Snackrilege

The food cart recently moved from no-man’s-land to a more accessible location at 1421 SE 33^rd (a few blocks walk from the bus line on Belmont). It’s tucked away in a little area behind a store on Hawthorne with three other food carts; so it’s not in a jam-​packed food cart lot. There’s a covered bench in between the two back food carts in case it’s raining.
The cart is being temporarily served by Chef Lukkah, so I’ve only tried his offerings and haven’t had a chance to try the official Snackrilege offerings (*). I assume since Chef Lukkah has «chef» right in the title that there’s a culinary training background there, and it definitely shows. The menu seems to be comfort food with a Southern influence.
I tried the fried pickle chips as my starter, and they were perfection. I love me some fried pickle chips, and while most of the ones I’ve tried in Portland have been good, none have ever been fantastic. Until today that is. The fried pickle chips at Snackrilege were perfection. I think the secret was in the breading, which was deep fried but remained just soft enough (to let the pickle chips provide the crunch) and was not at all greasy. Other pickle chips I’ve tried have been too crunchy and basically like eating pickle chips surrounded by petrified oil. These pickle chips were so good with the ranch dipping sauce that I was rubbing it on my gums afterward in front of about six strangers.
For my main I had the special of the day, which was a biscuit with housemade country gravy and lightly fried tempeh with tater tots. The biscuit was rich and had a good texture, and the tempeh in the middle was fried just enough to add flavor without detracting from the overall taste. The gravy was thick and creamy and had an interesting flavor; not too spicy but not bland.
The food was just the right amount portionwise. I felt full without feeling stuffed. [There’s another good vegan food cart in Portland I like, but the portions there are so huge that I feel like I have to take my pants off after eating.] The prices were also reasonable. The pickle chips, biscuits ‘n’ tots, and a bottled tea came to $ 16.
(*) While I haven’t tried the official Snackrilege food-​cart food, I have tried most of their pre-​made sandwiches, which I would also give five stars. They have clever names that are usually a play on words relating to a heavy metal group or song, like Joey de Mayo, Snaxegrinder, and Steak Bite Love. If you don’t like really bread-​y sandwiches, they’re introducing some new combos like Salad Be Thy Name on sourdough bread instead of a flat long bun. Nice owners who are committed members of the vegan community, and the branding is clever and fun as opposed to more uptight vegan places.

I am always on the lookout for tasty vegan/​vegetarian fast food options, and I was excited when I saw these in the grab-​and-​go options at the People’s Co-​op. Higher Taste is good and all, but like someone else said, the overwhelming proportion of carrots-​to-​everything-​else gets to be a touch much.
I tried the Hail Chic’n Seitan and the South of Seitan. I had the Hail Chic’n Seitan on the day I bought them, and then attempted to eat the other one a couple of days later. Hmmm… Let me say that it started out good. The ingredients were altogether tasty and seemed of high quality. But HOLY CRAP so much raw (or perhaps slightly pickled?) garlic. While my immune system will no doubt be happy, my mouth did not feel the same kind of elation. To be fair, I liked the alternative to a ton of raw onion that usually may be found overwhelming many a deli/​to-​go sammies, but um. This was my idea of a scary amount, and let me note that I am not opposed to more than just a taste of garlic in my food. I love garlic fries, garlic chips, garlic on pasta, pizza, roasted on stuff, roasted alone, etc. (Haven’t tried garlic ice cream, but I’d be willing to give it a shot…) But both of these sandwiches had SO MUCH (like big old chunks of it) that it overpowered the other (obviously tasty!) things that were happening with the sandwiches. Raw onion in such quantities usually leads to me doubling over with stomach pain, so like anyone with enough common sense, I will pick it out. Not really possible with the garlic here since it’s essentially married to the seitan Chic’n element. I tried, but to no avail. And the garlicy intensity lingered. No stomach pain, fortunately, but I was tasting garlic for the next two days.
Perhaps the two options I chose are too similar (I did not realize this going in that they are basically variations on the same concept, one being spicier than the other) and I should have branched out? I simply selected two of the choices at People’s that looked the most delicious to me. I am definitely willing to give their foods another shot, particularly their food cart, since it looks like they have an interesting variety of things. And then I can ask them what things are and are not garlic bombs going in. :)

Love this place! Great staff and a fun Metal themed menu. I had the tofu balls with yummy red sauce and the chocolate rice crispy treat. Yum! I will be back to try more. Welcome!

We’ve been to Snackrilege a couple times now, and although I really want to love it, I haven’t been blown away. It’s a fun concept, and my BF liked what he had, the O Fortuna and a special cheeseteak. On the other hand, my BLT was a little bland (good seitan, but needs more filling and less bread) and the Lord of the Wings had an awful lot of a particular spice in the wings. The wings also weren’t very crispy and came with a tiny serving of sauce (the sauce was quite good though). We both loved the chocolate-​rice-​crispy but found the cookie (a freebie when they didn’t have the rice balls) dry and not very flavorful.
Getting a new vegan food cart off the ground in Portland is running up against some tough competition, both food cart & restaurant, so I’m hoping that as Snackrilege gears up they’ll get it dialed in and be a great addition to the scene.

Best vegan food cart in Portland. ALL vegan, the staff rules and is always super nice, cheap price for the amount of food you get. Oh and EVERYTHING is really damn good. HELL Y E S!

The Break Away Breakfast sandwich is my favorite. So smokey, savory, and satisfying! My husband loves them all and stocks up on our occasional trips to Portland.

Not that I don’t love Higher Taste, but after years of the same damn sandwich and WAY too many carrots, I can’t tell you how happy I was to have another option! I love ALL the sandwiches – which I Can get at Food Front Co-​op in SW – but my favorite is Run to the Dills! SOOOOOO good! I could eat these everday. Seriously.