Duck House Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Portland

The food is okay and the service is terrible.

FOOD REVIEW/DESCRIPTION We ordered: a bowl of rice stir fry veggies with cashews hot and sour soup steamed read bean paste buns vegetable potsickers

Nothing came out in a way that made sense. We received the bowl of rice first, at least 10 minutes before anything else. The point of the rice is to go with the main dish.

After the rice, came the soup. Then came the steamed buns with red beans. Then the veggie/cashew dish. Lastly, the potstickers. It just didn't make any sense.

-- Food Quality-- Stir fry veggies with cashews The dish was beautiful. Full of cauliflower, broccoli, mushrooms, bok choy, and carrots. HOWEVER, it was so greasy that we were able to fill an entire small plate with grease. It was way over done and had we not done that we probably would have felt sick afterward. Food just doesn't have to be dripping/stewed in oil for it to be considered a stir fry.

Hot and sour soup The soup was okay. It was too thick. The menu said it was spicy, but there wasn't a hint of spice to this soup and was a bit bland. Not bad, but not something to ever order again.

Steamed read bean paste buns The dough was perfect on these buns. Sadly, the red bean paste wasn't thick and creamy like we are used to getting elsewhere. It was crumbly and choke-inducing.

Vegetable potsickers These were the best thing we ordered. The filling is fantastic. No complaints and highly recommend them.

SERVICE We waited 20 minutes for a table (just 2 of us) and there were more than enough tables to seat all of the people waiting. The host looked baffled when we said that we didn't want to give him our phone number to be texted for when the table was ready...um...maybe just take our name and we won't leave, we promise.

When we were seated the menus were thrown on the table and it took 10 minutes before a server came by. She was nice, but her skills need serious work. We were never asked if we wanted more water. She came by once to take our order and after that never stopped by (although she was there as we saw her). A different person dropped the check off. A different person processed the bill. A different person gave us boxes (to give the food to the homeless people nearby because we weren't taking any of this home).

We were never brought separate plates to scoop the food onto. Lucky we like each other and were okay to toss the manners out the window.

The best person in this whole ordeal was the sweet woman who delivered each dish to our table. At least she seemed to actually care about what was going on in the restaurant.

We were never asked if the food was okay. It was strange. We still tipped well, but only out of common courtesy to the entire staff and not the server or the food. We paid $40+ for a lunch that wasn't worth that much money. There won't be a next time because PDX just has better Chinese food on...

I’m really disappointed to have to leave a review like this, especially during this pandemic where restaurants are struggling. However, we had a horrible experience on Christmas Eve with Duck House. We had a large order that was placed at 11:30am, for a 6pm pick up time. The guy on the phone told my mom (who placed the order) that they would need to have some flexibility and it might take an extra 20 minutes for pick up. Which of course we said okay to. My husband showed up to get the food shortly after 6pm and there were a lot of people waiting for their orders. The guy my husband talked to said the order wasn’t ready and rushed him to go wait in his car. My husband waited AN HOUR without hearing any update. He went back inside after waiting a little longer, trying to give them grace, and they still weren’t ready. The man he spoke with was clearly overwhelmed, but also rude and unprofessional, saying he did not guarantee a pick up time of 6pm or 6:30pm (which of course, yes he did. Obviously there was a set pick up time for a pick up order). He also said we shouldn’t have placed such a large order. In reality, if they couldn’t handle it, they shouldn’t have accepted the large order or should have cut off other orders, if they were already busy. After waiting ONE HOUR AND 45 MINUTES, my husband said we need our food in 10-15 minutes or we need our money back. $250 including the tip. Then right at that 2 hour mark, they give him the food. He asked about how they would make this right - us waiting for 2 hours on Christmas Eve - and they gave him a $50 gift certificate. I don’t think this is acceptable, when we have placed an order that was over $200 plus still gave a tip (of course we paid before waiting 2 hours). Then when we unload the food, we are missing items!! This was so disappointing!! We already waited two hours and now not everyone has their food! The food itself was okay, not as good as I expected for the reviews. Maybe it’s because of how rushed they were, not sure. It was our first time here. I wish our experience would have been better. We are big foodies and are purposeful in supporting small businesses. It’s hard to want to even go back to use the certificate after this experience, but my husband wasn’t going to stay and argue with the guy.

Update: Upping my review from 1 star to 2 stars. My uncle said even though he did not get his meal he ordered, he did really enjoy the other food we received and will give Duck House another shot. Hoping for immensely...

The Duck House is better than any Chinese restaurant I have tried in Seattle. Period.

I have lived in Seattle area for 18 years. To my disappointment, there is really NO Chinese restaurant I really like over the many years. I have had to resort to visiting Vancouver to have some good Chinese food. Ding Tai Feng, Their Xiao Long Bao is among the Worst I have had, period. Dolar is OK but expensive and it’s only good for hotpot. Xia’an is not bad- also on the expensive side. DTF is both expensive and Bad food. There’re some small eateries in the Seattle area I like. There are some dim sum places that is Okay (not even close to Vancouver quality), such as Dim Sum Factory.

Duck House was a surprise to me- I was not expecting quality Chinese food. The photo shows the dishes I ordered. Really really liked: chili wonton xiao long bao (juicy!!! Tasty!! Much bigger size than DTF or any Chinese restaurant in Seattle!) spicy lamb pot: highly recommend it to both American and Chinese alike

I personally think the Beef Roll is not to my liking but wife and kids all liked it (my main reason is wife Cooke’s really really tasty 烙饼——I have never had the same dish better better anywhere else, in USA or China (I lived in Beijing for 11 years).

The Sweet sour rib- would only recommend to Americans. Few Chinese would like it.

Overall I would recommend it Very highly- for Xiao Long Bao , spicy lamb pot. If the restaurant were close to where we live, my kids would be dying for their XLB very often, and each time I would happily oblige.

And the service was very decent- really no complaints (though, we visited during Pandemic and dined in. Had to wait 20 minutes on Friday night for a table). The complimentary Oolong tea was decent too- loved that hot water refill felt boiling hot, which is Not what I got in most Chinese...