Portland Spoke – The Official Blog of Travel Portland

Hopefully, you’ve heard that Portland has a great food scene — it’s true. There are many different facets to

Even in winter, the food carts on Alder Street draw the lunch crowds.

it and I’d like to introduce you to one that the locals love.

Portland has a lot of food carts all over town — I mean A LOT. I’ve lived in Portland for 15 years and I didn’t realize exactly how many there were until about a year ago. Around that same time, I became aware of foodcartsportland.com, which is a fantastic resource to help you find what you’re looking for as well as to hear what people have to say about the specific vendors.

I frequent the carts in downtown quite often because they’re close to work, they’re really affordable and I have yet to find one that I don’t like. I go to the carts on S.W. Alder, where you can find almost any type of food you can imagine. Thai, German, Bosnian, Japanese, Mexican, Korean, French, Polish — you’ll find all of that and more. Vegetarians and vegans will be happy to hear that they’ll find plenty of options, too. One very important tip – bring cash with you. Very few (if any) of the vendors are equipped to take debit or credit cards, so make sure you stop at the ATM before you head to the carts.

Today, I went to the carts on Alder and had lunch for $5. No, really — $5 — and I was full. I had two very large Thai salad rolls from I Like Thai Food ($3) and a bowl of miso soup from Samurai ($2). In this particular area of Portland’s cart scene, entrees tend to average $6 and I find that’s enough food to either share with a friend or get a second meal out of. So the next time you’re in Portland and looking for something off the beaten path, check out the different food carts around town — you won’t be sorry!

Tags: Downtown, food carts, lunch, take-out

////// By Tressia Gehrke / / Add Comment (1)