Mi Sen Noodle Bar — Restaurant in Portland

A very inexpensive and delicious noodle bar.

Mi Sen Noodle Bar is sort of hidden amid several shops on upper Congress Street here in Portland, Maine - so it's easy to miss if you're not looking. However, if you do miss it you'll be missing out on some very good, high-quality Thai food.

The staff is all very friendly and accomodating, and their food is very low-cost compared to the amazing quality ingredients and preparation. The restaurant is one of my favorites in the area, and so I've tried a little bit of everything on their menu.

If you just want a light lunch or a light snack, they have multiple appetizers like Crispy Garlic Chicken (fried chicken marinated with garlic and soy sauce and served with a delicious sweet chili sauce), Pork Gyoza (pan-fried pork dumplings served with sweet soy sauce), Crab Rangoons with real actual crab in them (a good amount, too), and my favorite - Green Curry Satay (grilled chicken served on skewers marinated in green curry and topped with green curry basil sauce).

Their soups are all very delicious as well. You choose which soup base you want, and you can then choose which types of noodles you want added. My favorite is the Num Daeng - which is a chicken and pork broth flavored with brown sugar, and marinated meat (of your choice), and garnished with scallions, cilantro, and a crispy wonton sheet.

Finally, they also have lots of rice dishes and even dessert. Their drunken noodle is the best in the area, especially since it's only around $11.00. I would definitely recommend this place to anyone in the area. Especially for lunch, but you can also come for dinner and walk away satisfied. Give this place...

Ordered lunch take out here and got Green Curry with Tofu and Pad See Ew with Chicken. For takeout, the green curry comes in a secured lidded tub while your tofu and vegetables come in a separate container, which is a great idea. However, the curry was very thin and had a huge oil slick on top and the flavor lacked any kind of coconut creaminess to it - which is a real shame cause the vegetables provided - including eggplant - were lovely and authentic. My Pad See Ew had some nice chewy noodles but not anywhere near enough - come on, it’s even in the name “Noodle Bar”, but the noodles were scarce. The dish was over-filled with Chinese broccoli and chicken - I can’t believe I’m complaining about too much protein but, yeah, I am when I’m ordering a noodle dish. Chicken and Chinese broccoli have to be more expensive ingredients than NOODLES - I don’t get it. Flavor was also too mild - lots of char but barely any soy flavor. Again, like I said in a previous review, I made Pad See Ew with fresh noodles when we got home from vacation and provided a picture - see, lots of noodles in the noodle dish, Noodle Bar. Lots of...

Tried out Mi Sen for a weekday lunch session on Sunday, after hearing they had a 1.5+ hour wait on Saturday night. A wait time that all above-average restaurants in Portland seem to carry on warmer weekends.

What you get is your standard Thai / Asian fusion kitchen in a clean, minimalist restaurant. Nothing more, nothing less. What they do, they do right without deviating too much from the norm, and sometimes that’s all you really want from your Thai cuisine. The same dishes you fell in love with when you first tasted the culinary stylings of this fine nation-state.

Out of the items that stood out, you have the crab Rangoon, solid curry, tom yum soup and satay skewers. Sticky mango rice was also well-made (meaning the rice was actually sticky rice…it was sticky).

Few complaints include the lack of options for beer/wine; what choices they do have were remarkably on the low quality side. Also, that same “standard-style” does cross over , if only very lightly, into...