Wheat Bay Portland — Restaurant in Portland

I had such high hopes for this place only to be dashed to the earth like getting dumped by your date on Prom Night. The staff was charming and nice, So I'll start with the good. It's a fun, colorful, hip interior that held promise like a beautiful hand in a warm fur glove. I loved the Wheat Bay sign! I didn't mind the Television which 95% of all Asian restaurants have now. It must be in the handbook. I loved the BBQ Bao (Pork Buns), it was huge and tasty, although it would be nice if it came with some kind of dipping sauce. Bao really needs to be dipped in some kind of sweet chili sauce, but they had a pretty good condiment tray which made up for the lack. Might well be one of the better Bao I've had which saved the place from being a one or two star rating, a level I rarely sink to.

So here it is, the sad dark core of my problem with Wheat Bay. On first glance, the bowl of Spicy Beef Broth was not promising. The beef looked parboiled and pale. I thought, don't judge by the looks, In Asia there are plenty of things that look one way, but taste another. So I sipped the broth, tentatively as if I were reading the first page of a well reviewed novel.

It was bland. As far as I could tell, there was zero spice. I may not know much about life, Calculus goes over my head like a home run ball. Fine wines make my nostrils flare and all taste more or less the same to me. But I know broth and this was one of the worst bowls of broth I have ever had. No character, no umami, no depth. I fetched a tray of condiments and tried to dial it up a bit, but simply adding soy, red oil, and some kind of dark vinegar just barely made it edible. This is one of the first times I have ever left a half a bowl of a spicy broth unfinished. The noodle were a nice texture, the longest noodles I have ever been served and I had fun searching around for bits of munchies like a a barefoot boy fishing in a small pond. But it was all tasteless, just a salty bore.This is not the kind of thing you ask the cook about. If he doesn't know he is serving salty dishwater, then what is the point of pointing it out to him? I was utterly disappointed. Particularly given how fun and welcoming the atmosphere was. This does not need subtle tweaking, this needs a whole new direction. Maybe other things on the menu are not as bad, but broth is the golden path to the top of the mountain. It is the door that opens to all other dishes. If it is bad, then that...

Worst experience ever - to be fair as a Chengdu born and raised myself, it’s not Szechuan food at all, totally regretting driving all the way to try this out.

Ordered MaoCai, FuqiFeiPian, Wonton Soup 冒菜，夫妻肺片，馄饨汤 all were awful. Spicy in an untasted way, salty and too much MSG. especially FuQiFeiPian - it’s not even a similar food that I know, please just don’t use the name and try to be honest.

I’m particularly feeling mad about the fact the restaurant used “ChengDu Famous Food” as the Chinese name, while their English name is wheat bay, so might be easier just to attract and cheat with both Chinese and non-chinese.

Btw, plate is small, value for money is zero.

Environment isn’t great either. Poor service.

Will not recommend to anyone. Very regretful wasting...

Finally tried this place and it’s great. Tried the peppery chicken and it was soooo yummy it really hit the spot, it was spicy, sweet, crispy but moist, and full of flavor!! It had a delightful hit of Szechuan peppercorn and ginger too!! It’s really cute in there too, I’ll have to try the pig shaped dumplings next 😍also the lady working was really nice and the food was ready fast, just a good experience! The Peppery chicken was $15 but came with a large portion of rice which I appreciated, but you get a lot of chicken too! I’d definitely recommend splitting with someone and getting like a veg or app then it...