Party Mobile: Food Trucks That Cater

Food carts are great for a quick lunch, but some of them are so much more. When you’re looking for catering for your next family event, plenty of your favorite mobile eateries would be happy to help you celebrate. These are some of our favorite food carts that cater. Hire one of these kitchens on wheels for your next party and you’ll be the envy of the neighborhood.

Photo: Taco Pedaler by Beth O. via Yelp

Taco Pedaler
Simple menu of tacos, dillas, Juanitas chips, and salsa come to you via tricycle: It doesn’t get much more Portland than this. The tacos themselves are made with handmade corn tortillas, topped with your choice of beef, chicken, pork or pinto bean filling, cabbage, cilantro and cotija cheese. The dillas are loaded with the filling of the day, drunken sauce and cotija cheese, wrapped in a handmade corn tortilla, then deep fried. If you’re not within biking distance they’ll figure out how to get to your feisty fiesta, no problem.

Online: tacopedalerpdx.com

photo: Moberi Smoothie via Yelp

Moberi
Looking for a healthy option? Let your party guests pedal out some energy with bike-powered smoothies. Their rig is a stationary bike with a blender attachment on the front. Tell them what you want in your smoothie, they’ll throw it in the container part of the blender, then pop it on the bike. That’s right — you can ride a bike to power the blender, or the staff at Moberi will do it for you. In addition to grownup and kid-sized smoothies, this mobile business offers blended bowls with granola and fresh fruit toppings.

Online: moberismoothies.com 

photo: Salt & Straw by Pauline P. via Yelp

Salt & Straw
Salt & Straw has decadent and creamy concoctions, but sometimes all that goodness means waiting in line for at least half a block. Hiring out the truck gives your kiddo the chance to be the first in line! When your friends hear that the famous “sea salt with caramel ribbons” is being scooped out at your shindig, the RSVPs will come flying in fast and furious.

Salt and Straw: saltandstraw.com
Catering: roaminghunger.com/salt-and-straw

photo:  Bunk by S. Mirk via flickr

Bunk 
Their mobile truck roams the city, serving up heaven between two slices of bread, like their juicy Pork Belly Cubano or their saucy Meatball Parmigiano. Bunk keeps opening up new locations because our fair city can’t get enough of their delicious sandwiches. You might want to clue in your guests ahead of time, so no one’s caught choosing between eating a meatball sandwich and getting their white clothes messy.

Online: bunksandwiches.com

photo: Koi Fusion by Vanessa K. via Yelp

Koi Fusion
Koi Fusion is also riding a wave of popularity with Korean barbecue mixed with Mexican fast food tacos and burritos. Your guests will love to see those friendly faces smiling down at them, but they’ll love their kimchi quesadillas, bulgogi burritos and BBQ short rib tacos even more.

Online: koifusionpdx.com

photo: PBJ’s by Melanie K. via Yelp

PBJ’s Grilled
Nothing says “fun kid food” like good ol’ peanut butter and jelly. Bring some of that fun to your shindig with an addictively delicious PBJ’s Grilled sandwich cart. Their regular menu has a kids’ section with a choice of bread, jam, and nut butter. For grownups, options get decidedly more spicy with the spicy Thai (challah, peanut butter Sriracha, fresh basil, curry, and orange marmalade) or sweet, like the pumpkin pie (challah, peanut butter, caramel sauce, pie crust, and pumpkin butter).

Online: pbjsgrilled.com

Have you ever had a mobile cart or truck cater for you? Tell us about it in the Comments!

— Kelley Gardiner