Hung Far Low

The restaurant is legendary in Portland. It put West Chinatown on the map! When it moved to the booming East Chinatown, it retained its legendary status and made this humble Asian community in Southeast Portland well-​known. I once had take-​out from the restaurant and it wasn’t special. But I must confess that real Chinese food is much different from American Chinese food. If you go to the Chinese deli between 82^nd and 96^th Ave., you will see what I mean. However, as far as American Chinese food goes, Hung Far Low is below mediocre and highly priced, which would explain why celebrities eat there.

Good Americanized Chinese food.
Nice serving size, good prices.
Plated well and the food was served
hot.
The interior is dated and worn.
But, our booth was clean and the
people were friendly.

So there is a bug zapper above a table a table…
We named the fly Timmy… Well we tossed Timmy the dead fly off the table… Moments later… Another Timmy fell from his death trap and I noticed the bug zapper inside the bar… Wow please serve my food under this indoor round table

Disappointed and gross to be sitting at a big round table having drinks with your friends and realizing that a bug zapper is hanging in the middle of the table gross pretty sure it’s a health violation. I would give it no stars if I could!

I’ve worked in plenty of «dives» and still ate at many of them. Having been gone from Portland for many years, I;ve been tripping around trying old favorites. Hung Far was a treat years ago, so I grabbed the hubs and off we went for a Wed night out.
I wish to God that I’d judged the whole establishment based on the condition of the parking lot and kept on going anywhere else. If the parking lot wasn’t enough to turn me around, the extension cord on the door to hold it shut should have been– but even that didn’t do it. The place was empty, the restaurant was dingy, and STILL we stayed.
Hubs started us off with egg roll, we then shared kung poa chicken, sweet and sour chicken, chow mein, and fried rice. Egg roll was mush inside– nice crispy fry on the outside, though. Rice was not terrible, chow mein was bright and crispy, kung poa had the strangest burned taste, and the sweet and sour– Oh Holy Cow. The sauce is black and tasted of vinegar. ONLY VINEGAR. We ate very little, but must have eaten just enough that we both spent a miserable evening sick. Oh, Hung Far, you have fallen so very low. I can’t even believe you are still open.

Hung Far Low holds a place in my Chinese heart because I’ve been coming here for so long. But, with that being said I cannot lie! This place has spiraled down a hill and hit every car along the way.
There’s no way that I would order any food from here now because I’m more in tune with restaurants and how they work. The bar tender, who I remember clearly because I came in on her first day over a year ago is rude and inattentive. She was talking with someone who seemed to be her friend and ignored us for awhile (too long if you ask me).
We didn’t even finish our drink because she never came to our table, never looked our way and clearly didn’t want us to be in there. I’m a big tipper when someone deserves it, but it’s all or nothing with me.
Save yourself some time and go somewhere else!
Happy Unilocaling…

As a Portland Native — you know where the «dives» are. This is a hole in the wall location that has GREAT food and VERY REASONABLE prices.
DO NOT DINE IN. ORDER TO GO. ORDER TO GO! The restaurant itself… ummmmm…order to go!
I the fried shrimp, egg foo young, chow mein, fried rice and egg rolls. The food is always hot and prepared fresh. Free tea is always a treat!
Good service too!

The service was great. The food came out hot! The plates were beautiful!
The sweet sour soup was full of ingredients. Our experience was above average!

Worst. Restaurant. In. Portland. If you really like Keno and four week old Jell-​O shots then this is the place for you. I foolishly opted for their Chinese menu options but was so turned off by the restaurant I avoided any food product that might potentially rip my colon apart like I swallowed a handful of rusty jagged gears and springs. Super scary.

As a well heeled Portlander, everyone knows you don’t go here and dine in. Its a Go To, To Go place. I get the fried shrimp, friend rice or Egg Foo Yung and skedaddle. Its Cantonese so don’t go here and get all like uppity. They don’t do Mandarin or Schezwan well. If you want high fallutin food, go to PF Changs or something like it. :) FYI when this joint was downtown this was the late night spot after you had been out partying like it was 1999

It’s unforgivable what they’ve done to you, Hung’s. What would Janet say if she saw this travesty, this horrifying reincarnation of the once-​glorious, now-​hideous hellhole? Someone please let me know if they EVER get it right.

Horrible food (–7 stars). You go for the sign/​name (+10 stars).

