Basa Basa

Kim Jong II called, and He wants his wings back!!! Two outta three times that I came by, you were CLOSED. I tried the wings and KImchee that one time, and was «non plussed». I wanted to give you a second try, but at 7:45 on Tuesday, you were closed. Dennis Rodman himself can’t believe it. How can you serve customers when you are always… closed. Never more.

I’m surprised by all of the hate from the previous reviews. Who cares if they’re not the BEST wings in the world? Who cares if the mac salad doesn’t make you want to rip your shirt off? It’s just food! Have you ever made chicken wings at home? It’s a lot of prep work and then the stink of fried oil haunts you forever!
For $ 14 I got the 10 wing big box and was actually full. I asked for ½ original flavor (sweet Korean ginger flavor –like my nickname) and ½ Ono (Thai lime cilantro). Yes, the batter was kind of thick but I liked it and saw it as an opportunity to carry more sauce. The mac salad lacked a certain pop and I’ve had better elsewhere, but Basa Basa didn’t claim to be a Hawaiian restaurant. I’m just grateful that it came as a side! Lastly, I liked having a mound of rice as a side; it’s my preferred carb for balancing strong flavors. In short, come here for a different interpretation of the chicken wing.

Too much batter on wings!
Sauce on wings was pretty good
Mac salad is bland, needs some «umph»
Probably won’t go back.

I LOVE this place! Lately I’ve been on this Korean wings rampage and this place really caught my fancy when my parents brought me some to try. They have three flavors of wings, all are delish. They are fried and crunchy and very sweet/​tangy — the way Korean wings are s’posed to be! If you get tired of Fire on the Mountain, go to Basa Basa. I think I’m going tonight now. :D

I feel a little bad for this place. The concept is almost there, but lacking. I always see customers at the surrounding restaurants, but there is hardly anyone in here ever.
The good: the wings and the sauce are pretty tasty. Crunchy, with a zingy flavor.
The bad: I had their version of fries and they were overly salty. Almost inedible for me. I wish they had a vegetable option rather than all starchy sides. When I go to any restaurant that serves a variety of sides — there is usually a vegetable option.
Overall, I will be back for the wings, minus the fries.

I agree with may of the reviews below. The wings are WAY too over-​battered. Maybe I’ve been spoiled by the wings at Pok Pok and FOTM, but when you’ve got that kind of competition, you have to step it up. I also agree that there needs to be some form of non-​meat/​non grain item on the menu. Even some pickled veggies or some Kimchi would have made a difference.
I thought the wings were decent sized, but they looked huge because of the amount of batter on them. The drummets almost seemed like short, little drumsticks until you bit into them and realized how thick the batter was. I’ll watch Unilocal and other reviews and see it they make any changes, but until then, I don’t think I’ll be back.

With so few items on the menu, those items should be solid. Bad, flaccid wings. No crunchy vegetables available for a change of pace. Possible sides are rice, fries (only okay) and mac salad (only okay). So you can only have a meal composed of soft foods. Good if you don’t have teeth!
Fire on the Mountain may have its off days, but when I go there I usually leave satisfied. No hoopla. Just decent wings with celery for crunch and a beer or two. When I want crispy, battered chicken I’ll go to Popeye’s or Murata. Basa Basa, no más.

I’m not sure I’ve experienced more disappointment (compared to my pre-​meal excitement) at any restaurant in PDX. Such great potential — Caprial; Korean; chicken wings. What could go wrong?
Simply, the wings were not good. Way too much batter, and the batter itself flopped off the wings leaving a non-​meaty wing covered by a a thick layer of non-​battered skin. The sauces (I had the classic and the Thai) were bland at best. I feel like I had a drastically different experience than some of the other reviewers who loved the wings and were, in part, cause for my eager pre-​meal anticipation.
On the plus side, yummy «ramen» fries (I still don’t know what makes them «ramen») and some of the best kimchi I’ve had in Portland. These two items bring the review up from one star to two stars.

