Have you ever had Cambodian food? Me neither till I ate at Oun Lido's. I am always intrigued by…read morenew and different cuisine. So, when Oun Lido's started showing up on the "best" of Portland lists, I listened.
This week, with my spouse and my BFF, we ate Cambodian food! You know what, it is similar to Vietnamese, Malaysian, Indonesian cuisines - has a similarity to Chinese (not too close) BUT it is prepared differently and uses distinctly different spices and combinations of ingredients. It was delicious!
We started out with the Shrimp Fresh Roll and the Hot Lemon Chicken. The Shrimp Fresh Roll was not so remarkable but the sauce it was served with was DIVINE, definitely the diva of this dish!!! A little bit of sweet, sour, citrus, vinegar, heat and a whole lot of luxurious. We could not stop eating the sauce.
The hot lemon chicken was likewise perfectly prepared. The heat and the lemon were subtle - sparking taste buds as the chicken rolled around on our tongues. The breading was perfect - twice fried but no grease at all. Just moist, tasty chicken with crispness on the outside of each piece of chicken. I am quite certain that the 3 of us wish we had all of this appetizer all to ourselves.
For my main course, I had the Mee Katang - wide noodles in a smoky sauce served with some of the softest braised short rib meat I have ever eaten. The sauce - again the sauce - was outstanding! It had a smokiness and sourness that, while that combo does not sound good, was GREAT! A delicious dish that made me lap up every bit of it. My spouse and BFF got the Loc Lac - shaken, shaved beef. They ate every bite too. We are still wondering why the beef was "shaken."
The food was an experience, a great experience.
The service too was very good. Our server, Amelia, was cute, delightful, and helpful.
The rest of the restaurant, not so much. The dining room is decorated with what looks like 2nd hand items collected from garage sales. Some of the seats are benches. The dining room is kind of a bummer. I get it, this restaurant might be geared to a crowd younger than me, my spouse and my BFF. But the dining room was a bit of a turn off, a second or perhaps third thought. While I appreciate that all the focus was on the food, the atmosphere is a let down. I really wanted to see some Cambodian stuff on the walls. It's a Cambodian restaurant for gosh sakes - how about a map or a drawing or something to give it context.
The website needs to be completely re-done. It is not helpful and, in fact, almost turned us off from going there.
This is a hard review for me to write. I love the food here but the rest of the dining experience does not live up to that spectacular food.
Will I go back? Not sure. I might crave the sauce for the shrimp roll and the sauce on the short rib entree. But, other than those things, there is little to bring me back here. I almost gave Oun Lido's 3 stars because of the overall reaction to the entire restaurant. But only 3 stars would be a dis-service to the food. The food at Oun Lido's is GREAT!!!
