Chen’s Express

For American style Chinese food, Chen’s Express might be the best I’ve had. That’s a weird thing to say, because I really love authentic Chinese food, but it’d be unfair to put Chen’s into that classification. I knew what to expect before I arrived (thanks to Unilocal) and the flavors and freshness took me by surprise. I’ll certainly be returning for more, and I suggest you give them a try, but just keep in mind it’s American style Chinese food, Panda Express on steroids. All the food was cooked fresh, so I feel guilty making that comparison, but for lack of better words, that’s really what we’re working with. Stop dilly dallying and go grab some delicious, cooked to order Chen’s Express!

The food is delicious! I love this place. If you’re looking for some fast and good American Chinese food, this is the place to go! You get a good amount of food for the price you pay. I will definitely be coming back. :)

Great food. Takes a minute to cook but worth it. Call the guy there Chen, pretty fun! Idk if his name is Chen but it cracks me up every time lol

We had the craving for Chinese but didn’t want to commit to sandy Ave dinner prices and portions. So we went to Chens express. Sigh. I think mr Chen has been angry with me for months but after reading Unilocal reviews, I see I am not alone.
I really enjoy the Mongolian onions with beef (don’t expect a lot of meat, mostly onions) and general tso chicken combo.
I decided to get wild tonight and get the sweet and sour chicken because of the picture on the cart. That onion and pepper looked so good in the sauce but it was only fried chicken and sauce poured on top. Please do not be angry with me general.
***there were 4 people ahead of me and it took almost 45 minutes for our order. Call that order in ahead of time.
Although the idea of mr Chen on the phone is scary he won’t know it’s me.

If you want to get treated like an idiot when asking for substitutions in a mediocre, frozen vegetable filled, barely edible dish, this is your place! I asked for a side of broccoli– «$ 7». I clarified, «I only want a little bit– small side.» «NNNOOO– SE-​VEN DOLLARS.(he gestured at me rudely while saying this.) But wait– it gets better! He scowled at me with a hateful glare when I declined to pay $ 7 for a side of broccoli! I even tipped 25% and said– «give me a little broccoli if you can.» All I got was shitty sauce over frozen vegetables and soft tofu with next to 0 Szechuan pepper in it. Maybe a total of $ 1 worth of ingredients for $ 9!
Go across the street to the brick and mortar joint if you want good, authentic Chinese food for a similar price. They have no problem with giving me broccoli there– and they serve brown rice!

I’m a regular connoisseur of this foodcart pod & this cart is a huge dissapointment. As I stood next to the order window, the man inside didn’t acknowledge my presence whatsoever until I stood on my tippy toes & said «excuse me sir, can I place an order». I asked a simple question about the menu & he barked back an answer I could barely understand & continued doing whatever he was doing prior to my arrival. I hesitated but continued to place an order as its the only foodcart I hadn’t eaten from in the pod. I ordered Mongolian Beef with steamed rice– I got steamed onion with a couple pieces of what supposedly was beef and a bunch of rice. Super disappointed & will definitely never come back!

Three simple words, one simple item may have restored my faith in Portland’s version of Chinese food. Well sort of, at least. Those three words are Egg Drop Soup.
A simple dish of chicken broth, cooked egg whites and corn, nothing more. But for whatever reason, most all Chinese restaurants in and around town do not serve it. There’s something called egg flower soup and I’m not a fan. Maybe egg drop soup is an east coast Chinese dish? Maybe people think it’s too simple? I really don’t have an answer. All I know is that it was a menu item I missed and with the exception of Shandong and one place out in Beaverton, I have been largely disappointed with the Chinese cuisine in town. Until I came upon Chen’s Express.
Chen’s Express is a part of the Rose City Food Park over on NE Sandy around 55^th. This is the food pod group that I discovered food from Guam. Chen’s was closed on that day, but I saw egg drop soup on the menu and I had to return to get some. It’s good that it was cold and rainy yesterday. Three sizes of soup. $ 1, $ 2, $ 3. I got a medium soup and eight crab puffs ($ 3), a perfect meal for only $ 5. Most everything on the menu was in the $ 7 – 8 range and meals you’d recognize. Orange Chicken, Beef with Broccoli, Mongolian Beef, Moo Shu Pork, Spring Rolls, and plenty of vegetarian items. Obviously I need to try more to see if the rest of the menu is more akin to east coast Chinese, but I was more than thrilled with this soup. The crab puffs could have used a slightly better ratio of crab to cream cheese mixture, but they were still good.
The food came out quickly, heck I was the only one ordering. The man running things, I’m assuming Chen himself, was friendly and was happy that I enjoyed my soup.
This is a great little food pod. Once the pod down on Belmont (Good Food Here) disappears to become and over 60 residential apartment building, this might be my go to place when I’m on the east side. Lots of good food up in Rose City as well.
Enjoy.

