diff --git a/tools/bazelify_tests/test/portability_tests.bzl b/tools/bazelify_tests/test/portability_tests.bzl
index e7852dfb149..d1a55957416 100644
--- a/tools/bazelify_tests/test/portability_tests.bzl
+++ b/tools/bazelify_tests/test/portability_tests.bzl
@@ -53,8 +53,8 @@ def generate_run_tests_portability_tests(name):
     # C and C++ under different compilers
     for language in ["c", "c++"]:
         compiler_configs = [
-            # TODO(https://github.com/grpc/grpc/issues/36751): Replace gcc_8 with gcc_7 once it's fixed.
-            # ["gcc_7", "", "tools/dockerfile/test/cxx_gcc_7_x64.current_version"],
+            # Some gRPC tests have an issue with gcc-7 so gcc-7 portability test won't build any gRPC tests
+            ["gcc_7", "--cmake_configure_extra_args=-DgRPC_BUILD_TESTS=OFF", "tools/dockerfile/test/cxx_gcc_7_x64.current_version"],
             ["gcc_8", "", "tools/dockerfile/test/cxx_gcc_8_x64.current_version"],
             ["gcc_12_cxx20", "--cmake_configure_extra_args=-DCMAKE_CXX_STANDARD=20", "tools/dockerfile/test/cxx_gcc_12_x64.current_version"],
             ["gcc10.2_openssl102", "--cmake_configure_extra_args=-DgRPC_SSL_PROVIDER=package", "tools/dockerfile/test/cxx_debian11_openssl102_x64.current_version"],
diff --git a/tools/run_tests/helper_scripts/build_cxx.sh b/tools/run_tests/helper_scripts/build_cxx.sh
index a8e1d819e2a..d6c47a5b89a 100755
--- a/tools/run_tests/helper_scripts/build_cxx.sh
+++ b/tools/run_tests/helper_scripts/build_cxx.sh
@@ -46,5 +46,10 @@ else
 cmake -DgRPC_BUILD_GRPCPP_OTEL_PLUGIN=ON -DgRPC_ABSL_PROVIDER=package -DgRPC_BUILD_TESTS=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE="${MSBUILD_CONFIG}" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="${INSTALL_PATH}" "$@" ../..
 fi
 
+if [[ "$*" =~ "-DgRPC_BUILD_TESTS=OFF" ]]; then
+# Just build grpc++ target when gRPC_BUILD_TESTS is OFF (This is a temporary mitigation for gcc 7. Remove this once gcc 7 is removed from the supported compilers)
+make -j"${GRPC_RUN_TESTS_JOBS}" "grpc++"
+else
 # GRPC_RUN_TESTS_CXX_LANGUAGE_SUFFIX will be set to either "c" or "cxx"
 make -j"${GRPC_RUN_TESTS_JOBS}" "buildtests_${GRPC_RUN_TESTS_CXX_LANGUAGE_SUFFIX}" "tools_${GRPC_RUN_TESTS_CXX_LANGUAGE_SUFFIX}"
+fi