Food Truck Thursday – Offbeat Eatz

This week’s food truck was on time and already taking orders when Coworker R and I arrived, so no disappointments like last week.  The truck was as purple as her hair, which I and the guys in the food truck commented on.  Game on!

Food Truck: Offbeat Eatz

Price Points: $10-$16 per person (chicken sandwiches on the lower end, burgers on the higher end)

Cuisine: grilled chicken sandwiches and burgers, fries optional (but recommended)

The Review:

My original plan was to get a burger and Coworker R was “just going to look”.  Both of those plans failed once we were in front of the truck.  The chalkboard beside the order window announced today’s special: cheese steak sandwich with fries.  Immediately my order was the cheese steak – burgers can wait.  (I’m a sucker for a good cheese steak sandwich.)  Coworker R looked at the pictures of the chicken sandwiches and suddenly she was in line right behind me.

The cheese steak sandwich was both tasty and of good size.  The meat had caramelized onions in it, along with some jalapenos, and sweet pink onions on top.  I removed the onions from on top as onions and I disagreed, but the onions inside were necessary to the proper flavoring of the meat, so they stayed.

This was a good cheese steak sandwich.  The jalapenos gave a good pop of heat when I got to them.  I would have liked more jalapenos as I didn’t notice them until I was half way through the sandwich.  Your mileage may vary.  The fries were good, with an even coating of just the right amount of salt – enough so you notice but not so much it dominates.  My only complaint was that I wanted more fries when I was done.  Coworker R had the same complaint.

Some of the specialty chicken sandwiches looked like they may have had too many toppings, so Coworker R got the standard chicken sandwich.  She liked it but has gotten the same grilled chicken sandwich, at the same price, elsewhere and been equally happy.  Also, the pickles were sweet pickles, which she does not care for.  Your mileage may vary.  We speculated that the specialty grilled chicken sandwiches may have been more wow than the basic one.

Summary:

Definitely do again and worth the money for the beef options – the basic chicken option was more neutral.  Next time I’ll get one of the burgers for a more consistent baseline of comparison with the other food trucks I’ve eaten at, but man, I’m a sucker for a good cheese steak sandwich.

Food Truck Thursday – Cuban Spot

This week’s food truck was supposed to show up at 11:00 AM, so I and several co-workers went down at 11:00 to beat the lines. 

There was no food truck.

We waited 15 minutes and then Coworker R and I decided to bail as we were hungry.  I picked up the vindaloo at the local sandwich shop (they have an Indian restaurant deliver meals for re-sale each day) and ate my lunch.  It was filling and just the right amount of spicy.  Once back to my desk, I saw an email that the food truck was not going to show until Noon, with no explanation.  Too late to do me any good.

Food Truck: Cuban Spot (their menu)

Price Points: $10-$12 per person

Cuisine: sandwiches and burgers with Cuban spices and toppings

The Review:

Co-worker C got the Cuban Burger and went on and on about how good it was, rubbing it in.  Folks from other departments who share the area with us also got ½ burgers and said they were very tasty and way filling.  The burgers all smelled incredible.  I regretted spending my budget on the vindaloo.

Summary:

Assuming they show up on time, I am still willing to eat at this truck based purely on how good the food smelled.

Food Truck Thursday – D’Lish Curbside

[My new employers (more on that in a later post) just initiated Food Truck Thursdays here at the office.  They’ve arranged for a different food truck to be here at the office each Thursday for at least the month of September.  I’m going to review them as a way to get back into regular posting here on the blog.]

Food trucks are still growing as a thing here in Houston, which has the largest non-judgemental food market in the country.  We don’t care whether or not your last restaurant succeeded or failed, we just want to know if what you’re doing right now is any good.  Today’s food truck does very well.

Food Truck: D’Lish Curbside

Price Point: $10+ per person, $3.00 more if you want fries with that

Cuisine (from their website):

"We're the Creators of the TEX-ified Southern Comfort & Gulf Coast Seafood Poutine Style Fries. We also Specialize in Specialty Burgers & Sandwiches, D'Lishified Bowls & Tacos with a Special Twist."

The Review:

I had the Fried Chicken and Bacon Sandwich (burger) with a side order of fries.  The sandwich (burger) had a dollop of white gravy on it, meaning once you start eating on it, you cannot set it back down.  This is not a problem as once I started eating on it, I didn’t want to stop.  The sandwich (burger) had just the right amount of crunch, from both the chicken and the bacon.  The chicken had a low batter-to-chicken ratio, meaning there was plenty of chicken to eat.  The bacon was crispy without going overboard and there was a noticeable amount of it.  This was a very tasty sandwich (burger).

[I keep calling this a sandwich (burger) because, while called a sandwich, it was served on a burger roll.]

Coworker R had the Krazy Korean Ribeye Steak Sandwich.  She was actually craving Banh mih, but she found this to be a good alternate.  (She’s still craving Banh mih, so it wasn’t a complete substitute for that.)  She found the thinly sliced steak was marinated in a very tasty Korean sauce of some sort which the sriracha aioli complemented very well.

We both had the fries, which were thick cut and tossed with a spice mix of some sort.  It had a taste of heat to it, but we both agreed the fries needed more seasoning.  That said, they were good fries, freshly cooked – they were still hot after walking back to my desk and after eating my sandwich (burger).

We went just as the food truck was opening and the line was only 5-6 people.  Other co-workers went after we returned and reported the line was 20+ people deep.  They went back 30 minutes later and the line was still 20+ people deep (a different 20 people of course).  They aren’t back after a third try and my lunch hour is over, so no report from them.  Maybe I’ll do a supplemental later.

Summary:

Very satisfying and filling with a reasonable price (for food trucks).

I will eat at this truck again.