We found Matta on Instagram right around NYE and instantly wanted to try it. It looked good, and they had some fun collabs in the past. They have a super cute and rather large space to themselves (unless we missed other carts?). It was very fun, but it was a bit cold out to want to eat outside. We waited for a few minutes outside with no one acknowledging us. My husband had to wave to get their attention, but it wasn't a huge deal. We ordered the Grandma's special and the fried catfish. Grandma's special sounded good in theory, but I felt like it lacked a bit of flavor. I could taste some, but I just felt like it was missing something. And the fries were undercooked. My husband loved the catfish though. It was really crispy on the outside. He also liked the dipping sauce that came with it.
Angela N.
TLDR; Absolutely loved EVERYTHING we ordered here! What we ordered: Fish sando: my pick, SO GOOD. I was a little hesitant about the cheese but all the flavors worked SO well together. The pandan bun was a fun experience, but I don't think I tasted the pandan flavors simply bc the flavors of the catfish and veggies took center stage -- this however was not a bad thing at all. Despite not being able to taste the specialty flavor of the bun, this absolutely did not take away from how FLUFFY the bun was!! SO. GOOD. (This is the bun they use on their burgers as well). The fish was PERFECTLY fried and paired so well with everything in the sando. Cheeseburg: husband's pick, also very good! The burger has nuoc mam (fish sauce) in it, but unlike typical Viet food, the nuoc mam was a nice compliment rather than the main character. The "dac biet sauce" (special sauce), was truly dac biet and complimented the burger so well. Fries: sunnuvabitch these fries were bomb af. JUST enough seasoning, crispy enough on the outside to give the *perfect* bite with a pillowy softness on the inside. An order of fries comes with spicy ketchup as the dipping sauce. Friends, let me start with saying that I refuse to eat traditional ketchup. REFUSE. But at first glance, this sauce had the texture and color of a marinara dipping sauce. And because it was labeled as spicy, I decided to give it a try. Let me tell ya, it was pretty darn good. Enough for me to want to keep dipping every few times. To be honest, the seasoning on the fries was already perfect and I felt like that alone was already perfect on the fries. But the spicy ketchup sauce was almost a nice was to cleanse off the inevitable accumulation of saltiness in your mouth because of how addicting the fries are. If you've ever had the Red Robin seasoning, it was somewhat remiscent of those flavors but not as salty and much more elevated. Pandan donuts W/ 5 spice cinnamon topping: a nice take on a cinnamon sugar donut. The 5 spice wasn't overwhelming at all and blended well with the cinnamon. Would highly recommend if you like sugar donuts W/ coconut glaze: this was definitely the winner for us. Something about this donut was kind of like a Krispy Kreme donut except the differences are exactly what I wanted changed in a KK donut: it's a little bigger and fluffier and the coconut glaze is a lot less sweeter than the glaze on a KK donut. Unlike the bun, you can actually taste the pandan flavor in the donut! Matta was somehow a no frills food truck while at the same time serving AWESOME food. The flavor profile of every item really felt like it was chosen with tender love and care. Slight wait on the food after ordering (made to order) but definitely well worth the wait.
Clara P.
Wonderful wonderful service but I can't give it 5 stars because the donuts were so disappointing! They were incredibly greasy, and the dough lacked a lot of flavor. We got the pandan and the five spice donuts and despite the appealing exterior, there was a lot missing in the flavor department.
Ben
Too much to take in in one visit. Wide variety of metal items. Covered selection of woods for serious crafters.
Alyssa J.
Let me start by saying I've had Matta on my list for months, following their journey on instagram. But alas with my hectic schedule and SW geography, a trip to NE is not always in the cards. So when we were offered a babysitter from my MIL, I knew EXACTLY where I wanted to go. I have little to no experience to Viet Kieu food, but as I said follow these guys on IG if you're struggling with what to order. We ordered online for pickup and by the time we got there our food was ready. We chose to eat on a bench and were able to keep a distance from others. One glance at The Classic and they had me at coconut, chili, caramel broth. It was 100 percent worth the hype my friends. I still dream about this meal. Washed it down with a mint lime soda and damn it was refreshing. Hubs got Grandma's Special, and I almost suffered a stabbing by fork from my husband trying to steal a bite. We finished our meal with pandan donuts, and trust me, you'll want to get these. There are two things that stand out to me about Matta: 1. They make delicious food and enjoy doing it. I have seen snippets of their upcoming documentary (!) where Richard Van Le talks about his experiences growing up, and the motivation around wanting to create Matta. 2. Outside of Matta the restaurant, it's been really cool to see this growing group of food proprietors showing support for one another. They are constantly hyping up neighboring food cart Baon Kainan, or hosting a b-boy competition with Deadstock coffee, or highlighting another restaurant to try. They are not only making food but they are fostering community amongst independent restaurants, and I am here for it.
