Alley Burger/Food Truck Experience

[Bunk]

There are currently 21 trucks on the road, expected to have 30 licenced by the end of summer.

Almost exactly a year ago, the Mayor asked if we could help make food trucks a reality. It took exactly 20 days to sort out the regulatory hurdles, launch the pilot and have the first wave of food trucks on the road. We had 7 businesses eager to go, so the timing was very fortunate.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by fotze

What does the happy truck sell?

It's Indonesian. Tapas style servings I think. I've been eager to try this one.

The most recent one I had was Cheezy Bizness. I had the Aloha, which is pulled pork, pinneapple, some sort of nice cheese. Excellent!

[JerzeeGirl]

I had lunch at the Happy Truck a couple weeks ago - it was pretty good! I had the curried beef meal which had a bit of everything & especially enjoyed the Indonesian Slaw (pickled pineapple & cucumbers).

[red sky]

I had the Kimchekaze at the Cheezy Bizness truck today. It was tasty but as others have pointed out, the prices are about 2-3 bucks too high. They should just rename them the Bouwmeester or something.

[KelVarnsen]

Has anyone tried the Greek food truck?

[secol]

having cranky chef gnocchi right now....not that special imo and $10 for just the gnocchi

[darklord700]

Just had the Aloha Grill Cheese sandwich from the Cheesy Bizness truck. Not bad but not worth $9. $5-$6 maybe.

[You Need a Thneed]

Alleyburger. Yum.

[Regular_John]

Gave Naaco Truck a whirl today, pretty damn tasty, really fresh. Price wasn't too bad (although they seem eager to up sell ya $4 for kettle chips) for just the nan bread/taco thing. Only real complaint is the speed of the service, very friendly staff, but standing on the street waiting for your order gets old pretty quick.

But the quality/taste is top notch, much better than some of the little hole in the wall places near the office that I hit up regularly.

[Wormius]

I am jealous of everybody who works downtown where the trucks congregate.

[darklord700]

Tried Red Wagon Dinner, the Montreal Smoke Meat Truck. The sandwich is OK, better than your food court variety. And at about $7-$8 a sandwich, it's not grossly overpriced by food truck standard. However, I'm not a smoke meat fan so I'm not sure if I will go back or not.

[bagofpucks]

I've had the chance to try three trucks thus far, so I'll do a quick review...

Naaco Truck - It was definitely different than anything else I have tried, but it was delicious. I had the butter chicken and although there wasn't as much chicken as I expected it was fairly filling. I also had the mogo fries and thought they were good, I would order them again. Next time I would order the chutney for the mogo fries as I found them a bit bland without anything else. I will definitely try the Naaco Truck again and would give it an overall 8/10. The only draw back was I found it a bit expensive at around $11 or $12 for a Naaco and fries. We were about 10th in line when it opened, so the wait wasn't too long, probably about 10-15 minutes.

Viasilli's (not sure if that is right, it is the Greek truck) - I had the twisted pig which was a pork souvlaki in a pita with veggies and a delicious tzatziki sauce. The veggies and tzatziki were awesome and the pork was good, but sometimes was a bit chewy. The portion size was ok, but I would have liked a side of rice or potatoes or something else. Overall, the value for $9.50 wasn't great, but the wrap was very good. The girls in the truck were also very cute and friendly, so that didn't hurt their score. I would give this truck a 7/10 with high potential for a higher score if they added a side to their meals and I would definitely try it again. This was the shortest wait, we were about 4th in line and had food within 10 minutes.

Red Wagon - I will premise my review by saying I have never had Montreal smoked meat before, so I don't really have anything to compare it to. I ordered the special which is Montreal smoked meat, lettuce, onions, tomato, and mustard. The sandwich was good, but I can't say I really enjoy Montreal smoked meat that much, so not sure if I would order another one. I was excited that they had hash browns as a side, but I found them slightly disappointing; they were fairly bland. I did feel the price was good at $9.50 for the sandwich and hash browns. I would give it a 6/10 and would not go back just because I don't really like Montreal smoked meat. If they had another sandwich to try, I would probably because the food quality was there. This was the longest wait, it took me about 30 minutes to order and get food.

All in all, I will be interested to see if the food trucks are just a trend or if they will stay around for a long time. As previously stated, the food has been very good, but expensive and the wait times are high. I will definitely try some of the other food truck options, but I'm not sure I will be as interested next summer.

[Top Shelf]

Was down at Paddlefest at Carburn Park over the weekend and there were three food trucks there: Steakout, Spud Mobeel and Naaco

Tried the steak bites and dip from Steakout, very tasty and hot, i think there were about 8 of them? Kinda pricey at 7 bucks though.

Tried the poutine and salt and vinegar spiral potato from Spud Mobeel. Better value here as the poutine was massive and very good. The spiral potato thing was also very good.

[secol]

noodle bus today.....wasn't that great, maybe i'm used to the ridiculously large pho in restaurants but thought the portion was small. also no lime, basil, beansprouts though the soup still had decent flavor without it (would probably taste pretty damned good with the lime/basil)

[JerzeeGirl]

Tried a couple of different trucks last week: JoJo's BBQ, Vasili's (Greek) & Jelly Modern Doughnut.

JoJo's was a bit disappointing - ate with 3 friends so we all shared and had a good sampling of what they had to offer. We all agreed that the pulled pork was dry & needed more sauce as did the ribs (which weren't fall off the bone tender so not done right according to all the BBQ shows on TV...). The brisket was juicy but needed sauce as well. We also tried JoJo's BBQ-tine and I was not impressed....fries were kind of cold and soggy while the bacon gravy was bland. Overall, we all thought the value was there as the pulled pork & brisket sammies were quite large and the ribs were a fairly decent price (altho the poutine was quite small for what you got). Perhaps my expectations were too high but it wasn't something I'd go out of my way for again.

Vasili's tho was far from disappointing! Probably my fave food truck so far and I'll happily stroll to find them if they are anywhere near me in the future. I tried their Twisted Pig pita & it was delicious. The pork was well cooked and nicely seasoned - very juicy and tender. The pita was a wonderfully light Greek pita filled with lots of feta, shaved cucumber, tomatoes & tzatziki sauce. The portion was a good size for me (altho I imagine some guys might find themselves still slightly hungry at the end).

Jelly Modern Doughnut was just ok - they had a couple of their store faves in the truck and while my lemon doughnut was good, it wasn't up to their usual standard that day, imho.

[tete]

Stopped by the SpudMobeel on the way home from the fireworks on Canada Day - the poutine was very tasty. Not as good as Alley Burger's, but still quite good. I'd like to give Vassili's a try now after hearing JG's review. We saw it on the Riverwalk but had just eaten down at Olympic Plaza on Canada Day.

[secol]

tried aglio e olio today....had the italian sausage penne for $10. for $10 portion was a little small, only a few thin medallions of sausage and cold garlic toast. they did have some pasta options from $7 though so maybe next time i'll get one of those + salad

[darklord700]

Tried the Curbside grill today. The burger bun was not toasted and so wasn't the cheese. Very average quality.

[mykalberta]

Tried holy crepe the other day, got BLT and it was very very tasty. Like all other food trucks, more expensive than food court fare, slow, but very good. They also have a dessert crepe which I would like to try.

[octothorp]

Had pizza from Avatara today, and it was pretty good. Decent value for a full-sized when split between two people. Tasty, decent thin-crust, and pretty fast for a oven-cooked pizza.