The Chiam Restaurant

One star for value and one star for not making me sick. Meh, I’ve experianced MUCH better.

Look I get it, the place is dingy, and the bar is dive like. If you don’t like that kind of thing be ready. ALSO this is not Szechuan food, this is that old school American Chinese, the spicy food is not spicy and the Egg Foo young is the best while the the kung pao is so so.
So order sub gum, fried rice, fried shimp or BBQ pork and enjoy.

We were attempting to eat at CT Bistro but they were closed so we drove around a bit and I saw this place and we decided to give it a try. The Owner (I assume) was our Waiter and brought water and tea out immediately.
They have a very decently priced lunch menu, it ended up being 13 plus tip for lunch and they give you a ton of food, to say the least, no way in heck I could even attempt to finish.
We started out with Egg Drop Soup and it was very good, more of a clear broth with chunks of chicken, water chestnuts, carrots and peas. Hubby ordered Twice Cooked Pork which came with fried rice and some long won-​ton plank looking things. He enjoyed it very much.
I asked to make a substitution on one of their lunch combo’s and it was only a buck upcharge, and he was very amenable to the change. I ordered fried shrimp, pork fried rice and sesame chicken. Unlike my husband I did not enjoy my meal that much. The shrimp were good, and the sesame chicken was good, but I thought it came with a brown sauce or some kind of sauce, but it was just fried white meat chicken next to the shrimp. The only thing that I had to dip it in was the red/​mustard/​sesame seed sauce for the shrimp. It was a little disappointing as well as the fact there was no sesame taste at all, so I don’t understand the name of Sesame Chicken?
The Pork Fried Rice was ok but it was pretty obvious the rice had seen sitting around awhile, it was very dry, mushy and clumpy at the same time. It seemed overworked and overcooked. Not a huge fan of that.
The service was excellent.
The place is super dingy and dirty, the kind of grime no amount of scrubbing can get rid of. Black in the corners and generally filthy. I can’t feel comfortable eating in an environment such as that so we most likely will not be back.

This is an «ok» Chinese food restaurant. I have lunch here now and then and it’s certainly fine. Tasty food. Decent sized portions. Reasonable prices.

The food here is amazing. My boyfriend and I were a little hesitant to try out this place, but we took the chance and were so glad we did. We go here all the time now. The great food and decent prices keep bringing us back.

Very good food and consistent. Wonton soup is tasty. For the price this is one of the best Chinese restaurants in the area. Fried shrimp was unexpectedly excellent. This is probably our fourth trip here and we will definition be regulars.

We travel a lot and try out different Chinese restautants. We’ve been in the area for a couple weeks and tried them twice… for lunch and dinner. Both times have loved everything we’ve ordered! The food is served hot and promptly. The hot and sour soup was delicious. We ordered sweet and sour chicken and egg foo young… some of the tastiest we’ve ever eaten. Typical Chinese restaurant environment but looks clean and was comfortable. Would recommend to anybody for sure!

Sooo. Visited this joint for the second time last night. I realize this is something that occurs naturally, but it can be prevented — when precautionary measures are taken (hair net, mayne, numtawknbat?) I ordered a small order of egg flower soup. What I received was a seemingly generous «small serving» of soup, plus a mystery hair. I pushed the bowl aside and kindly informed the waiter my soup was tainted, and that I didn’t want it replaced. Whatever, right? These things happen.
**nearly dips egg roll in sauce** whaaa… where is the spicy mustard and sesame seeds that were in the sauce last time? Bummer. Okay, fine. This will do, surely. Chicken/​veggie Lo Mein seems good, that’s a relief. And hey, I even have leftovers.
(The next day) **dumps leftover Lo Mein into bowl, glances inside empty box, eyes widen, I cringe** yet another hair. Disappointed I AM, Chiam. Invite me for dinner when yo’ hurr isn’t falling out. (–_​_​-​)
P. s. — Is that Crown Royal clock near the register for sale? Lemme know.