Tip K.
Ordered two lunch cheeseburgers and one fries to go, since their dinner menu which looked really good was not available quite yet. Was given the estimated wait time of 5 minutes and then watched 3 people after us order their food and then taken care of before two burgers and one order of fries (one order after us sounded like they were friends with the owners)! Was pretty disappointed after waiting 15 extra minutes for these :( edit: gonna definitely need to try the dinner menu some other time because the specialty bun was burnt :/
Shannon Wilde
I took the 7 hour MIG class, taught by John. I was hoping to learn some techniques so I can do some repairs on a project car. Man, I learned so much from this class! I had never attempted welding before. The class is geared toward a total newbie. John was an awesome instructor and I left with the skills I needed to keep practicing at home! Highly recommend MWS.
Eric Furlong
Amazing place to find repurposed metal items, really cool art pieces or to learn how to weld.They also have crazy cheap reclaimed kitchen knives.
Tin L.
We got the breakfast bowl, pandan donuts, and pandan burger dish. OMG it taste differently and very unique that we can't wait to try more! The gravy from breakfast bowl is a bit salty, but once mix up I can't get enough of its. The donut is at the right level of sweetness, doughy. Last the burger, one of our favorite burger. It has the right level of flavor with the smell of pandan that you can't find anywhere else in Portland.
Patrick L.
My favorite was the Braised pork belly, which was cooked to perfection, so tender. Simple and delicious. Curry was quite good. Beef stir fry and fried chicken were okay.
The Bà Nội, which translates to "Grandma's Special," (pictured) features thin-sliced steak, seared with onions and Thai basil, topped with nước chấm, fried garlic, fried shallots, cilantro and scallions, and is served with fries and rice. It may be my new favorite food.Nước chấm is a Vietnamese fish sauce of water, sugar, lime, and in this case, Thai chilis, which is what gave the dish, overall, a generally mild, but slow-building, and then subtly lingering, spice. Most of the sauce rested in the soft, sweet rice, with the lightly salty, savory fries, and the result was like a wonderful, warm, comfort-food embrace.The tender, masterfully seasoned beef, the absolute aromatic symphony of fried garlic and shallots, cilantro, and scallions... Chef Richard Lê has managed to expertly combine elegance, comfort, and escapism.I am genuinely not exaggerating, when I say that the Bà Nội was so good, that I almost cried.This was truly an exceptional, refreshing, miniature food vacation. Described as a Việt kiều (overseas Vietnamese) experience, YES! I want more of this!If you like my photographs, feel free to follow my tiny, little foodie Instagram: jonathan.grubb, for more (casual, and almost exclusively small / local) greater-Portland-area foodventures!
Shannon T.
I am so happy that MATTA moved closer to me. I love to take little walks here and just grab some pandan donuts. My family is hard to impress and they love their donuts. I need to come more often to try their savory options. I stopped in for one of their collabs and picked up their pandan donut with pandan coconut glaze and coconut ice cream. The ice cream was tasty. I think I much prefer their usual warm pandan donuts over the cold one with the ice cream sandwich, but nonetheless still delicious. I was also able to grab their watermelon mint lime slushee, which was very refreshing. I highly highly highly recommend their pandan donuts. I've tried their breakfast sando and I wasn't the hugest fan of it. It started off good, and the spices got more and more aggressive. I asked my friend who has had it before and she said her sando experience was that it was rather salty. My salt seemed to have been replaced with black pepper or something. It was a sharp mild spice. Overall, I love this cart. It's darling and ran by a sweet couple. Service is always great.
An Out Recordings
Had the VFC which brought me back to my childhood, the food is so well honed and well thought out. As a Việt kiều person, it's really good to feel belonging at a cute food place like this. Can't wait to go back again!
Jeremy Huff
Cool place, helpful staff, I believe it was the owner I met, and he was very helpful in offering to get the piece of metal I need for my project. I did not get it at that time, but I will likely go here in the future for help with my projects.
m kinsella
YOU HAVE TO TRY!! Everything is amazing, but brunch on Sunday really hits. Thit Kho is always incredible, and if you can get a donut before they sell out then do yourself a favor and get two.
