Tastebud – Mobile

So, when did it become sanitary for a cashier to handle money, touch face/​hair, then grab a piece of pizza by hand and casually toss it into the fire for heating? Gross and sad to witness such a total disregard for food handling safety at one of Portland’s farmers market food carts.

Got a slice of their sausage pizza last Wednesday at their set-​up at the farmers’ market on Park Blocks. I usually order pepperoni, but avoided it due to the jalapeños (I don’t do spicy), and it was probably the best sausage pizza I’ve ever had. Have already planned to grab another slice this week and probably every week until the farmers’ market is done for the season.

They had a food cart out on pioneer courthouse square. I got the lux bagel and my niece got their cheese pizza. The price is reasonable since you get a good amount! The bagel was delicious and my niece devoured the pizza!

Arugla and tomato w/​cream cheese on a black sesame seed bagel. Sooooo tasty, just needed to find a place to actually sit so I can eat the open faced bagel without spilling the contents everywhere. Life is hard sometimes.

This review is based more on my experience buying bagels at the PSU Saturday farmer’r market than for the cart, but I know they have pretty much the same offerings at the cart, minus their delicious pizza.
We get a Tastebud bagel pretty much every week at the farmer’s market. There have been weeks when we wanted to branch out, but we’re always disappointed and end up going back to Tastebud. Their bagels are delicious – nice toasty exterior covered in seeds and goodness, and a good, chewy (but not too chewy) crumb. They have seasonal bagel toppings – peached and honey in summer, roasted apples in the fall, winter squash and pesto, heirloom tomatoes, etc. They have plain, dill, chive, and honey cream cheese and they always have a lox bagel available. My personal favorite is an everything bagel topped with cream cheese, raspberry jam, arugula, and bacon. This combination is positively addicting.
There are a couple variables with Tastebud. One is their pizza. In summer at the market, they make a sort of flatbread-​style pizza that they sell in squares. In the winter, however, they offer their lovely, bubbly, charred round pizzas with all kinds of delectable toppings. I don’t know why they only do this in the winter – my guess is that their stand is too busy in the summer to do the round pizzas. They seem to bake off the square pizzas in advance of the market and then reheat them in their oven. But if you can pry yourself out of bed on a cold winter Saturday morning, their round pizzas are really fantastic. I prefer them to the square pizzas by far.
The other variable is that they don’t offer to toast your bagels in the summer months. Again, I think it’s because they get so busy and swamped at the market that they don’t have time to do it. It’s understandable, but I feel like bagels really need toasting to be at their best. However, as the weather gets cooler, they will toast the bagels.
At the farmer’s market they also offer seasonal salads – usually a chickpea one and something with wheat berries. The salads are good. It’s nice to split a large salad and a bagel with someone. They also occasionally have extra toppings for their bagels such as braised lamb and roasted shiitakes (if you ever see them with roasted shiitakes on the menu, get them).
One more thing to mention – these are Montréal-​style bagels, not New York style bagels. This really bothers some people. Frankly, I don’t really care what you call them. There are great Montréal-​style bagels and horrible ones just like there are great New York-​style bagels and horrible ones. If you’re a devout NY-​style bagel person, you might be disappointed. But if you’re like me and just enjoy a good, wood-​fired bagel, these are really wonderful.

Very hard, cold, dense bagel… not what I had in mind when thinking of a boiled bagel.
The malt flavor was ok, but the texture was definetly off.

I am a lover of (almost) all bagels. If you toast a hunk of carbs and spread it with cream cheese, I will probably like it. For this reason, I was excited to see the elaborate display of wood-​fired bagels at Tastebud.
They use seasonal ingredients on their menu, and the bagel with honey cream cheese and peaches sounded like the perfect end of summer treat. It looked fantastic, but when the cashier handed it to me I knew I was going to be disappointed… it was served cold. I guess I thought with that beautiful wood oven in the background, they would give it a little reheat before they spread on the cream cheese.
The bagel itself was hard, so hard that It was difficult to take a bite out of it. It had the texture of a day (or two) old bagel. The cream cheese didn’t have that whipped texture that one expects from a bagel shop, and it was gummy from the honey. I ended up eating the peaches and tossing the rest…

I’ve only ever had the bacon and jam sandwich because there’s nothing else I could ever need in my life. The bacon is thick and flavorful, and the jam is so incredible. Do yourself a favor and try this bagel place immediately.

I’m glad they are ‘Portland-​style’ and no longer ‘Montréal-​style’ a designation that has it’s own Wikipedia page. In this context, they are better than the average boiled bagel around them. The only complaint I have is their hours, but that’s almost a veiled compliment. Zuke’s has a decent New York-​style nearby, for comparison.

This food cart is the latest to occupy this food cart, which has housed other businesses like Rescue Bagels (currently dealing with commercial kitchen issues) and the departed Cool Harry’s Frozen Yogurt.
Montréal-​style bagels are boiled and woodfired, making them denser and chewier than the usual bagel.
A couple months ago, there was a lamb, melted provolone, and cabbage bagel sandwich ($ 6) with an «everything» bagel. The bagel got topped with a few slices of provolone, the cheese slightly melting for a bit. Then a nice helping of juicy, braised leg of lamb and fresh diced cabbage on top.
Growing up in Hawaii, this had a slight vibe of kalua pig and cabbage in bagel sandwich form. The lamb was very juicy and tender.
Tastebud Bagels is another great bagel cart in Portland!

Fantastic bagels made with farmers market fresh ingredients.
It may be the sole remaining bagel cart on the Alder block, but it certainly is more than sufficient to fill that morning /​brunch bagel fix.
The open-​face bagel sandwiches are varied enough to cater to most bagel moods — you want lox? roasted apples? just cream cheese? — but I recommend the apple butter + honey cream cheese combo for something sweet or the winter squash for a more balanced bite.
Service is very friendly and he is wont to offer free samples.

The address on their website is wrong (the address here is correct). The hours listed here are incorrect, they were closed at 11:40am on a Sunday, with no notification on their own site, Twitter, Facebook, or on the cart itself.

It looks like Rescue Bagels is gone… and has made way for one of my favorite bagel companies in town, Tastebud!
I first became acquainted with Tastebud at their farmer’s market locations, and was sad when summer ended since most of the farmer’s markets went away. But no longer! Now Tastebud has a downtown food cart location, where bagels can be found every day of all seasons. No more waiting for summer and farmers markets for my fix!
The bagels here are the perfect consistency — lightly boiled and then toasted on site. I grilled the guy behind the counter about their sandwiches and he mentioned that they’re going to try to offer downtown delivery near their foodcart soon — which would be amazing! Imagine being stuck at work for lunch, and being delivered a perfectly toasted bagel sandwich? Fresh peaches and honey cream cheese on a sea salt bagel? Yes please!
I am excited to have this place in the area. Sometimes I don’t want to wait hours for brunch. Sometimes I might just want to get a bagel and leave. Or possibly even have a bagel delivered to me. How sweet is that?
Welcome to the neighborhood, Tastebud. And bagels, welcome to my mouth.