The Great Food Truck Race - General Discussion

[LittleIggy]

Yeah, the waffle dishes may taste good, but don’t seem very creative.

Edited June 29, 2021 by LittleIggy

[Grizzly]

3 hours ago, GiandujaPie said:

I wish I had known that they were filming there when they did as I would have tried to go into the city LOL. 

You don't follow them on social media? 😏

[seacliffsal]

It seemed like the teams were using social media again during this challenge.  I wonder if Aloha used their media followers too much in the first episodes to continue counting on their spending this far into the competition.  Not very good locations this episode (for the trucks, the ocean was beautiful...) as the usual crowds were just not there during the shutdown.  

I liked the "everyone charge the same price" competition for the beach bites.  It is a kind of level the playing field to see which truck really did sell the most.  

I like all of the teams/trucks so don't really have a favorite for the win. 

[LittleIggy]

Wonder why they stayed in one city this season?

[Starry-Eyed]

Warts aside, this season has been SO much better than the last one it feels like a breath of fresh air.

[emmawoodhouse]

27 minutes ago, Starry-Eyed said:

Warts aside, this season has been SO much better than the last one it feels like a breath of fresh air.

Anything is better than the Alaska season. 

[biakbiak]

20 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

Wonder why they stayed in one city this season?

Tyler mentioned somewhere that it was just easier with different COVID protocols. Traveling from place to place during a pandemic wasn’t encouraged and I imagine for Tyler it was nice that since he lives in Marin he didn’t have to be away from home. 

Edited July 3, 2021 by biakbiak

[Mellowyellow]

18 hours ago, emmawoodhouse said:

Anything is better than the Alaska season. 

I was very anxious watching that season. You don't want to worry that people will freeze to death/get sick/lose their ears when you're watching a food truck show!!! It was so awful I couldn't concentrate on the competition!

[mlp]

I didn't like the delivery part of the episode.  It was too frantic and I can't imagine that the food was in great shape when delivered after the teams were driving all over a busy city in traffic.  Anyway, my favorite two trucks made the finale so I'm happy.  I'm hoping the Lime Truck wins.

[LittleIggy]

25 minutes ago, mlp said:

I didn't like the delivery part of the episode.  It was too frantic and I can't imagine that the food was in great shape when delivered after the teams were driving all over a busy city in traffic.  Anyway, my favorite two trucks made the finale so I'm happy.  I'm hoping the Lime Truck wins.

Not me. They come across as smug to me. Unfortunately, since I don’t like them,  Slime Truck probably will win.

[kirklandia]

I locked my keys in the truck. We're stuck in really bad traffic. Not exactly compelling television.  🥱

[Maverick]

 I thought Seoul overreacted to Line truck a bit.   Sure times are rough...and keeping your tasting plate just one dollar under seventy makes it accessible to the masses.  It sounded like Lime's plate had a ton of food based on their menu that day and probably wasn't much more expensive than buying each item individually. Either way, no one was putting a gun to anyone's head to make them buy it.  

 The delivery challenge was dumb.  The business model of a food truck isn't designed to be a delivery service, especially across half the city.   I can't believe that some "Silicon Valley innovation." 

[Aulty]

LOL this show.

I didn't mind that they had to switch to deliveries only - where I am that was a lifeline for food truck businesses during the height of lockdown. But the way Silicon Valley re-imagined delivery services (Deliveroo, Uber Eats ...) - or whatever Tyler was hinting at - isn't sending two guys out in a sedan during rush hour to do bulk deliveries.
Didn't one of the trucks tell the customer that the food would arrive between 4:30 - 6:30? Who orders food with a 2 hour delivery window?

The hoo haa about Lime Truck's 200+ dollar item? 100% a producer led 'row'. And the fridge in the sausage truck stopped working? And the Waffle guys locked themselves out of their truck.
And a waffle with fried chicken, fried veg and a fried egg is healthy?

[HighQueenEB]

2 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

Not me. They come across as smug to me. Unfortunately, since I don’t like them,  Slime Truck probably will win.

Glad I'm not the only one who things they're smug.  

I don't know how Seoul Sausage can pull out a win with the insane prices that Slime Truck charges but I've been rooting for them for a few episodes now.

[Maya]

I thought Waffle Love would win as soon as they added a cinnamon waffle with cream cheese icing Lol. Seriously the last thing I would order for delivery would be a waffle that had been prepared two hours ago and was now cold, limp and soggy. 

Dumb question- does Seoul Sausage even sell sausage? I am honestly asking because I don’t think I’ve seen it yet. 
 

[biakbiak]

1 hour ago, Maya said:

does Seoul Sausage even sell sausage?

 Not sure if they have done it this season but in the last they did patties because because casing sausage in the truck during the challenges wasn’t feasible. On their actual food truck the sausage was prepped in a commissary kitchen. 

