Kesone

I love this cart– love, love, love. Don’t bother with the standard far of most Thai carts– try something more traditionally Lao like the Larb or Nam Kao, then live in peace until you crave it again… Which will be very soon. The Nam Kao has crispy rice with either meat or tofu (request vegan with no fish sauce if that’s your style), mixed with lots of fresh herbs and lime juice, served with romaine lettuce leaves for scoop and serve happiness. The larb is similar, but no crispy rice, and comes with a side of sticky rice. It also had lots of fresh herbs in the mix and is served with lettuce leaves. Both are delicious. Ask for her chili spices if you are eating their and add more heat if you like that– I do!
Also, try the ginger honeydew smoothie because it’s very refreshing.
The wait can sometimes be long, but for the dishes above, totally worth it. I also like the wings and salad rolls, but seriously, nothing can beat those two salads above.

I love this place. Delicious Lao food. I’ve never ordered anything else but the larb, nam kao and whole roast game hen are phenomenal.

Nam Kao is THE reason to go here. We have followed Kesone and this dish all over Portland. It is amazingly delicious. Crunchy, warm, cold, herby, lemony, nutty goodness. Pork is good, but chicken or tofu are also great. She always knows what we want!

The Chicken Larb and the Lemongrass Sausage (#24 and #28) were great. I’ve heard the noodles can be meh, but those two dishes are a score.

Worst Asian food I have ever had. I don’t know what was wrong with the cook today bc my previous experiences were fine but today it was pure garbage. The fried egg noodles were soggy and not fried. Everything was completely tasteless. Actually no, it had a taste. Of garbage. The wait here is so long, she ignores you for 15 mins standing in front of the cart trying to order. Then she makes sure to look at her iPad after you pay to see how much of a tip you left. Nasty garbage. Not ever ordering here again due to this experience-that’s how bad it was. $ 20 thrown away.

This is about the Ahi Poke only. It was a large serving which for the spendy price was a good thing. After a few bites some of the tuna was really chewy and had a weird mouth feel. The dressing that was used was extremely salty. I was not able to finish eating it due to the abundance of salt. I got a Thai Coffee and it was delicious.

We’ve eaten here twice now & I have to say Kesone is just okay.
What’s consistent about this food cart is the portion size. We both ordered drunken noodles at $ 7 each & were immediately impressed with how much food was crammed into the container. I would’ve been disappointed if it were any less especially since $ 7 is the highest I’ve ever paid for drunken noodles at a food cart.
Spice level four on a scale of one to five wasn’t anywhere near spicy as we had hoped. We would’ve gone to five but the gal behind the window pretty much said no, so we settled for «medium» & «xxx». Fish sauce could’ve been brought down a notch otherwise the rest of the flavors were spot on. Lots of veggies which is always a plus for us.
I don’t have much to say about the service other than she was there to make our food & take our money. No time for chatting or smiling even when we’re the only customers but at least we didn’t have to wait long in the cold for our food.

nam kao ground pork– do it. pretty accurate and tasty rendition with the nice lettuce cups and leaves, crispy rice, and citrus flavor. only difference is not having the chilies or nuts as in some others but quite satisfying and one of the better ones in cartlandia besides the pupusa truck

Pork egg rolls are amazing. Great place to stop by if you want asian noodles. The bar next door is great too!

Okay the good stuff first. Excellent peanut sauce and well spiced food. The prices are good and the staff are nice. I was dissapointed with their salad rolls. They used little tiny bay shrimp which tasted kind of gross. The noodles were good, but I ordered it with tofu and they made it with chicken. I got them for lunch for a long day I had ahead of me. I did not open the to go box until I was an hour away from town and was very bummed it had chicken. I do not eat chicken. I had waited 20 minutes for this order after they told me it would be ten and it was the wrong order. I tried to eat them, but just threw them out after trying to give them to others.

We asked for details about one of their dishes on the menu and they weren’t able to answer our questions. They gave us someone else’s order, did not apologize when we brought back the wrong order, then yelled at us when we asked for an extra fork. The dish was piping hot and served in a plastic container meant for cold food. The food was OK, nothing special.

I’ve gone here over 10 times, tried about a third of the menu. But what keeps me coming back in the Nam Kao (23#) which is a lettuce wrap plate based on groundmeat and toasted rice with herbs and spices.
And that’s what i recommend to any one. It’s a filling meal, great texture from the crispy toasted rice, always fresh romaine and some mint and another lemony leaf herb.
great with either chicken or pork, and i usually order it 3 star.
Note that Lao’s food is not typically very sweet like Thai food, so it’s not served with that sweet chili sauce or sweet peanut sauce that you might get a PF changs. If that’s your thing you might have to ask for it specially.
Larb (24?) is a similar dish without the toasted rice, it’s more meaty and you get a side of steamed rice i think, good but i feel like i could make it at home. The #23, that’s the one for me. The owner recognizes me and orders for me when i walk up.

