Mitr Ping Yang Thai Kitchen — Restaurant in Portland

The decor was nice--a calming green, and unlike most of the Thai restaurants in town in lacking any shrine. The matching green needlepoint seated chairs, Victorian, were probably auction finds: pretty, but with all the actual seating lacking padding, due to their age. I had to switch mine out for one that was less bumpy. There was non-offensive calming elevator music going on, but in the background was the rather loud music coming from the kitchen--South American (Mexican?) dance music, to which the dishwasher was singing along, so I asked our waiter to choose one--either the elevator music or get the kitchen to shut down its music, and I said I preferred the sound coming from the kitchen, as incongruous as it was to a Thai restaurant. We got the fresh rolls and the lemongrass beef skewers to start. They were good, if the beef for the skewers was not that high quality, and the dipping sauces were each equally hot, which overrode the differences in tastes. We ordered a pot of jasmine tea: I expected since it was a pot, to have loose leaf tea, but alas there were 2 teabags in the pot. I dislike teabags, mostly because the bags are made of synthetic material and I don't like drinking plastic residue. I had the Crying Tiger entree--and the beef was PERFECTLY done--braised outside and tender, juicy rare inside--very tasty. My brother had the Pork Belly. He said he liked it. The waitress was nice, if dressed in torn jeans and a white t-shirt that showed her freshly done chest tattoo--in short, she looked ratty. I have no idea why someone would wear torn jeans (as fashionable as they still are with a certain age group) to work. She lacked some waitress skills, such as taking our menus from us after we ordered, and since the tables are tiny, I tossed them on an empty table nearby. At any rate, an okay experience, but lacking some...

The food was very good and probably the best Thai place in the Portland area. The food tasted authentic, hot and fresh. My fiancee had the salmon and the presentation was amazing and kept the dish warm. He loved it. I ordered the pad thai and also wanted pork belly and I couldn't decide between two of their dishes. Our server Anna suggested adding pork belly and a fried egg to the pad Thai so I would get all the things I wanted from both dishes. Let me scream this... IT WAS DELICIOUS! The wings are a must and get all the sauces. They make them in house and OMG you want to try them all. I was so full but I still wanted the mango sticky rice so of course we got it to go. The food here is exceptional.

There was a hiccup in service during our visit. It wasn't a big deal for us however I can understand it being a problem for somebody else. I'm a bit harsher on service because of my time in the industry. I know it's hard work but it really comes down to how things are handled. The restaurant got slammed on a bunch of to-go orders all at once. They also had a steady flow of customers sitting down to eat. My fiance received his salmon and my dish did not come out for about 20 minutes. During that time my fiance and I were focused on his dish and the remaining appetizers that we had. Anna showed up with a plate of fresh rolls and apologized for the delay on my food. It was generous and some may say that it was warranted. I say it was something they didn't need to do but did.

Overall I highly recommend it and until I find another Thai place that's better... Mitr...

The food was ok. I would've liked it better if it were warm and brought out at the same time. When we arrived, I asked what was in the papaya salad that came with the chicken, and the woman who was running the cash register politely told me a bunch of things I didn't eat. So I ordered the skewers with a side of rice. They brought out the skewers pretty quickly actually, but not the rice or my partner's order. Almost 10 minutes went by and we were still waiting for the food. I asked the same woman why everything wasn't brought out at the same time as my food was getting cold and she said she'll look into it. A few minutes go by and she brings out the rice in a traditional rice serving basket but it was in plastic. First, never not once did she apologize for the wait nor do anything about my now very cold food. Again, I told her they were cold, but nothing. Second, I get they were trying to be traditional with the atmosphere and serving but you can just put the rice on the plate instead of wasting plastic on esthetics. Not a good...