Over the past year, I have had more than a few inquires about carts that offer gluten free options. I am by no means any sort of expert on this subject, but from my reading on the Internet and according to recent studies, approximately 1.5-2 million Americans suffer from Celiac disease, a condition caused by a reaction to gluten protein found in wheat. That is a simple description for this autoimmune disorder, so please forgive me. In layman’s terms, an individual with Celiac disease is challenged by most of the food in our prepackaged diet. Along with those who have Celiac, there is an additional portion of the population who generally have challenges with wheat gluten. Therefore, we give you a short list of carts that offer gluten free options. Further, we have some comments from our Facebook friends who discuss types of food which are generally gluten free (GF) which opens up cart options.
CARTS:
- Savor Soup House on SW 10th and Alder has GF soup options and now offers New Cascadia gluten-free bread for their sandwiches.
- Grilled Cheese Grill on NE 11th and Alberta has GF brown rice bread which they can use for any sandwich. The only sandwich they won’t do GF is the Cheesus.
- Buddha Bites down off SW 4th and Hall by PSU has many GF options including GF baked goods.
- Ruby Dragon at Mississippi Marketplace on N Mississippi at Skidmore serves up vegan fare which includes numerous GF options including quinoa pancakes.
- Also at Mississippi Marketplace is The Magic Bean which offers up GF falafel sandwiches.
- Nong’s Khao Man Gai offers up a GF meal if you don’t get the sauce.
- Potato Champion at SE 12th and Hawthorne serves up fries. These are GF and they offer up sauces that are GF.
- Yarp?! at SE 12th and Hawthorne always has the option of rice noodles as a substitution and notes if they use wheat as a thickener for their sauces.
- The Whole Bowl on SW 9th and Alder is GF. Rice and beans.
- Sonny Bowl on SW 3rd and Washington has GF options also. Rice and beans.
- Perierra Crêperie offers up GF crêpes.
According to some of the recommendations, most Thai food can also be GF, but to watch out for sauces as they could contain wheat filler. I’m no expert in any way, nor am I on the lookout for these options when I’m visiting the carts. I probably have missed some great cart out there that are GF favorites, so let us know and we’ll add to this list. Enjoy.
I’ve had many GF baked good from Buddha Bites on the PSU campus. Meg & Kari (the cooks) are masters at this type of work. I recommend them highly!
Cheers, C2
I bet that Koi Tacos is gluten free–as long as you don’t get the quesadilla, which is made with a flour tortilla.
What a beautiful thing you have done. It will be appreciated by many, many folks in Portland.
The crepe cart at SE 12th and Hawthorne (by Potato Champion and Yarp) has a gluten free batter.
Thanks for posting this information! I’ll have to give some of these a try.
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Yogio the new korean cart coming next month is going to be totally gluten free!!! You can follow it on twitter to find out when it actually opens
@yogiopdx
Adding to Matt’s post: Perierra Crêperie at SE 12th & Hawthorne has served me gluten-free crêpes before, they were all DELICIOUS. I’m not sure how gluten-free it is possible for them to be in such a small kitchen… I’m not as sensitive as some people with Celiac who might react strongly if even a little wheat flour dust got onto their food.
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My wife and I are moving to PDX in the mid Spring, and I’ve really enjoyed keeping up with this site, can’t wait to taste in person! Quesition: Does anybody know if there’s carts that offer grain free options? My wife and grains don’t get along, but she’s found almond or coconut flour options and a whole site dedicated to almond flour cooking, elanaspantry.com I think it is.
Paul -
First, welcome to Portland! Well, when youze get here…
As for your question, that might be tough. I don’t know of any food carts that use almond flour (of course, there might be!), but there are a whole bunch of carts, of all different cuisines, offering items which don’t include grains.
Of course, if youze don’t find anything to your specifications here yet… well, you may have just found a new food cart niche of your own!
Thanks Jay. You know, my wife has taken to baking all sorts of things in the past three months, and has recently tossed around the idea of starting some sort of business. Hmm, you may be on to something here Jay!
We’ll be up again visiting March 15th-21st, hopefully finding a place for May 1st. The SE section seems to be drawing us most.
It does draw you in, doesn’t it? I live in an inner SE neighborhood now, after having lived (if even only briefly) in every area of the city except for North Portland.
Good luck!
I could live here for a thousand years, and never tire of walking around the neighborhoods around here, or trying a new bar or restaurant on Belmont or Hawthorne or Division. Now if only we could draw one or two more food cart pods over here to SE!
Looking forward to it Jay
found out about this from @travelportland on Twitter. I visit Portland regularly (coming for CASE8 in a couple of weeks) and was just thinking… where can I get a gluten free meal!?? THANKS! I’ll try out as many as possible
There’s a whole section on that, MaryKaye:
http://www.foodcartsportland.com/category/cuisine/gluten-free-options/
Lickety-Split at the corner of NW 10th and Hoyt (looks like a little lady bug) serves delicious gluten free pork meatballs, marinara sauce, green chile sauce. Huge portion too. They also serve vegan meatballs that are not gluten free.
wolf and bear’s kitchen at se 20th and morrisson has GF sprouted garbanzo falafel and can make any of their pitas into a salad. i go there all the time–its the best!
I was told that nothing on the menu at Koi Fusion is gluten free because they use soy sauce in everything. BUMMER.
Koi fusion doesn’t have GF options. The owner marinates the Korean BBQ with soy sauce. Almost all soy sauce products have wheat as a filler unless listed GF. Always read the ingredients and inquire before eating.
Mai Pho has many gluten free options. Her Pho is absolutely amazing too!
Please add Suzette’s creperie!–I have enjoyed their GF crepes several times. You can find several reviews online–here’s one. I never had any reaction to what I’ve had there; the fillings are great, the staff is really friendly, and the little indoor restaurant is charming.
http://www.glutenfreeportland.org/2011/03/16/gluten-free-crepes-on-alberta-suzette-creperie/
Welcome to Portland. My food cart, GF CHEF, is located in the Green Castle food court on N.E. 20th & Everett. ALL items are gluten free! Several of our items (sandwiches, chili, smoked ribs, clam chowder, corn dogs to name a few) have been declaired to be the best available even by folks that are not gluten intolerant. PLEASE COME SEE US!