Kung POW!

Most Chinese places in Portland leave me disappointed. I sometimes don’t even know what I just ate, but this place is different. We came here for lunch for a mini work birthday party. I had the cherry pork. It was a bit heavy, because it’s sweet and fried, but I really enjoyed it. The kung pao chicken was also good. Nothing seemed too spicy or salty. I usually do prefer some spice, but this place still had a pretty good balance.
It’s pretty large inside and excellent for a large group. The prices are fair, so I will come back here for a weekday lunch again – probably not a dinner though, not that good.

After being spoiled in SF with not only excellent Chinese food but also excellent vegan Chinese food, it’s always been a struggle to find decent Chinese food in Portland, much less vegan Chinese food, after Vegetarian House closed. If a Chinese restaurant has vegan dishes, it’s usually some variation of the standard sweet and sour or kung pao tofu, and it’s usually bland and obviously put on the menu with no concern for quality just to throw vegans a bone (a vegan bone that is).
I initially discovered the food at Kung Pow through Shandong (the sister restaurant and predecessor to Kung Pow). I was so desperate for vegan Chinese food after moving back to Portland that I would travel across town just to get takeout at Shandong. Then I was excited to learn that Kung Pow had basically the same menu, and it’s located much closer to me.
The food did not disappoint. I could tell that the chefs actually took the time to create vegan dishes as part of their in-​house cuisine instead of just phoning it in and adding a few «sub tofu» dishes to the menu. And they have things I’d never tried before, not even in SF, like cherry tofu and zhen bang tofu.
I’ll do a quick rundown on the things I’ve tried:
vegan potstickers — good dumpling exterior with an interesting and flavorful interior, which I believe is shredded soy curls. They don’t come with sauce, but then again they don’t need it.
Mongolian soy curls — this is the money shot, I am totally addicted to this dish. The soy curls are always cooked just right. Sometimes soy curls can be too soft or even mooshy if not cooked or hydrated properly, so the Kung Pow kitchen has found the winning formula. The sauce is spicy without choking you — just be sure to avoid eating the red chili peppers in the dish. A takeout container has a ton of soy curls in it, especially since there’s no filler vegetable like broccoli. I’ve always been able to enjoy leftovers at least once out of one takeout container.
sesame tofu — what you’d expect, but above average
cherry tofu — I’m surprised I had never seen this at other restaurants before, because it is a really interesting flavor. It’s sweet like sweet and sour, but without the sour.
zhen bang tofu — this is my go-​to dish in addition to the Mongolian soy curls. The tofu is lightly fried and then dry rubbed with spices, so it’s a really great tofu dish that’s light and flavorful due to the absence of a heavy sauce. This one is good over rice.
red curry soy curl noodles — these are fantastic as well. They use wide noodles (similar to udon-​sized spaghetti if that makes sense) which makes for a good texture, as opposed to if they use thinner noodles like rice noodles. The red curry is spot on, and the soy curls round out the dish nicely. It’s sort of like Chinese spaghetti and meatballs.
The prices are standard, and you get a lot of food for what you pay. I was a little thrown off the first time I went because they didn’t include rice and that’s when I discovered you have to pay for it; but $ 1 for white and $ 2 for brown isn’t out of line.
I’ve always gotten takeout, but the interior of the dining area is modern with interesting wall prints. It reminded me of somewhere back in NYC instead of being in a restaurant in Portland (and that’s said without snobbery).
The service for takeout has always been quick and efficient, and I’ve never had a mistake on my order. Sometimes the owner or head chef or manager (not exactly sure who he is) is there, and he always thanks me for my order and says if there’s any problems whatsoever to please let them know; so I feel appreciated as a customer and that they actually care about giving good service.
I admit I like reading reviews that comment on Chinese food’s authenticity. I’m not an expert on authentic Chinese food, but I do know that if a Chinese restaurant were 100% authentic to the cuisine then Americans would not eat there. I don’t care if Kung Pow’s food is authentic; all I care about is that it tastes good and that to me it’s Chinese-​style cuisine. Kung Pow consistently provides the best food when I go there, and I appreciate that they have such inspired vegan dishes.

