North Hills Food Truck Roundup 2.0

 A great thing happened in the North Hills over the past weekend. Some of the best food trucks in Pittsburgh all gathered in the parking lot of Coffee Buddha  on RT 19 in Perrysville. So let me share some pictures and tastes from the gathering.


Click on pics for high resolution goodness.

 Fukuda truck was selling Japanese treats.

  The Polish food truck was serving combinations of Haluski (noodles & cabbage), stuffed cabbage, and pierogies. They also had frozen pierogies to go.
 The platter I ordered had 2 stuffed cabbage and three potato and cheese pierogies. The stuffed cabbage was filled with your typical meat and rice filling, but had a nice mild spice to it. The pierogies were tender, and the filling was not at all bland, but had a nice potato and cheese flavor.

 Bakery Treats

 Ice Cream

 BRGR out of East Liberty selling burgers and stuff. Check out my review of their restaurant in East Liberty HERE.

 Franktuary selling hot dogs.

 Oh My Grill selling gourmet grilled cheese with dipping sauces.

 Me and my eating partner ordered the "Number One", the Grilled Cuban, and an order of Parmesan Spinach Balls.

 The Parm Spinach balls were little fritters filled with spinach, parmesan cheese, and lots of flavor. The spicy mayo on top was an excellent finishing touch.

 The "Number One" came with smoked gouda, cheddar cheese,  bacon, and grilled onions. It was accompanied with a potato soup dipper.
 Great sandwich. The cheddar cheese gave a nice bite to the overall savoriness of this sandwich. The potato soup for dipping did not add much, but the sandwich was so damn good, it really did not need it. Honestly I could have ate 4 of these. However they are a little pricy at $7.00.

 
  The Grilled Cuban came with ham, turkey ,swiss, diced pickle and accompanied with a Mojo dipping sauce. This sandwich was just as awesome as "The Number One". The Mojo dipping sauce is what really pushed this sandwich over the top. It was very complex with flavors of lime, garlic, and herbs. Once agian I felt  the sandwiches price of  $8.00 was a little pricey for its size, but the damn thing was so good I would not hesitate to get it again.

 The Pittsburgh Taco Truck I actually had visited a few days before when it was parked up at the Coffee Buddha. Im glad I did because it was easily the most popular food truck at the roundup and the line was long and not moving all that fast. On their behalf, they do make all the tacos to order which explains the long wait time.

View from the Taco Truck

  This was the menu the day I went.You might think 4-5 dollars for a taco is a little pricey, but trust me they really do use good ingredients and the tacos are loaded to the brim.

 The Korean Flank Steak with Kimchi taco was impressive. The steak was cooked a perfect medium as I had ordered it. The steak had a nice soy/sweet flavor as well. The kimchee added saltiness to the savory steak, The grilled soft corn tortillas struggled to hold all the awesomeness

 The Jerk Chicken Taco with Avocado Cream was my personal favorite. The chicken had been marinaded and seasoned perfectly with jerk seasoning which imparted flavors of allspice, shallots, and peppers. It was spicy hot, but not to the point of setting your mouth on fire.The avocado cream added a mellow coolness to the spicy jerk chicken.

 The 1/3 pound angus beef taco with cheddar and truck salsa was the least inspired of their taco varieties. The ground beef  was a tad greasy and I thought the salsa had a bit too much cilantro. This pretty much tasted like a Mexican hamburger.
 All in all though I was quite pleased with the Pittsburgh Taco Truck and will definitely stop by again soon.

  Fellow food blogger, and very cute taco, Becky was at the roundup as well. Check out her blog at Sabor PGH. It is an excellent blog about the Pittsburgh food scene that you should be reading.

North Hills Food Truck Roundup 3.0 will be happening on April 27, 12:00, at the Coffee Buddha in the North Hills next month. So make plans now for one of the most awesome and tasty happenings in Pittsburgh.

The Church Brew Works

 After a day of hitting the museums in Oakland, my friends and I headed down to The Church Brew Works for some dinner and refreshments.

Beer Sampler

 It goes without saying that the Church has some of the best beer in Pittsburgh and my dining experiences in the past here have been quite good. So lets see how the food would be on this pleasant Saturday Afternoon.

Cup of 7 Onion Soup $4.50

The 7 Onion Soup was outstanding. Laced with the Church's own Pious Monk Dunkle beer, the soup had great onion and beef flavor. Its topped with homemade croutons and melted provolone cheese which adds a nice dimension of gooey tasty cheesiness. You cant go wrong with this soup as a starter on a cold Winters day.

