Ah, the long awaited review of Whiffies. Of all the wonderful places to eat pie in Portland, I would say that Whiffies has generated the most attention in the last few years. I think there’s a few reasons for that… 1.) They were on the ground floor of the exploding food cart scene in Portland 2.) They’ve been very active on Twitter and were kind of on the ground floor of that trend as well 3.) It’s fried pie… it’s very unique, very Portland.
But that bares the question – is their success attributable to these factors, or does the mighty fried pie hold up on its own?
I feared the answer may have been the former, which is part of the reason I’d been putting off officially reviewing them. I thought the review might not be great, because I had been there one time before (prior to launching this blog) and I had the chocolate cream pie, which I wasn’t overly impressed with.
I’m happy to report, though, that I was impressed with the two latest pies I tried (and I’m not just saying it to be nice). I went with savory pies because I heard that’s really where they excel. The chicken pot pie really stood out, the filling is deliciously creamy and has nice, moist chunks of chicken and a good balance of veggies.
On the other hand, I was slightly disappointed by the Mac & Cheese w/ Bacon… but that’s because I think I got the Mac and Cheese w/ Peas instead of bacon by mistake… it was a sad day for me. But, even with all the peas, which I pretty much detest, I did think the mac and cheese part of it was pretty good.
The crust in general at Whiffies is pretty solid. Definitely not my favorite, but it’s a bit of a different beast since it’s fried. It has a good level of flakiness, though, but it’s not so flaky that it falls apart – which is good, since these are actually intended to be eaten by hand. They also aren’t really greasy, which is nice since they are hand-held, and impressive given that they are deep fried.
Overall, my rating of Whiffies is 4 out of 5 slices. But since it’s pretty much become a Portland institution, I’ll bump it up to a 4.5 out of 5, because it’s got that “it” factor.
Whiffies menu varies night-to-night and that’s part of the “it” factor – owner Gregg Abbott comes up with some creative fillings. I’ve seen Beef Brisket, Reuben, Pizza, Peanut Butter and Jelly, Apple Bacon and many other unique pie fillings on the menu. They often have vegan options as well. Follow @whiffies.
Whiffies Fried Pie Cart
12th & Hawthorne
Portland OR
RSS
