Bay Leaf Restaurant

This place was fantastic! The food was great and the tea was amazing. I feel relaxed and calm after enjoying a great meal in a great atmosphere. No really– the tea is heavenly. I will be back. The only reason I didn’t give it a five is because it is empty and it felt a bit awkward at times.

I haven’t logged on to the website in a while, but apparently never got around to finishing this after typing it up on my phone on a portland trip a few years ago. I’m very sad to learn that they have closed :(
I love it!!! After several days of family functions at non vegetarian restaurants with the standard creamy pasta dish vegetarian option that all restaurants seem to have (with no side vegetables because why would vegetarians need vegetables), stumbling into this place was heaven. All vegetarian, all beautifully presented and tasty. Reasonably priced (though admittedly I’m from out of town, so I don’t necessarily have a good grasp of local pricing if it’s different from the Bay Area). Very calm and soothing atmosphere, kind service.

We had seaweed salad (standard wakame salad), mango tofu — fried tofu in a sweet sauce with mango chunks, the lion’s mane thing — bok choy and tasty sauce with battered and fried lion’s mane mushrooms, steamed black rice — well cooked neither soggy nor dry, mu shu vegetables — delicious and plentiful veggies, nice about bringing extra pancakes, the deluxe lotus root thingie — lotus root and other veggies in tasty sauce. While most of the things we got had typical Chinese food style sauces on them, none felt greasy to me, maybe a bit sweet for some tastes, but they were all drip-​off-​able enough that you could choose to only have a little sauce (or to bit order things in sauce of that’s not your thing). I will definitely make a point of visiting again any time I’m in Portland!

This is my favorite restaurant, by far!
I LOVE Bay Leaf. I’ve been coming here non stop for years.
I highly recommend the M14 (sesame tofu) with the mixed rice. It’s what I always get.
I hope you’re having a lovely day, fellow Unilocal readers.
Live long and prosper.

Sadly they have closed… They have retired from the restaurant business after 35 years. Bay Leaf was there for 8 years. Best vegan hot and sour soup. Bay Leaf will be missed. It was open on Thanksgiving and Christmas, great place for vegans to eat on the holiday’s.

I’m not vegetarian, but I love this restaurant!
Food is delicious and reasonably priced.
However, I wouldn’t recommend this place to people who are used to eating greasy stuff full of salt, hot sauce, or MSG.
They won’t be able to taste the flavor of vegetables and subtle spices.

We’re always on the lookout for really good Asian food and this one does that. Must be some kind of fusion because each of the dishes is unusual and can’t really be classified or pigeon holed. We’ve been many times over the years and I don’t think I’ve ever really been disappointed.
The interior is large and very open. If you’re an agoraphobic, this place might not be for you. I couldn’t imagine but this once certainly may bring that out in a person. The atmosphere is somewhat sterile. Even though this is a fusion themed restaurant I think the Japanese end of that dominates the décor. It’s spartan but very clean. Must be some sort Feng Shui at work but since I don’t know anything about that, maybe not. I don’t think this place does a lot of business so if it is Feng Shui, it’s not working. It could be a location thing though. Who knows?
I found the Green Curry Delight delicious. Potato, fried tofu, broccoli, carrots, bamboo shoots, mushrooms simmered in green curry. My taste buds were doing the happy dance on this one, for sure. I also love that mixed grain rice thing they do. It’s the perfect complement to my already perfect dish.
I really want to see this place succeed. It’s local, family owned, the food is good, and we’ll be back. I’m giving them 5 stars. OK, so I’m partial to that. What can I say? The only thing I don’t like about is it’s so quiet with no activity. Sometimes that’s a good thing but in this case I don’t think so. I like to see a little bustling activity when I’m in a restaurant.

Beautifully presented, great service, Family friendly, and excellent food! The fine tea selection is worth checking out! The papaya salad was scrumptious– spicy and full of crunch!