Korean fried chicken wings!
Crispy batter fried, chicken wing pieces finished in one of 3 sauces. I tried the basic sauce. The wings were good (a little heavy on the sauce). The food was fresh.
A BIG hangup here, though–
They have mac salad. It is served with just about everything. It is decent mac salad.
Now, I like good mac salad, but no matter how good it is, I HAVE TO HAVE salt and pepper to enjoy it. HAVE TO.
Doesn’t matter how good it is (and yes, I tried it out before I asked).
I NEED S&P.
I asked for some.
They have no S&P available for patrons here.
WHAT??? Don’t tell me its a economic thing. Salt and pepper are dirt-​cheap items every restaurant has, or SHOULD have.
Sooooo, then what the hell, man? Is this some kind of weird «Portlandia» statement they are making? «We’re keepin’ Portland weird, man!»
I have never heard of a restaurant where salt and pepper is not available.
They have fries here, too. These sounded good. I wanted to try these if I came back.
But again, I guess salt is not an option for those, either?
I did not finish my food.
I will maybe return. I thought the wings were very good.
But I guess I’m gonna have to take my food to go or bring S&P packets with me.
No salt and pepper.
At a restaurant.
Huh…
That is ridiculous.

No… just… no.
When I first saw this place on the Eater Heatmap, I was incredibly excited — finally, a Korean Fried Chicken place in Portland! It’s hard to believe that such a food mecca like Portland is still missing a great KFC place. So I rolled up my sleeves and immediately headed over only to be met with nothing but sheer, utter disappointment.
First of all, the wings are frigging’ tiny. They’re covered in batter, so you think that they’re normal sized wings until you take a bite. Then you realize that the wing makeup is about 50% batter. You’re literally eating nothing but 50% batter with each bite. Don’t get me wrong, I love fried chicken batter — it’s normally what I go for first. But this time around, I was unimpressed. It didn’t help that underneath the batter, you could tell that the meat quality was poor — barely any, as well as incredibly dry and tasteless. Ugh.
And now for the special sauces? I read up on this place, and I should have known — it’s just another white guy’s take on Asian food. Their original sauce tasted like a less vinegary buffalo sauce with ginger tossed in. It was like that time when I went to Boke Bowl and was extraordinarily disappointed by their «take» on KFC. I’m all about fusion, and don’t necessarily believe authenticity is the final law of the land… but in Basa Basa and Boke Bowl’s case, it seems like these guys haven’t ever had real KFC. It seems like they just kinda imagined what it would taste like, and came up with what they did.
Terrible.
I could go on… for instance, what’s going on with the macaroni salad side? The lack of pickled daikon? But I think you get the gist. The only reason why I gave this place 2 stars instead of 1 is because their décor was pretty swank, the place was clean, and the service was speedy. But the food? You won’t find KFC here.

It’s hard to know exactly how many stars to give these guys bc of the disparity in quality of food they’re serving up.
On the one hand there’s the chicken which is great (some reservation in saying this bc they’re still no pok pok or kyochon when it comes to Asian wings), but why pair with a scoop of dry rice and flavorless mac salad? And why no vegetables? And why combine the unhealthiest of Hawaiian with that of Korea? At least give us a sweet daikon pickle to cut the salt or maybe a slaw. I found the meal unbalanced overall and a bit pricey at about a $ 1.50 per wing (rice and mac salad pretty much cost nothing).
I’m hoping for something more from this place. The wings are crisp but the flour used for the batter rises a little too much in the cooking process, harkening to Panda Express style sweet and sour, and we need to do as much as possible to steer away from that. Should have used potato starch a la Taiwan.
Artwork, décor and outside seating gets +1.

Crack Korean freaking fried wings! Seriously the Ono and original wings are full of flavor! The meal is complete with a scoop of rice and Mac salad. An order of ramen fries with an addicting aioli sauce will have your mouth go gaga for some more! There’s nothing else to order on the menu, but there really is NO need to order anything else! Don’t order the other flavor wing– it’s extremely fish saucy… But the original and Ono make up for it in a big taste way! I will crave more Korean fried wings probably next week! Goo basa basa!!!