They delivered to my friends apartment building! 

I mean if someone who is willing to pay $205 for quesadillas and chips and salsa, I can’t fault Lime Truck for taking advantage of that to win the competition. That said no those plates were not worth that money, so Lime trying to justify it as being a value for the quality was ridiculous. 

Edited July 5, 2021 by biakbiak

[Aulty]

3 hours ago, Maya said:

Dumb question-does Seoul Sausage even sell sausage? I am honestly asking because I don’t think I’ve seen it yet.

 

1 hour ago, biakbiak said:

 Not sure if they have done it this season but in the last they did patties because because casing sausage in the truck during the challenges wasn’t feasible. On their actual food truck the sausage was prepped in a commissary kitchen. 

They did hot dogs on day 2 this week iirc, but I too was wondering why sausages didn't feature more prominently on their menu. Thanks @biakbiak - if they are used to making their own sausage, I can see why its tricky to do them on the GFTC.

I am rooting for the sausage boys now because their chef is very likeable and looks like a Korean Dave Grohl. Yes, I am shallow ;-)

Edited July 5, 2021 by Aulty

[Grizzly]

Did I hear correctly? Some lady came up and ordered 4 taste of the trucks? Was she the mother of someone on Lime Truck? Her and what army was carrying all that food away? Wish we had seen people eating that food. Found it curious that there weren't any customer testimonials. We just heard from the guest judge how great everything was. I liked that Waffle Love was the truck of choice for nursing homes. Their price point was never going to get them the overall win.

[xaxat]

1 hour ago, Grizzly said:

Did I hear correctly? Some lady came up and ordered 4 taste of the trucks? Was she the mother of someone on Lime Truck?

I wondered the same thing! She dropped over $900 for food truck food? I wish we knew more about how Lime managed to rack up thousands more in sales than the other two trucks combined. 

14 hours ago, Maverick said:

 I thought Seoul overreacted to Line truck a bit. 

I did too. But I wonder how much of that was frustration from the fact that they could see Lime pumping out the food and knew they were getting their ass kicked.

If I stumbled on a food park with the trucks from this season, I think Lime would be last on my list. It is clear that their food is good, but it's not what I would be looking for from a truck.

[biakbiak]

15 minutes ago, xaxat said:

But I wonder how much of that was frustration from the fact that they could see Lime pumping out the food and knew they were getting their ass kicked.

I also wonder how much it had to do with the state of the restaurant/food truck industry during the pandemic. I noticed that when Seoul Sausage were doing their deliveries they actual delivered to 3-4 restaurants, so I could see being annoyed by someone dropping so much money on basically a “fake” food truck when they aren’t keeping their profits and not doing it to support themselves/employees would be kind of annoying when they could have put that money into places that were actually struggling which would sort of be an argument against this whole season. Or maybe have another method of payment/deciding on a winner.

Edited July 5, 2021 by biakbiak

[Chyromaniac]

3 hours ago, Grizzly said:

Did I hear correctly? Some lady came up and ordered 4 taste of the trucks? Was she the mother of someone on Lime Truck? Her and what army was carrying all that food away? Wish we had seen people eating that food.

I assumed she was some kind of tech/finance/insurance/etc... manager buying lunch for her team- and that the bill would be written off as a business expense.  Sure, it’s conspicuous consumption- but hey, they’re at a farmers market at an NBA arena.  Despite Seoul Sausage’s intentions, this isn’t exactly a “feed the masses” situation.  To be honest though, if the $205 priced out comparably to buying the menu items a la carte, then I don’t have a huge problem with it anyway.  Like I said with the $75 Aloha challenge item, this is a game show- can’t fault them for playing by game show rules.  If they can talk people into spending that much on takeout, then so be it.  Having said that, I also hate the frat bro antics from Lime.  Also, did I miss them getting their Michelin Star?  Sorry dudes, you don’t get to say your food is Michelin quality unless you’ve actually won that award.

With the delivery challenge, I was surprised to only see Seoul using an insulated bag- Lime and Waffle both looked like they were stacking orders in paper grocery bags.  Given the arrival windows they were quoting, I can’t imagine I’d be happy with either truck’s deliveries.

[biakbiak]

6 minutes ago, Chyromaniac said:

3 hours ago, Grizzly said:

 

I assumed she was some kind of tech/finance/insurance/etc... manager buying lunch for her team- and that the bill would be written off as a business expense.

Doubtful virtual everyone in those industries in SF were working from home. 

[Chyromaniac]

3 hours ago, biakbiak said:

Doubtful virtual everyone in those industries in SF were working from home. 

