Asia Express

Terrible! They made my banh mi on a soft hoagie roll. If you run out of baguette, you DO NOT make banh mi!

This was probably the most disappointing meal I had in Portland. Ordered a tofu pad see ew, and it was pretty awful. The noodles were hacked roughly from the package. Sometimes still stuck together in large chunks, and they used some soy sauce. I could probably have made better pad see ew at home… and I’ve never made pad see ew. My body still shudders when I think about the slop in a plastic box that they tried to pass off as Thai food.

By far the best fried rice I’ve ever had. Great service and amazing orange chicken. The sisters that helped me were friendly, and fast. Couldn’t ask for better service or a better food truck to eat at. Highly recommended.

Pad Thai review here:
Pros:
$ 6
Quickish
Good quality meat
Good portion
Cons:
Bland /​not much spice
LOT’S of onions
Mine smelled like toasted white bread. They didn’t ask how spicy I wanted it, and I think I got zero spice. Overall, pretty subpar when there’s better options nearby.

The pad Thai was disgusting. And when ordering my food the lady taking my order pretended like she didnt know what I was talking about when I asked for a side of peanut sauce. When it finally got through to her, she charged me a dollar for it which I would rather have some with the pad Thai than not. Thank god I tried it before I poured it all over my food. It was the most disgusting peanut sauce I’ve ever had. It didn’t really even taste like peanut sauce? It had a very salty tangy taste to it… Not like peanut sauce at all. Gross. I’ll never be back.

I keep coming back here because I’m constantly craving Banh Mi, it’s close, cheap, quick and the workers are very sweet and remind me of my mother :).
Besides that, I can’t say there is anything unique or special about their Vietnamese sandwiches. Their bread/​filling ratio is wayyy too high, you get far more bread that you have enough meat and veggies to accommodate.
I will probably continue to visit, simply because $ 3 is the price a banh mi should be, something competing carts downtown don’t realize :).
3.5 Stars

I would give this a 5 star but it only gets 4 for the service. My hubby and I stood outside the food truck, along with a stranger, for a good 10 minutes before the lady in the truck acknowledged us. She saw us before but didn’t say anything and just kept cooking. Then when we ordered, she didn’t apologize for the wait or anything, just asked for my order. I said my order and she held her hand out immediately for payment. Then when it was ready, she just yelled NUMBER 4! and then didn’t say thank you. I could tell she was stressed and busy but come on… customer service is important!
The phở, however, was delicious!!! There was a lot of flavor in the soup base and I would definitely go back to get some more phở, despite the service.

Love this food cart! I’ve ordered their phở and shrimp salad rolls a few times now. Overall a pretty solid choice, I’ve tried to list down my pros and cons below:
PROS:
— Great taste: the shrimp salad roll is better than some of the Vietnamese restaurants in the area and the Phở broth is delicious.
— Easy take-​out: They package the food really well actually (surprising when you consider the Phở). I can easily take my Phở + shrimp salad rolls + peanut sauce back to the hotel without worrying much about how to hold it properly without spilling.
— Open late: Not late enough for after-​bar food but late enough for after-​work dinner.
— Service: the lady at the front is pretty polite.
CONS
— Cash only. If they actually accepted credit cards (which most food carts do in the area) I would go there a LOT more frequently.
— Price: I would consider the prices to be above average for a food cart and for that type of food. The Phở is around $ 8 and the shrimp salad roll $ 4.75.

Couldn’t really decide on which food stand to buy some lunch at the other day and then settled on trying a banh mi sandwich from Asia Express. The banh mi was a very unsatisfying — at least the bread wasn’t too hard. After this experience and my wife’s experience at Salmon Fusion… we decided we were done with food stands in Portland for the rest of the trip (to be fair the other 3 food stand areas we ate at were pretty good).

good cheap eats (bahn mi is only 3.50!). Delish bread. A little skimpy on the meat-​side (I got the bbq pork), but tasty. I’d eat it again, most def.

I’ve only had the Bánh mì gà (chicken) here and believe me its tasty when the bread is toasted and the meat is hot. However, I could do without the globs of mayo in there. The mayo just kills everything — sorta.
I can’t complain much since the sandwich filled me up pretty good.
I have yet to try the Phở gà since it seemed like many people were ordering it for lunch. Next time!

When I visited Portland recently, the friends we were staying with had never had phở… which I thought was a crime against food. Phở is one of my favorite (if not my most favorite) foods. It’s the perfect meal. So, we scoured out a place to get them some of the real deal. We decided on Asia Express and had no idea it was a food cart until we showed up. I’d never done phở out of a food truck, so it was a totally new experience to me as well.
I think all of us got the steak and meatball combo phở. The way she packed it up for us was awesome! The broth was in it’s own container with the meat and then the herbs, noodles, limes, sriracha, and hoisin were in separate containers, just like a restaurant but to go! We enjoyed walking a few blocks to the waterfront and chowing down on this awesome soup. It was not only good for being from a food cart, but it was good phở in general. The broth was really rich and delicious and the meatballs were very flavorful.
If you’re a phở freak like me, check this place out! You won’t be disappointed!