#23. get it. you will not regret it!
only PDX offers you a chance to try out so many cuisines. Laos was a first for me. but the flavors and taste were amazing. can’t pronounce or type what i got, but try #23!
Only wish it was closer to downtown!

We used to love going to this place when it was still in our neighborhood. But we honestly drive all the way across town to get our ‘fix’ of Kesone’s wondrous food and friendly service.

Any time I’m at Cartlandia I have to grab a wonton soup from this cart. Everytime I order the soup it comes out delicious and fresh. This is the only item on the menu I order, and I’m going to stick with it. I always order it to be ridiculously mild– as I’m not good with spicy stuff, I’m a wimp!
I will warn you, the wait time is pretty long. It typically takes about 15 long minutes for them to make the soup. It’s not a problem for me, but be warned that if you’re in a hurry, you might not be a fan of how long it takes. But because of the long wait time, the food is cooked right there, and it is perfect.
A great place for tasty and healthy food!

***FAN“THAI“STIC-LAOATIAN FUSION FLAVORS***
My Thai-​food ecstatic friend highly recommended Kesone as a place to try for fresh and tasty food. This place is great for those who are on a budget and looking for a quick bite during lunch hour. My friend mentioned to order #23. As I was brainwashed to check this place out, I must say I was quite impressed with what #23 was all about!
[devour]
*#23 –NAM KAO VIENTIANNE ($ 8; ***4 STARS***) If you love rice and you love it crispy, then this is a dish for you! You have an option of different proteins (chicken, pork or tofu). I opted for chicken, which was cooked with the crispy rice and coconut shavings, diced scallions, shredded cilantro, chopped roasted peanuts, and lime juice. Expect this dish to be zingy and lemon-​y ish. Very delightful and surprisingly pleasant flavors. This mixture is to be placed upon a lettuce leaf and mint. Eat it like a lettuce wrap. Great to share with others (at least 3 people) as an appetizer, or devour it as two meals (what I did). (
)
FYI =
–Ample parking lot in Cartlandia
–CASH ONLY
–4 wired patio table (4 tops) available to grub on
–More seating under the Cartlandia tent of picnic tables
Totally worth checking out if you’re looking for Thai and Lao fusion dishes. I would love to come back to try their Larb or #23 again =X
Unilocal 2013 200+ Reviews Challenge (going for 250!) — Review #203

The Larb had a perfect blend of flavors and left me wanting more. I can’t wait until my next visit to Portland to try some more of their dishes.

Great fresh tasting Thai food. Quick service. Great customer service. I placed a to-​go order & it was ready when i arrived (earlier than the quoted wait time).

My boyfriend and I started going to Kesone Asian Fusion at Cartlandia for her Pad Lao (same as Pad Thai). The first time we had it, it was exquisite — perfect flavor, level of spiciness, consistency… the noodles were cooked to perfection. The next time it was the complete opposite — dry, tasteless, soggy noodles. I could have pulled the noodles in their entirety out of the to-​go box in one block minutes after receiving the dish, not hours later. The time after that it was fantastic again. This pattern continued until I just said NO MORE a few weeks ago. As far as I can tell there is only one cook there and she is completely inconsistent, not personable and charges an arm and a leg, in my opinion, for some extra crushed peanuts. She only started charging us after we had gone to her cart 7+ times in about 3 weeks. Very odd.
If she could make it similar to the first time I had it, I would go back, but even in that instance, Anything Else (also at Cartlandia) does a much better tasting Pad Thai, is personable, and consistent.

Another closed restaurant attempting Cart King Status.
I may come back to try some specialties but my three choices today were disappointing. The $ 1 egg roll was good-​but the drunken noodles-​while large and full of veggies-​was bland and quite tasteless even with the spice I had added. I’ve never had such lackluster pad kee mao. That does make it good for the diet since you’re not tempted to overeat. I’ll have 2 – 3 meals out of it.
The Tom Yum Soup was a little better, but shared the same fate-​it was a good size for $ 4-​just seriously lacking flavor. I know SHE didn’t know I have a date later tonight, but half my soup was onions. That’s just unnecessary, even if there wasn’t anyone to smell it seeping from my skin later.