Admittedly, this wasn’t intended to be an exhaustive list.  My point was more that there is no way- in my estimation- that a $900+ takeout bill doesn’t wind up as a tax deduction.

[seacliffsal]

Unless it's someone's mom buying the "eat the truck" option...

[biakbiak]

2 minutes ago, seacliffsal said:

Unless it's someone's mom buying the "eat the truck" option...

Or in this case grandmother, she was an older looking woman.

[LittleIggy]

I doubt “Taste of the Truck” gets one a full serving of each menu item. 
I don’t think anything from a food truck constitutes “fine dining” however fancy the food is. Dining includes ambience, service, presentation, etc., IMO.

[dmeets]

Seoul [Everything But] Sausage can shove their moral outrage up their ass. 

[VanillaBear85]

I was with Seoul Sausage as $200 for any food truck items is absolutely absurd. However, Lime was right when they called out how Seoul didn't have any prices listed on their menu. 

 

[tinkerbell]

On 7/4/2021 at 10:56 PM, mlp said:

I didn't like the delivery part of the episode.  It was too frantic and I can't imagine that the food was in great shape when delivered after the teams were driving all over a busy city in traffic.  Anyway, my favorite two trucks made the finale so I'm happy.  I'm hoping the Lime Truck wins.

Right.  There are no food trucks around me.  But I imagine the appeal would be to get hot, fresh  food.  I assume the quality would suffer when delivered.  When we get takeout or delivery, we try to stick to foods that travel well.  

I would think the waffles, especially, would suffer after a few minutes, the toppings soaking into the waffle.

[tinkerbell]

13 hours ago, Chyromaniac said:

Admittedly, this wasn’t intended to be an exhaustive list.  My point was more that there is no way- in my estimation- that a $900+ takeout bill doesn’t wind up as a tax deduction.

Could be a drug company representative -  they often meet with doctors, and bring lunch for the staff, since they're not allowed to bring "gits"  any more.  

And health care offices are one business that remains open.

[GeorgiaRai]

I knew they couldn't compete with the menus & price points of the others, but I'm sorry to see the WaffleBros leave.  

I can't fault teams for playing by the rules, but I wish the rules were set up to more accurately reflect the realities of cooking & selling on a food truck.  I mean, in real life, how often could you call your SM followers and ask them to come buy a $200 tasting menu, or a $65 entre?  My experience (admittedly limited, and far, far from  California!) is that trucks  have to appeal to passers-by or random groups, drawing people in with appealing food AND prices.  Calling in favors from people with deep pockets may be fair, but I don't find it fun to watch.  

More same-priced items challenges, or points for customer satisfaction might be interesting.  Then you'd have to serve 10 items to 10 people to get 10 votes, instead of a single $900 order to one person.  

Anyway...go Seoul!

[LittleIggy]

3 hours ago, GeorgiaRai said:

I knew they couldn't compete with the menus & price points of the others, but I'm sorry to see the WaffleBros leave.  

I can't fault teams for playing by the rules, but I wish the rules were set up to more accurately reflect the realities of cooking & selling on a food truck.  I mean, in real life, how often could you call your SM followers and ask them to come buy a $200 tasting menu, or a $65 entre?  My experience (admittedly limited, and far, far from  California!) is that trucks  have to appeal to passers-by or random groups, drawing people in with appealing food AND prices.  Calling in favors from people with deep pockets may be fair, but I don't find it fun to watch.  

More same-priced items challenges, or points for customer satisfaction might be interesting.  Then you'd have to serve 10 items to 10 people to get 10 votes, instead of a single $900 order to one person.  

Anyway...go Seoul!

I agree. I would rather see a more level playing field. I didn’t see the early seasons of this show so I wonder if there was pricing like this before.

[Starry-Eyed]

On 7/7/2021 at 5:17 PM, LittleIggy said:

I agree. I would rather see a more level playing field. I didn’t see the early seasons of this show so I wonder if there was pricing like this before.

In my recollection, challenges like that were more common. I've been rewatching some of the older seasons FN has on demand to refresh my memory on all the different trucks.

IMO, the rise of social media to be SUCH a huge societal force crept up slowly on this show and then washed it out. There's a big difference between building awareness of your truck, so people who happen to live in a city might come out on a filming day, and the kind of clout that gets people to buy a single item for $75.

[LittleIggy]

I almost don’t want to watch tonight because I know Lime Disease will win.

[Gramto6]

Yerppers, Lime won... even after Sausage Boys won both challenges.  Not that impressed with their rice bowl with an egg and pork belly...sheesh I could make that anytime...

[LittleIggy]

How does one eat chicken feet? Where is the meat? Is there any?

[Chyromaniac]

If I never hear the phrase “taste le truck” again, it will be too soon.

[emmawoodhouse]

Wow, even with the extra $800, Lime destroyed Seoul. I thought it would be much closer.

