The Saturday food-truck roster, finally written down
A working list of the trucks that show up on Abbotsford Road every Saturday lunchtime, who orders what, and which ones run out by 1pm.
If you have ever stood on Abbotsford Road on a Saturday at half past twelve, scanning the line of trucks parked behind the panel-beater, wondering which one is going to be worth the seven-minute wait, this is the post you needed three years ago. We finally wrote it down.
The roster is not official, the trucks are not paid to be there, and nobody printed a schedule. They show up because the owner of the lot lets them, the council looks the other way, and the queue tends to settle around three hundred people by 1pm. The people running the trucks know each other. The regulars who eat there know each other too. It is the closest thing the precinct has to a Saturday market, and almost nobody outside of three nearby suburbs knows it exists.
The five regulars
Tio's Tacos. First in, last out. The al pastor is the order. They run out of the cabbage slaw by 1.30pm so do not wait if you can avoid it. Cash and card. The owner used to run a kitchen in Mexico City and will tell you about it if you ask twice.
Mama Sue's Banh Mi. Pork belly with the egg. That is the entire menu, basically. Eight dollars when we last checked. Sue's son took over the truck last year and changed almost nothing except the bread, which improved.
Patty Wagon. A burger truck run by a couple who spent ten years cooking in pubs around the inner-north. The smashed double with American cheese is the move. They sell out by 1pm consistently. They do not take pre-orders. Stop asking.
Roti Cart. One man, one tawa, one queue. Murtabak with egg, fifteen dollars. Worth it. He shuts down between 1pm and 1.30pm to clean the tawa, do not get angry at him, just come back.
Wood-Oven Pizza. The truck is a converted horse float with a deck oven welded into the floor. Three pizzas on the menu, all of them good. The fennel sausage one is the order if you have not been before.
The two rotating slots
There is a Korean fried-chicken truck that shows up roughly every second Saturday. There is a Sri Lankan kothu truck that shows up roughly every third. There is occasionally a churros van. The roster is set on Friday nights via a group chat we are not in. If you are in the chat, hello, we hope this post is broadly accurate.
The wildcard
Once a month, give or take, a slot opens up and a truck nobody has seen before turns up. We have eaten Trinidadian doubles, Hainanese chicken rice, Persian saffron rice with chicken thigh, and on one strange afternoon last winter, what the woman behind the counter described to us as "Newcastle-style chips and gravy". The chips and gravy were excellent.
Logistics
Parking is impossible between noon and 2pm. Walk from the train station, it is six minutes. Bring cash for the older trucks, card works at the newer ones. The chairs are gone by 12.45pm so come early or eat standing up. The bin situation is fine if you walk to the corner.
The roster moves around. We will update this page when we hear about new trucks settling in. If you run a truck and want to be on the list, our contact page is a few clicks away.
Read next
For sit-down dining the rotating Eat with us shortlist is the page. The monthly calendar covers events that overlap with the truck weekends, and Dogs Day Out is the Saturday edition you bring the dog to. Practical local recommendations for the unglamorous stuff, plumbers, mowers, electricians, sit on The Local List.