House of Louie Chinese Restaurant in Portland, Oregon: Poor Quality Food

Chinese restaurants are aplenty when you visit the Chinatown area of Portland, Oregon. One such Chinese restaurant that caught my eye was House of Louie. I noticed a sign in the window stating they won "Best Chinese Food 2005" for the Portland area from AOL City Search. We had also heard recommendations for the place from a few acquaintances who stated that the food was delicious. It looked like we had found ourselves a winner on a street crowded with competing restaurants.

House of Louie appeared to be your run of the mill budget Chinese restaurant. A quick look through the restaurant reveals a banquet room available for rent, tables for six, and booths covered in red and gold vinyl. Our booth had a charming quality about it with the red masking tape, the apparent repair tool of choice for many budget diners and restaurants. Still I chose to stay. In fact I have eaten at some delicious restaurants which featured booths just like the one we were seated at.

A quick look through the menu revealed many traditional choices you would expect from a Chinese restaurant. On the front of the menu you were shown the delicious varieties of Chinese soup offered by the restaurant such as Egg Flower, Hot and Sour, and Wonton Soup. You are also presented with a list of appetizers including Fly Boy (Fried chicken wings featuring sesame seeds in the coating), Egg Rolls, and even an Appetizer Plate (featuring BBQ Pork, Egg Rolls, Fly Boy, and Fried Shrimp). Inside of the menu you were introduced to several dining options. You could choose to order food per person or order a family style dinner, prices based on a per person rate. If you rather not order one of these two options you could choose from the many items featured on the menu under specific categories such as poultry, pork, chow mein or fun, and more.

We decided to go with a family dinner which included two bowls of Egg Flower soup, BBQ Pork, and two Egg Rolls for the appetizer portion. Two bowls of Wonton soup were ordered as well for me and my husband. We also ordered a plate of Fly Boys since they are my family's favorite appetizer. For the main course we would also receive a bowl of fried rice along with Garlic Chicken and Shrimp Chow Mein (a substitute for Sweet and Sour Pork which we paid more for). As the trip to Republic Cafe Chinese restaurant had our family of four eating well we decided to stick with a family dinner for two rather than four.

Things started out well for us at House of Louie as we received our appetizer dishes and bowls of delicious soup. Our children enjoyed their bowls of Egg Flower soup without complaint and even ate a strip or two of the BBQ Pork dipped in a spicy red sauce. Meanwhile the Wonton soup was delicious as we dined on wontons filled with ground pork and shrimp in a delicious broth scattered with green onion slices. The Egg Rolls were the weakest link so far as they contained no meat and are hardly what I call real Egg Rolls. They were really just Chinese Spring Rolls and should have been labeled as such. Next up was the plate of Fly Boys (Chinese Chicken Wings) which were coated in a mixture containing sesame seeds, something we haven't seen often when eating Chinese chicken wings. The wings were flavorless and we quickly understood why the waitress/hostess urged us to keep the dipping sauces on the table in order to enjoy them. Normally we do not have to dip the Chinese chicken wings in any sauce as they are packed with flavor. Things seemed to be going downhill.

After finishing off the appetizers we were presented with our main courses. Unlike the other Chinese restaurant (Republic Cafe) the Chow Mein we received was not the Chow Mein that we personally love. The Chow Mein was a mixture of shrimp (the restaurant seemed to be quite skimpy with the shrimp on their Chow Mein) and vegetables atop of a bed of noodles. This normally would have been fine except for the fact that the Chow Mein was flavored with some brown gravy-like substance that was anything but pleasant to eat and not at all what you would expect when dining on Chow Mein. Not to mention the noodles were burnt at the ends and yet the cook apparently thought this was okay to serve to guests of their Chinese restaurant.

The next dish was the Fried Rice. House of Louie serves a small bowl of rice for their two person family meal which was enough for one person to enjoy and the other to enjoy a sample of this dish. Now my family is a bunch of light eaters, with the exception of my husband, and this rice was still not enough for everyone to enjoy their fair share. It wasn't too bad however. The rice was dry and flavorless without any additions typical of good Chinese fried rice such as carrots, peas, and onions. There were small flecks of scrambled egg and that was it. The small portion of rice suddenly didn't appear to matter to anyone at the table.

The last dish was the Garlic Chicken. The Garlic Chicken was one of the options from the original family style dinner menu at House of Louie. Many Chinese restaurants in the area seem to struggle when it comes to serving a delicious dish of Garlic Chicken. House of Louie was of no exception as they delivered a dish of Garlic Chicken which was plain at best. In fact the dish was so flavorless that we ended up sprinkling salt and pepper over the whole thing, two spices we normally do not need to touch at a Chinese restaurant, in order to make it edible. There was literally no garlic flavoring to be found on the Garlic Chicken which made me wonder why House of Louie decided to name the dish as such.

As far as Chinese restaurants go House of Louie has to be the worst place I have ever had the displeasure to eat at. The food was horrible, the place was practically empty with the exception of two nearby tables, one filled with visitors from outside of the country and the other with young college aged kids enjoying some whiskey and vodka with their meal. I can't say I blame them. I wish I were drunk as it may have made my meal more enjoyable at House of Louie.

My family rates House of Louie Chinese restaurant one half stars out of five. The one half of a star goes to the soup as it was the only dish we enjoyed at the restaurant. If you still want to visit House of Louie despite my review you can find them at 331 NW Davis St in Portland, Oregon 97209. The phone number for House of Louie is (503) 228-9898.