Camas food cart pod Oak Tree Station features 20-plus eateries, craft beers and a family-friendly vibe

My first visit was on a Tuesday at 11:45 a.m. It was a sunny day and Oak Tree Station was busy but there weren’t lines at the trucks. The variety here is impressive, with Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Japanese, Mexican, Middle Eastern, Hawaiian and Ukrainian food as well as smashburgers, seafood, barbecue and Philly cheesesteaks. On the perimeter sits a Red Leaf Organic Coffee drive-thru for a quick kick of caffeine.

A stellar lineup of craft beer flows at the taproom, including Brothers Cascadia’s New England-style IPA You Like A Da Juice, Fortside’s hazy IPA TropiDank, and Hood River, Ore.-based beer phenom Pfriem’s Pêche, a lambic-inspired ale made with local peaches. I made a few circles through the two areas filled with food trucks before deciding on my order. I went for an oddball surf-and-turf mashup of a smashburger, fries and Diet Coke from The Cravory ($17.36) and a Ninja Kick Sushi Burrito from Wasabi Sushi ($15.19).

The Cravory has a short menu featuring smashburgers ($10.50-$12), grilled cheese ($9) and a jumbo split hot dog ($6.50). Each main dish comes with a list of add-ons (lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion and jalapeno) and sauces (ketchup, mustard, a variety of mayos and two special sauces). Sides include classic fries ($4), seasoned curly fries ($5) and a rotating side, which was onion rings ($6) the day I visited. Beyond Burger patties are available for an additional $3.

I ordered the Jr. Smash Burger ($10.50) with lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion and Awesome Sauce. The Cravory has two sauces: Awesome Sauce and Crave Sauce. Awesome Sauce is a creamy ketchup-based sauce spiked with horseradish and Cholula Hot Sauce. Crave Sauce is a Thousand Island-type mixture. The Jr. Smash Burger was a good size, had a nice flavor and char, and the toppings and bun were fresh. It came with a generous portion of traditional fries that were golden, crispy and properly salted.

I also tried a Ninja Kick Sushi Burrito from Wasabi Sushi ($15.19). A sushi burrito is one of those dishes that sounds like a bad idea but is really brilliant. There’s no tortilla involved in this dish. It’s made by spreading rice and fillings in a large piece of seaweed and rolling it into a thick burrito shape. It’s basically a thicker sushi roll that isn’t cut into slices. This makes it more portable and easier to eat on the go. Wasabi Sushi has a long list of sushi burritos as well as rolls, bowls and sushi doughnuts. Overwhelmed with the choices at this truck, I just chose the first sushi burrito on the list: Ninja Kick with sushi rice, ahi tuna, tamago, jalapeno, cucumber, green leaf, fried onion and wasabi sauce rolled in nori.

As I sat down to eat my sushi burrito, I wondered why there was a slice of cheese in it. Then I remembered that this dish comes with tamago, which is also called tamagoyaki, a Japanese rolled omelet. The ingredients tasted fresh and the sushi rice was tender and warm. I’d like to try the Flaming Hot Wasabi Burrito next time. It has tempura shrimp, salmon, avocado and cucumber with coating of Flaming Hot Cheetos ($15).

I visited the next day around 1 p.m. It was rainy and fewer people were around. The taproom was warm, dry and sparsely populated. A Mariners game played on the TV screens. Outside a large group of animated high school girls filled a picnic table debating whether it’s acceptable to break up with someone by text. (The consensus was “no.”)

I was seeking cooler-weather fare so I ordered the special pho ($16) from Pho Loc, a taco sampler from Ay Caray! (five tacos for $11.03), and potato vareniki from Ukrainian food truck Pelmeni Pelmeni ($9.99).

The pho special came with rice noodles, slices of brisket and eye of round steak, and meatballs in an anise-scented beef broth. I used chopsticks to whirl my noodles into the warm broth, squirted a bit of lime, and tore some fresh basil leaves into this soothing dish.

At Ay Caray!, a taco sampler comes with five tacos. I picked a variety. The champiñones (a mix of wild Pacific Northwest mushrooms) and the pollo con Oaxaca mole (chicken breast coated with an earthy mole sauce, topped with sour cream and toasted pumpkin and sesame seeds) were the standouts.

All the dishes I tried were good, but the vareniki stuffed with potatoes were my favorite. Vareniki are similar to pelmeni, but pelmeni are typically filled with meat. The vareniki came as a generous mound of small, tender crescent-shaped pasta dough filled with creamy mashed potatoes topped with sour cream and fresh sprigs of dill. Bottles of red sauce, hot sauce and hot mustard were placed near glass bottles of balsamic vinegar and white vinegar with a sign that said Ukrainians love vinegar, while locals love red sauce. I decided to try them the Ukrainian way with a sprinkling of white vinegar. The tender pasta with a creamy filling topped with creamy, tangy sour cream, fresh dill and a sprinkling of vinegar was exquisite.

Two visits to Oak Tree Station were not enough. Other food trucks there tempt me: Thai Sunflower, Korean food truck KO Sisters, Hibachi Grill, seafood-focused Pan Roast, and Shawarma Station are just a few I’d like to try. Garden Monster PDX, a salad truck, and Cajun food truck Le Bistro Montage A La Cart will open soon.

Oak Tree Station is a great family-friendly place for a large group to spend time eating and drinking year-round. It gets busy on weekends so you may have to circle the parking lot and wait in lines, but it’s a fun spot worth a bit of hassle.