Exploring Vancouver’s three best food trucks
By Brittney MacDonald, Life & Style Editor
Vancouver is an incredibly interesting city—especially for the culinarily-inclined! Whether you enjoy cooking or just plain eating, you can’t deny that the scope of the food offered in Vancouver is awe inspiring.
As a great lover of all types of food and beverage, I am especially proud to show friends and family from out of town the plethora of food truck options available. Food trucks are a Vancouver staple; they’re one of the things that our city is known best for. Since the 2010 Olympic Winter Games were held here, our street food has been at the forefront of our tourism industry, and because of that we have seen a large influx in many culinarians attempting to make their fortune and share their passion with the discriminating palettes of the Vancouver people. Don’t believe me? Try for yourself! Here’s a few of the city’s best food trucks and where to find them.
Japadog
The beast that started it all! Japadog was just a strange but wonderful little hotdog cart before it garnered international attention during the Vancouver Olympic Games. Its unique take on fusion street food was new and exciting to the masses who swarmed the cart and built it into the culinary star that it is today. Nowadays, Japadog has quite a few carts, and can be found in multiple spots around the city—as well as in its very own restaurant on Robson Street. If you’re a local looking to see what all the fuss is about, I suggest going to the trailer parked at the crossing of Burrard Street and Pender Street in Downtown Vancouver. The Robson Street store—as well as the stand near Waterfront—tends to be crowded with tourists, and it also has a larger selection than the smaller hot dog stands that litter Downtown.
Mom’s Grilled Cheese
I will admit, there are few things that make me happier than cheese, especially melted cheese! Grilled cheese is a fairly simple comfort food that most people had growing up, but the Mom’s Grilled Cheese food truck, located most days at the crossing of Robson and Howe in Downtown Vancouver, takes this simple dish to another level. Using gourmet cheese and thick, crusty bread, they manage to grill up the perfect sandwich every time, and without making it too complicated. With a wide selection of bread and cheese to choose from, as well as additional topping options like onions, bacon, and pickles, you can feel free to get it just the way you want. They also have daily specials that usually include a protein of some kind—Tuesday is tuna, Monday is meat loaf!
Tacofino
If you’re into food trucks, than you’ve probably heard of this one. Food columnists and Vancouver celebrities all rave about the Tofino import’s baja-style fish tacos, and I can tell you here and now that Tacofino has earned every last syllable of that praise. Strangely enough, fish tacos are not the easiest thing to make—or at least, that is what ordering them from many Vancouver-based restaurants has taught me. Getting it so that the taco itself isn’t just a soggy mess of fish, lemon, and cabbage has proved a challenge, one that Tacofino has met and exceeded at. But, if fish isn’t your thing, they also offer steak, chicken, pork, and vegetarian options. The only unfortunate thing about this truck is that it moves around a lot. This truck will generally be near the Cactus Club on Burrard Street during week-day lunch, but if you want a more concrete schedule, or you maybe want to stop by for a bite around dinner time, you’ll need to follow them on twitter and wait for them to tweet out their location.
