Spaghetti from Baon Kainan’s Jollibaon menu. | Summer Luu Portland chefs have taken inspiration from chains like Jollibee and Taco Bell, putting their own unique spins on the genre Portland is known for its hyperlocal food culture — in fact, the city’s been thoroughly roasted for it. Chefs across town work tirelessly to tailor menus around seasonal produce, but, in recent years, they’ve also found room to embrace fast-food culture, something that doesn’t immediately come to mind when thinking of Portland’s often self-serious dining scene. It may also seem counterintuitive for a city that banned the construction of new drive-thrus in 2020. Still, the fast food-ification of Portland restaurants isn’t that surprising. Because of its accessibility, fast food has wide appeal: Copycat recipes proliferate on the internet. Portland’s restaurants and food carts have followed suit, channeling national brands like Taco Bell — the city hit peak Crunchwrap in 2022 — and McDonald’s by using iconic menu items as a blueprint and approaching them with a chef’s lens. These dishes are shaped to reflect their creator’s personal cooking style or a specific cuisine and often use Pacific Northwest ingredients. Most of all, they’re just fun. Fast-food adaptations have appeared everywhere from fancier restaurants to the vegan scene. When it opened in 2018, wine-focused restaurant OK Omens referred to its desserts as “kinda like a Blizzard” or “kinda like a McFlurry.” In true Portland fashion, a veganized McFlurry entered the mix in 2022, when Ice Queen PDX owner Rebecca Smith started making Thiccflurries at her vegan frozen treat shop, blending oat milk-base soft serve with mix-ins like cookie crumbs and candy pieces. Marielle Dezurick Ok Omens’ “Kinda like a McFlurry.” On its regular menu, food cart Baon Kainan serves staple Filipino dishes like chicken adobo, lumpia, and sisig. But last winter, Ethan and Geri Leung decided to channel Jollibee on a special menu, showing their love for the iconic Filipino fast-food chain while trying something new to draw in customers during the slow winter season. Their Jollibaon menu paid homage to Jollibee with dishes including fried chicken, rich adobo gravy, spaghetti slick with banana ketchup, and palabok. “This menu really came out of having fun and hoping that people would be excited about it,” Geri Leung says. “It’s definitely one of our favorite things to do and we’re excited for it to come back.” Amid the “will they, won’t they” news reports that Jollibee would open in Oregon, Baon Kainan’s Jollibaon menu gave Portlanders a glimpse into Filipino fast-food culture — folks who crave Jollibee got their fix and folks who haven’t tried it had a chance to taste something reminiscent of the restaurant’s hit dishes. When Ethan Leung went back to the Philippines in 2012 for the first time since he was born, he remembers bonding with family members over Jollibee. “To experience it there with my family, relatives that I hadn’t met until then...I think that was a full circle moment,” Ethan Leung says. “This is where they’re from, this is where I came from, and we’re just sitting around a table eating buckets of fried chicken.” Kim Jong Grillin Kim Jong Grillin’s Munchwrap. Kim Jong Grillin owner Han Ly Hwang might just be the ambassador for copycat Crunchwraps. He started experimenting with the dish in late 2019 and unleashed his Munchwrap Extreme as a New Year’s Day special. The reception was such that the Munchwrap now has a permanent spot on the Kim Jong Grillin menu, with Hwang tucking daikon and sprout banchan as well as proteins like bulgogi, fried chicken, or spicy pork into a tortilla before pressing it on the grill. The cart has even made a breakfast variation of the dish and parlayed its Munchwrap popularity into a full-blown Taco Bell tribute menu with vibey restaurant and wine bar Street Disco, complete with cheesy potato roll ups, quesaritos, and Mexican pizzas. “I think it’s kind of the evolution of what Roy [Choi] started in L.A.,” Hwang says. “The thing that I’ve found is that people used to guiltily order it...it’s kind of like the way Taco Bell works, right? But I — and this is with everything at Kim Jong Grillin — deceivingly feed everybody way more vegetables than they’re used to. It’s the greatest trick I ever pulled, really.” Hwang is also a fast-food equal opportunist, recently running a KFC-inspired fried chicken bowl on special. His Big Mac dupe, the Hanold McDonald, is a tribute to his mom’s love of McDonald’s. “Korean moms love McDonald’s,” Hwang says. “It’s like their sign of ‘Not only did I not have to cook, but it’s delicious.’” For Hwang, serving the burger at his restaurant is a celebration of his heritage as a second-generation Korean-American. “The other day, I watched somebody get the burger and their friend got the bibim box — that was the ideal picture I wanted; something traditional, something American.” Noel Dong The hot bar at Phaya Thai Express. Beyond the fast food-ification of specific menu items, some Portland restaurants have replicated a fast-food format in terms of service. At Phaya Thai Express, diners go through motions similar to a visit at Panda Express, eyeing the hot bar’s available dishes before ordering customizable combination meals. Owner Nan Chaison designed the fast-casual setup in the interest of convenience and for diners to be able to try a variety of Thai dishes without having to order full-size entrees. Whether lending inspiration to a specific dish or influencing an entire restaurant, the fast-food trend shows no signs of slowing down in Portland. Makulít co-owners Mike Bautista and Xrysto Castillo designed their Filipino American food cart with fast food in mind. Bautista used his illustrating skills to channel fast-food aesthetics for the branding; the cart’s menu blends Filipino cuisine with chain restaurant standards: lumpia is served in French fry boxes, longganisa is ground into burger patties, and chicken nuggets are mustard-fried. “I think people are eating way more fast food now — like, social media made it really fun or made it ‘okay,’” Hwang says. “Everybody’s like, ‘Oh yeah, I do love a Big Mac.’”