Why does Portland not have any decent, let alone good, Chinese food? I wasn’t looking for gourmet or even authentic. I just had a jonesing for some takeout Chinese food. I should have known better then to go here. I would have been better off at Panda Express.
The Kung Pao chicken was in a red sauce. A tasteless red sauce with what looked like the peas and carrot mix you get in the frozen section. Not good. And the Lo Mein noodles smelled and tasted like a cast iron skillet.
How is this place still in business? Not recommended.

Do not eat the egg roll. It was this huge nasty donut glob with an unrecognizable filling. I was drunk and knew it wasn’t good.

Seriously I know its crazy to expect authentic chinese cuisine at every chinese restaurant that you enter in the Portland area, but this place is more than just sub par, its plain disgusting.
To start off the waitress spent our entire meal on the phone and when we asked for water she just ignored us until we kept asking at which point with rolled eyes she hobbled over to the table.
Order sweet and sour chicken. When it arrived I thought there had been a mistake. The chicken was covered with a dark black sauce. BLACK? I know that sweet and sour is primarily an american concoction but I have never had the sauce black in color.
Avoid this place its disgusting. Everything about our food was sub par or plain gross. Microwaveable chinese is a far better option than wasting your time here.

Stopped here thinking this might be one of the «diamond in the rough» types of restaurants — you know, dingy-​looking, but really authentic. Went in about 6pm on a weekday, and the entire restaurant was empty.
Ordered the General Tso combo meal and a starter of egg soup. My husband and sister-​in-​law ordered similar combos (which included fried rice, egg rolls, bbq pork and friend shrimp). Maybe five minutes later, all of our food came out. Really bad sign.
The egg soup tasted like awful condensed Campbell’s Chicken Noodle that had had an egg cooked into it. The combo dinners looked — and tasted — worse than Panda Express, worse than a TV dinner, worse than even Safeway’s «Asian» deli food. This stuff was truly horrendous. My husband’s Kung Pao looked like plasticized Alpo.
My sister-​in-​law took one look at her food and her face blanched. My husband tried to choke down his food, but after a few minutes, his face drained of color. I tried to take a bite of my gray chicken and nearly vomited. (It tasted like rancid chicken pot pie filling from a can — not that I’ve actually ever eaten such a thing.)
We all left our plates completely full, paid our bill, and left. No sooner had we gotten home, my husband threw up violently until his body had expelled every last drop of that poison.
I cannot believe this place hasn’t been shut down. I’d rather eat Friskies. At least it’s almost food-​grade, whereas the «food» at Hung Far Low shouldn’t even be fed to animals. Absolutely none of it was made fresh. It was probably bought in massive frozen quantities and microwaved, and remicrowaved, and remicrowaved until someone finally ordered it.
This was absolutely the worst Chinese food I’ve ever had, and probably the worst food I’ve had, though I hesitate to call it «food.»
Never, EVER eat here unless you have a death wish.

My wife and I recently moved to Portland and decided to check out Hung Far Low based on the fact that it is one of the oldest Chinese restaurants in PDX.
Warning signs started flashing as soon as we walked in. It was run down. No Asian people eating there. The manager saw my Asian wife and hung his head in shame. We should have turned around and walked out.
The hot and sour soup was neither hot nor sour. Everything else was battered, deep fried and soaked in an ungodly sauce. Horrible.
We both felt sick afterward and had grease coming out of our pores. It was the worst Chinese food I’ve ever had.

You have a sign that is/​was a very important part of this city’s heritage. It’s back up and all is right in the world again. You’re food is mediocre at best but really, really, were we expecting much more? I’m sorry. I came here with low expectations and they were actually surpassed. The waiter/host./owner? was pleasantly standoffish and uninterested from the moment we walked in the door. And once we sat down he joked with us and told us the deals he would give us.
Overall, not a bad experience. It is what it is and that ain’t bad. To those that give this restaurant low ratings, I am really not sure what they were expecting.

Best MSG I’ve ever had~!~
a long-long-time-ago…1970’s, and still have the menu-​in remembrance of the good ol’ daze, and the booth with the hole in it!
I’ve posted a pix of the menu I saved… cheers!

First of all, I’m seeing a lot of people that didn’t like the place because of the food. You are silly. You go there to drink. Silly, silly people. Also, please no more making Americans look like racist jerks. Please stop. Maybe you got the rude act because you were being the typical American loudmouth. And, then, maybe that’s part of the charm. Some places like Ed Debevic’s in Chicago use that as a schtick.
This place is fun, and the closest thing I have been able to find to a tiki-​bar in the NW.