Stretch the Noodle is a long time favorite downtown food cart in Portland serving house made hand stretched noodles and Sichuan fare. They have a limited menu of five items, all of which are delicious. I’ve had everything on the menu and planned to post a photo and do a review of each, but for the life of me I can’t find my photo of their Biang-biang noodles (aka #3 on the menu board). That is their second best selling dish after the Chao Mian. Wide noodles served with Shan Xi style hot oil garlic and black vinegar sauce. You’ll just have to take my word for it that they are delicious, photogenic and unique, like all of their other dishes. Now on to the photos and reviews.

Chao Mian, the best seller and what they are known for (aka #2 on the menu board). This is absolutely what you should start with if you go here. If you only take one thing away from this post, it’s that you should order this dish. This is the perfect noodle dish. Just look at it! You can really tell the quality of the ingredients and veggies just by looking at the photo. The colors are vibrant so you know the veggies are fresh. I always order the beef when I eat here. It’s really good quality beef and has a delicious marinade. It’s some of my favorite beef in town actually. Other options are chicken, tofu or chicken and shrimp. The noodles are perfect, the whole dish is well balanced, and it is spicy! The spice ratings at this cart reflect Chinese food not the American palate, so be forewarned. Mild=Medium, Medium=Spicy, Spicy=Mind-shattering, face-melting spice level. I usually order it medium and it’s perfect for me as someone who loves spicy food. Every so often I order it spicy and it’s like a religious experience. I can only recommend if you are a serious spice-head. I don’t know what the source of heat is but it must rank high up on the Scoville scale. Besides being one of the best dishes in town, this is also one of the best deals in town. $14 gets you a ton of delicious food, most likely you will have leftovers.

My second favorite dish there is the La Mian. Hand stretched noodles in a savory beef soup with chunks of beef and vegetables, garnished with peanuts and cilantro. This is one of the best noodle soups, beef soups, Asian soups I’ve ever had. Those chunks of beef are so tender and delicious. I don’t know what all the spices they are using to get so much flavor into the beef but I love it. Also the beef flavor shines through, both in the chunks of beef but also in the broth. This is the perfect dish for a cool day to really warm you from the inside out. Did I mention how incredible their beef is? This is distinctively different from the beef that is served in the Chao Mian dish.

Dan Dan Noodles. This is what I ordered when I was there a few weeks ago. It was the first time I’ve ordered this dish here and now I’ve ordered everything on the menu (still bummed I can’t find that one photo of their biang-biang noodles!). Dan Dan noodles isn’t my favorite dish in general, but once in a blue moon I have a hankering for it. This is one of the best versions of the dish I’ve found. The Sichuan pork meat sauce was delicious, and not too sweet. Garnished with bean sprouts, carrots, peanuts and cilantro. The sprouts and carrots were a nice textural component. Also really happy with this photo. The food is doing most of the work but I got nice detail on this photo. My photo set up is the most minimal possible, natural light only. A nice camera, some minimal editing on Lightroom and that’s it. Maybe one day I’ll get paid to photograph and review food! If not I’ll keep doing it because I love to eat and share my findings with people.

Last but not least is this cold noodle salad. I got it with tofu this time as a break from the beef. This dish was a revelation! What could sound boring on paper was super flavorful and yummy. I got this dish on a hot summer day last summer and it was the perfect dish for the day. I also got it medium spice (aka spicy) but it would be good mild or with no spice. The tofu was good, it had nice firm texture and soaked up the sauce nicely. Fresh greens and veggies, the noodles are put in an ice bath after they cook, and the dish has a Sichuan style dressing that was delicious, light and refreshing. I need to try the chicken and shrimp option next time I go.

Go check out Stretch the Noodle in the Midtown Beer Garden 431 SW Harvey Milk St in downtown Portland. This is an excellent, large cart pod that serves beer and cocktails, has a covered, heated seating area and 30 carts to choose from. I go primarily for 3 Asian food carts of note: Stretch the Noodle, Tokyo Sando & Bing Mi. Those are the ones that I can speak for and recommend. But I know that there is something there for everyone so good to go to if you are in a group, you want a large selection, or you’re with picky eaters. Happy eating!