I would have taken pictures but I was too busy eating. Dry rubbed and honey dipped everything. Sub everything with soy curls if you’re a veggie like my wife. Great service, drinks and atmosphere.
Vegetarian friendly to the max!

I was really hoping to find a good, vegan friendly Chinese restaurant. I feel I succeeded in finding a place that is vegan friendly but not good. I ordered vegan potstickers for $ 5 on happy hour to start. The dough was super thick and the inside was bland. It came with no sauce. There were 3 bottles on the table: chili oil, soy sauce, vinegar. They told us how many parts of each to make a sauce but didn’t give is anything besides to plate to put the sauce on. My friend got the curry fish balls and said they were bland. I got clay pot ma po tofu. They charge $ 1 for whit rice $ 2 for brown. It was firm tofu rather than soft and besides the spiciness level it was bland. Disappointing.

Had the Brussels sprouts. Delicious. Lunch for 7.50 with a complimentary veggie based soup.

We ordered take out and were excited to try the vegan options on the menu. We ordered the brussel sprouts and were given the pork belly with brussel sprouts (which we only figured out after taking a bite — so vegans inspect your food here before eating it). You’d think that with two separate items containing brussel sprouts on the menu, they’d have a good handle on managing the orders properly. Apparently not. Waited 50 minutes for the food after being told it would take 20 minutes. But the worst part is that I called them twice and left a message to speak with the manager about the problem before posting this negative Unilocal review. No one ever called back or offered a refund or credit for their mistake. Haven’t had such terrible customer service in Portland ever. They get two stars instead of 1 because the vegan potstickers are really tasty. But I won’t be going back.

Got into town after a long trek, headed right to Nong’s. New Year’s day? Nong closed: o (
I flag down my Über main man Aron who had just dropped me, he says, let’s to to Kung POW!
So I did. And it was gooood. The namesake Kung Pao (POW!) Chicken was everything you’d expect, rich deep dark flavor, superb. Service was friendly and efficient, and it’s a fun room.
Thanks Aron!

Due to the positive feedback I’d heard regarding Kung POW!‘s soy curl dishes & the delivery available via Caviar, I decided to give Kung POW! another chance because I was simply craving Chinese food. I ordered the Mongolian Soy Curls, the Kung POW! with fried tofu, & the Red Curry Noodles with soy curls, along with brown rice. The Mongolian Soy Curl dish was my favorite of the three, but all were flavorful, although not quite as spicy as I would’ve liked. Overall, the food was good enough for the price (around $ 10 a dish for a two-​meal-​sized portion) & I appreciate their plentiful vegan options, so I’ll turn to Kung POW! on the occasions I’m craving Chinese food in Portland.

Overall, I think this place does a great job and is one of the best Chinese restaurants in Portland. It’s sister restaurant, Shandong, is also at the top of my list.
Kung Pow likes to go for the spicy, Sichuan dishes, which are my preference. We have tried a bunch of things at Kung Pow but the repeats always are the Dry Sauteed String beans (loaded with garlic) and the Mongolian Beef. Their «Judy’s Noodles» are pretty great too — vegetarian unless you choose to add chicken or shrimp. These are thick noodles in a garlic wine sauce, with a bit of a bite thanks to the Chinese pickles aka jalapenos, and includes spinach and shitake mushrooms. Yum. Housemade wontons in chili sauce are really good too, Once we had the Zhen Bang Chicken and liked it but there were too many sichuan peppercorns so it was really gritty.
Service is prompt but pretty perfunctory. They get the job done but nothing amazing to report. I like the décor — the fortune cookie mural with chalkboard is fun, and the Chinese dragon kite is cool to look at. And they have played great 80s rock all the times we’ve been there. If only parking in NW was easier, I’d go to Kung Pow! more often.

