Powell's Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Portland

I used to come here a lot with my family growing up in the neighborhood and we loved the food here. I haven’t come as much as we all got older and moved further away. I decided to come here with my family for the first time in a long time yesterday and was surprised that the original owners of many years have apparently sold the place and is now under new ownership.

We decided to try some of the classic dishes we used to love and see if or how they’ve changed. For starters, the prices definitely has gone up, even higher than the average Chinese restaurants with the same dishes, which is fine with me as long as the quality of the food justifies it. Not all did.

The Mongolian Beef here used to be my absolute favorite in town, but sadly not anymore. The nostalgic sauce and tenderness of the beef is no more. Instead, it’s very typical except missing hot chilis that usually makes this dish spicy. It was very mildly spicy and also had a strange sour aftertaste that’s unusual for any Mongolian Beef dish.

I also preferred the original Salt & Pepper Squid that I believed was even better than the infamous Thien Hong’s (which was and probably still is ridiculously overpriced). It was perfectly crunchy on the outside, packed a lot of flavor and tender on the inside. Though I prefer the original, the new Salt & Pepper Squid here is still pretty good. It just lacks that crunch I like on the outside, but the flavors are good (the added garlic works well with it) and the squid was even more tender and less chewy. Depending on one’s personal preference on squid, they may like this more.

The service here now was the biggest problem. For the longest time, I only saw one lady server in all black in the dining room. Took forever for her to even get us any service. Later another gentleman appeared in the dining room and he was very nice and took our order. Of the two, he was the only friendly one as the lady constantly ignored us when we tried to ask her for service. Many times she just glared at us, don’t say a thing and completely ignored our requests. Then later as we checked out, same thing. Glared at me, didn’t even say a word as she rudely handed me the bill, snatched my card then throws it on the counter when she’s done. Not even so much as a “thank you” after either, she literally said NOTHING. Rudest server I’ve ever met in a long time.

Based on this visit and especially how it ended, my family and I will never be coming back here ever again. Inconsistent food quality, overpriced dishes and a very rude server = hard pass. I’ll just have to remember this place for what it was in its past glory days and...

I have been eating at this restaurant for several years. Every time I have eaten here alone or with my wife I receive the worst service, hostess are extremely rude. they will serve you leftovers or a dish that was saved from another day and was just heated up. They will seat you by the door if you are black they we'll be short with you if you are black they will have less patience with you if you are black. of all the restaurants in Portland I have never felt more discriminated towards then at Powell's seafood restaurant. you'll be better off going to HK cafe which is only five minutes away staff is always kind to any race as well as the food is good and delicious. I'm sure if you are Caucasian or asian American you have never experienced this kind of service from them believe me there's a difference. I ate there just 4 days ago this time I came with my Chinese American best friend and two Japanese American friends service was fantastic hostess was a completely different person. Giving the time and era we are in It would be wise for this business to hiring staff that is loving to all races. There's no need to discriminate against a person because of their ethnicity I tip just like anyone else my money is the same as anyone else. I'm going to stop eating at this establishment and I will urge anyone else to...

Great food, one of the most authentic Chinese restaurant experiences you'll have in Portland. I've gone for their lunch special numerous times years ago and is SUCH a great deal for amazingly delicious food.

My one caveat is they occasionally lean heavy on the white onion. I've gone there for dinner a couple times and both times I ordered probably 4 dishes with my family, and 2 out of the 4 dishes had what was probably a half a white onion each in them that was just lightly stir fried. So you had to spend your time avoiding getting a giant bite of white onions. And it made the leftovers not able to be eaten out of containers the next day because you were fishing through onions.

Overall 5 star food, minus my onion experiences. I might've just choose onion heavy dishes. One of the dishes I believe was salt and pepper squid. I'd still order it again through, just asking for them to go light on the onions. Now I'm hungry just thinking about their food. Lol.

Also my experience is from years ago, so it's likely the onions experience was just a certain chef during a certain period of time where they were deep...