Bubba Bernie’s

I’m not often disappointed by a Cajun joint, but this cart just isn’t worth it.
The catfish po’ boy is alright, if you’ve never had one before and don’t know what a good one is supposed to taste like. Sure, the fish is fresh and nicely cooked. But there isn’t a hint of spice in the remoulade, and the baguette has far too little give to be effective at anything other than launching your catfish as far from your mouth as possible.
For $ 10, you can do far better in Portland. Not to mention the fact that they charge a fee for any credit card transaction. (not just a minimum)

Nice to have some unique cuisine at this food cart gathering. The jambalaya was not bad, but it took a really long time. We’d all ordered food from about 5 – 6 other carts (at least 20 minutes) and realized this still hadn’t come out yet.
* Jambalaya (rice, andouille sausage, & cajun spices. Choice of smoked chicken or shrimp. $ 12) — 3.5 stars
pic:
Not bad, not amazing. The shrimp was crunchy and the flavors pretty good, but you don’t get a lot of food, especially for the price. If you’re really craving cajun, this is a good option, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to get their food.
Menu:

Super disappointed with my super dry steak sandwich. I didn’t eat more than 4 – 5 bites. The steak was of saw dust consistency. Totally gnarly.

Worst beignets I ever had. We were visiting Portland & wanted to try a pod, and thought we would try dessert since we were buying dinner there too. I’m comparing their beignets to real New Orleans beignets. But even if I weren’t these were just awful. I’ve made much better beignets at home from a box mix than these chocolate covered rocks. What a waste of $ 5.

So I don’t have too many complaints about the food, except that it is a tad expensive for what you get.
My main reason for writing this review, to be honest, is the slide in customer service. I’ve only been met with rude service there lately, and don’t expect I’ll be going back again. The food is not good enough to justify the cost AND attitude.

THE JAMBALAYA IS SOOOOOO GOOD!
i asked the guy working the window to put LOTS of extra cayenne pepper… i was in a spicy mood.
he put TONS of cayenne pepper, and the jambalaya tasted AMAZING.
this place is kick-​ass. i will definitely be going by again.

Not surprisingly, I love cajun food. Haven’t been to New Orleans in years, but I miss that place. Everything from the jambalaya to the beignets.
Because the panda logically eats dessert first, I got the beignets ($ 5), three puffy triangular-​shaped doughnuts with powdered sugar and choice of chocolate or raspberry sauce (I picked raspberry). It’s a great doughnut, albeit non-​traditional in both shape and presentation. The beignets are still very good. The fruity, raspberry sauce gave it an extra dimension.
The jambalaya ($ 11) is a good-​sized portion with an option of chicken or shrimp? I personally liked it because too often, jambalaya becomes too rice-​dominant, with other components taking a backseat. Here, I felt like it was a more even distribution of ingredients. Spot-​on flavor.
I’ll be back to this food cart!

I had a bite of my friend’s shrimp poboy, some hush puppies, and taste of chili.
The hands down star: hush puppies. Crispy sweet pieces of corn permeate each puppy. They’re bite size, but I recommend sharing an order as they’re still quite greasy. I could only eat 3 pieces.
Shrimp po’boy shrimp and sauce is really good. Kind of a rich sauce slightly sweet.
Brisket chili: a lot more tender than expected and more flavorful than it looks. The color wasn’t too appealing, but it was actually pretty good!

Visited this food truck last Sunday, 9÷8÷13. I ordered the catfish po’ boy. I had high hopes for a great Cajun sandwich. What I got was an overpriced small sandwich served by a less than friendly woman.
The fish was good quality but only lightly pan fried, more bread than fish, and there was little to no sauce. What a huge let down, and not authentic at all.

We stopped and got their pulled pork sandwich. This thing is huge. I mean, huge, huge. It had a great smokey BBQ taste. Let me tell you this is the perfect sandwich to serve to a teenage boy. The day we were there the place was fairly empty, must have been good timing on our part, so the service was quick.

This place’s thing is po-​boys but they have other things as well like a pulled pork sandwich. Their sweet potato tots are good (and unique) as are their hush-​puppies. They also have a good variety of bbq-​esque sauces.

Came here with my sister looking for something sweet. All we ever do is eat. We were sort of bored with our usual sweet fix, Waffle Window so we tried Bubba Bernie’s.
We both ordered beignets, one I think was chocolate and the other was raspberry. The process took a few minutes and it was raining but the cart is covered. Our food was good and the cashier let us know if we wanted more syrup, just to ask. I asked for more syrup and enjoyed my dessert.
Love beignets. This did them justice. Thanks for filling my belly, Bubba.

Let’s start with the positives. They are open late. Their po’boy sandwiches are very, very large for the price. Easily feeding two or more. They are open late. Their chili is OK by me, tomato-​y with big chunks of beef, and a good serving size. And they are open late. They have FritoTM pie, a strange Americana dish. Did I say that they are open late?
But they have room for improvement. They did seem to have some difficulty keeping track of orders across a shift change. I have to say the breading on their catfish po’boy lacks any hint of spices. And you really don’t want to overcook that, (or any) fish.
The one thing that is odd is their breading. It’s cornmeal style. So it comes out crispy crunchy, which will definitely rattle your brain to chew after 2AM.

