Location: Ala Cart cart pod. SE 102nd Ave and Stark
The Story: The Shalimar Cafe cart in Portland’s gritty outer SE 102nd Ave and Stark Street is worlds away from the ancient and majestic Shalimar Gardens in Pakistan. Yet, Portland’s Shalimar Cafe is 100% authentic Indian/Pakistan in both food and spirit.
North India and Pakistan share a rich culinary history and crossover cuisine that includes one of the most intense and diverse food cart cultures on the planet. Cities, small towns, and rural areas contain row upon row of food carts and vendors, some as humble as a simple grill set up by the side of a dusty dirt road with others set up in elaborate vans, trucks and semi-permanent tent marketplace compounds . From dawn until dawn the next day people of all persuasions can find everything from a simple two-cent glass of Chai tea and a piece of grilled flatbread for breakfast, to a full-on 5 course gourmet meal for lunch or dinner. Eating from food carts and street vendors is simply a way of life in India/Pakistan, as it has been for thousands of years.
Shalimar Cafe is indeed Pakistani owned and run, and in addition to serving Halal meats, provides a nice tour of Indian and Pakistani street food specials such as Samosas – deep fried triangle pastries stuffed with vegetables and chutney, and Alu Kebobs – crispy-tender cutlets made of potatoes, onions, cilantro and freshly ground spices. 
This is also the only Indian food cart I know of in Portland to have its own Tandoor oven. Things like chicken, naan breads and other “tandori” dishes are cooked with special equipment in the proper method and temperatures to give them even more authentic tastes and textures. The Standard vegetarian (or meat and 2 side dish) combo with rice and naan bread is available, but it’s the Chaat (snacks) Shalimar offers that seem most interesting to me. These include a textbook Samosa Chaat with garbanzo beans and smothered in a yogurt and tamarind sauce, and Pani Puri – Crispy chickpea flour cracker shells served with spiced potato mixture and tamarind chutney.
Like most Indian carts, this one is also quite vegetarian and even vegan friendly since India has a large sect of vegetarians and vegans. Thus, the cook at Shalimar won’t look at you cross eyed if you ask for no meat or dairy. Some menu items are made with butter or milk, but just ask the cart vendor for specific details on each item. Although Shalimar Cafe isn’t located anywhere close to where I live and work in Portland, it seems worth the trek to the “SE Hinderlands” for their large portions, quality food and very decent prices. The fact that Shalimar is open on Saturdays is a big bonus to help me get my regular Indian food cravings fix.
Open since December of 2009, Shalimar has carved a niche for themselves and seemed steady, if not busy the few times I’ve been there. Check them out for yourself and let us know what you think.
Sample Menu: The full and extensive menu is located on the Shalimar Cafe website, but here’s a sample.
Vegetarian Five- Course Daily Special. 3 vegetarian choices, Basamati rice, naan bread – $6.00
Meat and Vegetable Five-Course Daily Special. 2 vegetarian choices, meat of the day special, Basamati rice, naan bread – $6.50
Chef’s Specials (rotate by day of week and week of month). All served with basmati rice – $5.50 to $6.50 All items can be served as a wrap in naan bread that includes lettuce, tomatoes, onions & yogurt sauce. May include items such as chicken curry, aloo (potato) curry, chicken saag or alu saag (spinach), chicken or potato Makhani, alu mattar (peas and potatoes in red sauce), mattar paneer (cheese and peas in red sauce), Balti Chicken, and/or Channa Masala Punjabi.
Vegetable Samosas – $1.50 each
Tandoori Salad. Pieces of tandoori chicken with lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, and onions. – $5.50
Alu Kebob. Cutlet made of potatoes, onions, cilantro and freshly ground spices. – $1.50 each
Raita – Homemade whipped yogurt with, tomatoes, onions fresh mint leaves and freshly ground spices. – $2.00
Tandoor Specials -$6.50 each. Served with rice or in a naan bread wrap with lettuce, tomatoes, and raita yogurt sauce.
- Tandoori Chicken. Chicken marinated in yogurt and freshly ground spices and grilled to perfection.
- Chicken Tikka Masala. Tandoori roasted chicken tikka, in a tomato and butter sauce.
- Chicken Kebob. Juicy cubes from chicken marinated in yogurt and freshly ground spices and grilled on a skewer.
- Seekh Kebob. Finger rolls of ground beef mixed with ginger, freshly ground spices and fresh cilantro.
Dal (v) or Dalmakhani. Black lentils and beans, cooked in onions, tomatoes & cilantro. Dalmakhni is cooked with cream. Served with rice- $5.50
Vegetable Korma. Nine assorted garden fresh vegetables sauteed in a traditional onion & tomato sauce. Served with rice – $6.00
Alu Kebobs with Rice 2 Cutlets made of potatoes, onions, cilantro and freshly ground spices. – $5.50
Beverages
- Lassi- Refreshing yogurt drink, sweet or salted – $2.50
- Mango Lassi- Yogurt drink with mango, sweet or salted -$2.50
- Bottled water, Pepsi, Mt. Dew – $1.00
- Masala Chai, Chai, or Shalimar’s special herbal tea – $1.25
Hours:
- Monday – Saturday 11:00am-7:00pm
- Winter Hours. Monday – Saturday 11:00am-5:00pm
- Closed Sundays
Phone: 971-219-5922 (Catering Phone: 971-404-7721)
Email: shafi@shalimarfood.com
Website: www.shalimarfood.com
Thanks for the write up – I’ve passed the 102/stark pod a couple times and have always wondered about the food. Isn’t there a Cuban truck there too?