We found Matta on Instagram right around NYE and instantly wanted to try it. It looked good, and they had some fun collabs in the past. They have a super cute and rather large space to themselves (unless we missed other carts?). It was very fun, but it was a bit cold out to want to eat outside. We waited for a few minutes outside with no one acknowledging us. My husband had to wave to get their attention, but it wasn't a huge deal. We ordered the Grandma's special and the fried catfish. Grandma's special sounded good in theory, but I felt like it lacked a bit of flavor. I could taste some, but I just felt like it was missing something. And the fries were undercooked. My husband loved the catfish though. It was really crispy on the outside. He also liked the dipping sauce that came with it.
TLDR; Absolutely loved EVERYTHING we ordered here! What we ordered: Fish sando: my pick, SO GOOD. I was a little hesitant about the cheese but all the flavors worked SO well together. The pandan bun was a fun experience, but I don't think I tasted the pandan flavors simply bc the flavors of the catfish and veggies took center stage -- this however was not a bad thing at all. Despite not being able to taste the specialty flavor of the bun, this absolutely did not take away from how FLUFFY the bun was!! SO. GOOD. (This is the bun they use on their burgers as well). The fish was PERFECTLY fried and paired so well with everything in the sando. Cheeseburg: husband's pick, also very good! The burger has nuoc mam (fish sauce) in it, but unlike typical Viet food, the nuoc mam was a nice compliment rather than the main character. The "dac biet sauce" (special sauce), was truly dac biet and complimented the burger so well. Fries: sunnuvabitch these fries were bomb af. JUST enough seasoning, crispy enough on the outside to give the *perfect* bite with a pillowy softness on the inside. An order of fries comes with spicy ketchup as the dipping sauce. Friends, let me start with saying that I refuse to eat traditional ketchup. REFUSE. But at first glance, this sauce had the texture and color of a marinara dipping sauce. And because it was labeled as spicy, I decided to give it a try. Let me tell ya, it was pretty darn good. Enough for me to want to keep dipping every few times. To be honest, the seasoning on the fries was already perfect and I felt like that alone was already perfect on the fries. But the spicy ketchup sauce was almost a nice was to cleanse off the inevitable accumulation of saltiness in your mouth because of how addicting the fries are. If you've ever had the Red Robin seasoning, it was somewhat remiscent of those flavors but not as salty and much more elevated. Pandan donuts W/ 5 spice cinnamon topping: a nice take on a cinnamon sugar donut. The 5 spice wasn't overwhelming at all and blended well with the cinnamon. Would highly recommend if you like sugar donuts W/ coconut glaze: this was definitely the winner for us. Something about this donut was kind of like a Krispy Kreme donut except the differences are exactly what I wanted changed in a KK donut: it's a little bigger and fluffier and the coconut glaze is a lot less sweeter than the glaze on a KK donut. Unlike the bun, you can actually taste the pandan flavor in the donut! Matta was somehow a no frills food truck while at the same time serving AWESOME food. The flavor profile of every item really felt like it was chosen with tender love and care. Slight wait on the food after ordering (made to order) but definitely well worth the wait.
Wonderful wonderful service but I can't give it 5 stars because the donuts were so disappointing! They were incredibly greasy, and the dough lacked a lot of flavor. We got the pandan and the five spice donuts and despite the appealing exterior, there was a lot missing in the flavor department.
Too much to take in in one visit. Wide variety of metal items. Covered selection of woods for serious crafters.
Let me start by saying I've had Matta on my list for months, following their journey on instagram. But alas with my hectic schedule and SW geography, a trip to NE is not always in the cards. So when we were offered a babysitter from my MIL, I knew EXACTLY where I wanted to go. I have little to no experience to Viet Kieu food, but as I said follow these guys on IG if you're struggling with what to order. We ordered online for pickup and by the time we got there our food was ready. We chose to eat on a bench and were able to keep a distance from others. One glance at The Classic and they had me at coconut, chili, caramel broth. It was 100 percent worth the hype my friends. I still dream about this meal. Washed it down with a mint lime soda and damn it was refreshing. Hubs got Grandma's Special, and I almost suffered a stabbing by fork from my husband trying to steal a bite. We finished our meal with pandan donuts, and trust me, you'll want to get these. There are two things that stand out to me about Matta: 1. They make delicious food and enjoy doing it. I have seen snippets of their upcoming documentary (!) where Richard Van Le talks about his experiences growing up, and the motivation around wanting to create Matta. 2. Outside of Matta the restaurant, it's been really cool to see this growing group of food proprietors showing support for one another. They are constantly hyping up neighboring food cart Baon Kainan, or hosting a b-boy competition with Deadstock coffee, or highlighting another restaurant to try. They are not only making food but they are fostering community amongst independent restaurants, and I am here for it.
