CORE - Bar & Food Carts — Restaurant in Portland

I think all the carts I tasted today took a blood oath to have flavorless food here. Kai's stir-fry had absolutely no flavor in their chicken lowmein and shrimp fried rice. No green onions in the pale white rice but full of shrimp. The lowmein looks good but has no scent , let alone flavor. Again, generous with the meat and veggies in this case. Nice bouncy noodle. Nice sheen and cook of the food, but no soul. No garlic, onion, or basic salt and pepper. The birrea place was the WORST! As we know birrea is all the new craze, and whether you go to PDX Birrea (162nd/the best and the biggest portions), or LaPlaza on 146th/Stark, you can't say that either are not genuinely delicious. The birrea place here is the opposite tasting of either of the forementioned. While beautifully plated, that is where the pleasure ends. The birrea tastes of only boiled COW 🐮. No resemblance of flavor. No salt & pepper, no onions, seasonings. No rich dark succulent color. Plain shredded boiled heifer. Yuck yuck yuck. I can't believe someone would serve that. Only seemed to be manned by an elderly woman, I figured the flavors would taste even better than the top two places in SE. I was wrong. For pure disappointment , go here. The Chicken and Guns food truck isn't operational and that sucks. The dining hall is clean and offers step activated hand sanitizer. The picnic benches are kept clean, but have sharp edges that jaunt out at the base and you can easily stub your toe like I did mine. The 82nd street entrance is closed, and I am sure that's to keep transients out. Good! They have bathrooms inside the dining hall. Not a ton of flies which is good considering it is accessible from the outside. Will I be back, most likely not. You can walk through the entire way and not smell a thing cooking. Most of the owners and operators don't look up from their phones or the disinterested staff hangs out in the rear of the trucks. Can't tell who is open or not. No engaging staff and not a star in the pod. Hopefully it will get better and those renting out spaces will taste test their occupiers. Four stars for the venue. Two stars for food selection, taste, and service. You can tell your on 82nd. Let's just...

My first choice listed on the CORE website (Papi Sal's) is apparently not there anymore, so I went to my 2nd choice: BKK Thai. Waited half an hour for BKK Thai to open. Messaged the owners. No show no reply. My 3rd choice, what appears to be an amazing vegan sushi cart (Mitate), had a 75 min wait. SO, I went to Sou'S. Got salt n pepper squid. It was fresh, but overcooked, likely because it didn't have any coating. Some in the reviews here like that, but I don't, for 4 reasons: turns to rubber too easily, less desirable texture, less complexity of flavor, less actual food. The rice and onions were great, but the portion was smaller than in other pics here (though justified at $13; 2/5/22. The smaller price, smaller portion model). THAT SAID, the XO wings (fish sauce style) were phenomenal and worth going back for. Perfect. 5 stars for those. Service was fast and kind too. I gave 3 stars, but it's really 4 stars for Sou'S and 2 stars for CORE overall. Still no reply from BKK Thai. How about have a neighboring cart or CORE employee put up a sign when a cart just decides...

Heard about this POD and paid a visit for afternoon lunch. There is parking available on the premises. There are roughly 8-10 food carts with a lot of variety. These are the cuisines here: Mediterranean, Thai, Russian, Hawaian, Singapore, a Sandwich shop and beer on tap. If I have to get one dish that would be Falafel (5/5) super crunchy and had ton of flavor. Its a must try. The Hond Kong Style Noodles (5/5) was also great. Ton of flavor and good portion. The Hainan chicken was good but it need the additional sauces to get a flavor (4/5). The Kai Platter is ok, but the spring rolls are amazing (5/5). There were tables inside and the place is kept very clean. Overall an amazing place with lot of...