Chop Chop

I’ve always been quite shocked at the lack of quality Chinese food in Portland. You know That Foodie Mecca that’s drowning in every type of Asian cuisine with amazing places for Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese Ect. But the seemingly strange fact is it’s very rare to find decent Chinese food. This is not for a lack of places. They are everywhere but hardly decent and never great. I had basically given up. But I always kept looking on Unilocal from time to time to see if any place stuck out. Thankfully I found CHOP CHOP.
This place is solid. For many reasons. The owner/​chef is extremely personable. He cares a great deal about his craft. You can tell him how you want your dish. Everything I’ve had so far had been great. I say this because I’ve realized over the years I have a Soy Sauce test with my Chinese food. Depending on the dish but the more soy sauce I feel I need to add the lower the quality of food to either add or hide flavor. I’ve never used soy in any of his dishes it would insult the food. In fact I’ve never thought about adding any because all the favors are on point. The Prices are reasonable.
In my opinion, this place is a rare shining jewel that the city has to offer.
Just a heads up, he closes earlier on Thursdays.
Check the hours.

Best Chinese food in town.
Had it for lunch. Still craving to go back.
Friendly chef/​owner who can make you anything you want.

A hidden GEM in Portland. The most fresh and delicious Chinese food, truly wonderful service. Portions can be easily shared. Will be back again and again.

Easily the best Chinese food in the general area (I’ve tried Jumbo, Hong Kong 97 and the other Chinese food cart in this pod). Also, easily the best for vegetarians. Ask him about your options. The owner is from Hong Kong and is a great dude.
¹⁄₂₉ update: still amazing. Got the pork with garlic and tangy sauce. I love their breaded and fried stuff here, but if you’re feeling something that’s not breaded, its so good

Decent Chinese take-​out with friendly service from the proprietor. Good-​sized portions. The current menu looks smaller than the past one listed on Unilocal but the proprietor was happy to cook up an old menu item for me.

My wife and I are from the East coast and have had such a hard time finding good Chinese food that isn’t small portions or wicked expensive. We took a chance on Chop Chop food truck today after reading lots of reviews: WOW! Such great food! It’s super fresh, not expensive very fairly priced, took 10 – 15 mins to get our food and the guy in the truck (Lee) is amazing! I am a crazy picky eater and he catered my whole meal to what I like, let me completely customize it and didn’t charge an arm and a leg to do so! We have FINALLY (2 years of searching) found our Chinese food place here in Portland! We will most definitely be visiting again and passing the word along!
I got sweet & sour chicken with lo mein instead of friend rice and pot stickers: was all amazing, cooked to perfection!
Everything was so fresh and tasty, you can tell he cooks with love no cheap crap canned sauces, just amazing flavor all around!
The wife got orange chicken with friend rice and an egg roll: also amazing and was cooked the perfection!

I don’t remember the man’s name, but to start off he was super nice. Told us we could have whatever we wanted and he would make it however we want. What we got wasn’t even on the menu and it was amazing. Fresh veggies, Rice and the chicken was perfect. The sauce was just right !! Awesome place. Great food & customer service.

Get the orange chicken with the fried rice and egg roll. Great prices, funny chef and great food!

Awesome Chinese food for the price – seriously some of the best I’ve ever had. Did not disappoint. Got generals chicken, orange chicken, and lo mein – would highly recommend it!

Wow! This is the best Chinese food I’ve had since moving to Portland 2 years ago. Keep up the amazing service and fabulous food Mr.Lee.

I had a great dinner at Chop Chop tonight! I love the food.
Mr. Lee is a great addition to Cartlandia and I hope he stays here. It was my first visit and I asked Mr Lee what he would recommend ordering. I had a great conversation and loved chatting with him.
I tried the spicy chicken combo with fried rice and pot stickers. It is delicious and I will be back to try the other dishes! The meat and vegetables where fresh and full of flavor.
I love spicy food and ordered the medium spice level, but this is a little too strong for me. I will order the mild next time. The heat may come from a chili pepper infused oil that is very potent! It’s a different heat compared to the Thai or Mexican peppers.
I highly recommend trying Chop Chop!

Stopped here in the middle of the night on a Friday, only because it was one of the only trucks open. Figured it would be some ok Chinese food. We were wrong. I would put a ring on Mr. Lee’s sesame chicken. And his general chicken. And the sweet and sour. Not to mention Lee was hilarious and highly accommodating.

Wonderful, healthy, Chinese food cooked to order.
I wouldn’t expect it based on the outside and pictures of the food on the poster, but this place is awesome. The chef is very nice. He spiced my spicy chicken perfectly. He had me taste it to see if he could fix it, but he nailed the perfect spice the first shot. All the veggies were cooked perfect. They deserve to be super busy.

