- Taste/Flavor
- Quality/Freshness
- Service/Friendliness
- Creativity/Truck Design
- Cleanliness/Organization
The food truck scene is hot in New York City, and it’s getting hotter by the minute.
There’s a wide representation of cuisine flooding the streets, but Thai food is tough to find. I stumbled upon Tuk Tuk Boy by accident one day, and I was pleasantly surprised.
I was in the mood for carbs, and decided to go for the Shrimp Pad Thai. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from a small food cart with a short line. But for $8, I thought it was worth the shot.
This Pad Thai was incredibly fresh. Nothing was prepared in advance. While I was waiting for my to-go bag, the two guys in the cart were knee deep in pots and woks. Service was more congenial than the other trucks I have visited, and I didn’t mind waiting ten minutes for freshly prepared food.
The shrimp were not the highlight of the dish, but they were cooked well and plentiful.
Flavor flavor flavor! This Pad Thai had more than I can remember in recent New York history, and I’ve savored my share of it. The dish had a kick complimenting the sweetness that we all love about Pad Thai. It was topped with loads of fresh egg, peanuts, and bean sprouts, and had the perfect quantity of each ingredient. This is something I have always found to be a challenge in noodle dishes, or any one-pot dish. Maintaining the balance of the ingredients is never easy. Too much of one and not enough of another can quickly ruin a plate of otherwise delicious food. Tuk Tuk Boy obviously measures precisely, or eyes it perfectly.
As far as appearance and cleanliness, it wasn’t number one. But, it’s a tiny cart with two guys cooking up a storm for hours at a time. I get messy in my kitchen, which is twice the size, so I’ll cut them slack on this one.
It won’t be long until the secret is out. The other dishes like traditional red and green curries are priced well too. This menu offers a lot of bang for the buck, and with the shortage of Thai trucks in Manhattan, Tuk Tuk is sure to be a hit.
