s not so delicious.

What we ordered:

Pork Dumplings from HK Café

Shiu Mai (Pork Dumplings) – Rating: 4.5/5 – The pork dumplings here are so good! My family and I usually order four baskets of these. The baskets are supposed to have four dumplings in them, but my family took the other two dumplings before I could get a picture! This is a traditional dish of dim sum, if you don’t order it, you’re missing out on real dim sum food.

Chow Fun from HK Café

Chow Fun – Rating: 3.5/5 – These stir-fried flat rice noodles are delicious. The only thing missing from the noodles is some meat, but it’s because it’s the dim sum serving size.

Chow Mein from HK Café

Chow Mein – Rating: 4/5 – Different from chow fun, these are stir-fried crispy egg noodles. I really liked these noodles because they were so crispy. It’s difficult to keep the noodles crispy when you cook them, but the noodles from HK Café were perfect.

BBQ Pork Buns from HK Café

BBQ Pork Buns – Rating: 2/5 – The pork buns are stuffed with diced pork, mixed with a Chinese BBQ sauce and the bun is glazed with honey. I gave this a 2/5 because the buns were over glazed with honey and made them somewhat difficult to handle (too sticky!). The sweetened pork and the honey bun combined were a little too sweet for my taste.

Shrimp Rice Noodle Rolls from HK Café

Shrimp Rice Noodle Rolls– Rating: 4.5/5 – Besides the shiu mai, this is my family’s second favorite dish at dim sum. This is a wide strip of rice noodle wrapped around shrimp. They also have beef rice noodle rolls, which is very good as well. I always ask for extra soy sauce on the noodles to keep them from becoming dry and tasteless. The soy sauce on the rice noodle is usually a bit less salty than soy sauce from the bottle.

Stick Rice wrapped in Lotus Leaf from HK Café

Sticky Rice wrapped with Lotus Leaf – Rating: 3.5/5 – A ball of sticky rice stuffed with chicken and wrapped with a lotus leaf. The rice is moist and the chicken is flavorful. The lotus leaf gives it a great aroma as well. I gave it a 3.5/5 because sometimes the chicken is a bit greasy.

Pinnapple Egg Custard Bun from HK Café

Pineapple Egg Custard Bun – Rating: 3.5/5 – This is my favorite dim sum dessert. If you like eggy desserts like crème brulee or flan, then you should try this one. The bun is filled with an egg custard that is sweet and rich. The custard in the buns served at HK Café needed to be thicker because mine was too liquidy. It may have been because I ordered them while they were still hot and fresh out of the oven. The plate is served with three buns, but my family grabbed them too quickly, and I could only take a picture of one.

Baby sister picking at her egg tart

Egg Tart – Rating: 3/5 – I don’t have a picture of the egg tart, but this is my adorable two-year-old sister sticking her finger into an egg tart. The egg tart at HK Café is standard, but sometimes too dry. It varies every time we’re there.

Around my area of Portland, I think HK Café has the best dim sum. I’m sure there are better places around Portland, but I’m talking about southeast Portland. My family ate dim sum at Wong King for years, until they raised their prices. Not only did Wong King raise their prices, but their quality of food went downhill as well. There’s also Ocean City Restaurant near that area that serves dim sum, but that place has horrible service. O.C’s dim sum is about 10 cents per dish cheaper than dim sum at HK Café, but HK Café’s food and atmosphere is better. I can tell because my baby sister isn’t as cranky when she’s at HK Café than when we take her to Ocean City. Dim sum is only served in the mornings until 3 p.m., so make sure you plan accordingly. This review is just on their dim sum, but as for dinner, I have no idea. I would try going on a weekday as well because the place it PACKED on the weekends, so service is ridiculous.

Here are other reviews on UrbanSpoon:

Happy eating my fellow foodies!