Ordered two lunch cheeseburgers and one fries to go, since their dinner menu which looked really good was not available quite yet. Was given the estimated wait time of 5 minutes and then watched 3 people after us order their food and then taken care of before two burgers and one order of fries (one order after us sounded like they were friends with the owners)! Was pretty disappointed after waiting 15 extra minutes for these :( edit: gonna definitely need to try the dinner menu some other time because the specialty bun was burnt :/
I took the 7 hour MIG class, taught by John. I was hoping to learn some techniques so I can do some repairs on a project car. Man, I learned so much from this class! I had never attempted welding before. The class is geared toward a total newbie. John was an awesome instructor and I left with the skills I needed to keep practicing at home! Highly recommend MWS.
Amazing place to find repurposed metal items, really cool art pieces or to learn how to weld.They also have crazy cheap reclaimed kitchen knives.
We got the breakfast bowl, pandan donuts, and pandan burger dish. OMG it taste differently and very unique that we can't wait to try more! The gravy from breakfast bowl is a bit salty, but once mix up I can't get enough of its. The donut is at the right level of sweetness, doughy. Last the burger, one of our favorite burger. It has the right level of flavor with the smell of pandan that you can't find anywhere else in Portland.
My favorite was the Braised pork belly, which was cooked to perfection, so tender. Simple and delicious. Curry was quite good. Beef stir fry and fried chicken were okay.
Restaurantji Recommends
The Bà Nội, which translates to "Grandma's Special," (pictured) features thin-sliced steak, seared with onions and Thai basil, topped with nước chấm, fried garlic, fried shallots, cilantro and scallions, and is served with fries and rice. It may be my new favorite food.Nước chấm is a Vietnamese fish sauce of water, sugar, lime, and in this case, Thai chilis, which is what gave the dish, overall, a generally mild, but slow-building, and then subtly lingering, spice. Most of the sauce rested in the soft, sweet rice, with the lightly salty, savory fries, and the result was like a wonderful, warm, comfort-food embrace.The tender, masterfully seasoned beef, the absolute aromatic symphony of fried garlic and shallots, cilantro, and scallions... Chef Richard Lê has managed to expertly combine elegance, comfort, and escapism.I am genuinely not exaggerating, when I say that the Bà Nội was so good, that I almost cried.This was truly an exceptional, refreshing, miniature food vacation. Described as a Việt kiều (overseas Vietnamese) experience, YES! I want more of this!If you like my photographs, feel free to follow my tiny, little foodie Instagram: jonathan.grubb, for more (casual, and almost exclusively small / local) greater-Portland-area foodventures!
I am so happy that MATTA moved closer to me. I love to take little walks here and just grab some pandan donuts. My family is hard to impress and they love their donuts. I need to come more often to try their savory options. I stopped in for one of their collabs and picked up their pandan donut with pandan coconut glaze and coconut ice cream. The ice cream was tasty. I think I much prefer their usual warm pandan donuts over the cold one with the ice cream sandwich, but nonetheless still delicious. I was also able to grab their watermelon mint lime slushee, which was very refreshing. I highly highly highly recommend their pandan donuts. I've tried their breakfast sando and I wasn't the hugest fan of it. It started off good, and the spices got more and more aggressive. I asked my friend who has had it before and she said her sando experience was that it was rather salty. My salt seemed to have been replaced with black pepper or something. It was a sharp mild spice. Overall, I love this cart. It's darling and ran by a sweet couple. Service is always great.
Had the VFC which brought me back to my childhood, the food is so well honed and well thought out. As a Việt kiều person, it's really good to feel belonging at a cute food place like this. Can't wait to go back again!
Cool place, helpful staff, I believe it was the owner I met, and he was very helpful in offering to get the piece of metal I need for my project. I did not get it at that time, but I will likely go here in the future for help with my projects.
YOU HAVE TO TRY!! Everything is amazing, but brunch on Sunday really hits. Thit Kho is always incredible, and if you can get a donut before they sell out then do yourself a favor and get two.