Awesome food that I recently just discovered with my fave, Singapore Noodles! You can either have it spicy or mild!
Illonna

Classic Amer-​Chinese food that your grandfather would be happy to eat with you.
«Celery is a Chinese chef’s of telling you to fuck off.» This is something that my dining partner and I agree on. «And this chef must have liked us, because we got very little.» After several attempts to eat here, we finally were able to sample the inexpensive wares of Chop Chop. Most menu items are $ 6.50, and includes a classic array of deep-​fried-​and-​sauced meat, rice, noodles. The inexpensive nature of this let us sample their small bites menu ($ 3.25-$ 4.00), which includes pot stickers, egg rolls, spring rolls. We ended up with the egg rolls which were house made and the wontons filled with pork. They were crunchy, hot, greasy, and delicious.
The sesame chicken was hot, deep-​fried, and glazed in a sweet sauce and doused with white sesame seeds. It came on a bed of white rice. Crunchy, hot and sticky this was exactly what I expected. The special chow mein was pan-​fried with veggies, beef, chicken and shrimp. It wasn’t incredibly wow, but it was decent. Notable was their homemade hot oil, which was chili-​garlic awesome. I put it on everything.
Scores:
Time: Our order took about 15 minutes to get. The new help was sort of spacy and awkward. Our questions as to why they never seemed to be open even though we tried to go here for the last three months are still left unanswered. The help was friendly, but not incredibly attentive.
Value-​4: The pile of food you get for $ 6.50 is a good value. This is why you eat from carts: for a cheap, plentiful fill up of chicken and rice, no?
Gut check at 3pm: I’m good and may even skip dinner.
Sustainability-​1: While the packaging was minimal (paper take-​out containers lined with foil), they didn’t seem to have an eye for sustainability in the slightest.
Fear Factor-​2: For some reason, my dining partner still winces at seafood at a cart, although we all know they have refrigeration like everyone else. For anyone familiar with classic, somewhat Americanized Chinese food, this will be a familiar menu: orange chicken, general Tso chicken, chow mein, etc. It’s pretty easy.
Staying Power-​4: As long as they’re open consistently, this place will do fine. It’s got a wide variety of offerings, and because of that, has a high return potential. We’ll definitely be back. And the value they provide is the kicker.
Creativity-​2: There’s not a lot of creativity. This isn’t some provincial menu: it’s simple deep-​fried-​meat-​and-​sauce or noodles or fried rice. But sometimes, you want familiar, don’t you? And it’s better than the mid-​century Chinese places forever memorialized in A Christmas Story. They get a point for the extraordinary la you (hot oil), though.

Delicious food and the man who runs it is a total sweetheart!
Got the Orange chicken and the general chicken.
General chicken was more of what I consider a sweet and sour and had a good kick to it.
It was raining so there wasn’t really anywhere to sit but normally you can sit in the park across the street.

Phenomenal! I keep hearing that this foodcart at 10^th & Washington has some of the best Asian food in Portland, and today I was able to check it out.
The orange chicken was superb– cooked just right, not too crispy, not too doughy. The tender, all-​white chicken was delicious, and the orange sauce had sweet overtones of honey and pineapple.
I’ll be going back soon, as I’m anxious to try their fried rice and some of the tofu dishes.

This Chinese food is the bomb.
There is no such thing as authentic vs inauthentic Chinese food. Chop Suey has become its own cuisine, much like California rolls and fried sushi or Italian to the tune of Chicken Parmesan. Comparing what you find in mainland China to Chop Suey is not useful.
With that said, this is the best Chop Suey I’ve ever eaten. I actually never thought the genre could be this good. In particular: General Tso’s, Black Bean Chicken, Special Lo Mein.

Come here to eat great Chinese Food and meet the owner and chef, Mr. Lee. If it wasn’t for than the fact that you are standing outside a food cart in a downtown Portland food cart pod, you would swear you had just discovered you have a Chinese uncle who insisted you stop by for Sunday dinner and was going to go out of his way to make sure you really enjoyed some home style cooked Chinese food; an uncle that wants to make sure that you feel like you are treated as an honored guest and friend. While not guaranteed, you can often find this cart open late at night, say 10 pm, if there is at least one hungry customer stopping by. (Call ahead if you want to make sure it’s open — Phone number (503) 998‑0407)
You can’t go wrong with anything on the menu. Mr. Lee will tweak your order to your satisfaction. So speak up if there is something in particular you want. Want more veggies, no problem! Mr. Lee will tell you 100% satisfaction guaranteed — and he means it.
Don’t forget to try the condiments sitting meekly on the front counter — there are two creations that Mr. Lee makes from scratch with his own secret recipe. A hot oil condiment and a hot sauce. Neither sauce is too fiery for American taste buds — they both have a subtle blend of flavors, which I would guess were coaxed out of the spices by sauteing the spice ingredients first to bring out the flavors, then allowing the spices to mix and blend. Both sauces have a nice light amount of heat — it will warm but not scald your taste buds.
So far I have had the Garlic Chicken and the Sesame Chicken. Loved both dishes. The other reviewers are spot on — the Sesame Chicken IS VERY ADDICTIVE. But in a good way — a few days or a week later you will suddenly find yourself craving Mr. Lee’s Sesame Chicken. But fear not, you can opt for a less rich stir fry dish and be just fine.
I can’t compare this to other Chinese Food — with rare expectations I don’t like Chinese food because I usually end up thirsty from the high salt and MSG and then find myself hungry again a few hours later. While there may be some traces of MSG in the Mr. Lee’s food, from the stock sauces and base ingredients he uses, he doesn’t add any MSG in his cooking process. I haven’t noticed any excessive thirst after I am done eating and no bouts of hunger a few hours later.
While there isn’t really any seating at this food cart, there is a very generous wide brimmed awning with it’s own rain gutter where customers can safely stand out of the rain while smelling the aromas of their food being prepared. Add a cup of fresh brewed great tea to your order to keep you warm while you wait.

Mr Lee is so nice! What a friendly and genuine person. I ordered the garlic chicken and potstickers, both delicious. Wish the garlic chicken had a little bit more meat and no celery. But I will customize it with him next time!