Great addition to the neighborhood. We’ve tried several dishes but we always order the spicy curry fish balls. Our favorite sort of comfort food dish that is most reminiscent of the Chinese that you grew up eating is the Honey Dry Fried Chicken, which is kind of like General Tso’s, but much higher quality. Dine in or take out, great either way. Keep it up.

Prior to trying Kung POW I had low expectations for 2 reasons:
1. I’ve grew up eating authentic Chinese good, so I knew going in I couldn’t expect authentic.
2. The mixed reviews on Unilocal from 1 star to 5 stars. I had to see for myself.
Regardless of how I felt, I still tried since my mom had an interest in trying it.
Kung POW! serves Northern Chinese food which means everything is spicy. If you see a pepper icon next to the entrée that means spicy. Customers can always tell their server to low ball the spice.
When we walked in right about noon there was one other party. The sever showed us our seat. There was 2 large glass bottles of water on the table (not cold). A couple minutes later, a waiter brought us each a bowl of sweet and sour soup along with 2 tea pots. The soup came out really quick. The waiter should of given us time to look at the menu before bringing out the soup as we were trying to look at the menu. The menu is rather sticky. Since I don’t care for the sweet and sour soup (regardless who makes it), I gave it to my mom.
The interior décor was interesting. The table we sat at had a painting of possible people in a busy city. Nothing really caught my eye. I didn’t get a chance to check out the entire restaurant but I did notice there’s only 2 restrooms. There was plenty of seating and the staff was overwhelming at one point. I was confused how many people served our table. We had 1 person bring out the soup/​tea, 2^nd person to take our order and another person who brought out our dishes. In total there was 3 people for one table. Maybe each person has their own role but it felt a but disorganized in my eyes.
For six people, we shared the following dishes along with rice:
–Spicy curry sauce fried fishball — this dish consists of 6 large fishballs covered in batter, deep fried and sits on a plate with spicy curry sauce. I enjoyed this appetizer. The fishballs had a nice crunchy batter on the outside along with a kick from the spicy curry sauce.
— Honey dried fried chicken — this dish consists of 9 chicken wings, deep fried that sits on a pool of spicy honey sauce with tons of peppers. After eating 2 my fingers were super sticky. The sauce was really thick. The picture on the website doesn’t look like what we received at all.
— Judy’s Noodles (house made) w/​less oil — from other Unilocalers this dish is truly oily and because of that we asked for less oil. When the dish came out there was still plenty of oil that was visible. We added shrimp which was an additional $ 3.00. I don’t know if the noodles comes with any protein but customers can add chicken, tofu or shrimp. This dish was pretty good despite the oil.
— Dried sautéed Brussel sprouts — I was surprised about this dish. I normally don’t eat Brussel Sprouts unless it’s Thanksgiving. This dish is consisted with tons of garlic and it was a bit salty for me.
— Clay pot ma tofu w/​pork belly and less spice — this dish was decent to me but my family enjoyed it.
— Shan dong beef — this dish was decently flavored but there appears to be more cabbage than beef on the plate. Added bonus no bones and it’s very tender (almost too tender).
— Lemon pepper prawns — this dish was okay. Tons of shrimps, peppers and onions.
After we finished eating, the bill and standard fortune cookies were brought out. As we walked out there was 3 other parties but it wasn’t too busy.
Overall, we had a good experience despite the soup/​tea being brought out so quick and the oily dishes. Kung POW! Is a slightly higher class of Panda Express, Happy Panda and PF Chang’s. Those are my comparisons (no one needs to agree). I probably would return but not anytime soon. I need to detox from the oil. For the reasons mentioned above, I am only giving it 3 stars. I will say, I agree with other Unilocalers that it’s in a good location and NW needs more Chinese restaurants. Keep I mind, that you will not be eating authentic Chinese food. For those who don’t care too much about having authentic Chinese food this is the place for you. Should you order any food, be sure to ask for less oil and spice unless you want POW (spice) on your pallet.

