This was one of three Toronto Food Truck Festivals to be held in Toronto. The first one was at Woodbine Park over the July-August long weekend. My SO was rarely eats out but she was very keen on trying food from the Toronto Food Truck Festival. With Woodbine park and beach in the area, the plan was turning into a foodie, family event for the day.

Atmosphere:

There were multiple gate entrances into the food festival area with various SickKids donation booths in front. With many of these events, there was security on hand to search your bags as you enter the main grounds. I recalled seeing about 20-30 food trucks in the area and was pretty excited and confused at the same time. I was just thinking - how do you find a vendor? No wonder why Costco only gives you like 1-2 options for product types ...

I decided on the following strategy for picking a food truck vendor:

• If there are long lines (this totally backfired on me in a good way)
• Identify vendors with more complex food items rather than simple preparation foods 
• Avoid places I have been to or tried
• Searching online for some initial reviews

As the day went into the evening, the event got more crowded with people but still walk-able in comparison to the Toronto Night It Up Food Markets (think a can of sardines). There were a lot of chairs and tables around the center stage which was featuring live music and performances. There were also some freebies from the event: VQA (providing free wine), free Sprite drinks, air-bnb promotions, discounts for paper towels, tiny lobster poutine from PEI food truck, etc

Food Comments:

There were so many food trucks to choose from and we decided on the following trucks/vendors:

• Pokito - featuring their Pokemon Balls ($8) - cold tasting rice ball wrap with raw marinated salmon inside - this was worth getting!
• FullyLoadedTO - juicy and fried chicken stuff wings ($12) and buttermilk chicken tenders ($9)
• I only decided on this place because of the long lines - they took like 20 minutes to cook ... still good
• Buster Sea Cove - lobster roll ($14) - very average - comes with dill pickle on the side - wasn't too meaty ...
• Koi Gourmet - Toronto based food truck specializing in Asian cuisine. Menu items include sumo and samurai wraps and sides like shrimp chips. Bought their fatty pork wrap ($8) and beef wrap ($8). It was a so so meal experience with the tough taiwanese pie/dough wrap. 

Special Mentions (didn't get to try them):

• Eva's Original Chimneys - so popular on social media for their Chimneys (known as Kürtőskalács in Hungarian or Trdelník in Czech) - unique, bread-like freshly baked Hungarian pastries, named after their hollow, cylindrical shape. "They have a satisfying crunch on the outside and a soft, fluffy dough on the inside."
• FeasTO - Canada’s first and only dumpling food truck. Having popped up around the city for 3 years, FeasTO finally graduated from tent and table to a food truck in May 2015 by taking the title of overall series winners of the Food Network’s Food Truck Face Off. I couldn't eat any more dumplings since I eat fresh dumplings often ...

Food Photos:

Pokemon Balls from vendor Pokito

Stuff Fried Chicken with mac and cheese sauce - From FullyLoadedTO

Buttermilk Chicken Tenders with plum sauce - FullyLoadedTO

Someone got hungry on the Lobster Roll from Buster Sea Cove

Non Food Photos: