Wing Wa BBQ King

### update ### they are closed. New place is more expensive and doesn’t have the family feel… so sad for us!

The building doesn’t say Wing Wa, but the menu does.
The BBQ I’ve had from here once was a little on the dry side, but had good flavor.
Big portions for what you pay.
My recommendations:
Dry Sauteed String/​Green Beans.
Rock Cod with Vegetables.

Alrhough the owners and operators were nice, actually not impressed with this place. They seem to have had better days. Ordered a vatety of different dishes including the bbq to get a varety if items. The bbq porks was great but the bbq duck was slightly dry. The lap mei items took a long time, and was not very flavorful.

I stop here once a week for a whole barbecue duck. They really know how to make authentic Chinese barbecue. I’m surprised more people don’t know about this place. Good service, good prices and excellent duck.

They serve family style portions here, very generous portions. Service was very attentive. Food was good. Wontons in wonton soup excellent. You have to come early. We came in at 8p and they were out of dumplings & bbq.

Great Chinese food here. I had the beef clay pot and it was definitely legit and the prices are not bad. It has the feel of being in a family restaurant in China for sure.

Amazing roast duck! Charsiew was a bit tough, tho. Clean and friendly staff. Big portions for a good price.

The dim sum was something I was missing when I moved to Portland but man did I find my spot. He dim sum was fresh and the service was great. I recommend the ha gao but if you are adventurer than dim sum is not dim sum without the chicken feet. Chicken feet!!!

This place is lovely and very delicious, first place in town that I’ve found specializing in real Chinese food. Full ducks and pig that smell lovely, place reminds me of San Fransisco. The food is hands down nearly the best in town. Problems: the staff is friendly but if you don’t get you’re food to go your wait will be long for everything. They will serve the to goers before checking to see if you are sitting at the table, ready to pay and go or to order. They do check up on you and the young guy who works here is very nice. Last down side is the layout of tables, but the place is small so I’m not sure how they could go about changing that. Wait on me and be prompt next time I come in and I’ll up my review to five stars. Again, great food and friendly when served.

this is now Rainbow Restaurant. when first taken over from wing wa it took a while for them to come up to the previous standards. now the kitchen is pumping out some great dishes. A definite best kept secret.

I wanted to like this restaurant, all signs pointed it to be real chinese food, BBQ ducks hanging, BBQ pork on display a full house of chinese nationals the right neighborhood and very good reviews in Unilocal…
Well the signs were wrong, food was very bland, abundant yes but what do you care if you don’t even think about taking it for a late snack, it seems that the restaurant was good not so long ago, not sure if this was a really really bad day for them, but I am crossing it off my list of chinese restaurants.

The owner of this restaurant changed and many of the specials we were looking forward to (namely the free cold chicken for orders over $ 45) were no longer available. In fact, the name written on the door indicated this place is now called Dim Sum _​_​_​ (I forgot the last word). Nonetheless, we gave it a try. Now I’m not the biggest fan of Chinese food when dining out since I have pretty high expectations. But the food here wasn’t bad. We ordered:
–Egg white custard buns — Three buns for only $ 1.80? Definitely worth it.
–Horse cake — A sweet spongy cake made of milk and eggs. Yummy!
–Char Siu Bao (BBQ Pork Steamed Buns) — Not my favorite version of this classic dim sum dish but decent.
–Seafood Tofu Hot Pot — First main course dish we ordered, last one to arrive. It was tasty though I’m a bit scared to find out what gave the hot pot that gooey consistency.
–Fish fillets and vegetables — Again, is it really necessary to have everything be so slimy? This was a colorful dish but I was thrown off by gooey coating on all the vegetables.
–Roasted pork — This dish was smaller than I expected but by far the most outstanding thing we ordered. The crispy skin was flavored JUST right. No wonder this place is named for its BBQ.
–Salt and pepper squid — The tempura on this was well-​seasoned. I really enjoyed the green onions and sauteed onions that came with the dish. They complemented the fried squid perfectly.
–Yangchow fan (Fried rice) — I don’t know why all fried rice at restaurants is so dry but at least the flavoring in this rice was good. There were small pieces of pork, egg, and shrimp. The whole dish was a little oily for my tastes but at least it was flavorful without an overload of sodium.
Overall, the food was mediocre and sensibly priced. I did appreciate that none of the dishes were drenched in soy sauce or oyster sauce but rather had pretty minimal seasoning. However, this restaurant could work on its sanitation/​cleanliness. We found a small dead bug on one of the plates and there were two flies dancing by the window. As Chinese restaurants go though, this place wasn’t too bad and the roast pork and cheap dim sum make this restaurant stand out from the rest in my mind.

MAROONED ON AN ISLAND
If I were to be marooned on island, it would be with the chef of Wing Wa BBQ King. During my first night on the island I would have him a make Cantonese favorite of sweet carrot and vegetable pork bone soup to be accompanied with the following dishes:
Clams in Black Bean Sauce
Seafood Tofu Hot Pot
Fish Fillets and Vegetables
After this incredible meal, I would have Yu-​go chauffeur come rescue me and take me home for a good night’s sleep.

Why the 5 star?
This is one of the most freshest dim sum I have ever eaten and great selection of dim sum as well.
I live in So. California and ate my good share of dim sum in sf, la, and sd areas and I have to admit that when I tried this place, every single dim sum was very fresh. fresh out of the oven. You seriously don’t get that in most cali restaurants. Yes, granted that we were the only people in the restaurant eating besides their family members; however, the food was not dry or old.
Food: We basically tried almost every food that they brought out on the cart and others that we ordered from the menu. My bro-​in-​law indicated that they just recently started bring stuff out on carts, but prior to that, they use to make every straight out of the oven when ordered. Again, All the dim sum here is fresh and delicious. You can’t go wrong with anything you order.
Service: They were very hospitable and attentive.
Overall, I was very impressed by the quality of their food. It’s the best dim sum place I have ever tried! I couldn’t stop wanting to try more and I couldn’t stop eating!
The greatest part about this place is that it is cheap! I went with 6 people total and our bill was no more than $ 35 and I ordered everything plus more of what I normally ordered, which in other restaurants would have been double that price.
I highly recommend people coming here.

Occasionally, good things come from having a mother in the know when it comes to all the local Chinese goings on. This restaurant is one of those good things.
I was informed that Chinese from Southern Oregon take long treks to Wing Wa just to order their roasted pork to take back home since such delicacies do not exist there. This restaurant is famed to be the best Chinese barbeque in Portland.
Yes, it’s good to have a mother who knows such things. Or else I would not have ever known where to go to get char siu in Portland, and that would have been a pity.
There are some pitfalls, however. The menu is full of delicious nostalgic delights from my childhood. Alas, as a very Americanized sort, I tend to fail at ordering such things. In an embarrassing turn of events, I did ask someone once to talk to my mom on the phone to take my order. My mom ordered what I wanted in Cantonese. While this was all very sad for me, Wing Wa took it all in stride, humoring me after I failed again and again to convey exactly what childhood memory I was trying to order. Instead, they were very patient — and my mom told me that they had apparently praised my «Chinese palate.» Though she was probably trying to placate me after how humiliated I was.
All in all, a solid place for salted fish rice clay pots and of course, the famed char siu. And of course very kind waitstaff who will talk to your mom on the phone in Cantonese when your own attempts at ordering fails.

ROASTED PORK. $ 8.50 per pound. They even gave me a choice between fattier roasted pork or leaner roasted pork. I got both but the fattier one tasted much better.
And just in case you want to impress someone special, you can also order a whole roasted pig for $ 228. That’s 34 pounds of porky goodness, great for Valentines day or birthdays.

The food here is great.
I come here pretty often to get my fix of Chinese food if I’m too lazy to make my own.
This is one of the best Chinese place to go if you’re on 82^nd
Service ³⁄₅
Food ⁵⁄₅
Cleanliness 2.5÷5 — It’s a little run down but that doesn’t matter because the food is good!
If you’re looking if they Cater you’re going to have to ask a few weeks ahead of time but sometimes they won’t cater also because of the hassles.
They also have a special menu with dishes that are marked down, but they are in Chinese, so if you’re looking for cheap eats ask the wait staff on what you should order that’s at a reasonable price or have a person that can read Chinese come along.

The best whole roasted pork/​pig in PDX!
My family always order their whole roasted pig at this place for every event. Now, i’m only giving them a 5 star for their roast pork since its the ONLY thing i’ve eaten there so i can’t tell you if everything is good there, but all i know is i’ve eaten a lot of roasted pork in my life and this place makes it da bomb! Their pork is soOO tender and delicious! The skin is crispy & extremely favorful and its never overcooked!
The place isn’t very nice, its not run down looking, just very simple with plain design and furnishing. The people who works there don’t speak great english, but they do understand you enough to place your order & tell you to put a deposit down and to bring your receipt on the day of your pick up or you’re basically a$$ out of your deposit.
To order a whole pig you gotta do it at least a week in advance and you don’t have to worry about finding something to carry it because they’ll loan you their tray, but you have to give it back or you’ll lose your $ 50 deposit. This is a great place to buy a whole pig if you are doing a wedding, funeral or any special occassion that will have more than 50+ ppl. The best part is they have 3 different sizes to pick from and it usually ranges from 30+ lbs and the price ranges around $ 180+.

