Steam Rice Roll King Opens in Portland's Hazelwood Neighborhood

Steam rice roll at Steam Rice Roll King in Portland, OR. — Beef and egg steam rice roll. Photo credit: Charlie T on Yelp

While perusing my website’s alerts, I saw that EverOut had linked to my Dodo Dumpling story. Also in that post was something that majorly caught my eye: A new restaurant specializing in steam rice rolls has opened in Portland. It is called Steam Rice Roll King and is in the old Wadee space (next door to Lux Coffee Lounge) on SE Division.

My Rice Rolls Memory

I first encountered steam rice rolls—a Cantonese dish often appearing on dim sum menus—when I was doing research for my guidebook, Food Lovers’ Guide to Queens, back in 2012. I encountered a food cart called, simply, Hong Kong Style Rice Roll cart, there on sidewalk along Broadway between 45th Avenue and Whitney Avenue in Elmhurst. Here is how I described it then:

“The woman making the rice roll takes a large spoonful of meat and places it in a thin metal drawer and adds a watery-milky liquid to that. She inserts the drawer and in a couple of minutes, she removes what has become a soft, jelly like flat noodle the size of the surface of the pan (perhaps the size of a piece of paper).” She’d then scrape it into a styrofoam cup, and topped it with soy sauce, peanut sauce, and chili sauce. You could eat it plain or get it with pork, chicken, beef, or baby shrimp. I absolutely loved it and it is one of my most enduring food memories from my time in Queens.

So you can understand my excitement at learning about this new restaurant in Portland whose speciality is rice rolls.

Steam Rice Roll King’s Timing and Location

It looks like Steam Rice Roll King opened sometime in late July, and originally was connected to the Spot 79 Bar on Foster Road.

I actually drove past yesterday and it looked like the building had a fresh coat of paint. My understanding is that inside, the feel is very much like what you’d find in Hong Kong. And they emphasize the healthy aspect of their food, saying they use “only the freshest and most natural foods to prepare each dish.”

Rice Rolls Really Are King Here

From what I’ve heard, get the rice rolls above anything else on the menu—and this is the “Stone Rice Noodle Roll” category rather than the “Steam” category, which is a different kind of noodle. The menu also has a selection of “add-ons” (add them to any dishes with noodles) noodle soup, lo mein, congee, snacks, and drinks. The snacks look like a mix of sweet and savory—e.g., cheesecake, french toast, potstickers, curry fish balls, chicken feet, and takoyaki.

The rice rolls can be ordered plain or with fillings like ground pork, SPAM, bbq pork, sweet corn, Chinese sausage, and more. Add-ons, mentioned above, include everything from egg, mushroom, and preserved mustard greens to beef brisket, jelly ear, and pig offal.

Steamed Noodles, Soups, Congee, and More

Steamed noodles come with things like egg, Chinese sausage, shrimp, scorched lettuce, ground pork, and wontons. Soups are varied with things like Chinese sauerkraut and ground pork, brisket, and tomato-based beef ball. It looks like there are rice noodles and “noodle,” which I’d guess is wheat-based. Lo mein dishes look good, too, with additions of things like scallion oil and beef brisket; there’s also dry chili lo wonton that sounds delicious.

And when it comes to congee, there’s plain, and then there are options that include things like salted bone, preserved egg, and mixed pork.

For drinks, you can get various flavors of Ramune, western soda pop, lemonade, herbal tea, and a couple of soy milk options: original and “Five Grains”: sesame/black bean/red bean/soybean/peanut. And with that soy milk, why not order a Chinese Doughnut? (I would expect this to be the you tiao.)

Bottom line: there’s a lot of tasty-sounding things on this menu. See the full menu here.

So if you like steam rice rolls, this is the place for you. I send every good wish to them for much success in Hazelwood!

Steam Rice Roll King [opened July 2024]
11003 SE Division Street, Portland
steamricerollking.com | Instagram