OC Food Reviews

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You may not be aware that Pink’s hotdogs, a southern California food landmark, is celebrating it’s 70th anniversary right now. I was having a conversation with someone about it and somehow the conversation turned to food places that you have to wait in long lines at. My friend was emphatic that the food never lives up to the hype. “don’t get me wrong” they said, “Pinks is a good hotdog, just not worth the long wait in line.” I had to emphatically disagree in the case of Pink’s, and maybe a few others, not only is the wait worth it but it’s part of the experience. It maybe kind of hard to understand, but you make friends with the people standing in line with you. You’re all on a food adventure together and it’s a shared experience.

Our conversation inevitably turned to the somewhat infamous Kogi BBQ truck. For those not aware, Kogi BBQ operates taco trucks. Yes, exactly like the shady ones you see parked at construction sites. But what makes them innovative is that they’re quality, gourmet food and instead of targeting construction workers they drive around trying to serve up food to hungry, hip crowds like at clubs and other strategic spots. Kogi technically is Korean BBQ, but they serve a sort of fusion cuisine that is Korean BBQ mixed with Mexican favorites like tacos, burritos, quesadillas and some other taco truck fare like hotdogs and sliders.

My friend insisted that Kogi, like Pink’s, doesn’t live up to the hype and isn’t worth the long wait times in line. Well, it just so happened that I had been tracking their truck’s Orange County locations on their website and was planning on checking it out this evening.

This evening they were parked in Orange not too far from my house, we drove over to the location and had to find parking about a block away. We saw the truck and the impressive line stretching around the parking lot. As we walked over some guy yelled over to us “That’s some line for a roach coach!” Yes it was, but then how many ‘roach coaches’ do you know of with rabid followers who bring portable picnic tables to eat at?

After about a 30min. wait we got to the front of the line and I have to be honest, there were several times I had doubts, wondering if it’s really worth it. Was it really all it was hyped up to be? The aromas coming from their truck and the throngs of people told me this had to be the real deal. We ordered and I got the chicken tacos and the blackjack quesadillas and after about 15 more minutes we got our order.

In the case of Kogi, I have to again emphatically disagree with my friend. I can tell you Kogi lives up to it’s hype, it’s absolutely amazing, mouth watering, delicious BBQ. Yes, it’s worth the wait. Granted we only waited in line for 30min., I’ve heard of lines as long as 1 hour or more. I don’t know if I’d wait in a line that long for it, but I’d seriously consider it, so what does that tell you?

Kogi is yet again another example of one of my basic life lessons: If you’re looking for a good place to eat, you cant go wrong with the place that has the longest line. OK, you CAN go wrong, but very rarely. One of these days I’ll write about one of those places. In the mean time, hunt down a Kogi BBQ truck and chow down!