Happy Espresso

If you are entering this food cart area obliviously looking for a hangover cure of food, and have not gotten your high octane coffee that morning and are in a fog from last nights drinking, don’t expect to get your socks knocked off. That being said, getting a $ 1.50 small coffee as a temporary tactic might give you a glimmer of hope on your upward climb to wellness.

Came here on a rainy weekday morning and it was the only open place in a food cart/​truck spot. It’s a small operation in the corner.
The owner working there is such a gentleman! I had the breakfast ham & egg sandwich and it was way better than expected! He also gave me a complimentary cup of coffee to try out and I gotta admit I finished it even though I had already had my morning cup of coffee prior to coming here.
I’d much rather support these local businesses than your typical corporate go-​to spot. Will be back.

First off, I have to say the lady running the car is extremely sweet and nice, which makes it hard for me to write this review.
When I ordered a cup of coffee, I was given a strange, frothy, watery, luke-​warm beverage barely resembling a cup of coffee. I knew something was amiss when I heard the steam wand being turned on a second after I ordered the coffee. I wasn’t able to finish the cup after my first sip.
I haven’t tried any of the other items at Happy Espresso, but if it’s anything like the coffee I ordered, I’m not interested.

I was so excited to try the food carts here in Portland (we recently moved here from Austin, another awesome food cart city), but my first experience was nothing to write home about. The menu confused the heck out of me… there were so many things, yet I couldn’t find a simple sweet blended coffee drink (think vanilla freeze at Dutch Bros. *insert drool*). So I asked the friendly man running the cart and he didn’t seem to understand what I wanted. At all. I didn’t want to be rude and just walk away so I asked for a vanilla iced coffee, blended. He asked if I wanted cream and sugar. I said yes, as long as the drink will be creamy and sweet. I got it and it was watery, chunky, and disgusting. My husband (a human garbage disposal) took one drink and said NOPE. We dumped it out, recycled the cup (cause that’s what you do in Portland, right?!?), and promptly got a vanilla freeze from Dutch Bros. I’d say I learned a lesson here but I think I’m just more confused about coffee then I was before. Oh well.

Happy Espresso is neither a life-​changing experience nor one to avoid. I think every food cart pod needs a coffee cart, and this fulfills that need for Carts on Foster. Their coffee menu is rather overwhelming and I think they’d do better by narrowing it down a little bit to some of their more signature drinks. The Irish Cream latte I had here was decent enough but the friend’s Almond Bliss latte was tooth-​achingly sweet. We were both reminded of how much we hate those pre-​made squirt bottle coffee syrups.
We may be back to Happy Espresso again if we’re in dire need of caffeine next time we’re at Carts on Foster, but we’ll probably just stick to their drip coffee.

Coffee isn’t anything special. It wasn’t bad so it’s worth it being it’s the only place open in the morning. However the smell from inside is absolutely disgusting. How he is open boggles me. I didn’t catch a wiff till I had already ordered but something inside is old and rotting.