Downtown Kitchener Food Truck Mini-Festival

Kitchener City Hall
200 King Street West
Kitchener, ON

In her opinion:
As our readers know, I love a good food truck event and any opportunity to try the innovative cuisine available at these truck events means we are usually there! So when they announced this event for this Sunday, we were all over it. The only downside was the fact that it was the same weekend as the Serbian Food Festivals...but as foodies, bloggers and all around good eaters...we took it all in stride!

As we walked up to the venue, I did a quick survey of the area and realized right away that there wasn't 10 food trucks there...there were only 6 trucks and half of them were sold out or gone by 4:00pm. We decided to just grab food from 2 trucks...S.W.A.T. and Cafe du Monde Creperie. We separated and stood for about 1 hour at each line...that is a very long time and a lot of people in front and behind me gave up and left. I endured and hoped that it would be worth it.

I ordered the Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich from S.W.A.T. The service was very quick once you ordered...I didn't wait more then 3 minutes for the sandwich. The sandwich itself was just okay...nothing special. The flavour was lacking. The onions and mushrooms were okay but there was a lot of black burnt residue from the grill on the sandwich and that gave it a bitter flavour. The cheese of the cheesesteak was almost non-existent. Overall, I was disappointed and the fact that I waited almost an hour for this made for an even more bitter taste in my mouth.

Edgar stood in line at the Cafe du Monde Creperie truck and he ordered the "Original Crepe" with nutella and bananas...that's my Paris favourite. This again was a little disappointing...the filling was abundant and very good but the crepe was a little crispy and not the soft consistency that you expect from a really good crepe. It was not as disappointing as the sandwich but still disappointing after over an hour wait.

Overall, I was not impressed at all with the event...not enough trucks...not enough food for the crowds and the caliber of food was not up to the standards of other food truck events.

In his opinion:
Food truck events are always a big priority for us and usually gets us pretty excited. Toss in the fact that this one is happening in our own backyard and there was more added excitement in the mix. We have quite a few food truck events under our belt now so, when a new event comes up we have lots to compare it to.

As the event was being advertised as 10+ Food Trucks for the line-up, it was a disappointment to arrive and see only 6 trucks at Kitchener's City Hall. I understand that late cancellations are something that sometimes cannot be avoided, having only 60% of the trucks expected spells disappointment to anyone attending.

Okay, so there is only 6 trucks so we figured that we would make the best out of the event. We arrived at the event around 3 PM, not even halfway though the projected time of the event (11 AM-7 PM). Our intention was to not be there for the lunch time crowd and avoid the worse line-ups of the day. It seemed it had succeeded as the line-ups were not horrible for a free food truck event. 

Please understand that going to a food truck event that is open to everyone (no cover charge) you MUST expect long line-ups and be ready to strategize your food options to maximize your time there. It is unfortunate but just the way it is and not much can be done about it. Your only hope is for fast service.

Noticing some of the people waiting complaining on how slow the line-ups were, we decided to split up and each take one food truck order. I picked "Cafe du Monde Creperie" and my better half picked Kitchener's own S.W.A.T. Food truck. The lineup at the Cafe Du Monde seemed minimal, less than 20 people so I thought that for sure I would get my food quick. Fast forward 1 hour and 15 minutes and I finally reached the window to order, but still another 20 minutes away from getting my food. 

This is unreasonable and a poor showing for a truck selling crepes and fries. The "Original" crepe that I ordered was nutella with bananas was unfortunately, just okay. Not a complete waste but miles from being worth waiting over 1 hour and a half for.

For the other truck, SWAT we waited just over one hour for a Philly cheesesteak sandwich which again was just ordinary. Granted that the line-up was 3-4 times longer than the creperie, they were able to be much quicker, even though 1 full hour went by. 

Adding to injury, the Schmuck Truck had ran out of food before we even got there, the Great British Bake Truck closed while we were in line and Cool Jim's Ice Cream truck left during the same period. This meant that the only truck we could still get food from besides the ones we were lining up for, was the Luchador Mexi-fusion Truck that had the biggest line-up of all of them. It ended up not happening as when we finished our food the line-ups were still very long.

Overall, I understand the complexity of putting together a food truck show and you cannot control how fast the trucks serve their food. I am grateful that someone had the idea to create this event in our area and I'm sure a lot will be learned for next year's event, if they chose to have another.

Much needs to be changed and the preparation/execution for this event has to be reconsidered. I would like to thank the people that brought this event to our Region and even though it was a bit disappointing this year, I'm sure next year's will be much better.