What can I say … Chen is the man. The most legendary green beans, open late, and always good. Fills the mysterious void for awesome Chinese in NE. Has been getting our business for years and will for years to come! :)

Love this man’s food. The hot and sour is simply amazing. Go eat here! You will not regret it

Best chow mien & orange chicken this side of portland just beware some entrées have more onions than meat great little place inside rose city food park.

Come here pretty often, really like their chow mien and the general tsao chicken. Always open no matter what. The wait is usually 15 to 20 min.

Just ordered Salt and Pepper Shrimp. It’s a full sized meal, cost me $ 9.50. Total number of shrimp: 12. The dish is essentially two onions and twelve shrimp with about a half cup of rice on the side.
That’s roughly $ 0.70 per shrimp (and that’s generous, onions aren’t expensive). No thanks.

This review isn’t for the food — the guy can make some pretty decent Chinese food. Better than somewhere like Shandong where you’re overpaying for somewhere to sit down with mediocre Chinese food. And, for the cost you can’t really beat it. But, the owner of this cart is RUDE! He never acknowledges you, gets upset if you can’t understand his VERY thick accent and don’t bother calling in your order because he won’t make it until you get there anyway. If you can get past shitty service and just want some good Chinese food, go here.

Been here a few times and I love the sauteed green beans and the chicken and brocolli but the owner is a grouch. I almost walked away last te I was there because he was being rude. But I really wanted the green beans. I wont be back though.

I’m not crazy about Chinese food but since Chen’s Express was the only cart opened in this food cart venue at 9 pm I decided to give it a try. The variety of tofu dishes offered gave me the courage I needed. My son loved his hot and sour soup, I was quite happy with the crab puffs, and the Kung Pao tofu was scrumptious. We also ordered spring rolls which my son inhaled but didn’t comment on. A soup, two appitizers, and an entrée plenty big to feed the both of us ran me only ten bucks!
The owners were very friendly and efficient. The woman taking orders was quite funny — but this was because of the language barrier. There seemed to be extra conversation to be sure everyone was being understood — which seemed a little comical. I appreciated the effort to be sure food orders were accurate.
We are looking forward to another meal with Chen!

To the Cart Pod owner: you provide a comfortable, convenient venue with good parking, but your choice of tenants is very questionable. At least three who started here are no longer in business. It feels like amateur hour at Rose City Park; how about strive to be a Pioneer Place, not a Lloyd Center.
…and next up to bat for Team Disappointment is Chen’s Express. I stand three feet in full view of Mr. Stoic as he prepares his one and only order: does he acknowledge my presence, maybe a, «I’ll be with you in a moment» comfort shot? After a decent delay, he hands over his creation, was there a «enjoy» or «thank you»? Uh, the answer to both is a big borderline-​rude NO.
So whatever, it’s my first meal of the day, and I’m not seeking a dining experience. Yet, although I arrived hungry, I threw away ¹⁄₃ of my sugar-​laden General Tso chicken, ⁷⁄₈ of my Hot and Sour soup, but did finish the three crab puffs (but not the Walmart style dipping sauce.)
The owner was not rude per se, he just didn’t give a sheeeeet. And although the taste leaves so much to be desired, I suppose the one item combo is somewhat of a deal for $ 5. This is a fill your stomach with sub par food for cheap served by a I hate my life owner kinda place.

