Homegrown Smoker Vegan BBQ is a vegan food cart located in the Mississippi Marketplace food cart “pod” in North East Portland. it’s on the corner of N Missisippi Ave and Skidmore Rd, next to the German bear pub Prost. It’s an easy and quick bus ride if you’re staying in downtown Portland so don’t let the location put you off.

As with many places in Portland, it closes in the late afternoon or early evening so it’s best to go for lunch or an early dinner if you don’t want to be disappointed. Their website says the opening hours are Tues-Thurs 11:30-7pm, Fri-Sat 11:30-8pm, Sun 11:30-5 (hours subject to change), which is probably code for “we close up and go home early if it’s not busy enough! Shorter hours in the Winter too no doubt.

I went there a couple of times. For my first visit, I got the Mac No Cheese and Chilli, with a piece of cornbread. The cornbread seemed to essentially be banana cake. It was delicious but not what I was expecting at all.

The Mac No Cheese is good but it needed the chilli as it was a little bit bland on it’s own. In saying this, I enjoyed my meal and was keen to go back again. I just felt like I hadn’t made the best menu choice.

The second time I visited I got that day’s special. It was a Toasted Sandwich with pesto, soy curls, vegan cheese sauce, and a slice of tomato. You can could choose a side and I choose fries.

This was delicious. The fries seemed like they had absorbed a lot of oil so I think they need to cook them at a more precise temperature. However, that was my only complaint and I’d definitely order this item again. I’d order the aforementioned corn bread again as well.

The prices were around $8, which seemed to be priced just right. Check out their website for the full menu.