Hat Yai — Restaurant in Portland

I wish I took a photo of all the wonderful food! I'll update with a photo if I find one.

Service: I had Hat Yai cater for us, and was in constant communication with Alan Akwai, the founder (I believe?). I reached out 2.5-3 weeks ahead of time and went over my order with him over e-mail. This was a catering done for about 25-30 attendees and we had a lot of yummy leftovers. Alan was extremely accommodating to changing of timing of when we would like the food. A few days prior he sent an e-mail with a confirmation for day and time, and the day of we were in constant communication via text to ensure that our food was delivered. He came in with two huge thermal packaged food containers with our order. Our food was warm and perfect by the time we had our late lunch/early dinner. He set everything up in the kitchen, which included the orders in foil trays, serving containers, and little note cards with the name of the dish.

Food: Menu itself is gluten free except for Muu Hong and Roti. There are various vegan and vegetarian options. With these various orders came jasmine rice, sticky rice, cucumber salad, and a really lovely pickled veggies platter. The sides really highlighted and matched well with all of the dishes.

1. Small Whole Chicken 2) Small leg quarter. The chicken was crispy and juicy. Great with and without the sauce that comes with it. Crispy shallots on top gave another added texture that was nice. Would definitely order again.

2. Small Muu Hong. Pork belly was delicious. A sweet, and gingery sauce with nicely rendered pork belly. If there are any leftovers, it is very good to fry in a cast iron.

3. Small Brisket Curry 5) House Curry 6) Small Vegan Curry. All very flavorful. Brisket curry was just a little spicy for some of the guests, but as someone who likes spice it was very mild. Of the three curries the house curry had a wonderful flavor. I could eat that on plain rice or roti and would be content. Would highly recommend the house curry.

4. Large Roti. Crispy and airy. Slightly sweet. Goes really well with the house curry.

5. Mushroom skewers. Really generous portions of what I believe are king oyster mushrooms, but I could be wrong. 3 big chunks per skewer.

6. Coconut Mango Horchata. Best that I've ever had. All the food was amazing, but this was maybe my favorite thing? Great balance of flavors. Viscosity similar to a mango lassi.

Atmosphere: N/A.

All in all, I would definitely cater from this place again and head out to their restaurant for when I'm in Portland. For awhile I wasn't sure if we had enough food, but it was definitely more than enough with the amount of people we had. Fair amount of leftovers and if there is extra jasmine rice, the next day fried rice you make will...

Oh man, I had a WONDERFUL experience dining at the other Hat Yai location 2 months ago, so when my partner and I were near this location last Saturday, I thought it would be a no brainer to drop in for dinner. Our experience was... strange.

Here's what was great: the service: everyone we interacted with was lovely and helpful The brussels sprouts were fantastic. Super browned and crispy, loaded with fish sauce to make them an umami bomb. Fabulous! the roti were excellent, just as I remember from when I dined at the other location

In the middle for us was the oxtail soup - pretty good, worth trying, but we are big oxtail lovers and personally wouldn't get it again. It was thin and lacking some body for us. I would have loved to add some coconut cream to this.

Here's what was super weird: we ordered the delicata squash "special," which was $10, and we paid an extra $4 to add shrimp to that. Cool cool... except, the squash was so undercooked that it could not be pierced with a plastic fork. My partner and I were so shocked that we considered going inside to ask if there had been some mistake. We ended up not doing this, since our food had been pre-paid (last few weeks of COVID restrictions here), but after we left we regretted not going in and kindly saying something.

The other problem was that it was also a very small portion: approximately 1 measuring cup of squash, and it came with exactly 3 small shrimps (our $4 add-on). So even if the squash had been fully cooked and if we had enjoyed this dish, I still wouldn't have felt it was a good value given how cheap squash is and how little there was of it. Maybe $6 or max $7 would feel right for that size portion?

So, I think we just felt extremely disappointed at having paid $14 for something that was basically inedible. We did eat the 3 shrimps though. :)

This might be a total oddity or fluke, because as I said, I've eaten at Hat Yai's other location and really enjoyed it! But just wanted to share this feedback because the squash dish was by far the weirdest and least edible thing I've been served in recent memory. Hopefully it was...

Highly raved about Thai fried chicken and other street food eats, currently available for patio dining or takeout only. Located in the trendy Alberta arts district where food and drink options abound, Hat Yai still manages to draw a crowd. Street parking is fine if you're willing to walk a few blocks.

Order ahead online to get your food more quickly for patio or takeout options. The daily specials can also be ordered online but run out quickly. The patio is shared with neighboring Hansomme and Prospect, and confusingly you can only order alcoholic drinks from Hat Yai if you're sitting at the tables directly outside Hat Yai. Of course, you're also welcome to purchase drinks from Prospect if you're on their patio (as we did). A water dispenser is available outside as well.

Everything came out delivered to our table in a to-go bag and containers which makes clean-up easy for the restaurant, but feels a little inconvenient to assemble when you're sitting 10 yards away. Not to mention wasteful throwing away all those containers.

Drinks are served quickly - the Hibiscus Lime Slushie is very sweet yet refreshing, perfect on a hot fall day. We got a Muu Hong (braised pork and egg), Stir-Fry Brussel Sprouts, and Hat Yai Combo (leg quarter, wing, roti, and sticky rice). The infamous Fried Chicken was insanely delicious and crunchy; although the Sichuan peppercorns look like little spice bombs, they actually are not too spicy. The sticky rice unfortunately was quite dry and unpalatable. Stay away from the Muu Hong if you're afraid of fatty meat - otherwise you'll be sure to enjoy the pork belly and shoulder which was reminiscent of Chinese soy-braised pork. The Brussels Sprouts were a pleasant flavorful surprise - the fish sauce makes such a difference and really kicks up the umami a notch from what would otherwise seem like a random,...