Honestly I’m surprised this place isn’t as busy as Shandong’s. Slightly different and smaller menu but food is still good. It reminded me a little of Pei Wei but it was still good. The honey dry fried chicken has a perfect chicken to batter ratio. The sauce was sweet but had a little vinegar kick to it. If you like honey chicken or even orange chicken, this would be the one to order. The chow mein with prawns was a-​maz-​ingg. Full of flavor except it got a little peppery towards the bottom. Noodles were cooked perfectly and the prawns were large enough that it evenly balanced out the noodle ratio. Sadly we made this trip twice in a week, hoping no one would notice ha! We’ll be back again to try different dishes.

4 stars because they have a unique menu, handmade noodles and wontons, and the staff is incredibly helpful and friendly.
What I ordered:
Handmade wontons with spiced pork and chili sauce — delicious, but a little on the too salty side. The chili sauce is delicious and not too spicy but very flavorful.
Judy’s noodles with chicken — handmade noodles are delicious but this dish is extremely garlicky and a little too salty and oily for me. the chicken is a little on the slimy/​rubbery side but my cat loved it lol I would order this without meat and extra veggies next time
Love the noodles though.

Huh. Not sure why all the mediocre reviews. KP is super cool spot, and I’m glad they came to 21^st to add more Asian food options (and an inexpensive and trendy one at that).
I am a huge fan of Shandong, but am not tryin’ to drive across the river every time I need that Chinese fix.
I ordered a lot when I came here:
*Potstickers
*Honey Dry Chicken Wings
*Wonton Soup
*Kung Pow Chicken
*Shandong Beef
Service was good, and like Shandong, the portions were huge and hit the spot. I guess my expectations were on point with what was delivered. And for that, they get 4 solid stars – color me a fan.

Their appetizers are delicious! If you dont like spicy food (like me!), make sure to tell your server that you want your food on the «mild» side, otherwise most food, if not all, are spicy! :)
Must try:
Spicy curry sauce fried fish balls
Chicken wings
Dumplings
Pork Shumai

The xlb was right on. Judy noodles, good portion. Well priced; definitely return here

SO. SO. Excited about this place!!! Haven’t found any good Chinese since I moved to Portland and this is a perfect modern take on Chinese food while invoking those traditional flavors.
Must Try:
Shandong Beef — holy shit so tasty and tender.
Pork Belly Fried Rice — as close to my Dad’s fried rice as I’ve ever had at a restaurant. This is legit! But ask them for a bowl to eat it otherwise you’ll waste time chasing rice around a plate.
Lamb Bing Bao — Super tasty, be ready for the spice!
Good but not Awesome:
Judy’s Noodles — these were overcooked. For handmade they need to be more al dente
Brussel Sprouts and Pork Belly — For two delicious ingredients this should’ve been way more flavorful! Agree with other reviews it needed to be crispier, finished on higher heat
Service was fine — definitely coudl step up their game here. But overall I’ll be back for the flavors! Plus it was very affordable and you get good portions!

Chinese food in Portland hasn’t rocked my world and when Kung POW’s menu detailed how it was a modern approach to Chinese food, I was worried we would be having something like Boke Bowl again. Fortunately, the dishes were nowhere near as disastrous and while they were satisfying, I’m not sure if I’d be back. Especially since this new modern take only offers fortune cookies for dessert, the same kind you’d get with any take out, and my fortune was printed lop-​sided. Why not an original recipe for it if you’re sticking with American style?
My favorite part of Kung POW was a cocktail menu with drinks based on each sign of the zodiac. As a superstitious astrology loon, I sought out the rabbit and was pleasantly surprised by the Oolong tea infused vodka that tasted like an Arnold Palmer. (I suppose that would make it a John Daly?) Service was terrific and when we ran into a snag with an order, our waitress waved the charge.
While the restaurant claims to be vegan friendly, let the stomach beware. My boyfriend was feeling adventurous from his usual hot dogs and decided to try the tofu fried rice. The tofu was bland, over fried on all sides and wobbly in the middle, with peas and carrots, the most basic of vegetables, added to the dish. I enjoyed my pork belly and Brussel sprouts dish, but the sprouts were a little soggy from too much sauce and the flavors were a touch overpowering. I’m going to fry up my left overs and see if cooking them crispier would be an improvement.
If there’s one thing Portland does well, it’s authentic international cuisine. If there’s one area where Portland goes completely clown shoes, it’s taking a «modern”/“American”/“Portland» style take on international cuisine. Portland, stop trying to white it up and leave it to the professionals.
Peas and carrots. Honestly.