[Gramto6]

9 minutes ago, emmawoodhouse said:

Wow, even with the extra $800, Lime destroyed Seoul. I thought it would be much closer.

Yeah from Tyler's comments half-way through it sounded like they were pretty close.

[emmawoodhouse]

5 minutes ago, Gramto6 said:

Yeah from Tyler's comments half-way through it sounded like they were pretty close.

Right. After day one, it was $59, but that didn't factor in the Chinatown challenge.

[biakbiak]

4 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

How does one eat chicken feet? Where is the meat? Is there any?

Not really you’re eating the skin and cartilage.

 

[Madding crowd]

I didn’t want the Lime truck to win; their fine dining prices didn’t seem to fit with a food truck and I never understood their point of view. I don’t think I will watch again between the dismal Alaska season and this one where they apparently had loads of wealthy followers eager to spend hundreds of dollars on casual take out food.

Edited July 12, 2021 by Madding crowd

[LittleIggy]

They need a way to determine the ultimate winner besides the most sales on the last two days of competition. Seoul Sausage won almost all of the taste challenges. Couldn’t the number of taste challenge wins count toward who is the season winner, beyond just the extra cash? 
Slime Truck acted as if big prawns in a taco was something amazing. Uh, no, a restaurant where I live does that and you can get them for $2.50 each on Taco Tuesday! 😋

[Lurk]

2 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

They need a way to determine the ultimate winner besides the most sales on the last two days of competition. Seoul Sausage won almost all of the taste challenges. Couldn’t the number of taste challenge wins count toward who is the season winner, beyond just the extra cash? 
Slime Truck acted as if big prawns in a taco was something amazing. Uh, no, a restaurant where I live does that and you can get them for $2.50 each on Taco Tuesday! 😋

IIRC earlier on, they had a final "race" at the end on one season where they had to complete selling and challenges. The winner was the one who found Tyler first. I think there was some backlash about that because the one that lost had done more sales or was better liked by the public or something. Some accusations of cheating? Then they seemed to change the finale.

[LittleIggy]

2 minutes ago, Lurk said:

IIRC earlier on, they had a final "race" at the end on one season where they had to complete selling and challenges. The winner was the one who found Tyler first. I think there was some backlash about that because the one that lost had done more sales or was better liked by the public or something. Some accusations of cheating? Then they seemed to change the finale.

Oh, I wouldn’t want any silly stunts like that. I’m just wondering if they could use the taste challenges as part of the final determination.

[Lurk]

2 minutes ago, LittleIggy said:

Oh, I wouldn’t want any silly stunts like that. I’m just wondering if they could use the taste challenges as part of the final determination.

If they awarded points for the rankings each week by sales and extra points for winning challenges, that would be good. Similar to the way that I know NASCAR does for driver's standings. They really should take into account the overall season performance, food quality, etc. and not just base if off of the total sales.

I don't eat out that often and I do realize that menu prices have increased a lot (especially for fast food?!?!?), but their pricing is out of hand on the show. Then you see local food trucks pricing every item so that you would spend over $20 for 1 person to have a main, a side and a drink. It's nuts.

Everyone should know that this type of food truck has the best food and prices.  Not the artsy-fartsy-overpriced-"gourmet" trucks. lol
 

[seacliffsal]

I grew so tired of the Lime Truck that I was really hoping Seoul would win.  The Lime narrator was beginning to irk me.  And, I was dumbfounded by their claims of higher quality ingredients in a food truck format as I was like "but, aren't you shopping at the same grocery stores as the other truck's?  Why are you promoting superior ingredients when they are the same as everyone else's???"

I wonder if it would help balance out the competition to have a price ceiling?  If trucks were limited as to how much they are able to charge it might level the playing field a bit. There's no way someone like the Waffle Guys could charge what some of the other trucks could-especially 'taste the truck' types of menus.  I ended up not really being that invested in this show (except that during the last episode I wanted the Seoul guys to win) as it seemed to be about who could get their customers to pay the most rather than who had the best food and/or volume of sales.  I think I also got tired of the competition being set in San Francisco the entire time (that also allowed for devoted followers to come out every time for "their" truck).

[biakbiak]

13 minutes ago, seacliffsal said:

that also allowed for devoted followers to come out every time for "their" truck).

That’s one thing that mimics a lot of the real food truck experience at least in my experience where people follow specific trucks to different locations.

[LittleIggy]

Yeah, I was tired of them being in the same city the entire time. That was boring.

[LittleIggy]

1 hour ago, biakbiak said:

That’s one thing that mimics a lot of the real food truck experience at least in my experience where people follow specific trucks to different locations.

But it’s not a part of the show’s premise to stay in one place. Convenient for Tyler but...