Khob Khun

Very satisfied everyone I come here. The pepper garlic chicken with brown rice is amazing. And the fact that you can choose brown rice is great. Also, try the salad rolls!

Portland has a love affair with Thai food.
I did too when I had Khob Khun.
Grabbed a quick snack before dinner on a Saturday. Ordered the very simple, yet quintessential Thai dish — pad see ew with chicken. Pad see ew is just a giant rice noodle, made with Chinese broccoli, egg, chicken (or any protein), with a soy sauce based. This was 6 buckeroos.
SIX DOLLARS. My platter was 6 dollars!!! AND it was insanely good! The vegetables were tender, the noodles with pan fried with a little bit of char, and everything was insatiably good. This was probably the best 6 dollars I have spent in a long time.
Took a quick gander and most of the dishes are priced at $ 6 bucks. Honestly, that’s a steal. Plus there’s no sales tax, so you’re basically eating for free. You so lucky Portlandians.

I have eaten here before and thought that they were pretty decent. I got their glass noodle Pad Thai with beef yesterday and got sick in the late afternoon and it lasted throughout the evening. I went back and told them just to inform them of it today and they just argued with me that it couldn’t have been their food. I ate nothing else before or after. Awful response. Will never go back.

There are many Thai food carts to choose from in the area so the decision as to which one to try can be difficult… and I have tried most all of them.
So how, with all those options, how do you differentiate them all? How do you choose 3 or 4 stars or even the coveted 5 star rating? For me, it often comes down to cost, quality, quantity, and flavor. I’ve had a couple of meals at Khob Khun and have not been disappointed by anything yet. The price is good ($ 6) for the quantity of food (more than enough to fill you up or have leftovers) and the quality is not comprised at all based on the first two. The food is cooked to order so it’s fresh and hot when it arrives. The veggies are crisp and you can dial in the spiciness to where it makes you happy (they also have some of the typical spice tray items pre-​packaged to take with you). My pad kee mao recently was flavorful and filling and I’ve found that while medium isn’t quite spicy enough hot sometimes is more than I want to deal with, so some pepper flakes are a nice after addition. It’s also a bonus that they offer brown rice for the rice dishes for no extra charge! I would have put up a picture of my meal but I was too busy inhaling it while I tried to type so, maybe next time.

One of the only few Asian carts I’ve found downtown that has reliable prices. With a few of my past reviews, prices listed on the food carts didn’t reflect what one would have to pay — deception is evil.
Here, you can get ANY meat — chicken, beef, or shrimp (yes, I said shrimp!) for just $ 6 for many of the Thai dishes. I went for the classic, Pad Thai. You order by telling them what number you want from the menu (not by dish name), what meat, and level of spicy. All to the point for efficient and speedy service so that both parties can carry on with their lives.
The Pad Thai was plentiful and would last me two meals. More bang for the buck! Everything about the food was great and I’d for sure come back to explore more variety!

The secret is out! This place is a steal! I love the #20 param, brown rice, tofu, nice veggies and great peanut sauce. The only downfall is this place can see a hard wait right at lunch time — go early! They also take phone orders which is a big help. They are always very nice and I love the free hot tea in the winter.

Had the Pad See Ew (M Ch) today. I gave it three stars because I feel like I’ve had a decent dish here but was very disappointed today. The heat was right on, however the noodles tasted as if they had been reheated and then mixed with the veggies in a stir fry pan. I would not recommend this cart given there are so many options.

BEST SALAD ROLLS EVER!
Equal parts noodles and lettuce veggies with tofu crammed between served with the best peanut sauce ever. Once you’ve had them, every other salad roll you’ll have anywhere else doesn’t taste up to par at all.

Supporting one of Portland’s food stands was on my must do list for our vacation in Oregon. Arriving on a weekday afternoon there were a lot of options and we went with Khob Khun. My husband got the shrimp pad thai and I ordered the spicy basil chicken. We also ordered the salad rolls and a thai iced tea. We could not believe that an entrée here only cost $ 6 — it’s a ton of food, spice level the way you want it, and didn’t leave us feeling greasy or sick.
The salad rolls with tofu are an awesome deal — I believe you get 2 for $ 3 and they come with the delicious peanut sauce mentioned in other reviews. The sauce isn’t needed but definitely adds to the wow factor of this crunchy roll/​wrap. 2 rolls can definitely be a meal.
There were not a ton of shrimp in the pad thai but the shrimp were good quality and my husband would rather have a handful of meaty shrimp cooked well than a bunch that are not fresh or overcooked so he was happy.
I was happy with the spicy basil chicken and definitely recommend trying the thai iced tea.
It was awesome start to vacation!

Fast, cheap, convenient meal en route to the east side. Ample portions, good spice. Hooray for brown rice option :)

Khob Khun is the reason I don’t go to sit down Thai restaurants anymore. I mean, why pay $ 10 – 15 for some nudes when I can get a heaping portion that tastes as good as the brick places for a measly $ 6. I’ve tried a majority of their dishes from their rice noodle dish with tofu to their Pad Thai with pork and I have to say that they’re Pad See Ew is some scrumptious stuff right there on SW 5^th Ave. between Oak and Stark.
They now accept cards, which gives me no reason to pass them up on my way home (and the $.50 surcharge is nothing AND they’re open on Saturday); and I have to say that their service is wonderful – everyone there is super polite and easy to talk to; if only they knew they had the best Thai place in town. Hell, their salad rolls are a worthy meal for a tiny $ 3 and the best peanut sauce you’ll ever try (imagine thick and creamy).
Thank you, Khob Khun, for spoiling me.