Vegetarian asian fusion cuisine that is really tasty. I think I have sampled most of their offerings over the last two years I’ve been a regular, and I haven’t been disappointed by a single one. And even though I am not vegetarian, I keep coming back.
The service is fantastic. You will be greeted by the owner, who is kind and helpful. The prices are also very reasonable, especially considering the size of the portions. Usually one plate will feed two people.
The mushroom cream soup is amazing. You have to try it. I also highly recommend the Lion’s Mane. Finally, don’t forget to try some of the many teas they serve.

Great food! Try the autumn curry.

First time @ Bay Leaf (vegetarian), drive by it all the time. Very spacious and clean. We had ordered:
Hot and Sour Soup — very tasteful, I would totally reorder, *****
Papaya Salad (Thai salad) — good, a little on the sweet side ****
Eggplant with Garlic Sauce. — I normally don’t eat eggplant, but the sauce made the dish delious *****
Dong Po Tofu. — disappointed, very bland
Overall, I would come back and try the other dishes in the menu.
The services was extremely slow. It took about 10 min to get seated with no one waiting. From the time the menu was placed on the table until the time it was taken another 15 – 20 min. However the food came out fast. I would give it a ** (2 star for service)

I’m updating my review of Bay Leaf because I had such a contrastingly different experience to the last time I ate here. My roommate and I went and decided to throw caution to the wind and just blow it out. You see, apparently the secret to dining success at Bay Leaf is to avoid anything that sounds remotely healthy. We split the sesame tofu, which is fried and in a sweet and sour type of sauce, but served with broccoli (so it’s healthy!), the veggie tempura and the fried mushrooms. It was a giant orgy of fried goodness. We kept talking about how addictive it all was as we stuffed more food into our mouths. I don’t know the name of the hot herbal tea I had, it was oddly sweet, but an acquired taste. After the first cup, I was addicted to it as well. We also ordered the tricolor rice, which was hardly noticeable except that it was actually tasty and I usually am not a fan of rice. I can’t give this place five stars when I know they have some not so great dishes, but if you’re ready for a cosmic binge, head over to the Leaf!

If you like bland food and slow service, you’ll love this place! Otherwise, pass it up because there are better options.

Met my old friend L, who is vegetarian, and her kiddo here for lunch on a weekday at 12. Don’t know how the place stays open. Very few customers in the hour we were there.
The place was clean and quiet, peaceful, but cold! The older couple who helped us were pleasant and very kind to L’s toddler. They provided a highchair and brought her a plate.
We both had the sesame tofu lunch special. It was preceeded by hot and sour soup ((yummy) and cost $ 5.95. I had $ 4 plum green tea. It came as hot water in a tiny pot with a tiny cup with a tea bag. I was not offered more hot water… I could have asked but we were too busy gabbing.
The sesame tofu was delicious (fried with a sticky sweet sour sauce). The mixed rice was good too. The broccoli it came with was al dente but cold. The toddler liked all of it.
I think I would go back, but maybe not go out of my way to do so.
There was some off street parking which is nice.

If you like Panda Express and are vegetarian/​vegan you will like this place. That’s all I can say… This is Chinese-​American food.
I don’t like Panda Express.

As a veggie I really like this place because it is a great restaurant to take non-​veggies. I have gone numerous times with non-​veggies and they have all told me they were surprised by how much they liked it.
I usually order the cold noodles, and the peanut sauce that accompanies it is the best peanut sauce I have had in a restaurant. Their fried rice is also delicious, but their menu is really diverse and there are several goodies to try out.
The staff is usually very accommodating and happy to receive business. This might sound a bit peculiar to mention in a review, but the bathroom has the loveliest aroma and background music.