Well, I just ordered the worst meal of my life. Earlier this evening I called in an order for pick up. I ordered a Number 7 Combo (sesame chicken, fried rice, an egg roll) and pot stickers. What that translated to was chicken nuggets with a side of ketchup, dry rice with no flavor, a flimsy sad little log that semi resembled an egg roll, and fried plastic.
Sesame chicken is usually served in some sort of sauce sprinkled with sesame seeds. This restaurants version, I suppose, is fried little pieces of chicken which have no sesame flavor whatsoever. If I wanted chicken nuggets I would have gone to McDonalds… where I could have ordered basically the same thing quality wise but would have gotten 20 for $ 5. To make matters worse, this chicken wasn’t even accompanied by a special dipping sauce. Instead, we received a little plastic container of ketchup. The rice was dry, not properly cooked and tasted like air. Usually fried rice is also jazzed up a bit with some other ingredients; onions, peas, carrots just to name a few. All of these were absent. An egg did make it to the party, however, and by that I mean one little piece of scrambled egg that was the size of my thumb nail. The egg roll was mushy and had not crispy aspect to it as egg rolls should. And the pot stickers? Well if you’re a fan of gnawing on plastic than this is the dish for you. The only thing that made it semi better was the little cup of dipping cause it came with, which when I think about it, was pretty much just an overload of salt flavor wise. This restaurant has it all wrong. Disclaimer: I wasn’t expecting the world, but I know what basic Americanized Chinese food is, and when I order sesame chicken I expect sesame chicken, not «sesame» chicken nuggets. Please avoid if you’re looking for a good Chinese meal.

The best Chinese restaurant on the westside. The staff is awesome. We get the Marfar chicken and the hot and sour soup. Love it! Always extra to take home. They do takeout as well just calm ahead for super fast service. They do have a small smokey bar in back with lotto.

Wish there were more interesting vege options — traditional average place good in a pinch but would not go out of my way.

Without a doubt this is the worst Chinese restaurant i have ever eaten at. I ordered a Won Ton soup and Mongolian Chicken which was recommended by the waitress when i asked for something spicy. I sent the soup back because it was cold and the meal came luke warm as well. It was as if they had served it from one of those «all you can eat’ buffets where the food sits out until someone finally eats it.

We just moved to the area, & a delivery guy that brought us our sofa recommended Chiam to us. We went on a Friday afternoon & for roughly $ 6/​person (lunch menu) had a delightfully filling & yummy meal. We were pleasantly surprised by this little hole in the wall type of place. The staff was so friendly. We overheard part of a customers conversation with one of the staff, that led us to understand that the customer has been frequenting this place for years. The staff & the customer were catching up on stories about their grown up kids. It contributed kind of a cool ambiance to the place. Gonna check out the lounge one of these days. The food was great. «Typical» Chinese food fare, sizable portions.

Quite frankly, this place is on the sketchy end of things, but that is honestly what makes it so delightful. A friend and I ordered the sweet and sour shrimp, vegetable fried rice, won tons, and egg flower soup, and everything was sinfully delicious. The food pretty much made me feel terrible, but it was so delicious… I half expected it would cause turmoil during digestion. Still, I would not dissuade anyone from eating at this establishment. The service was great! Very friendly staff, and the prices are completely reasonable. Sure, the food is rather greasy, and could upset your stomach… But isn’t that that standard gamble that one takes when eating out? Live a little and try this delightful junk food.

My family has eaten here for many years. The food is great, the service is good. Better than wan Q, which is close by. Its food is the usual American Chinese I am use to. Their prices are very fair, and the portions are large.

This place is *so* bad. Portland has hundreds of great authentic Asian restaurants, this one is not one of them. Seriously — go there any time of the day and the dining room is *empty* (although the bar is quite popular with the older crowd — usually very busy in the afternoon and evening). Even though we are in the area all the time — we tried this place about 5 times and it never had anything worth a darn. Go to one of the other places nearby — or drive a little farther out Cornell to an excellent place (It is unfair to name it here, but its over near Cornell and Bethany). Chiam even fails at Fried Rice — how the hell do you fail at Fried Rice? Some of the positive reviews say things like «I think everyone is used to the ****** americanized Chinese food. This place is fresh and authentic.» or something along those lines. I call BS. There are many many great Chinese places in Portland metro which are frequented by actual recent Chinese immigrants — and are very very authentic. The problem with this place is not that it is or isn’t authentic — it’s that it just isn’t good… (Having lived all over the country — I am familiar with crappy Americanized Chinese food — most of the middle of the country has that kind of Chinese cuisine). I am not sure why anyone would like Chiam. I could go by right now and take a picture of the empty dining room — its just plain not good at all. A sign of a good Chinese restaurant is lots of Chinese people eating there… Chiam has few…