MY SUPER BOWL SPREAD
Glass Noodle Pad Thai w’ Pork, Red curry w’ chicken and Cashew Nut Veggie. To wash it down, Tasco Thai Tea over ice. $ 20 for the spread. Not sure I can do any better on Super Bowl Sunday… Go Niners !

Most of the food carts aren’t open on the weekend, so did a quick circle around the 5^th/​Stark lot to see what was open, then consulted Unilocal (duh, like a good Elite-​ist). I think BrunchBox, a couple of Thai and a couple of Mexican places were open, and Khob Khun’s reviews warranted a stop. I couldn’t tell which one it was until I realized, duh, we were standing right next to it! (Facing BrunchBox, it was directly to the left)
Ordered a #15 (mixed vegetables) with tofu and brown rice and grabbed some sriracha (so crucial!). I love that you get your choice of brown or white rice (same price, yes!!) if you don’t order a noodle dish — rice comes in the same container as the entrée so it gets all nice and saucy. Super quick service (and we basically got to see her cook it in front of us through the window — I wonder what kind of pan/​wok set up she had – it looked different than what I was used to seeing!), paid the $ 6 (a good deal for the amount of food) and hustled back to the hotel to eat (it was drizzly out). Yum! I wouldn’t say it knocked me off my feet (Thai food rarely does that) but it was solid. A good mix of veggies (broccoli, mushrooms, onions, carrots, etc), yummy brown rice, not TOO saucy, hit the spot on a chilly day.
CASH ONLY.

Definitely in the topmost tier of Thai food carts in Portland. I normally try to reserve judgment of a place until I’ve been a few times, unless the first visit’s absolutely abysmal, and Khob Khun has been consistently tasty every time.
So far, my favorite is the Pumpkin Red Curry.

This is one of the few carts downtown that serves Thai iced coffee, so I love them extra for that. I especially love that it’s only $ 1.50.
They were somewhat quick, compared to many other Thai food carts, the woman was very nice, and the food was good. It’s not the best I’ve had, but it’s better than many other Thai carts I’ve been to (which is a lot).
I will definitely be back because of the tasty food, the Thai iced coffee, the decent prices, and the nice service.

I’ve found another contender for best Thai food cart in Portland. I was slightly skeptical going here with its perfect 5 stars with few reviews, but I’m a convert now. The two ladies that work there are super sweet and they deliver their food at warp speeds. Granted, it was late Saturday afternoon, but turnaround was rather impressive.
My Pad Kee Mao with tofu was perfectly balanced and included mushrooms, one of my favorite additions to dishes. The tofu itself was splendid, better than Thai Pasta’s, but that’s somewhat nitpicking. The best part is that it’s just as affordable as said Thai Pasta, with dishes running at around $ 6. And Thai iced tea for $ 1.50? I think I’ve found my weekend Thai mistress when Thai Pasta isn’t around.

My 1^st food cart experience in Portland and I was a very happy girl!!! It was a Saturday around lunch time, and I had originally gone to this location to check out the Tabor cart but it was closed. We had just flew in and were starving so we didn’t want to have to walk somewhere else. I had been craving Pad Thai for a while and decided to give this place a shot. I was so glad I did. The portion was huge and the price was way better than any place I’ve tried in SoCal. I believe it was $ 5.
I don’t know if it was because I was beyond starving but this was one of the best pad thai’s I’ve had. They didn’t skimp on the shrimp and it wasn’t overcooked like a lot of places tend to do. I ordered it mild b/​c they had plenty of hot sauce available to to take with you which was delicious.
I love the food cart community concept they have in Portland, I wish they had that here in SoCal. If I worked nearby I would be eating from this cart a lot, great food, service, and price.

Everything was delicious. I had the chicken pad kee-​mao, ordered it spicy. My first dozen bites, I kept thinking, «where’s the heat?» It was seriously mild. As I worked my way through it it got hotter and hotter towards the bottom. Basically there was no love when making it; it wasn’t stirred properly to mix everything up. If it had that little extra bit of love, would have been 5 stars. Good deal though, I’ll be back!

Really delicious food! I come here at least once a week for either pad thai, pad kee mao, or pad kee ew. The GOOD thing is that they use wonderful CHICKEN BREASTS, not that dark brown chicken meat, in their dishes. Their peanut sauce chicken is to die for! Simply delicious.
Also, please note that they have raised their prices to $ 6 per dish for all their dishes, not just shrimp.

Feeling much more 4-​stars-​ish about these guys now.
They’re still generally tasty, and a great value (cheap, and you can’t beat the «free item w/​every 5 purchases» card). But I have had a few times where I got my regular dish and it was just okay.
And besides, my heart now belongs to Somtum Gai Yang. I’m not fickle — SGY just haunts my dreams!