Crown-Q

The food was great! I will definitely be back.

this is where it is AT! Not only is the BBQ amazing and authentic, but the portions are awesome and the service is great! Q is a friendly hilarious dude and his food is the greatness. Never had collard greens? Get ‘em here. His corn bread is so good it makes me homesick and then i have to call my momma! No Joke, worth the drive from wherever you are. «No you can’t have his conebread get your own conebread. fuck him… fuck you get your own conebread»

These guys do run this like quite the small time gig but have been there when they’re hours said they would be more as of late so i’m updating my review. One of the best pulled pork sandwiches i’ve had and the people are warm friendly and nice.

Very nice couple, they have become much more consistent with their hours and of course they have great food!

1.) –1 star: The posted phone number is wrong. So much for ordering early and having meal ready to go upon arrival…
2.) –1 star: You closed earlier by over an hour than your posted time, when I stopped by recently. Last minute changes of schedule are, of course, the owner’ s prerogative, and part of the fun of going into business for yourself, I totally get that. But because of #1 above, you cost your customers time and money, and it could have all been avoided w/​no hard feelings, if you’d bothered to fix #1.
3.) –1 star: When I offered to buy some of your undoubtedly delicious stock cold, and just take it home and heat it up myself, you claimed that your cart was completely out of food. Transparent fib.
4.) –1 star. I have been in this situation with several other carts before, who were closing early, but STOPPED WHAT THEY WERE DOING AND SERVED THEIR CUSTOMER. Without us, their is no you, sorry, there’s no way around that immutable law. BTW, these other carts were tipped handsomely for their graciousness. You are the big loser by comparison.
Minus four stars leaves you with one great big Unilocal Star. May it serve you well. Unless someone else goes to the trouble to travel across town for me and also to pay for everything, There will be no Crown Q in my future. There are simply way too many other carts in town that put their customers first…
Res Ipsa Loquitor.

I tried their half chicken ($ 9) for the first time yesterday. This is brilliant BBQ, and a good sized portion of meat – though for this price at a stand, hopefully it is free range «yard bird» (I forgot to ask).
The sause is just exactly the right balance of sweet & spicy. Yes, it comes with the cheap white-​bread, but in my experience that’s traditional for this type of food, so it’s forgivable. The Lad running the stand was very warm and welcoming, so A+ on customer service. Both extremely tasty and good service, so well worth the visit! I’ll be back. :)

Pulled pork was extremely fatty. Tasty, though, and spicy. But be sure to tell them you want it lean.

Some of the best barbecue in Portland. Gary, the owner, is SUCH a nice guy, and he makes truly kick-​ass pulled pork, brisket, Louisiana hot links, ribs and more, all blanketed in a heavenly sweet-​spicy sauce that you crave for days afterward. Oh, and did I mention that he prices are great for such awesome food? Like six bucks for a pulled pork sandwich piled high with juicy, smoky meat smothered in sauce and spicy coleslaw? Yeah, you really need to try this.

Yup, this cart’s alive and kickin’!
A smiling couple worked this food cart as I stopped by last week Friday, just around noon. The woman said they had pulled pork, chicken, and Louisiana hot links available, but the brisket wouldn’t be ready for another three hours. No sweat, I’m cool with a pulled pork sandwich ($ 7) any day!
Crown Q’s pulled pork sandwich ($ 7) has pulled pork, cole slaw, a rich, glazy KC-​style BBQ sauce — all that in between two small grilled, toasty buns.
How can I put this the right way? Holy pork, that was outstanding! By far some of the best pulled pork I’ve ever had. Smoky, juicy, and immaculately tender. The crunchy, colorful slaw had a pleasing slight kick to it. The sweet and tangy BBQ sauce blanketed the taste buds, but still allowed me to soak in all the other items on the plate. Even though the bun was toasted, it remained soft and foodgasmic.
Note, I scarfed all this down on an already-​full belly. Imagine how many I’d eat on an empty stomach. Crown Q would love the outcome, that’s for sure. One of those rare times where I’d actually enjoy hearing my wallet cry for mercy. I’m cruel, I know.
Initially, I felt $ 7 was pushing it a tad for the amount of food received. After noshing on that glorious sandwich, all such concerns vanished. I’ve only been to a few BBQ places in my life, but Crown Q only needed a few minutes to stamp its presence near the top (apparently this was my 400^th review for a reason!). Check out Crown Q ASAP!