We went to this place because we read about its place of residence as a new type of transition from cart to bricks and mortar. We liked the sound of Korean wings and boy were we not disappointed. The wings were very tasty and the service was top notch. We will be back to have more and try their neighbor’s offerings about which they had only good things to say. This shows class and that should be rewarded.

KFC! Korean fried chicken. I couldn’t wait to try this place. I missed eating Bonchon in California. This wasn’t the typical KFC, but done with wings instead and served with rice and mac salad (similar to Ate-Oh-Ate’s version).
We got the Basa Box in Basa Basa Original and Basa Ono (the Thai twist) to go. The aroma when we got our food was incredible! We couldn’t drive home fast enough. The Basa Basa Original was my fave. Savory and slightly spicy. The Basa Ono was really good too. It had a lemongrass-​y kick. The mac salad was creamy and the rice was a good palate cleanser.
I have a hankering to go back right now!

AWESOME Wings!
I am a huge fan of Korean style wings and Basa Basa hits the nail on the head!
I would cut out part of my liver for those wings, were it not already black and shriveling.
Mac salad is ok. raman fries are good. but seriously. RUN, don’t walk and get some of the fantastic wing goodness.

I love what Basa Basa is doing. Food carts in this city have a major problem: the 8 months of rain. Basa Basa has figured out the solution to this problem. It’s ok to have a food cart style restaurant in a building!
They’ve got a singular focus: wings. And the wings are good. I have yet to try all three sauces, but the original sauce was enough to satisfy my tastebuds. Man, that’s some good chicken, and it’s deep-​fried to perfection. The celeb chefs obviously know what they’re doing, and I’ll be happy to come again and again to revisit that meal.
Other restaurants take heed! You don’t need a 20 page menu. Pick the thing you do right and focus on that! Basa Basa could be what the future looks like. And that’s a future I’m looking forward to.

I’m not a wings-​fanatic, by any means. In fact, I’ll rarely choose them as something to eat and I probably wouldn’t have gone to Basa Basa had I known it was their only offering.
BUT
I’m so glad I did. The wings were breaded in magic, I think. The sauce was de-​lish. The sides were great.
And, i love the premise of the restaurant. Pick one thing and do it the best way it can be done.
John and Capril, the owners and past TV hosts of a cooking show my mom loves, really got the recipe right here. The food was great, service was fast, and it was affordable.
Only complaint: probably shouldn’t have Kanye playing over the loud speaker. There are children around and they might be interested in «mother f***ing monster» speak…

Another lunch spot for Kallie.
I was excited for Basa Basa, and disheartened when I saw the menu. Not a single semi-​healthy thing whatsoever. Nothing but carbs and chicken. I mean, I’m not a health freak, but sometimes I like to eat green stuff. Even grilled veggies with one of your sauces.
The lime cilantro sauce was weird. I highly recommend ordering the original (but know that the smell lingers… it’s intense).
I hate that you get rice AND macaroni salad. Can I get something else, please?
The macaroni salad IS delicious, I was just hoping for more.
Uno Mas is next door and their menu BLOWS the other Ocean locations out of the water. Well, the Ocean.
Also, if I emphasize that I «just want the wings, no sides,» then please don’t give me the sides. I’m trying not to be a carboholic, but that damn macaroni salad made it impossible.

Mixed feelings about this place. The sauce (Original) was tasty. Glad they have a tofu option it’s just apparently not on the menu yet, so ask for it – but the tofu was still cold on the inside! The Mac salad was ok and the rice sides were tiny.
Overall, the design of the restaurant is fantastic, but the prices are a little steep for what you get, so 3 stars for me. Overheard: «These don’t even compare to the wings at _​_​_​_​_​_​.»

Nice space, friendly staff. Substantial wings, but I have to say I am not a «heavier on the breading» person with regard to wings and while crunchy and perfectly cooked, not my favorite style or prep. Korean sauce was tangy with a big hit of ginger, in a good way. Enjoyed the mac salad. Wolud come back to try some other sauces, but wouldn’t run to do so.