Meals on Wheels: Our critics review Orlando's best food trucks

Gastro-Truck

@gastro-truck

facebook.com/thegastrotruck

gastro-truck.com

Gastro-Truck hit the scene last year calling itself “the grilled cheese truck,” but ironically, grilled cheese is the least successful item on the menu. They seem to be moving away from that specialization, and it's a smart move - the naan chicken panini ($8), an open-faced, Indian-inflected grilled flatbread, was studded with chunks of absolutely amazing juicy, spicy roasted chicken thigh, laced with delectably salty bacon aioli, scattered with plump, meaty sundried tomatoes, and crowned with peppery arugula. Total win. The apple harvest grilled cheese ($6.50), though - cheddar, apple and honey on multigrain bread - comprised two slices of warmed-but-not-melted cheese and large chunks of apple between slices of dry, dense multigrain at least an inch thick - difficult to eat, and utterly lacking in the advertised “cheesy goodness.”

Gokudo

@gokudoorlando

facebook.com/gokudoorlando

You won't see the new Gokudo truck at bazaars or pods - the owner, who quit his job to make a go of this truck, sticks to his Hunters Creek spot by day and serves at the food truck stop on 17-92 (next to Tom & Jerry's) by night. His stated ambition, to fuse multi-Asian flavors with Euro and Latin techniques, is evident in the Chinese five-spice tofu tacos ($7), slathered in pico de gallo and herbal aioli, and the specialty “OG” ($10), a buttery Malaysian roti stuffed with marinated steak, shredded red cabbage and parsley, caramelized onions, and drizzled with “citrus yum-yum” sauce, salsa and aioli: savory, salty, greasy-in-a-good-way stoner food of the highest order.

Hard Wok Rock 'N Roll Food Truck

@hardwok

iwannawok.com

Some trucks shoot straight for the overserved beer gut. The friendly cooks at Hard Wok know what a drunk belly wants and fashion each of their rotating rock & roll-themed dishes accordingly - and then pile on the cheese. The (incidentally vegetarian-friendly) Fleetwood Mac & Cheese Eggroll ($5) crams creamy, cheesed-up noodles into a sweet deep-fried pastry shell atop loads of seasoned fries, finished with a mountain of shredded cheese. The cheese-heavy, soupy-thick chicken pot pie Appetite for Destruction ($5) favors ladling the buttery, cream-sauced chicken onto fries instead of into a shell, making the savory-salty hot mess irresistible to your alcohol-addled palate.

KBurgers

> Email by Faiyaz Kara, Holly Kapherr, Paul Hiebing, Evan Dobkin, Erin Sullivan, Aimee Vitek and Jessica Bryce Young - photos by Daniel Dorsa

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