The Great Food Truck Hunt

No, this was not part of the Great Food Truck Race featured on the Food Network, this was our own mini food truck hunt across Los Angeles! We made plans earlier in the week to hit at least three food trucks on a Tuesday night (9/21) starting off at 7 pm going until 1 am. On our list of trucks to visit were The Dim Sum Truck (4pm – 8pm), Nom Nom Truck (7pm – 10pm) , Kogi Bar-B-Q Truck (10:30pm – Midnight) and Fry Smith (11:30pm – 12:30 am). Yea, there are four trucks because The Dim Sum truck was still iffy on our schedule.

Unfortunately, on our great food truck hunt day, we did not get to leave on the hunt until 8pm! Except for one dedicated person that was at our first stop, The Dim Sum Truck at 6pm. Although she did arrive early, The Dim Sum Truck was nowhere to be found! Guess they ran out of food and took off.

Since my group was running late, we decided to go straight to the Nom Nom Truck on Pico in Los Angeles to meet up. We arrived closed to 9 pm and parked in the residential area, less than a minute walk to the Nom Nom truck. Before we even started walking a guy passed us and told us that the Nom Nom truck was out of food. “Nooo..!” He did not sound too happy but we were already there and decided to take that one minute walk anyways. When we arrived, there was still a line and they were still taking orders but as soon as we got in line, Misa (One of the owners) stuck her head out of the window and told everyone that they only had Lemon Grass Chicken and Deli Banh Mi left! It was pretty disappointing because we were there to try out the Vietnamese Tacos, still wondering what that is.

So I ( the only one planning to eat now) decided to try out the Lemon Grass Chicken but as soon as I got to the window to place my order, they only had the Deli Banh Mi left! I had no other choice but to order that and I felt pretty guilty because I got the last two sandwiches left. The people behind me must of been pretty disappointed, especially the girl that I was talking to.

By the time I got my sandwich I was pretty hungry and devoured it and totally forgot to take a picture of the sandwich but I did managed to grab a snapshot of Misa =)

My thoughts on the Nom Nom Truck : Was pretty disappointed that they ran out of food so early and did not get to try anything else beside the regular banh mi sandwich, which was pretty delicious and more tasty compared to Lee’s Sandwiches or Mr. Baguette (Two well know banh mi chains.) Although the price is a bit more expensive compared to elsewhere but the Nom Nom Truck people were very friendly and Misa even stepped out of the truck to talk to the crowd and take pictures. I am pretty big on service and friendliness when it comes to food and that gets big points in my book for coming back, which I will because I still need to try the Vietnamese Taco. The Nom Nom truck is definitely worth a visit even if you do not plan to go for the food; the owners and the truck itself are like mobile celebrities!

Our next stop was the Kogi Korean Bar-B-Q taco next to Venice beach at 10:30 pm, which was less than a 10 minutes drive down the street. Since the Nom Nom truck was out of food and it did not take me long to order, we had about an hour to kill and decided to just go to the location early to avoid any lines.

Now when we arrive at the location it was heaven! There were two other food trucks in the location, South Philly Experience and Dogtown and we could not believe our luck!

We wanted to pace ourselves before the Kogi truck arrived but most of us could not resist the heavenly aroma of both trucks. So we ordered from Dog Town, Cheesy Tots and a hot dog wrapped in bacon with an egg on top. (no pictures of the hot dog )

You can never go wrong with cheesy tater tots, unless you throw a bug on there or something but then it might still taste good! With the hotdog, I did not get to try it myself but I heard it was pretty delicious but pretty filling.

Next was the South Philly Experience and we ordered the best thing on the menu, The Philly Cheese steak.

The Philly Cheese Steak was not bad nor was it great; it was a decent tasting Philly Cheese Steak. I have had much better Philly Cheese Steak at a much more reasonable price. For close to $10, I am surprise it did not come with any French Fries or extras. They were lacking a good amount of cheese, meat and extras toppings because it just did not fill up the bread enough to make it a balance tasting sandwich (maybe size down the bread?). I tasted more of the bread than anything else; although the bread that they used was pretty good.

My Thoughts on Dog Town and South Philly Experience: Both did not serve anything really special (except for the original glass coke bottles). The food tasted like any other American chain restaurant with higher prices and less flavor. Although, adding an egg on top of a hot dog is pretty interesting but I am pretty sure it tasted like a regular hot dog with an egg on top. What more can you do with a regular hot dog unless you are at Pink’s Hot Dogs where they stuff anything inside of one. I would definitely come back a second time if I had the chance to try it again with different items but I would not go out of my way to find these two trucks.

After our American food experience the Kogi Korean Bar-B-Q truck showed up and we were pretty hyped about this truck because of all the reviews and raves. They took awhile to park and get ready and a little line was already forming.

Since the short ribs were the most popular item to order, I ordered a short rib burrito and two short rib tacos. They did not take long to make the order and I was pretty excited at what it would taste like. When I picked up my order the first thing I noticed (any everyone else) was that the burrito and taco was pretty small, “What the hell!?..”

Maybe we had been spoiled by Del Taco and Taco Bell for its large portions/size, so we thought hopefully that the taste of Kogi would make up for the small portion. The first thing I tried was the short rib taco and it WAS pretty tasty! There was no need for any sauce and the meat was juicy and tender, although I was disappointed at the tortilla, which was not soft at all and seemed kind of old!

Next up was the short rib burrito; it tasted like the taco (of course) and was pretty flavorful, a bit too flavorful. After eating about half of the burrito I got tired of the taste and it was not as delicious as the first bite. They seem to have over did it with the sauce and also the cheese was not fully melted, I was not the only one that felt this way either. Now if you are looking for a regular burrito with rice and beans you would be disappointed, it was mainly shorts ribs inside the burrito, which is what I like because I am not too fond of beans.

My Thoughts on Kogi Korean Bar-B-Q: Maybe it was just that particular night or truck but I was rather disappointed with Kogi. The meat and sauce was good and flavorful but having old tortilla and having my cheese not fully melted, really did not make me a happy customer; guess they did not make it fresh! Also the sauce was a bit too much to handle in the burrito. I really would prefer some regular old Mexican burrito elsewhere; also I would rather put my time and money in some real Korean Bar-B-Q instead because Kogi is not all that special. Maybe next time!

Now our last stop was Fry Smith located in San Fernando Valley about a 30 minute drive from where we were. We finished Kogi truck around 11 pm and headed straight to Fry Smith! When we got there, the first thing I noticed about Fry Smith is that their truck is not as elaborate as the others; it was just a plain silver truck. The inside kitchen was clearly visible and it looked like a messy little restaurant inside, pots and pans everywhere!

Their menu was not huge and they had ran out of sweet potatoes that night, so we ended up ordering the Raja Fries and Chili Cheese Fries.

Even though we were pretty full from the night but Fry Smith was absolutely delicious and worth the drive! The meat on the Raja fries was extremely flavorful and tender and the chili on Chili Cheese Fries was meaty and tasty! The fries itself was not spectacular but the toppings made up for everything.

My Thoughts on Fry Smith: Even though their trucks were not as decked out with stickers and paintings, this food truck is definitely worth a try and there is a distinctive flavor to their food. I would definitely go out of my way to find them again just to try out their sweet potato items.

Now that concludes our little food truck hunt and we will definitely be planning another food truck hunt soon. Maybe we might plan to re-visit some of these trucks to try different items but we will definitely try to visit most or possible all the food trucks driving around Southern California. Now remember we all have different taste and taste buds, mine might be different, so do not be discourage or decide not to try these trucks I mention because you might actually like it.