All Wrapped Up

Among Reno’s recent sea of greasy spoon style food trucks, All Wrapped Up seemed like a little oasis of healthier options. I was excited when I first walked up to the new, shiny and huge food truck last night at the Sparks Food Truck Drive-​In.
The first issue I encountered was the menu. From the street, it was quite hard to read the menu and the food items had no descriptions. Just going off of the writing on top of the truck, I decided to wait in line and see what type of wraps and salads these guys had to offer. After a few customers ordered, I was able to read the printed menu that was hanging on the order window. I had come with the intention of getting a salad and was sad to see that there were only two salad options, both seemingly uninspired. One salad option was a garden salad and one was the crazy salad (the garden salad with chicken and guacamole added). I did appreciate the sign that said «all dressings made fresh daily.» However, after being so uninspired, I quickly took another glance at the menu to see if perhaps I could have one of their wraps made into a salad, as several of them sounded much more interesting than the salads. As I was reading, I happened upon the Indecent Exposure — Teriyaki Chicken Lettuce Wraps made with water chestnuts, onions, chicken and mushrooms in a teriyaki sauce ($ 8). I decided that since I could easily make the same salads they offered at home, that I would try something more interesting, and ordered up the Indecent Exposure. Being that this was a new food truck to the scene, I decided it would be fun to try a couple of things and opted for an order of Falafel Balls ($ 4).
My excitement came to a screeching halt after the customer after me ordered the Indecent Exposure, asked for it without mushrooms, and was told by the server that the mixture was pre-​made but that you couldn’t even taste the mushrooms. After waiting approximately 10 – 15 minutes for the food, my first thought when seeing it was «interesting.» The falafel balls looked more like greasy grilled falafel pancakes and my lettuce wraps looked like saucy lettuce boats — good thing they included a fork with that one! When I sat down, I tried to pick the lettuce wraps up but had no such luck as the narrow, soft piece of romaine lettuce was no match for the weight of the goopy Indecent Exposure. At first bite I decided that the server was totally right — you couldn’t taste the mushrooms amongst the sea of store bought teriyaki sauce. Although it was not mentioned on the menu, these teriyaki boats made with processed/​canned-​food also included some canned pineapple and shredded carrots — sweet on sweet on sweet. Using my fork, I reluctantly choked down a few bites of my «lettuce wraps» and watched as the teriyaki sauce pooled in the shells of the romaine leaves.
Perhaps worse that the teriyaki boats were the falafel balls, which were more like gummy falafel hockey pucks. Three heavy, dense, greasy falafel pucks were cooked on a flat top griddle and served on top of dry shredded iceberg with a few slices of tomato and cucumber. These pucks were chewy and textureless… definitely not like any falafel that I am used to. I was with 5 others and everyone tried them and had the same reaction — yuck. I even tried dipping them in my friend’s ranch dressing for a little added something and still yuck. After 6 people tried them, one of which spit hers out, there were still 2.5 out of 3 falafel pucks that made their way to the trash can.
I take my reviews seriously and don’t wish to hurt local businesses, which is why very few of my reviews receive less than 3 stars. However, my overall opinion of this truck is that they seriously needs to get their act together. Paying $ 12 for below average packaged and processed food is not going to cut it in Reno’s up-​and-​coming food scene, truck or otherwise. I hope that this review provides some constructive feedback as to what customers in our market are looking for — food that is light, fresh, made in house, and with a correct balance of flavor. To give them the benefit of the doubt, perhaps it was just my 2 dishes that were not good, as my friend did seem to enjoy her wrap, but for a truck that serves a limited menu, 2 of the 10 dishes is not a good ratio. I hope to see improvements in the future.