Food trucks are the latest craze here in Los Angeles and it’s been my goal to try out and report back on as many food trucks as I can.
First up is the Grilled Cheese Truck, which showed up for the Sweet Streets 2 opening reception outside of gallery nucleus in Alhambra, a city roughly 10 miles outside of downtown Los Angeles. Being relatively close to me, plus I was already set to go to the event, I finally had the opportunity to really make a foodie adventure out of the evening. Firstly, the line was insane; but that is to be expected with popular food truck fare on a weekend evening and admittedly, it was my own stubborn foodie mentality that kept my friend and I in that line. I will not hold the line against the Grilled Cheese Truck except to say that it should meet the high expectation that a line only rivaled by a Disneyland ride can muster. Sadly, this ain’t Space Mountain.
When it was finally our turn, I stepped up and ordered exactly as so:
“One mac and cheese melt, one brie melt and one dessert melt. And a soda, please.”
Though the area was crowded it was not so loud that the employee could not hear me. I used my credit card and the receipt that required my signature did not itemize my order.
When our order was finally up about ten or so minutes later, I took our food over to our coveted planter makeshift seats and handed my friend her order. I ordered the brie melt for my friend, a devout vegetarian. The brie melt which is automatically without meat. The brie melt that you have to ask for turkey and be charged for it. The brie melt that they put meat on and charged me for it.
While I am sure they are good people and would have refunded me and made the correction, we were too tired from having waited in a 90 minute line to disrupt and bother the patient people who were still waiting. We would have held up that line by at least another 10 minutes, and it would have been unfair to punish them for another person’s mistake. Instead, I took the meat out of the portion that had the least of it and gave it to my friend, plus half of my mac and cheese melt.
I tasted the other half of the brie melt with the meat on – and promptly took the meat off. The turkey was positively revolting; I don’t know what brand they use or how long it had been out. It was, to say the very least, not good. Sans meat, the brie melt was OK but I could hardly taste the pear and honey it boasts.
The brie melt with the turkey $6.75 | $7.75 with meat
The mac and cheese melt was an improvement, and even my friend who isn’t particularly fond of macaroni and cheese, complimented it and said it was her favorite out of the three. Mine, too.
mac and cheese melt | $5.50
The dessert melt, (Nutella, bananas and marshmallow fluff) while a promising idea, was mediocre in execution, being thin and dry. We couldn’t even finish it.
dessert melt | $6.00
Overall, it was a disappointing, overpriced experience and one that I do not care to repeat. Given that I can make all of these easily (and confidentially more sufficiently) at home, I will be saving my money and moving on to another food truck cuisine.
