For Single Standout Menu Item, we review only one dish, one item or one beverage that we feel deserves its own bit of fanfare. This could be the one dish not to be missed, or the item on which the eatery has built its reputation.
Portland, OR Restaurant Review: Pok Pok and Whiskey Soda Lounge in Southeast Portland

Pok Pok and Whiskey Soda Lounge in Southeast Portland

There are only a few restaurants that have crossed over into mini-legends of Portland dining culture, and Pok Pok is surely one of them. Based almost entirely on the reputation of one dish, Pok Pok and its sister bar/lounge slash holding pen Whiskey Soda Lounge serve up what amounts to one of the greatest PDX dining options, a plate of spicy fried chicken wings that will make a fan out of just about anyone. And there’s way more going on at Pok Pok and Whiskey Soda than merely one dish.

Like Belmont, SE Division has its own little thing going on, and when compared to Hawthorne, for example, it’s just a little bit darker, has a bit more of an edge maybe, but also remains tidier than the northeast’s Alberta. Along sections of Division, strollers will find quirky and popular bars, vintage stores, coffee shops and restaurants, many of which have great personality but none of which has risen to the level of critical esteem, especially on a national level, as Pok Pok. Cobbled together out of a seemingly endless mini-labyrinth of adjoining rooms, each smallish section of the restaurant has its own rustic character and hands-on design sense to it, as if the reclaimed wood, low-level lighting and clustered tables were each chosen by a single person looking to create a lived-in, comfortable and unique dining experience.

Breaking Down Ike’s Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings at Pok Pok and Whiskey Soda Lounge in Southeast Portland

Pok Pok and Whiskey Soda Lounge: Ike's Fish Sauce Wings

I’ve spoken up before about how much I love Thai food, as authentic as it can possibly be, especially given my experiences down in Los Angeles’s Thai Town, and restaurants like Jitlada Thai and Kruang Tedd. And while Khun Pic’s Bahn Thai in Portland has its own special brand of Thai food experience and personality, Pok Pok, in my opinion, is something special and different. The darling of food critics and diners alike, Pok Pok boasts a complex but highly selected menu, with a few dishes offered for lunch and a more robust dinner menu that would be difficult to get tired of. In fact, the fried chicken wings pictured above are the type of dish that one wakes up in the middle of the night with a hankering for, and then nothing but a plate of those wings will satisfy the craving.

The menu bills this famous dish as such: “Half dozen fresh natural chicken wings marinated in fish sauce and palm sugar, deep fried, tossed in caramelized Phu Quoc fish sauce and garlic and served with Vietnamese table salad. Based on our daytime cook Ike’s recipe, from his home in Vietnam. Named one of the Top Ten Restaurant Dishes in America 2007 by Food & Wine Magazine.” And this, my friends, is Ike’s Fish Sauce Wings ($12).

Any dish, to my understanding as an amateur cook, that compels me to immediately come home and then try to recreate it, is special. And for me, this does not happen often. Now, the wings at Pok Pok are deep fried, so without a fryer, this has been difficult, but suffice it to say, I think I have a modified version down at this point. And then I go back to Pok Pok, and I am again confounded. These things are that good. Meaty, loaded with garlic that is fried into a crispy sweetness, and complemented with a simple garnish of pickled carrots, cucumbers and radish, six spicy wings actually goes a very long way, when paired with a second dish, to making a couple of people very full indeed.

Further, I like to consider the intelligent thinking on the part of the owners. Pok Pok has essentially blown up, like the Death Star only not in any kind of now-it’s-gone-forever sort of way. Pok Pok is full most hours of the day, and at 8pm let’s say on a Thursday night, you’ll be standing out in the rain waiting for a table. But Whiskey Soda Lounge to the rescue! Across the street, would-be diners can wait and sip on a customized and delicious Tamarind Whiskey Soda cocktail (Tamarind, fresh lime juice, palm sugar and bourbon on the rocks for $8) while keeping their ears perked up for the signal from the wait staff that their table back across the street at Pok Pok is ready for them. Or — for the not-so-patient, Ike’s Fish Sauce Wings are also available, without so much as a shade of a difference and in an equally special environment and ambiance, for dining on at the Whiskey Soda Lounge. Congratulations on that bit of genius, as now no one with a fried chicken wing urge has to suffer.

Restaurant Details: Pok Pok and Whiskey Soda Lounge in Southeast Portland
Pok Pok ( Whiskey Soda Lounge is across the street) in SE Portland
3226 SE Division Street (between SE 31 and SE 32 on the south side of the street, just off the corner)
Portland, OR 97202
Southeast
(503) 232-1387 ‎ ‎
Hours: Monday through Sunday from 11:30 am – 10:00 pm
Limited Lunch Menu with Complete Dinner Menu, Including Daily Specials

Portland, OR Restaurant Map: Pok Pok and Whiskey Soda Lounge in Southeast Portland

Click here for directions: Pok Pok in Southeast Portland. The Whiskey Soda Lounge is located directly across the street, on the north side of SE Division. Both restaurants serve Ike’s Fish Sauce Wings.

Official Site: Pok Pok and Whiskey Soda Lounge in Southeast Portland (Click)
Pok Pok on Yelp! Portland (Click)
Pok Pok and Whiskey Soda Lounge in Southeast Portland Official Facebook Page (Click)

Pok Pok & Whiskey Soda Lounge on Urban Spoon:
Jitlada Thai in Los Angeles on Urban Spoon:
Kruang Tedd in Los Angeles on Urban Spoon:

Video Footage of Pok Pok and Whiskey Soda Lounge in Portland

Related posts:

1. Chiang Mai Thai on SE Hawthorne at 32nd Ave
2. Pad Thai Kitchen on SE Belmont at SE 23rd Ave
3. Khun Pic’s Bahn Thai on SE Belmont at 35th Ave