The stand is OPEN once again.
Now, it’s near Reed College just south of «Berry Good Produce» at 5523 SE 28^th Ave.
Got a half-​chicken; honestly it was a little dried out. But, it had been raining all day and I stopped by to try it out late in the day. I’m looking forward to trying some of owner Gary Lowe’s brisket in the future.

No, Crown-​Q, you have not dazzled me with your giant purple crown.
After long deliberation, I finally decided to give their tofu nuggets a try, and what a perfect opportunity– no line!
Approaching the cart I peered inside at two people cooking some sort of meat, and they were obviously distracted so I spoke up,
«Hello, the tofu nuggets are vegan– yes?» [hey, you never know!]
The man at the grill glances up and grunts «yeah» before continuing his ritualistic meat cooking.
«Cool, could I get an order of tofu nuggets?»
The man looks up again, seemingly agitated, and lets out another grunt. His partner was doing some sort of busy work off to the side.
I held up my money and nobody seemed no notice.
After waiting around for 20 minutes with no word or prospect of tofu nuggets, I decided to splurge my $ 4 at Potato Champion instead.

I own a cart (not this one, hah, and he doesn’t know it) and I eat at carts for probably 90% of my meals out. Usually I get stuck in this rut where I find a new cart and order the same thing the same way, everyday (Hey, I’m more exciting in other areas of my life). That’s why I’m kind of glad Q only has Turkey legs on Tuesday, and that they ran out of chicken today (he said it had flown the coop, lol). Come on, it’s a cart, I know as most should that space is very limited so you can’t hold shortages after the lunch rush against them. These things forced me to try 3 diff things so far, and each one has been awesome. At this point, I’m pretty sure you can’t go wrong here.
The prices are very rea$onable (check!). The cart moved from 12^th & SE Hawthorne to 4^th & SW Hall (which is great for me, check). Dude’s friendly (check), the food’s delicious (check). He grills the soft buns so they have those nice char lines (bonus!), and every order comes with a wetnap (thank you Sir). It’s great BBQ (things don’t have to be edgy, just done well). This, my friends, is just about all you can ask from a fantastic little cart.

I’m not sure if they expanded or moved, but I went to the Crown Q BBQ on SW 4^th and Hall.
I don’t even know what to say other than GO! Go now!
I had 3 bones of ribs, BBQ beans, and potato salad for 7 $. It’s a total duh. The beans were on the sweet side, the potato salad was good, but the ribs? Sweet, smoky, and absolutely delicious.
Just go. Seriously. Get up, right now, and go.
I’ll probably go back on Friday. (It’s Wednesday now.)

I went back tonight, and the barbecue was still awesome. I asked for the pulled pork sandwich, but they were out, so I got the brisket instead.
The flavor was excellent, so good that I almost didn’t care that the meat itself was a gristly, fatty mess. I mean, huge blobs of rubbery, tough fat; meat I could barely gnaw my way through. Brisket is delicious, but it needs the right treatment — slow, gentle, long cooking, not a rapid turn on the grill.
But like I said, the flavor was so good I basically didn’t mind. It didn’t put me off eating it, just made the eating a little more work, removing some of the fat and sawing my way through the gristle. Would’ve been better with a well-​cooked, tender brisket, though.
But the beans were amazing. Sweet, smoky, a first bite that has a peculiar spiciness and then melts away into molasses. I would go back solely for the baked beans.

Really too bad, because I have tried at least twice now to try this «alleged» great place and both times even though in the alleged hours and days of operation it had been closed! Yes closed!
You know I don’t mean to be all old school or anything but if you say you’re going to be open from such and such on such and such you damn well better be so! I understand things happen, but if you are so dam popular that you cannot be open, then hire more people!!! The unemployment rate in this state is over 10%; therefore I am sure you can find people to work for you! Especially if you are so «allegedly» popular!
Both times I’ve attempted to enjoy this goodness I have drove at least 2.5miles out of my way, but never again. Not saying I wouldn’t still love to try this place, but it will only be when and if I am already in that area.
Such a shame.

