THE WOOT!: Fresh ingredients, some nice variation across the food-truck-sized menu, and a nice zippy "Turbo Sauce" that works well with everything. Plus, today I happened to be out and about, needing lunch while running errands, and there it was. Nothing beats a serendipitous food truck. And $1 sodas? Awesome!
THE MEH: Nothing here comes close to being actually bad, but I had one fish and one steak ("surf and turf," like the sign says), and in terms of authenticity or spice, these are definitely tacos that qualify for, at best, "kinda flavorful for Minnesota." Make use of those bottles of hot sauce, up on the fun surfboard countertop thing (which for some reason seems really high up, like collarbone level, perhaps just because of where it was parked today).
And be aware: my fish taco featured a single, decent-sized, tortilla-length strip of breaded, deep-fried cod or similar flaky white fish. Like, the exact same fish served with fries and malt vinegar would basically blend in at Brit's Pub. "Baja" to me means something else, something with spices directly on bite-size chunks of fish (and maybe, like... cornmeal?), but this was crunchy, not too greasy, and satisfying. The cabbage/ jicama slaw kind of thing on top was cool and crunchy, and the Turbo Sauce added flavor, if no real heat.
The steak (not carne asada, mind you; the menu says steak and that is correct) seemed pretty sparse on the steak, maybe 2 or 3 ounces, and most bites had no shredded sharp cheddar at all. There was WAY too much shredded lettuce, as well. Again, yay for Turbo Sauce, but it turns out that grilled, fajita-style green peppers get a little gross when they get cooled down to room temperature by a pile of cool ingredients.
THE WTF: As a strict tomato-hating picky eater, I read menus very carefully. The pork taco lists pico de gallo, but the steak says salsa verde and the fish lists only the Turbo Sauce. Nothing I saw actually said it had tomatoes. Both of the tacos I got had them. They were fresh and firm and if I didn't despise tomatoes with an unholy fervor, they would have been great I'm sure.
I didn't say anything, but there were reasons for that. One is that I try to appreciate the dishes people put together with care and planning, and I'm willing to at least give something a try. (I did; yep, they were tomatoes all right, so off they went - I wasn't given or offered a fork, so I used my fingers.) Another is that it was hot, and the window was inconveniently high up, and there were people behind me. That meshes well with me being a typical conflict-averse Minnesotan. So much so that I won't even take off a star for it.
Bottom line, if today you're out of green salsa so you're putting pico on, or if the dish has tomatoes all the time but somehow it's not on the menu, please stick a sign on the damn menu. Just make shit match, already.
A slightly less petty or obsessive wish would be to maybe put some spice in the fish batter, and if the steak is simmered along with the peppers it's weird that I can't tell. Nonetheless, there is a lot to like with this truck, and it could become something great. read more