Bangkok Duck & Chicken

The wait is long compared to other food carts but it is worth it to me. I have only had the pad thai so I can not speak for the other dishes. The pad thai at this cart is very garlicky and they use more bean sprouts than normal but it works very well. I love the duck and yes wish they gave more, I usually get around 6 pieces. I’ve tried a few of the $ 5 pad thai food carts and some of them seemed precooked while the other are just lazily cooked. What I mean by lazily is someone just smothered it with pad thai sauce.

Very long wait for unfortunately some of the blandest Pad Thai I’ve ever had.

I don’t even know where to start with this food cart. I was so excited to discover a food cart that serves duck curry — my most favorite Thai food, so I was looking forward to try their roast duck red curry with pineapples, mushrooms and bamboo shoots — at least this is the description on the menu. Food came and I thought «wow» — huge box of rice and the tub of curry was filled to the rim — how generous of them for $ 7! I started scooping the curry on to my rice…1^st scoop, 2^nd scoop, 3 rd scoop… hmmmm…all mushrooms and pineapples, where is the duck? I ended up pouring half the curry onto the rice. Okay, I really don’t know what they were thinking or assuming, but I do know the difference between chicken and duck. Yes, you read right, they sneakily gave me chicken instead of duck and not only that but they only gave me 2 small pieces — TWO!!! No wonder they were so generous with the portions because they totally scammed me! One star for flavor.

Rude-​to-​indifferent service, unadvertised credit-​card fee, and pad see ew that had only carrots (not what was advertised). This isn’t the first time I’ve been very underwhelmed, but the first time I’ve been disappointed enough to write a review. There are many better Thai carts — unfortunately most don’t take cards — and many better carts at this pod that do take cards.

As the nice lady put together my order, I couldn’t get over the impression that she was rather insecure about something. Being such a ravishing guapo, I am well accustomed to this reaction. As Don Quixote himself lamented, «I be so unfortunate a knight, that no damsel that looks upon me, can help falling in love with me…»
Yeah. That must be it. But this time I really didn’t think so. I thought *maybe* it was owing to an automatic snootines so many customers are wont to exhibit about «authenticity», as in, what does this Caucasoid think she’s doing, trying to serve me Thai food? Yep. That was it. The gal told me about her training w/​the glorious Cordon Bleu— but was oh so quick to point out that a real, live Thai person trained her!
But that isn’t necessarily what validates you, darlin’. Your cookin’ is what validates you, most definitely, that, and your friendly and extremely prompt service.
I tried the duck curry – the very spiciest their flimsy containers could hold – and it was incredible. Plentiful tender chunks o’ duck, along with the usual medley of bay leaves, noodles, mushrooms and a very nice innovation of green beans in the mix. Oh it wasn’t all that spicy, my mucus membranes are still intact, my viscera hasn’t melted or been deformed — I don’t think! I’d most certainly go back and try more of this menu.
When I finally saw the cume rating on Unilocal for this place (2.5 stars? WTF?), it seems I finally have the answer as to why olé girl might have seemed a little insecure or defensive. Don’t go sweatin’ them puddin’ heads, darlin’. Just keep on how you did it for me. You’ll do just fine…

The curry we had was a huge portion and very tasty. There was a ton of rice, and lots of curry sauce, minimal veg and chicken — but great value and definitely enough food to fill 2 people in one entrée. Enterprising entrepreneur, nice to see. There are better food cart options for food quality, but this place was good.

I eat at the food carts very often, as I work downtown. I ordered the Kung Pao Chicken. WHAT A MASSIVE FAIL! The whole container consisted of barely cooked chopped carrots, overwhelming basil and like 5 pieces of chicken. This white guy seems like he has NO idea how to cook! WORST I have ever had from a food cart, and I’ve eaten at over 50% of the carts on this block. AVOID THIS ONE!

REALLY? 35+ minutes for this? REALLY?
Okay, so it’s my own fault for letting my phone go uncharged all night, to a point where it died as soon as I got to the food cart strip on 10^th. Meaning, my dear Unilocalers, that I wasn’t able to pull up the Unilocal app and check out what you all think of the place. Mm, at a minimal 3-​stars I would have passed had I known sooner.
My initial impressions of this place:
1) There were a good number of people waiting outside the cart
2) I was craving Thai food
3) They accept credit cards
So, sadly my friends, I ate (if that’s what you call it) here. If only I had a working phone, and if only I had a time machine to go back 2 days before I made the ill-​fated decision.
First, the girl working here was rude and blunt. Wayyy more attitude than the normal «Portland hipster blasé.» Yet, I was still cordial as I was told (and overheard) they were «out of beef, out of #4, out of _​_​_​, out of Thai Iced Tea.»
So I got the chicken Pad Thai, and my guy ordered the Curry avocado.
And then we played the waiting game.
As we watched others around us wait (and complain at said wait), I began to realize that it’s not that the place is always busy, it’s that it takes FOREVER for the food to be made.
After playing street games to stay warm in the near-​freezing cold weather (dancing and running in place also provides great cardio), the Bangkok Street Gang (that’s what I called those of us who spent so much time together waiting for our food) began to dissipate. But as they left, others like me came (that is, those who thought the long line meant good food and fast service).
Then, like a light from the heavens, my name was called. And finally, I had food! Or not.
When I opened the container and tried to take a bite of my dish I found myself carving out flavorless chunks of noodle (since it had molded into some kind of gelatinous square with dry bits of chicken on top). I actually had to use a knife and fork. After 3 bites I couldn’t eat any more and quickly searched for something else to eat.
I posted a photo of my Pad Thai, AFTER I was finished eating. Yep, it looks like there’s a lot left over, because there was.

