Dine Out Vancouver: Street Food City

For the first time, Dine Out Vancouver is hosting a Street Food City where Street Vendors and Food Trucks gather Downtown, at the Vancouver Art Gallery (W.Georgia). The participating  vendors were Soho Road, Mom's Grilled Cheese, Re-Up BBQ, The Brasserie,  Off the Wagon Tacos, Tacofino Cantina,It's All About Grill and The Juice Truck. Many of the places also had Specials and dishes sold only during this event.
The event is on January 24,25,26th 11-3PM this week only!

There is heated, and covered tables and seating area to eat at as well.
Janice from GoodEat and I decided to meet up for some eats. Her post on Street Food City can be found here
With so many choices, it was difficult to decide on what to try, as I haven't had the opportunity to try the majority of the Food Trucks yet.

We settled on Re-Up BBQ, La Brasserie, and Tacofino Cantina.

Re-Up BBQ specializes in smoked meat and at this location, they usually carry the Pulled Pork Sandwiches. During the event, they will be selling the Bacon Explosion ($8), Black Bean and Corn Chilli ($6), and Sweet Tea.

I knew I had  to try the Bacon Explosion!!! The name of it was really attractive and sounded so yummy.

The sandwich, is I quote...

"A Pork meatloaf stuffed with caramelized onions, cheese, and bacon. Then wrapped in more bacon. Then smoked."

It sounded so good I was excited to finally eat it!
First of all, I wish there was more bacon (I'm starting to sound like FoodforBuddha here!). It certainly had the meat loaf texture, the caramelized onions were fragrant and the bacon with the pork was delicious. I couldn't tell there was cheese or bacon. I could taste that there was bacon in it but I couldn't see any or taste the texture of it.
The BBQ sauce was yummy. Tangy and smokey, I would love a bottle of it! It did over power the flavor of the sandwich though.
Overall, I really liked it but it wouldn't fill me up...it needs more meat!

Since Janice (GoodEat) hadn't tried The Brasserie's delicious Chicken Sandwich, we ordered one. It's one of my favorite sandwiches but there was less meat than usual in it this time :(

You can find my previous review on this here

Lastly, Tacofino Cantina. Ever since seeing them on Food Network's Eat St., I was really looking forward to eating the Fish Taco but I didn't want to wait 30min's for it and they were constantly changing locations (inevitable because they are a Food Truck).

A year later, I get to try it.

The Fish Taco ($4.50) with tempure battered ling cod, chipotle mayo, shredded cabbage, salsa fresca all on a fire toasted tortilla.

For me, this was a good fish Taco. Everything was balanced and in proportion, from the fresh salsa+crunchy cabbage to the well fried cod in the warm tortilla. 

I would need at least 4 of these to be even close to full though.

My only complaint was the service. I was standing there for a good few minutes as the lady at the counter was on her iPhone and I had to shout a couple times until she noticed I was standing there.  I know I'm not very tall but I'm not that short!

I assume this is the Surprise Special listed on the Dine Out site. The Fish Taco is already $4.50, Pork Cheek ($4.50) and you are given a choice of the Diablo cookie($2.50) or Caramel tart ($3.50). You save only $1-$1.50.  I don't think it's a great deal.

Finished our eats with Green Tea lattes from Sajin's! 

Gloria's Thoughts on Street Food City

• I thought the idea of Street Food City was a great idea as the idea of "Street Food" in Vancouver is so new and the Vendors are scattered throughout the city and the opportunity to try them are limited. I find many of the carts and trucks are constantly changing locations, I can't find them, or are sold out and close early (I tend to expect them to be open during their times posted).There are many more Vendors not participating in the event but I hope there are more events like this to come, especially during the Summer.
• The Specials listed were either not emphasized enough or not very good i.e Tacofino's Dine Out Menu.

You can find details on Street Food City on their website here and Janice (GoodEat)'s post here..