BGs Food Cartel — Restaurant in Beaverton

Friends and I went to the food cart pod BG’s Food Cartel on Thursday night and I parked in the lot located diagonally across the street. We found out that the lot is owned by BG’s.

We walked to the tap house a block away, on the same street after dinner for a few rounds. We came back to get my car at 10:45 to find that it had been towed by Beaverton Towing company.

Beaverton towing is terrible. It was $383 to get my car back and they only take cash. Their lot and “office” are in disrepair. Check their Google reviews for the gory details.

I believe both of these companies know what they are doing. It would be incredibly easy to post a sign that says, “Parking for BG’s Food Cartel customers only from 11:00 am to 10:00 pm” but instead they’ve opted for this cluttered jumbled mess of a sign made by Beaverton Towing - who have the most to gain from your confusion. The food cart pod also doesn’t have their hours posted on their gate.

I’ve called and left a voicemail for the owners of BG’s and will update with their response if they call me back. I want them to know that their signage is lacking and that the punishment for not understanding their parking rules is cruel. At the very least I hope to convince them to use a different towing company.

My friends and I will not be going back to BG’s Food Cartel again, which is sad because we really loved the experience and the people who own and operate the carts there.

I am lucky to have had the cash to get my car back and not have it impact my life too much. So many others are not that lucky. If this post can save even one person from falling into this trap, I’ll feel better about the whole mess.

TL;DR: Beware of BG’s Food Cartel parking and avoid using Beaverton Towing...

All of the food I've had here is great; there is a wide variety of food available, everything from Argentinian food to poké, and it's all tasty and well made. The space is well laid-out, with shaded picnic tables and even a bar area with nice indoor seating (I really can't overstate the value of having a nice comfortable place to sit during these hot summers). On top of that, it's nice to not have to go all the way up to Portland to get to some food carts since that takes me about an hour (one way).

Why four stars and not five then? The hours. The website claims that the pod opens at 0900, but I came in at 1030 for an early lunch and maybe 1/4 of the carts were open, tops. Maybe I'm missing something here, but there's nothing on the site about this. This isn't the first time I've come there to find that half or more of the carts were not open either. It's possible that I just happen to have very bad timing and show up there right when everybody closes down temporarily or hasn't opened yet, but even so it presents kind of quandary. The food is consistently great, customer service is consistently good, and there's a great variety (arguably its greatest strength) but all that is kind of a moot point if you get there and hardly anything is open.

If some of the carts have different hours than others, perhaps that's something that I ought to be displayed on the website that was built...

Cant agree on a restaurant for a group dinner? Go to BGs Food Cartel for a variety of options in one location!

PARKING - Theres a public lot open across the street from the Food Cartel area!

SERVICE/ENVIRONMENT - There's several picnic tables available, as well as a grassy/turf area for children to play around in, and even a dog area! The vendors are situated in a circle, so I'd recommend you walk around in a loop to get a feel of what's available before you make your decision! There were several vendors closed when we came on a Sunday evening - not sure what their normal hours are, or if they closed due to running out of supplies.

FOOD - We tried Pork Belly Burnt Ends from Wolfs Head Smokehouse and it was delicious. Love their signage that explains what each of their sauces contained and what would pair best with them.

We also got some food from Thai Bloom - everything there was also tasty. We got Pad See Ew, Pad Kee Mao, Khao Mon Gai, and Green Curry. Their noodle dishes had a nice Wok flavor! I also thoroughly enjoyed their Hainan Chicken Rice - their Ginger sauce is slightly different from the Taiwanese version!

OVERALL - A great spot to bring a group to if you're indecisive and need a place where multiple options...