E-san Thai Food Cart

I walk 10 minutes in the rain to go here for lunch. You can call ahead and not have to wait. The portions are big enough for you to save some food for he next day. this means that lunch comes out to be 3.50 $/​day – a good deal. They make it as spicy as you want it. Drunken noodles, pad thai and curry are pretty standard – nothing amazing, but exactly what you crave.

I looked at their menu. In their website, they say they «feature» Thai Isan (Northeast Thailand closer to Laos) cuisine. No item on their menu says Isan. It’s all regular «Thai Fare».
Disappointment! HUGE disappointment.

My fav Thai cart in PDX. Nong’s is my 2^nd fav. Serves totally different and non overlapping stuff. Their stuff is cheap and good and can be made extremely spicy upon request! Wait times are kinda long during lunch times. Weekday weekend alike. They close pretty early and are only open on Sundays occasionally. Drop them a call before going on evenings and Sunday just to make sure they are still open.

Got the chicken Pad Thai and I have to say this is the best Pad Thai I have EVER had! The noodles was cooked perfectly and it was so tasty. Only down side was they put too much spice! I asked for a medium but it was so spicy I had tears in my eyes. I didn’t care, I kept on eating it!

This food truck has better service than the actual restaurant, similar taste grade.

This is my favorite cart on this block! The Pad Gai is what I usually go for but everything that I have tried has been amazing. For the price you pay you get a lot of food as well. The cart is always busy, but it’s for good reason.

Quite fantastic. I came across this cart in a park and the aroma was stimulating to say the least. Extensive menu cooked to order. Great value for money and the taste went beyond expectation.

So I’m going on a food truck review binge here since I always forget to Unilocal within a reasonable timeframe from when I had my meals.
My colleague loves this stand so she brought me to this place. I ordered the stir-​fry with veggies and tofu with brown rice. Just be sure to specify if you want white/​brown rice if you’re Asian, because they’ll just automatically assume you want white (I’m Asian). I also asked for no spice since I don’t really like spicy food. And they can spice it up a lot at this place, so I’ve heard.
The portion was substantial, the flavor was ok — kind of lackluster (probably because I should have ordered it with at least a mild spice). But I’ve been re-​creating the dish at home and bringing it to work so… thanks, E-​San, for the lunch idea!

I love this place! If your like Pad Thai this is the place to go! You can choose the spicy ness of your food but if you’re sensitive to hot things I this their medium hot and their hot is extra spicy.
Most of their food is either $ 3-​$ 7 which is really good for a food cart. The workers are always super friendly. And sometimes they have tea for people who are waiting. Great place.

Easy, fast, but too spicy. I told them medium for my chicken pad Thai. It was so hot I physically could not eat it. Took it home and made soup with coconut cream. Much better. I’ll remember to tell them mild so I can actually taste the food.

Based on other reviews, it looks like they may recently have had a price increase. Everything I saw was $ 7, but I got a ton of food for the money when I ordered L-​14 with chicken, based on the recommendation of an employee at the E-​San restaurant. This was basically chicken (and a lot of it), stir fried with yellow and green onion, mushroom, bell pepper (which I had them hold), and a pile of basil leaves. Yum! The gentleman who took my order and I had a conversation about spice that went something like this:
Him: how spicy?
Me: Spicy
Him: (raises eyebrows appraisingly)
Me: White girl spicy
Him: I’m going to give you medium
Me: I like Thai restaurant 4 star
Him: OK, medium spicy
To his word, I got 4 star spicy. Just enough to burn my lips and make my nose run, as it should be.
And now a thought on footprint: these folks use a LOT of paper and plastic wear. My single entrée came in a plastic clamshell container, and the guy offered to put the rice in a separate additional container. The clamshell went into a large paper bag with two dinner napkins, a spoon, and a fork. Then the whole thing was taped shut while I grabbed chopsticks as well. Container 2 Go folks will feel very virtuous when they eat here. In all fairness, that’s how they do it in Thailand. Everything goes in a bag. If you buy a bottle of water from 7 – 11, it goes in a bag, with a straw.

