Big Hey Hot Pot — Restaurant in Portland

AWFUL RESTAURANT, HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE. This restaurant LIES to the customers. We came in during lunch hours and specifically ordered lunch specials. the server brought out lunch portions but charged us regular full dinner prices. when I brought the receipt up to the cashier to ask nicely why we were charged dinner prices for lunch portions, the guy [ not sure if he is employee or the restaurant owner ] got very mad pist off and yelled at me. he said we didn't order lunch specials when we told him several times we wanted to order lunch specials. Weirdly he brought out lunch portions but said that isn't lunch. When I asked if the lunch comes with soup, the server brought the soup but then charged extra for each soup. The server - owner then says that the prices on the menu are all wrong and not the right updated prices. I asked him why doesn't he notify the customer of this before hand and update the prices in the menu? He didn't say anything. He then says all the prices have risen by about $3.

This owner or server whoever was at the front counter had a terrible attitude. He probably thinks it is ok for him to get mad to yell at customers. and to charge hidden fees and list wrong prices on the menu.

Food review:

this is the only item we ordered off the regular menu: the braised beef stew was over priced and awful tasting. the were very few beef pieces in the pot, and it tasted like rubber. price they charged: $15.95.

extra charge for soup $2.50 for all entrees after server denied the customer of ordering lunch items. the owner / server even asked if what soup we want. If you ask a customer what soup they want and bring out lunch portion soups in little bowls, the customer is going to think that the soup is included with the price of the meal. but it wasn't, the owner/ server charged for EACH soup.

** the one food item that the server agreed on being a lunch special entrée didn't offer any soup with the meal.

extra charge for steamed rice which the server never told us. price: $1.00

sadly, none of us were full from this pricey lunch. We went here several years ago and the quality was a little bit better than average. Unfortunately this time was a huge disappointment. Szechuan Chef's quality has...

In the past, this has been a family favorite for birthdays and out-of-town visitors. We go about four times a year. We aren't regulars, but we knew what we were getting. Then yesterday we went to find that the business had moved down the street. Okay, no problem. The old Koji building on a Sunday evening. We found parking and went inside. It was immediately clear that Szechuan Chef has lost at least half, if not two thirds, of its former seating capacity, and gotten rid of some of the good vegetarian dishes our family liked from before. The layout seemed to pose a challenge for the wait staff. We had to ask for enough plates. Then the server didn't check to notice we didn't have enough utensils, so we had to ask for those too. We then had to ask three or four times for someone to bring us a whole serving of rice. By the time we got the rice, the food was basically cold. The acoustics were not helping - the sloped roof and hard floors were creating an echo that is not good for conversations or anything else. I noticed that the bar area probably seats 20 people, so maybe they can turn that into normal dining space in the future, but the big issue here was logistics. My sister, who goes there more than I do, did not recognize anybody on the staff, so maybe they are learning the ropes, but it should not take that long to get rice. We'd ask one person and they would walk off and not come back. I flagged someone down and asked for leftover boxes, which came not long after, but then he didn't think to get us our check. It was just a disorganized mess. I don't want to just write this place off after one bad experience. I hope that they were just struggling because of the layout and possibly new staff. But I am not comfortable taking a bigger group here until I have good reason to, because we always have kids in our party, and that makes things even more challenging when service is slow or nonexistent. I hope Szechuan Chef reads their Google reviews! I don't want to find another family-friendly...

TL;DR: It's fantastic, authentic and brings family-style back. Bring 6 people you care about. Sit at a big, round table with a lazy susan. If the menu is overwhelming: Order the Moo Shu Pork, Mandarin Crispy Chicken, Shaved Noodles with Beef, Dried Cooked String Bean, side of white rice and 2-3 orders of soup dumplings and just go ahead and thrive.

Pro-tip: You will run out of rice pancakes for the Moo Shu Pork and that's okay. Ask for more when you run out, so they can warm them up for you. They will, and warm pancakes are good.

We moved to SE Portland from Chinatown, Manhattan NYC 11 years ago and although I have had limited success finding respectable Cantonese cuisine and Dim Sum, I have not had much luck finding authentic Shanghai/Sichuan style that could truly hang with my favorites back in NYC.

Today, that changed. My 6 year old daughter really wanted soup dumplings for her birthday, so I widened the search to across the river and I am so very glad I did.

The chef here is truly talented. We asked for the beans to not be spicy so my daughters might eat them, and usually what we end up with is beans that make you think they would have been better if they'd been spicy. This was not the case. They were DEVOURED by my family. The beans were so perfectly cooked and seasoned, that my 6 and 8 year olds inhaled them.

This tracked through every dish we sampled. Normally, if I see a lot of spicy dishes in the featured, I raise an eyebrow and think "What are you hiding under all those peppers?" but the execution of both spicy and mild flavors were all immaculate. This food was so good it was distracting. This food was so good I forgot we ordered rice. This food was so good that the 30 dumplings we ordered were down to 2 by the time I recovered from the initial shock of how damn good it all was.

To be absolutely and undeniably clear, if you love some people, and you want them to feel what it is like to be cooked a meal by someone who obviously loves to cook, bring them here and eat...