I’m a Pad See Ew fanatic and I’ve done my fair share research for the perfect plate. Asia Express is NOT the place. She did not ask me how hot I wanted it, mild, medium or spicy so I assumed she would give me mild. Instead, nothing was put on it. Nothing at all so the dish was a plate of greasy bland noodles and cabbage. Very few pieces of chicken. The two big chunks that were there had a vein or tendon that made it impossible to chew through.
I will never to go this cart again. The food was horrible.
I’d recommend Esan cart on 10^th and Alder instead.

I didn’t know that food trucks/​stands were such a big thing in Portland. There were food trucks everywhere. Too bad I picked one that wasn’t so good. My review is based on Asia Express’ Chicken Ban Mi only. All I can say is waaaaaay too much mayo! It could have been a mayo ban mi for all I care. Hardly any meat. Sorry, I can only give one star this time.

Solid phở. Very star anise forward broth. Done right to-​go, with the noodles, sprouts and herbs in seperate containers. Can be skimpy on the meat sometimes.
FWIW, phở and other simple soups are common street food in Vietnam, and so it shouldn’t be seen as unusual or sketchy being made at a food cart here in PDX.

Shrimp Fried Rice. Hold On Take Two. SPICY Shrimp Fried Rice!
I was a little scared initially that this would be a panda express type of place. BUT to much of my excitement and my belly’s satisfaction, the fried rice was absolutely delicious!
I’d do this again. Oh yea, I’d totally do it. 5 minutes. Done.

I am a huge fan of Phở, and this is my favorite Phở serving cart by far. Everything is kept separate which is key when you aren’t going to eat it right away. Lots of great Thai basil and bean sprouts some with it. I have also had the banh mi, really good. But the Phở is phở-​nominal. Love it.

The banh mi here is good enough to fill a craving, but not good enough to start a craving by itself.
First, the good: Plenty of fillings make it worth your hard-​earned $ 3.50. The veggie comes stuffed with fried tofu, bean curd skin, plus plenty of cilantro and kewpie mayo. And they’re open til 8pm when most banh mi carts close by 5pm.
However… the flavor is lacking. The tofu isn’t marinated, and my sandwich came with cucumber slices instead of the traditional shredded carrots and daikon. Without the pickled carrots and daikon, the overwhelming flavor of the sandwich is sweet, not that addictive tangy-​sweet-​spicy-​salty balance of banh mi Zen. The bread is the weakest part – ideally the bread should contribute texture and tang, but this stuff is soft and boring, and limited to holding things together instead of contributing.
So. You could do worse. But you could also do better.

It was midnight when I was at Asia Express! I didn’t even know, it was a Phở cart! I saw Pad Thai picture right in front and I just had to stop here. :) I started speaking a few Thai words to the lady in the cart. She was so cute, saying that she’s not Thai but she can make really good Thai food. :) My babe and I shared Pad Thai using one plastic fork at Waterfront. It was quite romantic. :)
Pad Thai with a touch of Vietnamese species. Very interesting! :)
A bonus point to the nice lady in the cart for being super sweet at midnight. If it was me, I would be all short and «actually» snoring in the cart. lol

Well this cart has the vast mis-​fortune to be situated right next to El Numero Uno reigning Unilocal Portland food champ (take a bow Bubba). On the other hand, business does not at all seem to be hurting for the great folks @ the Express… They’ve been going for 3 years plus now at this lot, and success hasn’t spoiled ‘em yet!
Someone w/​more time on their hands needs to edit their hours of operation here on Unilocal.I was just there a few nights ago @ 2300 as they were closing up… but according to this site, they close @ 1700 every night…
So far I’ve just had a Beef Bahn mi and beef Phở (#1) from this cart. Both delish! The soup was hot and complex and ooh, I could drink a vat of that broth by itself it was so strong and tasty! The two bi-​sected meatballs floating at the top of said broth put me into a momentary funk of heavy disappointment. Though they were tasty and neither tough nor rubbery, 2 meatballs??? Then I discovered a very generous mound of shredded beef at the bottom of the tub. Why was it able to sink and not float ala les meat-​balls, you might be asking? B/​c they were Lean— no visible adipose, baby! MMMM SO good.
The sandwich was good – again that incredibly tender, lean beef, along w/​an embarrassment of riches w/​the greenery (but how do you say «Please hold the friggin’ Arugula? Never mind), complimented very well the crusty on the exterior, a little bit chewy on the inside baguette but hey — – I came to them a beggar, clearly after they had closed, and they had the good grace to hook me right proper! How could I complain???
Asia express, as the name and definitely the menu imply, is a fusion cart, and not limited to just Vietnamese. Next time I’ll try their Shrimp fried rice and other savory menu items — just no Thai. I think I’m all «Thai’d out» for now…