The pad thai was OK. If you’re in the area, want some pad thai, its $ 5 kind of thing. They’re open on the weekend which is cool. BUT, they get minuses because our wait for pad thai was 25 minutes at least. Ridonculous! And they use Styrofoam, come on now people! This IS Portland. This IS the NW. Your clientele are eco-​friendly, get with it.

It was a Sunday afternoon and three of us were hungry for lunch. We hit the food carts between 9^th and 11^th. Not a lot of them were open, but this one was. As it was a Thai place, I tried the Duck Pad Thai. Together with a Thai Iced Tea, my lunch cost 8 USD.
Now, was I satisfied? Well, yes and no. At 7 USD for a duck pad thai (duck costs 2 USD extra, so chicken pad thai is 5 USD), plus a thai iced tea for 1 USD, given the quantity, who could beat that?
However, I don’t know. I didn’t like the quality of the noodles too much. I think they stuck to each other too much, which I didn’t expect. It was also more spicy than peanut-​y. I was surprised that there was a spice level to pad thai: all of my previous pad thai experiences didn’t have that choice. I somehow automatically said «spicy» which meant that it had plenty of crushed red pepper. That was fine. I can eat spicy food. But given the quantity, I was alternating between the pad thai, the thai iced tea, and a piece of voodoo doughnut.
So I don’t know. I liked my lunch, but it was just okay. For the price I paid, I can’t complain, but this isn’t the best pad thai I have had.

Even the very best businesses have an off day and make a mistake. It is how those businesses remedy the mistake that make them successful.
Our order of Pad Thai the other day was not quite right and somehow it ended up with onions in it, perhaps because he was super busy. Parisa M. didn’t mind and she said it was really good and spicy and she ended up with our Pad Thai and I fixed a tuna sandwich at home.
The nice guy at the cart invited me back because he wanted to make it right. Today I took him up on his offer and this time it was perfect!
It was nice and spicy with egg, peanuts, sprouts and the shrimp even had the tails taken off! How thoughtful is that?
Now that I know how nice these guys are and how good and spicy the food is, I can’t wait to go back and try something else on the menu.

I had the Duck Pad Thai. $ 6 and I got no complaints, bottle of water is a $ 1 more, bonus. The meat was very good but not much of it, refer back to price.

I was craving me some Khao Man Gai and Nong’s is my usual spot, but I noticed this cart with Khao Man Gai on their menu and thought I would give it a shot.
Even for to-​go, the presentation was nice. Lots of rice, a bit skimpy on the chicken and thick slices of cucumber and they also included soup. The chicken was dry, I personally didn’t really like the flavor of the rice and the ginger sauce was okay.
I’m not sure it’s fair to compare the Khao Man Gai to Nong’s since that’s all Nong’s does. In the end I was missing my paper wrapped chicken and rice with Nong’s Amazing Ginger sauce and soup.
I’ll have to try something different next time to be fair.

It’s both a pleasure and a pain that I work only two blocks from the Alder Food Carts, a haven of yummy goodness. I used to talk myself out of spending money here on my lunch break because I never carry cash, and I thought they were all cash-​only. Wrang! Not this place. (there is a .50 fee though)
For $ 5 – 8, depending on how fancy you want to get on your meat choice, you get at least 2 meals worth in a packed box of wonder. I’m a fan of their pad thai, and every fried rice dish I’ve had has been amazing. including the fresh ginger, and also the seafood mix with crab.
Best part: they ask you for spice level preference, and ACTUALLY DELIVER IT. It’s tough as nails in this city to get spicy food if you’re a white person, because most people don’t believe you can handle it. But I said «No, seriously, can you make this extra hot?» the cook did. And it was so amazing. I can still remember the tears from the chili sauce. Yum.

SOOOO GOOOOOOOD!!!
My girlfriend and I are both fans of Thai food — her specially because she’s traveled around in Thailand. She has been looking for restaurants that carry «Khao Mun Gai» high and low but nobody has it! It’s probably because it’s such a simple dish that everyone loves in Thailand — a bit too simple to be made in restaurants. Alas, this food cart in Portland has it. And yes, we had this 2 meals in a row. Comes with a simple soup for a nice finishing touch.