Trucks and Taps, Patio: Variety, Summer and Good Vibes Collide

Mutual Pick:

T&T: Trucks and Taps, Patio
5402 S 108th St

Greetings, eaters and readers!

For as long as we’ve explored new foods, even in pre-blog days, we wanted to check out Omaha’s vast offering of food trucks. Don’t ask why it took so long, but this past Saturday – we finally accomplished it.

T&T: Trucks and Taps hosted this year’s first Food Truck Rodeo. According to their website, the indoor area (a former Sonic drive thru building) is used as a kitchen for three resident food trucks to cook out of and also houses a full bar. The food trucks are parked around the perimeter of the building outside.

Guests can order food from any of the trucks, grab a drink from the bar window, and eat on the patio (or take food to-go!) In addition to their resident food trucks, T&T hosts rotating guest trucks. The rodeo on April 24th attracted about 10 trucks, local radio station attention and hundreds of people ready to enjoy their vaccinations and the clear skies.

We thought showing up at 1:30pm would allow us to miss the lunch rush. We were wrong. Either everyone had the same idea as us or we all just wanted that fashionably late entrance. The lines twisted and criss-crossed each other in the T&T parking lot. Our strategy quickly went from “try something from each truck” to “jump in the shortest line and eat your previous order while in line.” We wanted to cover as much territory as we could before our stomachs begged us to stop.

We tackled four trucks and four different cuisines/fares, starting with the shortest line: Hawk’s Pizza.

Macho Nacho ($5.50) — Cream cheese, beef, tomatoes, onions, black olives, lettuce
Mac Attack ($5.50) — White sauce, mac ‘n cheese, bacon

The line, while the shortest of the bunch, was still long. But waiting for fresh, made-to-order pizza is always worth it.

Jaclyn’s Macho Nacho was a satisfying slice of pizza – and a great start to the food truck rally. She liked the cream cheese base and crisp, textured crust that held classic taco fixins. She couldn’t eat it fast enough.

Braving the line along while I floated around with my dog, Jac picked the exact right slice for me: Mac Attack. Thin crust, crispy where you want it, cheesy and yummy everywhere else. Loved it.

Fork Rating: Up

Scotch Eggs ($5) — Soft boiled egg wrapped in sausage with curry mayo
Branston Ched Toastie ($5) — Branston pickle chutney and white cheddar grilled on Texas toast

The Dire Lion Grille & Chippy was maybe one of the first smells to hit us after getting our alcohol bracelets. Offering heaping baskets of fish and chips, we worried such a feast would be too heavy if we wanted to cover a lot of ground. In short – we should have ordered what they do best and paid the consequences. Martha had order envy for the rest of the day anytime someone walked by with hot, crispy fish and chips.

Simply put, we ordered the wrong things. Martha had experienced and loved Scotch Eggs before and the concept intrigued Jac. Hot and tasty enough, the outside crust of sausage was overwhelmingly salty. Enough to distract us. The toastie, while a British cousin to grilled cheese, featured chutney and we quickly learned we are not chutney people. Our order is not how we’ll judge The Dire Lion, nor should you. We’ll try it again so it can show us it’s crown jewels – those fish and chips.

Fork Rating: Sideways (our experience is a reflection of our likes/dislikes, not their execution)

10″ Churros ($2 each) — Traditional, Bavarian cream, Oreo, Cajeta
5″ Churros ($2 each or 2/$3.00) — Apple, raspberry

The line at The Churro Truck was consistently the longest – and it had us wondering just how good the churros were. So we grabbed a few Kinkaider Grapefruit Radlers (refreshing!) from a nearby tap truck and jumped in line to wait our turn.

They offered six different types of churros – and we got all of them…times two. In hindsight, we shouldn’t have doubled our order. But our excitement and research methods took over.

We had a few bites of each and ranked them as follows:

1. Oreo
2. Traditional
3. Fruit
4. Bavarian Cream
5. Cajeta (sweet caramel)

It feels sacrilegious to say this out loud, but we like the light and airy version at Taco Johns better. (Please don’t @ us!) These were more dense than we expected, and some of the flavors were disappointing. The apple and raspberry ones – which Jaclyn was most excited for – came out borderline burnt.

We agreed it wasn’t worth the long wait, but we’d love to try their tacos and burritos next time.

Fork Rating: Sideways

Chicken Pad Thai ($8.50) — Stir-fried rice noodles with bean sprouts, egg, green onions, Thai sauce
Crispy Chicken ($8.50) — Deep fried chicken served in a sweet plum sauce

We almost skipped Pim’s Thai as our bellies were full and the sun was beaming down our backs. But we committed to the long line once we learned we could get it to-go.

The few bites of pad Thai Jaclyn ate were hot, fresh and flavorful – and just as delicious for lunch the next day. Albeit not quite as good as Salween’s, it was a close runner up. She’d be interested in trying Pim’s full-fledged restaurant to see what other tasty Thai dishes they have to offer.

The plates of crispy chicken people walked away with look fresh and scrumptious. Somehow, getting it to-go felt underwhelming and maybe smaller portion for same price? Tasty enough, I saved most of it for lunch on Sunday, popping it into my air fryer and made fresh rice. In hindsight, I should have gotten the chicken pad Thai.

Fork Rating: Up

Final Bites

Even if the some of the food was hit or miss, overall, the experience provided by T&T gets two enthusiastic forks up. Employees were friendly and welcoming – and they seem to take good care of their guest trucks – as they frequently checked in with the truck owners to make sure they had everything they needed. Employees all wore masks, but given the outdoor setting – they were optional for patrons.

The whole atmosphere was vibrant. You saw groups of friends, families and dogs all enjoying each others’ company while eating hot, fresh and made-to-order street food. The Food Truck Rodeo brought additional entertainment such as yard games, face painting and radio contests.

We look forward to going back to try another line up of trucks in the near future and we definitely recommend you do, too!

Cheers!
The Good Bite Gals