Our 10 Favorite Food Carts: Fall 2014

Tastebud Bagels

Hours: Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Weekends: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Prices: $1-$14

Type: Small Montreal-style bagels and sandwiches topped with various spreads and local ingredients.

Year opened: Farmers Market stand opened in 2000, food cart opened in 2013.

Recommended Dishes: Pepper Bagel with Jalapeno Cream Cheese – a crispy pepper-crusted bagel with a spicy spread. Bacon and Jam Bagel, which is a perfectly toasted sesame seed bagel topped with cream cheese, raspberry jam, fresh arugula and finished off with two crispy strips of bacon.

Fun Fact: Tastebud’s Montreal-style bagels are boiled in malt water and cooked at very high temperatures; this gives them their unique, smaller size.

Wait times: 5-10 minutes.

The Whole Bowl

Hours: Monday- Friday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Prices: $1-$6

Type: “Vegetarian American Food.” The cart only offers one thing.

Year Opened: 2001

Recommended Dishes: Big Bowl with all the fixings, this is a large bowl of brown rice, a layer of black beans, lemon and garlic “Tali Sauce,” fresh salsa, sliced black olives, Tillamook cheddar cheese, sour cream and cilantro. Add Siracha for an extra kick!

Fun Fact: Tali Sauce is named after the owner of the food cart!

Wait Times: 0-15 minutes.

Güero Tortas

Hours: Early to late lunch time.

Type: Specializes in authentic Mexican sandwiches or tortas.

Prices: Most dishes are $8w besides the build your own option.

Year Opened: April of 2014

Recommended dishes: Carnitas torta. The sandwich has homemade coleslaw, fresh tomatoes, avocado and authentic shredded pork. It is nicely seasoned with salt, pepper and citrus. Served on a flat baked bun.
Fun fact: The recipe for the carnitas was used by the owner when he was running a catering company out of his house in Vermont.

Wait Times: 5-10 minutes

Steak Your Claim

Hours: 12 a.m.-6 p.m.

Type: Cheesesteaks and Pastrami sandwiches.

Prices: About $10 for sandwiches and $5 for sides and fries.

Year Opened: October of 2013

Recommended dishes: Broad Street Bully. It is a classic Philadelphia cheese steak with tender steak and firm bread. It comes with the choice of gooey cheese whiz or sharp provolone and optional onions.

Fun Fact: Each co-owner comes from a different city. One from New York, and the other from Philadelphia. Both had been working in the food and drink industry their entire lives when they first met. Bound by the love of their city’s iconic sandwiches, they pooled their resources, and started the food cart.

Wait times: 5-8 minutes.

Altengartz

Hours: 11:30-5:30

Prices: Single Bratwurst – $5, Garlic Bratwurst – $6, Veggie Brat – $4.50, Breakfast Brat – $6

Type: Award-Winning Authentic German Bratwurst Sausages

Year Opened: 2000, the first cart on the block.

Recommended Dish: Their traditional German Bratwurst is the same recipe created by the owner’s father back in Germany. They came to America with that one crowd pleasing recipe, and it is delicious. With a little sauerkraut and their brand mustard it is hard to find a better Brat.

Fun Fact: The owner of the cart, Jameson G. Wittkopp, met his wife, a German citizen who was a customer (and obviously impressed with the sausages) at his cart. Now, she makes the apple strudel they serve at the cart.

Wait Times (during lunch hour): 10 minutes

Delicios

Hours: 11-4

Prices: Chicken Schnitzel Sandwich – $7

Type: Traditional Romanian Transylvanian Food

Year Opened: July, 2013

Recommended Dish: Their Chicken Schnitzel sandwich, which is coleslaw, pickles and tomatoes, stuffed between delicious bread, with two whole deep fried chicken patties, smothered in an unbeatable sauce is currently the best sandwich I have had to date.

Fun Fact: The cart used to have a picture of the Transylvanian character Count Dracula hanging out with the pictures of the food. One day, a little girl came up the cart and asked how they could have a picture of such an evil man hanging with such delicious food. Now, the owner, Lumi, keeps the picture hanging up inside the cart, out of view of scared little girls.

Wait Times: 10-15 minutes

Bento Box

Hours: Weekdays only, 11 am to 4 pm during the school year, and 11 am to 8 pm during the summer.
Prices: $1 drink, $6.50 for the vegetarian meal, $7.50 for the meat meal.

Type: Americanized Japanese-style teriyaki chicken.

Year Opened: 2012

Recommended Dish: There are only two menu items. The meat option has broccoli, shredded carrots and lettuce served on top of chicken with teriyaki sauce. Underneath that, there is your choice of white or brown rice.

Fun Fact: One time they served a professional boxer.

Wait Times: 2 minutes.

A Little Bit of Smoke

Hours: Weekdays only, 11 am to 3:30 pm.

Prices: Ranges from $1 to $10.

Recommended Dish: The Hogpile. If you like barbecue, then this is the dish for you. The Hogpile has a layer of coleslaw on top of smoked barbecue pork with a sweet barbecue sauce topping it.

Fun Fact: The quickest way to get a big collection of pig memorabilia is opening a barbecue food cart.

Wait Times: Up to 5 minutes.

Savor Soup House

Hours: Monday through Friday 11 am until 4 pm.

Type: Delicious Artisan Soups with Unique Sandwich Pairings

Year Opened: 2009

Price Range: The menu varies between $2 small dishes and sandwiches up to $8.

Recommended Dish: The soups change daily. SSH serves about 16 different soups a week.

Fun Fact: All the food comes from their farm on Sauvie Island. SSH smokes their own turkey and grows their own ingredients that go into these delicious soups. And, their customers appear to like the food. While picture for this article were being taken, a woman who said she lived on 164th Ave. came to Savor Soup House to get dinner.

Wait Times: None – 2 minutes in line and the same for food.

Olé Latte Coffee Roasters

Hours: 7am – 5pm

Type: Unique Tasteful Latte and Coffee Accouterments

Year Opened: 2012

Price Range: $2 – $5

Recommended Dish: Vanilla Latte

Fun Fact: OL was started in a garage in NE Portland primarily serving the surrounding neighborhood. The owner of the garage that bought the espresso machine and was determined to teach themselves how to be a barista. Because of the low foot traffic in the area, the cart succession the garage was moved from place to place around the metro area, finally ending in its permanent home: SE 10th and Alder St.

Wait Times: 3-4 minutes.

*ALL FOOD CARTS ARE LOCATED IN THE POD 11th AND ALDER POD