As others point out this is a cart in one of the more popular pods, strategically triangulated between Potato Champion and a crêpe cart. Southern bbq seems to be their focus with pulled pork, brisket, po’ boys, and frito pie on the menu.
Wife and I hit this joint about 9pm on a tuesday, and found it respectfully busy for that time of the day/​week. Service is friendly and the cart has some cover in case of rain or heavy sun. Not super cheap, but everything seems to be under $ 10 and very generously proportioned, if basic.
There’s a nice selection of house made BBQ sauces for your tasting pleasure. Pick one, pick six, it’s all good. I found the flavors nicely varied, though a little underwhelming when it comes to the heat level. Their fiery sauce was more of a weak smolder. I heard the owner mention something about taming it down for the P-​Town crowd, unfortunately they seem to have veered towards over-​domestication. Then again, it could just have been that batch.
Wife ordered the pork belly po’ boy and couldn’t rave about it enough. Big chunks of crispified belly with lettuce and secret sauce. Just kept telling me how good it was. Went down nicely with a side of sweet potato tots.
I ordered the pulled pork sandwich. At $ 8.00 I wasn’t sure what I’d get, and boy was I surprised when what looked like 2 pounds of meat arrived, framed by a toasted bun. So far as pulled pork goes it was pretty good. Not too dry and obviously prepared with love. Thing is, I can only eat so much and it felt ridiculous in the same way a 64 ounce Big Gulp feels ridiculous. I might feel differently were I still 21, but I’m closer to 40 these days. After a few bites all that meat started to get a little boring despite a generous application of sauce. A traditional pairing is pulled pork topped with cole slaw between two toasted buns, providing a bit of crispy contrast and coolness to balance out the porkiness and sauce. For $ 8.00, I’d gladly trade some meat for a bit of accent.
Bottom line is this, I’ll probably try them again (the brisket’s got me intrigued) but hope they develop the menu and sauces in the meantime.

All I can say is… OMG!
that’s all I gotta say about that!

This cart serves a decent sandwich at an overly high price. Sure, the portions are good, and it’s a solid sandwich, but in the world of Portland food carts, where you can get fantastic, incredibly flavorful sandwiches for significantly cheaper, Bubba Bernie’s simply lacks in comparison. I expect a lot from food carts, especially ones at a hot spot such as this pod, and Bubba Bernie’s doesn’t deliver on par with other Portland cart offerings. These sandwiches aren’t BAD, but if you’ve eaten at other carts they’ll probably make you say «meh» as they are certainly no culinary composition like many other carts in town.
It’s most disappointing because the 12^th & Hawthorne cart pod is mostly a late night snack pod. There aren’t a lot of options for a big hearty dinner, and Bubba Bernie’s is one of those couple options. It’s a shame, then, that the sandwiches are so mediocre and at the same time so overpriced (as you can note from the numerous menu pictures, the prices have continually climbed higher and higher… unfortunately the food has not gotten better and better). It seems this cart relies on having late night hours to draw customers rather than great sandwiches and/​or good prices.

Y’all need to get a po boy here, and try the blue cheese cole slaw. It’s my new favorite thing, and I’ve only found it at 2 places.
The fried okra is hot and delicious. They didn’t have any dipping sauces, so I bought sauce from the Potato Champion cart. What a mistake — the sauce was congealed crap! These things were yummy as is.
Awesome cart.

«I’ll have a pulled pork sandwich as big as my head please.»
Those are the words I uttered to the man behind the counter. And what was given to me in exchange for money was a sandwich that made my mouth orgasm. I had a side order of hush puppies too… those were pretty darn tasty as well.
Imagine me laying on my couch, a defeated man. Half a pulled pork sandwich looking over me saying «HA! Not so tough now are you? Hey who else wants some of this? NO? I didn’t think so!»
I was defeated by this colossal mammoth of culinary brilliance. Defeated and humiliated. The sandwich then went door to door bragging about kicking my ass. I don’t know where he is now, and I don’t want to know. I concede. He’s a better man than I.

Plus one star for their mister that took the edge of the heat this past Sunday afternoon. Plus one star for the gal at the counter telling me she liked my hair.
If you request the Beef Brisket sandwich, make sure that you when you are asked if you want barbecue sauce that you say «Yes». The meat, while of a perfectly decent quality, is more like a salt-​and-​pepper-​seasoned roast beef, not barbecue. Without barbecue sauce, it is bland. At $ 9, kinda expensive for the portion size you get.
The hush puppies are not bad, slightly sweet with plenty of whole-​kernel corn.
Oh, minus one star for the Johnny’s seasoning available on the counter. Nasty stuff, basically just MSG (I checked the label).

Now see, this is what Unilocal is all about.
I was contacted by this business owner who corrected me (in a very polite and professional manner) on the ingredients used in the roux for his gumbo. Specifically, no Johnny’s seasoning salt. I have been assured that no Johnny’s is used in the gumbo.
The follow-​up alone inclines me to add a star. I consider that quality customer service. When I am unhappy about something I get from a business and complain, especially if I am mistaken about what I got, and the business takes the time to contact me to make it right, well, that’s going above and beyond.
I will come back and try the gumbo again. I (or more accurately, my palate) has been challenged. The gauntlet has been dropped. I shall return for more gumbo (and maybe a po’ boy) and pay more attention to what is going in it and what is not.
Until then… well… put my prior review on hold.