Now I *have* to give Shalimar a try. Sounds great!
that sounds good, I’ll have that today!
@Laura – yes. There are five carts there so far – the others are Cuban, BBQ and Mexican (two of those). I’ve had Shalimar – it really is as good as the review says.
I was excited to see something other than Mexican or BBQ opening up here in the SE hinterlands where I live now. I’ve been there three times, and the food is always very good and plentiful. I’ve even stopped by late in the day and he was out of most of the specials but still put together a combo plate for me.
This is the worst Indian food I have ever eaten. I watched him make the naan in a frying pan on the gas burner and it was chewy and soggy. The Dal (lentils) had pinto beans in it and tasted more like chili. I wanted to try the samoas, but he was out. The cart is located in my neighborhood, and was looking forward to convenient and enjoyable meals based on your review. I will not go back and could never recommend to anyone.
Justin,
It’s possible that he made the naan in the tandoor, but was heating it up in the pan. Or that he was making it for you in the pan – which is called Tava Roti.
Are you sure the beans weren’t Rajma Dal (often made with kidney beans)?
Anyways, I’ve never been, but you should give it another shot before you say you’ll never go back. (:
I’ve eaten here 3 times and been very pleased. Food is pretty tasty and I’ve never left feeling hungry. I had the special of the day once, but if you’re willing to wait a bit ordering one of the non-specials will get you a fresher meal.
On a side note, I introduced the cart to one of my Pakistani co-workers and he thought it was good enough to take his wife to. They might have just been excited about the opportunity to eat out and not be “veggie,” but if it wasn’t good I don’t think he’d have gone back.
Definitely worth a stop if you’re in the area.
I’ve been twice and I really like it. So far I think the vegetarian dishes are actually the best thing here. The chicken dishes I had were “ok”. I thought the naan was fantastic and someone else mentioned the daal being made with pinto beans in it, which, personally I thought was really delicious – best daal I’ve had in fact. There was also a spinich dish that was really tasty. A pretty fair amount of food I think for $6.50
amending my above comment to add, I thought the menu was actually pretty confusing – what available depends on not just what day it is, but which week in the month it is. But nobody else is complaining, so maybe it’s just me
P
I too was a bit confused by the days of the week, week of the month menu. Food was good, although it was the fresh squeezed lemonade that will bring us back again. Really good if you like it not so sweet.
I completely agree with this review! I ate here earlier today with my friend and was really impressed! I talked a bit with the owner, who was really nice, and I thought it was great how hard he worked to bring affordable, authentic Indian food to people. It’s great to have something like this so close to me. He said that he buys spices wholesale from California which keeps costs down and allows him to buy completely authentic, real deal spices. Also, he doesn’t have different dinner vs. lunch prices.
I bought a mango lassi, veggie special and naan and my food was great. I’ll definitely be going back. I loved that my dinner wasn’t salty and he let the real spices and flavor of the food shine through. One of the best places I’ve been to for Indian food in Portland.
He told me most of the people liked his samosas and I’m looking forward to trying them. Actually, can’t wait to try pretty much everything on his menu! I hope more people check this food cart out!
I’m a relatively recent immigrant to the Portland area. Until two years ago, I lived in California. When I lived there, I had numerous more casual Indian places near me that followed a vaguely “Panda Express” like model — you walked in, picked out 1, 2 or 3 items from a steam table and bought them as a combo with basmati rice, naan and raita. I’ve been on the lookout for something along those lines since I’ve moved here, so when a friend told me about this cart, I was very excited to try it.
I’m guessing my standards might be a little bit higher than those of some of the people posting here. I’m something of an Indian food *nerd*. I’m fairly good at cooking numerous Indian curries, I’ve studied the function of specific spices common within the cuisine, I even know the way many of the traditional Indian dishes evolved as various colonial powers’ presence influenced the cuisine. At one point I tried being a vegetarian for a year or two and Indian food became the primary component in my diet.
My girlfriend and I have tried Shalimar Cafe twice now, and on both occasions we were both very unhappy. The naan *was* consistently chewy and soggy. On one occasion, we watched him knead the dough on a cutting board before tossing it into the pan to be cooked. On at least one occasion the naan also had a light *soapy* flavor — we threw that one out after one bite.
We both had trouble communicating with the owner. Aside from the fact that he isn’t a native English speaker, he’s also very soft spoken and hard to hear over the various kitchen sounds. On both occasions we were there, we didn’t actually end up getting what we were trying to order… We essentially gave up and made do with what he gave us, instead.
That being said… The Dal Makhani tasted salty, and we couldn’t really discern any other spices in it. One of the other veggie entries we were given was just lightly salted, boiled spinach, with no additional ingredient mixed with it. The Aloo Gobi had TOMATOES mixed in, dulling the taste. The vegetable korma basically looked like a can of vegetable soup with maybe a tiny bit of cumin added in. There was no paneer in it and no cashews — two of the more expensive ingredients traditionally included in vegetable korma.
The generic chicken curry was reasonably alright — in fact, when we came back to give the cart a second try, we TRIED to order ONLY the chicken curry with rice, but he gave us the non-vegetarian special instead. On our second trip we had a “buy one get one free” coupon from the “Entertainment Book” (http://www.entertainment.com) and the guy argued with us to try to get out of accepting it.
We will not be giving this place another try.
well everyone, If you want to taste something unique then just try the “novelty of Kashmir” reall Kashmiri food. such as chicken Tahri, Goat RoganJosh, SpinichChicken, Just don’t forget Yekhni. original kashmiri dish. and lot more.
Very unique and mouth watering food.
Love you Kashmir