Shinkasa Cheese Steak $11.75

    The Shinkasa Cheese Steak was your typical generic cheese steak sandwich. They use high quality Morgan Ranch Kobe beef on this, but the subtle flavors of that are washed out by the preponderance of peppers and onions. The sandwich could have used a little more steak on it in my opinion, especially at an $11.75 price point. The accompanying french fries were limp and soggy, looking like they had been sitting out for quite some time.

Cinco Fromaggio Pizza $9.25

 The Cinco Fromaggio Pizza is cooked in the Church's wood fired oven and is topped with Mozzarella, provolone, jack, feta and Parmesan cheese, olive oil, garlic, basil and pine nuts. My dining companion also had chicken placed on it for an additional cost. The flavor of the pizza was very good, having a nice tang from all the different cheeses. However the crust was underdone in the middle and bottom while the outside was slightly burnt. Seems like the cooking surface of the oven was not at an adequate temperature to thoroughly cook the pizza on the bottom. 

Buffalo and Wild Mushroom Meatloaf

 Having had this dish before I was looking forward to trying it again. But things were not the same. First off the meatloaf itself came to the table lukewarm at best. The potatoes were not cooked all the way through. Also the first time I had this dish you could see the bits and chunks of wild mushrooms throughout the entire meatloaf, but now the mushrooms were indistinguishable from the buffalo meat itself. But worse of all was the fact that the meatloaf had almost zero flavor, with only the tomato demi-glace that covered the meatloaf imparting any flavor. All in all a big disappointment for what was once an outstanding dish.

  So a mixed bag at the Church Brew Works.  While the beer was as usual top notch, the food seems to have slipped a little since the last time I had visited. But I will be back if for anything to have one of their  freshly made Celestial Gold beers.

  RATING: 6/10

Patron Mexican Grill

 Patron Mexican Grill has three locations throughout the Pittsburgh area. Word of mouth has been pretty mixed on it. 

That is the seat back of a booth

  We went to dinner on a Saturday night and were quickly seated. The decor is a colorful festive Mexican motiff, which reminded me of eating at the long gone Chi-Chi's.



Chips and Salsa (Free)

   Our meal started out with complimentry chips and salsa. The chips were nice and warm. The salsa was slightly spicy with a strong taste of cilantro.




Side Salad ($4.25)

 The side salad was complete garbage. They actually gave you packets of Newman dressing. Ok at Mcdonalds, not at a sit down restaurant.

Queso Fundido ($9.99)

     The Queso Fundido is melted chihuahua cheese with chorizo sausage, bell peppers, and onions. Its like a Mexican style Fondue and you use the warm soft flour tortillas to scoop it up. The juice from the chorizo sausage infuses with the cheese and makes a very nice dip. Just make sure you eat it quickly before the cheese congeals.

Chili Relleno ($4.99)

 The Chili Relleno is a big ass poblano pepper stuffed with cheese, breaded and deepfried, then covered with tomato sauce and more cheese. This was a mediocre dish. The pepper was very mild putting out barely any heat, let alone flavor. Any cruchiness from frying the pepper was undone by the liquidy tomato sauce. This actually reminded me of eating an eggplant parmesan.

3 Beef Soft Tacos ($5.99)

 One of the good things about Patron is that you can order A la carte. So if you just want a single chimichaunga or burrito without the rice and fixins, you can do that. My companion ordered the beef tacos with soft tortillas. They come with ground beef , lettuce, and chihuahau cheese on top. The beef could use some more seasoning as it is rather plain. But if you get some limes and salsa to put on these, you can doctor them up to be pretty tasty.

Fajita Azteca Fixins

Fajita Azteca ($14.99)

  The Fajita Azteca comes on  sizzling skillet with chicken, carnitas (pork), steak, chorizo sausage, and peppers and onions. Which you obviously put on warm soft flour tortillas. This was maybe the best fajita plate I have ever had. All the different meats had a distincive taste and texture with the steak being my favorite being both tender and well seasoned, and with such a variety I was able to basicly make a soft taco with each different type of meat.

 So my impressions of Patron were mixed. While I found the fajitas to be excellent, I found other dishes like the salad and the Chili Relleno to be from terrible to mediocre. All in all I would say that I would visit Patron again. While not the best or most authentic Mexican dishes you will find, it is reasonably priced, has quick service, and if anything they have excellent fajitas.


RATING : 6/10