We’ve been 3 times now since they opened. The first time was during their opening week & the food was absolutely fantastic! We thought we knew what we wanted to order since we had been to Shandong a few times, but the owner came out & chatted with us, giving us his recommendations. We ended up ordering the House-​made Wontons in Sichuan Chili Oil, the Spicy Curry Sauce Fried Fish Balls, the Sizzling Rice Soup, & the Zhen Bang Chicken. Everything was really good, but the stand-​outs were the fish balls (these may sound weird & unappealing, but they are really delicious & the flavor is outstanding & not really fishy-​tasting at all) & the Zhen Bang Chicken. Just thinking about that chicken as I’m typing this review makes my mouth water. Everything was nicely spiced although maybe too spicy for most, but I like it hot so it was perfect for me.
The second time we went was maybe a week later. I could not get that chicken out of my head so we ordered that, the Sizzling Rice Soup again, & the Pork Belly & Brussels Sprouts. The soup that is supposed to have a very thin broth was thick & almost gloopy with way too much rice. I’m not sure if they mistakenly added cornstarch or if they made the broth with bones, but it was not how it was supposed to be. The chicken tasted like someone had accidentally dumped a ton of Chinese 5-​spice into it because the flavor was overwhelming & the texture was gritty. I’m not sure what happened there, but I really hope it was a one-​time fluke. The Pork Belly & Brussels Sprouts was really tasty although pretty salty. I’m sure it’s just growing pains since there was such a stark contrast so I’m willing to keep trying.
The third time we went with the Pan Pacific Wontons, the Honey Dry-​Fried Sauce Chicken Wings, & the Gan Shao Chili Sauce Fried Fish Balls. The wontons were undercooked where the wonton was folded, but I’m pretty sure that happened to us when we ordered them at Shandong. The wings were tasty, & the fish balls were on point again. I prefer the Spicy Curry sauce though.
I really hope they iron out the kinks because the potential to be great is there. Happy to have this tasty addition to the neighborhood!

Ahhhh I love this place!!! I am so stoked this place opened up. There isn’t an abundance of delicious Asian food in the Pearl and Alphabet District so now that this place opened up, I’ll be here all the time.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I walked in, but the décor was super cool and the staff all super friendly. It was inviting and such a nice change from what it was before. I was there I think maybe second day of opening… and usually restaurants are still working stuff out, but here they seemed to have it all together.
Henry, the owner took pride in hospitality and a great atmosphere, you can just tell. He walked around greeting everyone and making sure everyone’s food and drinks were good. He gave us recommendations and even showed us how to wrap specific dishes the authentic way. I’m so sick of going to restaurants where the staff thinks they’re better than everyone, and that we are the lucky ones to step into their restaurant and that we should kiss the ground they walk on… That attitude is beyond me. You will find none of that horse crap here. Everyone was so so so friendly and warm and I felt so welcome and at home here.
I’m not going to pretend I’m an expert in knowing what authentic Chinese food is… but I know that this place took my taste buds for a happy ride and I know this wasn’t your average run of the mill Americanized food that is all over the place! The food was sooo impressive and delicious, flavorful and packed a punch, or better yet a POW! We had lamb bao bing because the owner recommended it and it did not disappoint. The dumplings were divine. The Judys Noodles were different and full of flavors. I cannot wait to go back and try everything on their menu.
I hope this place does amazing and I only wish them the very best. I’ll be recommending this place to all my friends and family.
Thanks guys for being a breath of new and fresh air in a city full of pretentious assholes who make me feel like I’m not good enough to eat at their establishments. :)