Cheap Eats 2015

Photo and laser etching by IMAGE: James Aloysius with assistance from Kyle Key.

This was supposed to be the year the Portland food cart broke down.

Last spring, our cart pods looked like they would all be tilled under by developers, from Hawthorne's Cartopia to Belmont's Good Food Here. At TechfestNW, phone-app entrepreneurs debated whether they were obliged to save the food-cart pods they love, because they caused the gentrification that put them at risk. (We're in favor.)

That panic is suddenly a distant memory. Portland's food-cart scene is now healthier than ever—as is our cheap-food scene in general. Both of those iconic pods escaped the mixed-use ax, while the new Tidbit Food Farm and Garden pod on Division Street is already one of the city's favorite beer gardens. Our favorite

five new food carts include makers of Pueblan mole, octopus balls from Japan and foie gras burgers made according to great-grandma's recipe.

The almighty New Mexican green-chile cuisine and crispy-skinned Latin rotisserie chicken have suddenly exploded in Portland, and solid taquerias suddenly exist even in the central city. Even chichi Division Street gets an old-school rock-'n'-roll pizzeria, and hangs on to the city's best fried

chicken and jojos. Beaverton Sub Station's Chuck Wilson (pictured above) has been slinging his meat-stacked classic subs for 34 years, and they're still delicious.

This Cheap Eats guide by Willamette Week remains, as ever, dedicated to the proposition that Portland has some of the best low-cost food in the nation. Amid the more than 160 restaurants featured here, you'll find tofu and tempura-battered walnuts in a Chinese brewpub on the page after German sausage made to grandpa's specs, both familiar comforts and a call to adventure. We

hope, with this guide, we've given you a to-do list for the whole year.

Happy eating.

—Matthew Korfhage, 2015 Cheap Eats editor.

Top 5 Food Carts of the Year |

African Food

American Comfort Food

Breakfast/Brunch

Burgers and Dogs

Chinese

Indian

Island/Ocean

Japanese

Korean

Latin American

Mexican

Middle Eastern/Mediterranean

Old World European

Pizza

Sandwiches

Thai/Laotian

Vegan/Veg-friendly

Vietnamese

21 Delicious Bites For $7 or Less

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