I’m definitely no expert on barbecue. Hell, I wouldn’t even call myself semi-​knowledgeable on the matter. But I know what I love to eat, especially after a late night of boozing.
I’ve had everything on the menu, from the massive turkey leg, to the delicious pulled pork sammich (which actually isn’t «real» pulled pork, it’s more like sliced up pork, but delicious nonetheless). But I have soft spot for the ribs. Oh so delicious they are, even when i’m not hungry, i’ll stop by to see if he has ribs that night on my way home from work. Just for future reference for later in the night. I won’t even try to describe the delicousness that are the ribs. So yes, the food is great stuff. When you can get it.
Which brings me to the only reason I’m not giving this place 5 stars. The sign says he’s open from tuesday-​saturday, 8 – 3. But be warned, it’s about a 50 – 50 chance he’s actually open those days and hours. Sometimes he does catering and isn’t open. And other times he just decides to give himself the night off. Which I totally I can understand. But i’ve been disappointed one too many times to forget the hunger that rumbled in my belly those late nights. Also, be wary that he does run out of stuff from time to time and there are certain nights where he doesn’t have everything. I know, I know. the sign says each week, he has a certain item, but really, it’s a crapshoot on what he’ll have. Honestly, no matter what he has, you can’t really go wrong. Even the sides of macaroni salad and the beans are pretty damn good.
*Guilty pleasure confession; I always get two orders of the sides, I love that macaroni salad and beans so much!*
Overall, if it was just on food, service and overall Gary being a really awesome guy, i’d easily give him the 5 stars. But being saddened by not seeing him open, or finding out he just ran out of everything minutes earlier, makes me have to give the 4 stars. Kind of like a warning to those who hope to try this wonderful stuff, but just remember to pray or come early to see if he’s open.
P. S. One final note, this happened to me the last time I went. Make sure you have Gary do the cooking for you. Sometimes, he has his cousin do it, and well. Last time, the ribs and turkey leg were overdone and weren’t up to usual standards. Even the sauce couldn’t save the Turkey Leg that night :(

So, last night was my first experience at the food carts on 12^th and Hawthorne and I was SO excited! My excitement was tempered by the fact that I had $ 20 in cash on me, so I couldn’t go crazy and try something from each cart, but I am glad that one of the choices I picked was Q BBQ!
The smell of the meaty, smoky goodness coming from this place wafted around the lot like an olfactorous invitation — You know how in the cartoons, they show the smell from a grill or something as a wispy cloud? And how that cloud turns into a finger that beckons and lifts the character by the nose and floats them to the source of the delicious cooking?
Yeah. That’s how it was.
Waiting in line to order my poutine, I could not stop looking at the Q BBQ cart! After placing my order, I scampered over to the Q BBQ cart and ordered the pulled pork sandwich before running back to wait for my fries. Either they didn’t have pulled pork or they don’t actually shred the pork or the guy misheard me because I got a sandwich that was sliced meat. Frankly, I didn’t mind much because it was awesome! The meat wasn’t tough or gristly, even though some of it was sliced a ¼ inch thick. The sauce was a little sweet and a little spicy, but totally delicious. Biting through the pieces of meat was a joy because of the tenderness. My only regret is that I shared my sandwich with my friend. I should have hoarded that whole sandwich for myself!
I was curious about their «real Hawaii shave ice» but they didn’t have any last night. Next time I go, I want to try it.
I can’t wait to come back and have more of Q BBQ. I am definitely not sharing my sandwich next time!

Friday Haiku Corner
Whiskey, late night ribs
Crocodile tear sauce rolls off
Heartburn be damned, aight?

So I have since tried the brisket, and I must say that while the sauce is still sublime, I found myself confronted with a decent amount of gristle. Not the best quality meat, that’s for sure, but the flavor was definitely on. Very much on. So much on that I kinda forgot that I had to gnaw my way through half of the sandwich.
I again had the turkey leg and again it was fantastic. That’s 3 for 3 on the turkey legs. It was slathered in sauce with that tasty seasoned skin. Mmmmmm. The meat inside was quite good.
So I still have to give a place that serves late night turkey legs 5-​stars, just on the legs alone, but I would say that Crown-​Q could definitely stand to upgrade the brisket meat a tad.

Open late at night and definitely hits the spot! The smells will draw you in and the food will make you return.
Fall of the bone and finger licking good turkey leg for $ 4.75. Very filling for one person. Owner is friendly and food is delicious. The teriyaki chicken and beef were smaller than expected portions.
Hours: Evening — Late Night
Week 1 — Pulled Pork
Week 2 — Ribs
Week 3 — Brisket
Week 4 — BBQ Chicken