Nathan B.
Google
The Cart Blocks is in a great location, next to so many stores and coffee shops to explore in downtown/NW. But, the food cart scene in Portland has leveled up compared to a decade ago and I feel The Carts Blocks has a few improvements they need to implement to make this food cart pod a great place to go.
First big problem is the lack of covered seating, when we arrived it was a rainy, grey day (like it is most of the time in Portland) but there was no sufficient covering over any of the seating. The only sort of covering offered was not even water proof, with water dripping through it onto the seating making everywhere you could sit wet and uncomfortable.
Secondly, there is zero heating in this food cart pod unlike other food cart pods such as Midtown Beer Garden and Hawthorne Food Asylum. As such, this makes it even additionally uncomfortable as no one wants to eat outside in 30-40 degree weather without a heating source.
Lastly, the seating at this location could use an uplifting, it just doesn't look great and is very barebones because of the reasons I listed previously.
I hope The Cart Blocks can improve on all three of these sections because they have a great group of food carts I like to go to but I almost never can eat my food there since the seating experience is so poor. If these improvements can be made, I think this food cart pod would be on level with the best in the city. It is definitely worth a visit and I will continue to support the amazing food carts here!