SHOULD HAVE RENAMED THEMSELVES
BEST CLAY POT RICE DISHES ON EARTH INSTEAD
Don B’s opening statement: the hubris of such a joint, right? I reviewed a place in CA called Best Chinese BBQ restaurant… what I’m surmising is that, with a poor command of English, these proprietors have not a clue the implication of their chosen names… simply taking Chinese and translating over, is my guess (erring on the side of my sis/​bros here…)
This *is* the place for clay pot rice dishes. it’s what they’re well-​known for among the Asian community members. and it’s darned good… and cheap. Takes a while for these to be prepared, as it’s all placed into the casserole dish together and needs usually 20 – 30 mins, depending on size of pot. But the resulting flavor and the crispiness of the rice on the bottom. oh my.
We’ve tried the fancies like mango this or that, and even the roasted items, like cha-​siu (pork) and siew-​ngap (duck). Alright. They’re above average, and I“ll leave it at that.
I miss the clay pots… and I’m near SF and Oakland Chinatowns!!!
PS Honestly speaking though, their BBQ roast duck and pork aren’t so bad. they’d pass as in there is at least the right flavor there, but not stellarly done meats. I have purchased both cuts before, as well as their ‘siew yuk’ (crisp-​skinned pork cut).

King? King of bbq? That’s a pretty f*ing bold statement there, Wing Wa. This place is in a little grouping of Asian businesses near the Fubonn on 82^nd. They have your (what I am coming to discover is) standard menu of 60 – 100 items. Plus, they have a case up in the front with a whole bunch of bbq’d or fried animals. They have whole ducks, slabs of pork, and whole fried pigs, all hanging there glazed and glistening under the heating lamps. The menu includes a collection of random Chinese entrees (both northern and southern) and some other bbq options. They offer dim-​sum on the weekends as well.
For some reason, I ordered the beef curry tenderloin in casserole. I was by myself, and so I didn’t think I could handle a whole roast duck (which is what I should have gotten). I also opted for an order of shumai off the dim sum cart. The meal was uninspiring. The Shumai had obviously been sitting there for a while (I broke a cardinal rule — don’t order dim sum at 130pm from a place that’s not busy). The curry was ok, but not super flavorful. The flavor lacked depth. I felt like it was just curry powder and water or broth. I can make that at home. The tenderloin was about the fattiest tenderloin I have ever had. Some of the pieces were just pure fat. Maybe this is how the dish is supposed to be, but its not like tenderloin dishes I have consumed at other restaurants.
The veggies in the dish were overcooked. I picked at it for a while, ate all the edible beef in there, picked out all the cabbage and peppers, and took the rest home. It was quite a lot of food, but when half of it is inedible, that cuts down on the value a bit. This is going to sound bad, but my sister-in-law’s dog got a great meal of tenderloin fat leftovers that day. So, at least she was stoked.
I am an idiot. In retrospect, I should have just gone for the roast duck. I saw numerous people come in, walk up to the front, buy a duck, wait for it to be chopped up, and walk out with a look of giddy anticipation on their faces. That is obviously what this place is good for (if its good for anything). I was one of 2 people who was actually sitting there eating. All the other patrons were Asian (which is a decent sign for us white folk).
I am giving this place 3 stars because they offer the ducks and the whole fried pig. That, and I saw a bunch of people buying the BBQ stuff (which is an indication that its pretty good). I am definitely going back for the BBQ and FOR SURE some fried pig skin. MMMMMMM CRISPY!!! But, I will not be returning for the other non-​bbq dishes. They get one more chance to show me why they think they should be considered the BBQ King.
[I went back for the BBQ, and the BBQ pork tastes JUST LIKE CHINA! I brought some to a friend who spent 2 years living in the south of China and he was speechless for a few moments. When he regained his ability to talk all he could say was that it tasted so much like the street food in China it was bringing back years worth of memories. I too was immediately transported back to the little street-​side cases filled with glistening pig and duck carcasses. Bomb. Way to go Wing Wa. Good Bbq. Maybe you’re the BBQ prince, or possibly the BBQ duke, but before I’ll crown you king, I need to see some more good things out of you…]