Me Andy husband went here but we are not planing on going back after they charged us 50c for chopsticks. Very poor service and food is average

I have no idea why this place has a bad star rating.
it think it has something to do with people expecting amazing Chinese food to find out that all Chinese food is actually the same. seriously think about it. taste the sweet and sour chicken, then walk down the street and try the other asian place and taste their sweet and sour chicken. as someone in the know, let me give you a little tidbit of information. they didn’t make it. that’s right. they bought it. you notice how every bar in town serves the exact same mozzarella sticks? the buffalo wings? yeah. they buy it. so it’s actually quite laughable that people can give one place a low rating based on the food. that hot and sour soup. yeah. they didn’t make that.
BUT. these guys got something going with their sweet and sour chicken. I’m not sure what it’s been laced with but it’s addicting. the chicken is different. they don’t use the same old stuff as the other joints. I get the giant plate and that Louie CK line runs through my head the entire meal. «the meal isn’t over when I’m full. the meal is over when I hate myself.» if you want to eat until you hate yourself. I recommend Chiam.
this isn’t, like, some awesome place for tourists to stop by. it’s not a must-​go/​must-​try joint. this is a neighborhood staple for those in the area. there’s seriously like 15 chinese food joint within 3 miles of here. this one is the neighborhood secret.
how do you pronounce that anyways? my friends all like «it’s chee-​om, cuz I studied Japanese in school» and I’m like, «yeah, it isn’t because it’s Chinese/​American and the annunciation of the two fragments is Chai Am» and he’s like «nuh huh» and Im like «uh huh» and he’s like «nuh uh» and I’m like «uh huh». and ill stop there cuz that went on for a while.
the service is very minimal. as it is in most asian places. if you feel like you need 3 refills of coke in one sitting, you might either have to bring your own camelbak filled with coke which you prolly should have anyways if you actually drink that much coke, or you might have to actually stand up and ask for it. it does seem kind of ridiculous that they put 4 pounds of fried chicken in front of you and pretend that the thimble of tea that they give you is enough to lubricate your gullet for the absurdity that’s about to happen. but that’s what i’ve come to expect.
I always get the sweet and sour chicken, because as far as I’m concerned all Chinese food is sweet and sour chicken and sweet and sour chicken is all Chinese food.
The wife usually gets some beef and broccoli dish which is good. usually comes with some white frilly noodle things that are totally not noodles. the sauce is good. it might be some hoisin variant because it’s a bit sweet but with a little smokiness. it’s also got some rogue peppers in there for you to randomly choke on the hot spicy seeds. that’s pretty rad, when you find these you are prone to being made fun of by the rest of the table. oh jokes. so funny.
I go with a co-​worker sometimes and she gets the General Tso’s Chicken, i think it’s called. that one’s good too. sesame flavors and more honey based sauce, as almost all Americanized Chinese food is. when Im done with my plate and I don’t quite sufficiently hate myself enough and still have room for more self loathing, ill totally nab some of her chicken. this dish comes with some weird crispy cracker things. they don’t taste good. don’t eat those. i think they are supposed to be a garnish but they really just look like gross crackers. just eat the chicken and the rice. there’s seriously enough there that you really shouldn’t eat anything else today if you plan on finishing it all. you really don’t need to eat 2 more crackers. you’ll be okay. if you really need 2 more crackers, just put some in the side pocket of your camelbak and bring them from home if you’re really gonna carry that thing around anyways.

I never had frozen Chinese before, burned fried rice with burned egg or stale/​bitter won ton soup
For the record the service was semi, I left leaving the food practically untouched and was never asked why, this is a sign of a very very bad restaurant

The Best Chinese-​American Food Ever! (Hence the name) Been enjoying the food for 30 years now and it makes my mouth water thinking about it! Sweet and sour chicken, fried rice, barbecued pork, and wonton soup… Yummy! Ask for Chin!