Tastebud Bagels

Tastebud Bagels is located at the corner of SW 10th and Alder in downtown Portland, Oregon. The business has also been working Farmers' Markets for the past eight years.

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.

Montreal-style bagels? Basically, they are boiled and woodfired, making them denser and chewier than the usual bagel.

The standard bagel menu here, ranging from the simple bagel-and-cream-cheese option to six types of bagel sandwiches.

I focused on the lamb, melted provolone, and cabbage bagel sandwich ($6) with an "everything" bagel. The bagel gets a few slices of provolone, and the cheese slightly melts for a bit before a nice helping of juicy, braised leg of lamb follows. Fresh diced cabbage tops this one.

Growing up in Hawaii, this reminded me of kalua pig and cabbage in bagel sandwich form. The lamb was awesome, not too gamy in flavor. It appeared to have sea salt on top, very well balanced overall. As promised, the bagel was chewy and slightly crunchy. A very good bagel to use in a sandwich.

Another popular bagel sandwich has bacon, strawberry jam, plain cream cheese, and arugula ($6).

There are seven types of bagels offered: plain, poppy seed, sesame, black pepper, leek, salt, and everything. $1.25 for one, or $13.25 for a dozen. I'm sure Tastebud has made many workers happy in downtown PDX.

Tastebud Bagels is another great bagel cart in Portland! 8.75/10