I would like to apologize to Mr. Chen.
I apologize for waiting impatiently while you read your paper instead of letting me place my order. It was rude of me to not to let you finish reading the entire paper.
I apologize for not having cash on me. It is ridiculous of me to expect ease of payment from a business. It’s not like this is a time of low cost wireless payment systems.
I apologize for expecting you to start my order during the slow afternoon while I went to get cash. I clearly should not have expected to hand over my money five minutes later for food, but instead have you start when I return.
I apologize for for expecting express to signify speed. While I expected food in five to 15 minutes minutes. Instead you knew better, that if I waited 30 – 40 minutes my food would taste oh so better.
I apologize for expecting that after the poor poor service, long long wait that the food would be amazing. While the food was good– it wasn’t great. While the portions ok, they were not huge.
I apologize that poor service, slow service and average food doesn’t equal #1 food cart. If that were only true.
I apologize for you having to have customers, which you clearly disdain and are inconvenienced by.
I apologize that your tip jar is empty, and it is nearly the end of the day. I wonder why no one has tipped you all day long???
I apologize that I’ll never be back, but at least I’ll have lots of company.

Where do I begin, lets start by stating Express, um no sir. More like Chen’s drawn out ignore you and then yell at you fest. I came here because I read online that it had «east coast style Chinese food» which is something I miss so much. The food itself wasn’t bad. The service was horrendous. And the prices and signs misleading. Mr. Chen was in the stand when we arrived at 10:45 waiting outside of the cart. He was supposed to open at 11, and after the neighboring cart asked him twice if he was going to acknowledge us, he finally came around front and opened the window around 11;15, without even a hello in our direction. Then he spent a good 5 minutes lining up soda cans in different orders. Then he went back in his cart, still not even a head nod. When he got back up we went up to order, and we had some questions. The sign said, Combo special, Pork and Fried Rice: $ 6. I asked in every way possible if this was Pork and Rice or pork fried rice. And he very rudely grabbed a plate of big strips of pork showing me, its full pork, and separate rice. So then the food arrives, 50 minutes later. 50 minutes later. yes. and its our two combo meals, and then the third is a tiny bowl of ONE of the pork pieces cut up. With no rice. I was so annoyed already I didn’t want to argue so i sat down. My boyfriend sees it, and says, no, we gotta ask him whats up, and goes over and explains we asked for the combo meal, and this can’t be it. The guy screams at him, saying no, we owe him a dollar, and there’s no rice with this. He also was so mad that we wanted soy sauce packets. He gave us ONE and was slamming his spoon down like it was the end of the world! we were just not getting through and finally just said, screw it lets eat. We sit down and this woman from the next table over says, He did that to me last time. He screamed at me, and his signs don’t match what he gives you. Great, I thought, this happens a lot!
The food. Rice was good, sweet and sour chicken was good but not east coast style, that’s fine, he does’t advertise to be, that’s just what i heard. Portions were good. But the soup, egg drop was uncooked. I just had a huge mouth full of uncooked egg. Pictures to follow. All and all, the food was half good! But I wouldn’t go back. It was just such a hassle and you never know what you’ll get. Except attitude, that’s free!

Tons of food for what you pay for. This cart is tucked away in a Cart Pod on Sandy. There are quite a few options at this Pod, I generally always hit up Chen’s Express because they haven’t gone wrong yet. My only issue with this place is they are pretty slow. It’s pretty much a one man show here so expect at least a 20 minute wait for your food. It’s not like any other Chinese takeout place where your dinner will be ready very quickly. The good thing is there are benches/​tables in this Pod and they have quite a bit of covered space. In a pinch, Chen’s definitely hits the spot close in Portland however for real Chinese food you gotta hit up SE 82^nd.

I always come a little critical for Chinese food carts because I always look for a unique or signature dish to make it stand out. While it does seem a bit standard fare, their combo meals are a good deal. While their hot and sour soup was pretty average, the Mongolian beef had very tender pieces of beef, making it extra succulent. The onions were also cooked long enough for some delicious caramelization alongside the savory beef. Yum!!!
And what a nice couple! They do some good stuff here, so definitely stop by if you’re craving some affordable Chinese eats.