Kanoa’s Kalua Pig

The panda has been working too hard and made an executive decision to take a longer lunch in downtown Portland.
As the name implies, Kanoa serves kalua pig (pulled pork) here. There’s also shoyu chicken and spam musubi.
The $ 8 combo gets you kalua pig, shoyu chicken, two scoops rice, and one scoop mac salad. Great flavor on the shoyu chicken. Boneless portion and juicy. Thumbs up also to the kalua pig. Juicy, a bit of smoke, nice flavor. Good mac salad, could be a little more peppery for my liking.
I would consider giving a larger portion of food for a couple bucks more. Panda wants his kanak attack.
Kanoa’s is generally open during weekday lunch hours. I hear he is also open late on Fridays and Saturdays. Glad I was finally able to try this cart out.

Decided to venture outside my normal salad lunch today and stumbled upon this food cart. I’d never seen it before and Hawaiin sounds pretty appetizing so I gave it a shot.
I ordered the lunch combo that comes with a serving of Kalua Pig, two scoops of rice and a scooop of macaroni salad. The Kalua Pig was pretty moist, had a great flavor and I was overall pretty impressed. My only complaint is that it was a little on the saltier end but it was cooked very well. I really appreciated the option to substitute for brown rice, not too many places have that option available. The macaroni salad was probably my favorite part of the meal, had a great creamy consistency to it, without the real heavy feeling.
The portion size and price is very reasonable. I’m stuff from ¾ of the meal. I’d definitely come back here in the future!

Portland has several Hawaiian food carts, but Kanoa’s wins hands-​down. I’ve had the shoyu chicken and the kalua pig, and both are made as close to perfection as I could possibly imagine. The portion size was good for lunch, the sauces are excellent, and the rice is cooked exactly as it should be. Both the chicken and the pig are deliciously tender and full of flavour, and the macaroni salad was well-​balanced. Plus you can’t beat the friendly service. Kanoa’s will definitely become my go-​to for Hawaiian food downtown!