Yaowarat — Restaurant in Portland

Yaowarat – 3.5/5 diner on August 3rd and August 5th, 2025.

4/5 for ambiance and service. Friendly staff and lively interior. Ample indoor seating with bar area. Outdoor seating includes 4 benches (fits 4 each) with umbrellas and a few small round tables for 2.

4/5 for uniqueness. The menu stands out from typical Thai restaurants in PDX. You’ll find dishes here that are hard to come by elsewhere, worth checking out at least once to see if it’s your thing.

3/5 food quality overall. I ate 9 out of 14 dinner menu items (yes, 64.285% to be exact) within a 3-day window. Despite my dedication, the flavors didn’t always hit.

3/5 portion size. Small portions with prices ranging from $10–$30 for appetizers, mains, and sides. Limited options for veggies and vegetarians.

2/5 spicy level (for me). The heat mostly came from fresh sliced Thai chili on top, not the sauces or marinades. I have high spice tolerance, so it felt mild. My husband found it spicier than he liked.

Standouts: -Spicy Pickled Cabbage Salad ($10): A solid hit, flavors and textures meshed perfectly. I would get this again. -Ice Cream Sandwich ($10): Not on the regular menu, but it was the surprise star. Butter-toasted potato bun, sticky rice, fruit jam, coconut ice cream, whipped cream, toasted coconut, and peanuts. Sounds chaotic, tasted amazing.

Everything Else I Tried: -Pla Nua ($17), Albacore Chae Nam Pla ($17), Cucumber Salad ($13): Decent, but nothing stood out. -Chive Cakes ($12): Unique, slightly sweet, but too heavy on the tapioca starch for me. Could use more chive flavor. -Khao Pad Pu ($17): Appreciated the crab, but overall bland. -Fish Ball Green Curry ($19): More like a Thai spaghetti dish. Thin curry, poached egg didn’t add much, and paste fish balls weren’t my thing. I liked the vermicelli texture. -Black Olive Pork ($18): Disappointing! The Chinese black olives were chopped so small I could barely see or taste them. Looked and tasted like taco filling. Ginger cubes and crispy pork fat helped the texture, not the flavor. -Stir-Fried Chrysanthemum Greens ($10): I was excited to see this on the menu, but it was overcooked, too sweet, and way too much sauce. -Thai Tea w/ Half & Half + Coffee Jelly ($6): Meh. Few pieces of canned jelly. Nothing special.

Restroom: 5/5 Two separate, one-stall gender-neutral restrooms, well-stocked and clean, toilet seat covers and even plenty of feminine hygiene products, a small but appreciated detail.

Parking: Free street parking in front the restaurant, within a few blocks, even during peak hours and weekends.

Overall: Cool space, unique offerings, but inconsistent execution. If you’re into exploring Thai flavors beyond the usual curries and pad thai, it’s...

We were really excited to go here because the reviews are so good and I love fusion food. However, here is my honest feedback I am a pretty big foodie and go out to eat a lot, trying new places. I would say this place has a lot of refining to do. Everybody was really friendly although we did have a waitress that my partner and I kept wondering what was going on...she kept looking at us really weird, and it was uncomfortable, but we kind of laughed about it because it was so surreal, and hard to explain. We sat at the bar near where the cooks were making food so we got to watch the food preparation which was kind of fun but also kind of stressful because it's obviously an intense job. The atmosphere was very loud, but other than that it was a pretty cute place. As for the food: we ordered a lot of dishes, starting out with the chive cakes, which we give a thumbs up we ordered the greens which were very bland, and that could've easily been avoided because the presentation is good and the quality seemed really great, but you can go to a basic Chinese joint and get greens that taste better so that was disappointing. We also had the cabbage salad which I guess I liked the best. There was the mushroom salad which was very disappointing. Then we moved onto the curry. Let me just start out by saying that I get curry everywhere I go, I love curry. I make curry. I'm a curry fanatic… I can eat curry from a cheap Thai place and enjoy it if it's made well but most of the time curry is pretty mediocre and occasionally it's to die for… That would be my curry! Lol. Nonetheless, curry was overall disappointing. It was beef brisket and tendon curry which wasn't really what I wanted but that was the only curry they offered so I tried it. The brisket was very dry and tough, and the tendons were way too many and the broth itself was just not awsome unfortunately. My partner got the special of the day and he said it was just nourishing (it was a broth soup) but no razzle dazzle. I would think for special of the day it would have more razzle dazzle. Overall, the food was trying very hard to be good but it really just was maybe a third of our meal that we really liked. We only ordered tea and I asked for cream and sugar and at first we got weird looks that it seemed like an unreasonable request and then she figured out how to bring some sugary stuff and milk and two shot glasses which I thought was very cool but kind of weird that it was an odd request request ... For the price we do not feel we would ever go back. We ended up paying $100 for two people and that's...

The waitress recommended that we order 5-8 dishes. They're $18-26 each. We weren't up for blowing a lot of cash so we ordered six plates. It was just the right amount of food. The menu is a bit challenging since it's very seafood focused but we were able to find meat and vegetable dishes. We all agreed that the best was the tofu. I'm not usually big on tofu but the flavor was by far the best. The fried rice was $16 and nothing special. The Black Pepper Beef was tasty but small for $26. Going forward we think we'd just order a bowl of tofu for each of us. The craft cocktails are fab. They lean towards refreshing and a bit tropical, but they can make other types, if you know what to ask for. I had the Obsolete which was spirit forward, rye and rum drink that was delicious. Someone else had the more polite, 76 Letters, a vodka based cocktail with Amaro, lemon juice and fruit liqueurs. Both we just $14 each. That's a good price for a craft cocktail in this market. The joint was hopping on a Friday night. The street parking is sparse. Plan to walk a block or so. PRO TIP: I tried to book earlier in the day but it said there was nothing available. I called and inquired and was able to get a table for four. Bottom line is I like Yaowarat. Their unique Bangkok style is very flavorful, but not cheap. Our bill was $165 before tip with us trying to be mindful of cost. If you stick to drinking water, you can play less. But what's the fun in that? Check out my profile for more great eateries and craft cocktail bars....