I did not want to write a 3 star, but here it is. I got massaman chicken curry and tofu salad rolls.
First let’s talk portion, yes, the curry was huge! It was flavorful and I asked for a level 3 spicy and it was comparable to most carts level 5 spicy… So watch out for the heat, but I liked it.
Now the problematic part, the curry is served in an average to go curry container, and because it’s a food cart we took our food to go, while we were walking all of a sudden I hear a loud pop and the container of curry had exploded. There was no heat vent cut in the top of the container and the heat caused the top to pop off sending curry everywhere (mainly my pants and shoes) and ripping the bag. Luckily I have cat like reflexes and caught it before everything was lost, but wow, what a mess. :/​
The salad rolls were not great, and neither was the peanut dipping sauce they came with. They were basically all iceberg lettuce with a couple sprouts, carrots, and some tofu. The sauce was pretty much just glorified peanut butter. Really thick, no flavor other than peanut. Very disappointing.
But what I did get to eat of the curry was good, I just wish I could have avoided needing to do laundry immediately, and having what could only be described as looking like puke all over my leg while walking through Portland. Owell.
I’m not sure I’ll be back, but that’s only because I am really all about salad rolls and these just don’t stack up.

This place is definitely in the running for the best thai food cart in Portland.
I ordered the mussaman curry with extra broccoli, chicken and tofu. The vegetables were crisp yet soft and delightfully infused with the creamy coconut curry sauce. At medium spicy, it had just enough kick to keep things interesting without causing a nuclear meltdown. The curry was very sweet with just a hint of nuttiness. Very tasty when spooned over rice or solo slurping.
Good luck finishing a curry by yourself-​the portions are massive. It comes in a large tub that challenges even the heartiest of eaters.

This was probably one of the best pad thai I have ever had. The flavor was just right mixed in with peanuts. Medium was little spicier compared to other Thai restaurants I have tried. You get a huge portion for only $ 6. I would definitely come back and try other items next time I’m in Portland.

Can I say yum? Wandering around downtown Portland one weekend I had an hankering for a quick bite. E-​san was one of the few food carts open at this particular pod and I’m so glad I stopped to grab something. The menu had all the classics found at Thai restaurants so I had such a hard time choosing. I hadn’t had Pad Thai for awhile so went with that with chicken. The portion was HUGE and could definitely be two meals for me. A great deal for $ 6. It was sweet and the spice level was just right (I had asked for mild where I could feel it by the end of the meal, but it wasn’t overpowering).

$ 6 for a tasty meal I am guaranteed to have leftovers from? YES please.
When I first got my giant tub of red curry chicken, I was dismayed to find it filled with vegetables because that usually means there’s barely any chicken. NOT the case at E-​San. These guys load you up with veggies but don’t skimp on the meat! Fantastic value, if you ask me. And brown rice to boot!
Medium spicy is perfect for me – but I do like my spice.

Best Pad Thai from any of the food trucks. I crave it sometime. My only caution is Medium can be a little spicier than expected. I enjoyed it and hey they take Credit! (with a .50 fee). They also have a restaurant you can sit down at if you prefer.

E-​san was one of the first trucks we tried at the 10^th & Alder block and it did not disappoint. $ 6 for any entrée, regardless of whether it has chicken, tofu, or just veggies. $ 7 for soups and curries. The selection has all the standard things you would find at a Thai restaurant, including some rare items like Mussamun Curry.
The Pad Gai is phenomenal. Flat noodles, chicken, egg, garlic, black pepper, onions and lettuce. There’s got to be some secret sauce in there because the flavors are unforgettable. They didn’t skimp on the chicken either. Portion is massive and can easily be shared between two people.
For $ 3 a serving (if you share), it’s impossible to achieve such a quality to price ratio. Even the boba truck a few feet down costs more. I was left quite impressed.

This is one of my go to food carts. If I’m craving thai (which I frequently am), I won’t go anywhere else anymore. I’ve done quite a few comparisons, and I really cannot find a better pad se ew.
I can’t speak to any of the other dishes because once I find one I really like, I tend to stick to it. I do occasionally branch out and rotate between chicken and tofu, and both options are wonderfully tasty. Also, I always order medium because I like a bit of spice. I found out the hard way that anything more than medium gets pretty painful…
Also, like most carts, the portions are plentiful. I always devour the entire thing in one siting, but it’s possible people with normal appetites could make two meals of it.

Skip their store front and head to the food cart. The food is just as good, the service is actually much better and very friendly.
They allow substitutions without a charge, and there’s no better place to get a vat of really delicious curry and rice.
The price point is fantastic, as is the service, and the food.