It pains me to give a place like this a 2 star review, but I just can’t help myself.
In a neighborhood full of small, storefront restaurants/​bars and a plethora of food carts, Bay leaf seems a bit out of place. It is a behemoth of a restaurant that takes up almost an entire city block and has a massive lot for off street parking. It has a very chain-​like feel on the outside, but with a surprisingly poised aesthetic on the inside. Interesting juxtaposition, I must say.
I should have known what was to be expected when I walked in at noon on a weekday and the place was completely empty.
The 2 stars for this place are exclusively for the service that I received. The man who served me was pleasant, quick, attentive and extremely helpful, even when faced with an obnoxious customer like myself (hey, I like to ask a lot of questions). Unfortunately, this doesn’t change how bad the food was. So, so bad.
I ordered the spring rolls and one of the curries. The spring rolls looked like they were going to be pretty good, but the inside was mushy and undercooked. I’m pretty sure that they were pre-​made, store bought spring rolls because they had that freezer burn flavor to them. The sauce that they were served with weren’t much better, and basically just tasted like some sort of sugar sauce.
As for the curry, it was nothing to write home about either. It was overly sweet, bland, and the vegetables also had that freezer burn taste to them. I have a bottomless stomach and almost never leave food on my plate, but I just wasn’t excited enough to finish this stuff.
It really saddens me because there isn’t a lot of good Chinese food in this city, and this just further proves that. 4 star service, .5 star food.

I’ve gone back several times to this place and it seems to me that the food gets better every time.
The sweet and sour soup is delicious (usually I hate it) and the green curry keeps me coming back. Give it a try!

We normally wouldn’t have considered Bay Leaf as a dinner option, but we were very pleased with our experience last night.
JP and I went to dinner with friends last night who are Seventh-​Day Adventists and Bay Leaf serves meals that meet their dietary restrictions.
The interior is nicely designed, but has sort of a Spartan feel to it. They have auto-​shutoff devices on their restroom lights so they have a sign inside the restroom that says, «If the light goes out while you are in here, wave your arms and the lights should come back on.»
We all started out with soup. Two of us had the corn chowder and two of us had the sweet and sour soup. The sweet and sour soup is very delicious, rich and buttery in flavor and I recommend it. I found the corn chowder to be a little bit floury and pasty. Actually, the corn chowder didn’t seem to have corn kernels, but instead a very small quota of undercooked peas and carrots.
Bay Leaf has a mammoth selection of teas. We ordered the Eight Wonders and Green Plum Tea, both of which were excellent with robust flavors.
For entrees, we ordered the tri-​color fried rice, sizzling tofu, sesame tofu and mushroom crisps. The tri-​colored rice (brown rice with carrots, onions and peas) was delicious. Well, actually all the dishes were delicious, wonderfully seasoned. I marveled at how much like chicken the tofu appeared in the sizzling tofu dish.
We liked the mushroom crisps (kind of a breaded mushroom) but wondered if they would have been even better if they had come with a dipping sauce.
What I enjoyed the most was my avocado shake. In addition to avocado, this shake also contains blueberry and strawberry. Wonderfully thick with just the perfect amount of sweetness!

I brought my roommate and an out-​of-​town guest here a couple of days ago. I love this place enough to where I bring all of my distant friends here. I’ve yet to get a disappointed response from anyone.
My roommate had my friend worried there for a bit: he sat in his chair, rubbing his belly and moaning. My friend, concerned about sickness, didn’t realize my roommate was merely enjoying a blissful food coma. The freshness of the Bay Leaf’s food cured his hangover by the time we’d made it out to the parking lot.
We decided to share a few dishes: the pumpkin bisque was creamy, buttery autumn goodness; the spinach appetizer was refreshing and tangy; the fried eggplant with their secret house sauce? Flipping AMAZING. The meaty texture was enough to appease their omnivorous palates, and hearty enough to where it was nearly impossible to cut up with chopsticks (I cheated and used my spoon). I tried the Jade Rice for the first time: a pile of rice mingled and fried with vegetables and soy protein, big enough to be a side for five or six people. And of course we got the ever-​pleasing Tempura Noodle Soup.
The words of my guest after finishing his meal? «After eating all this, I’ve an aching to go back to Japan. That was delicious!»
And there you have it.

Whenever I go into Bay Leaf, I seem to have it to myself, which makes me feel like it’s my best kept secret.
One is greeted by the serene sound of a fountain just inside the door. Once inside, you see spacious dining with comfortable seating and a very pleasing layout. The service is excellent and helpful, and the food delicious.