The Fat Shallot

I liked the buffalo chicken sandwich — the chicken was hot and crispy and HUGE, the bun was just average — I would try it with a biscuit… yum… The fries were super crispy and covered in aioli and a real hit. I had to split all of this with my co-​worker as it was just too much food for one person. She was appreciative, and is now a fan too. Note — I don’t do spicy that often and the buffalo sauce was HOT for me, like I was sweating. Maybe next time, I’ll order with aioli on the chicken instead of the hot sauce.

Really liked the grilled cheese sandwich. The sautéd spinach and caramelized onions are deliciously perfect with the muenster. Nice people, quick service. Looking forward to trying the meatball soon. Fennel and spicy breadcrumbs — yum!

This is probably my favorite food truck. However, in full disclosure, I’ve only ordered one thing (over and over and over and over). They usually park outside my office on Thursdays and when I see them I always order the grilled cheese, with house fries. This grilled cheese is simply amazing. The fries have been less consistent, but when they are «on» they are really great.

This is my favorite food truck in the city, hands down! Anytime it’s anywhere relatively close to work I have to get it. Everything is so delicious and my mouth is watering just thinking about it. I’ve tried their truffle BLT, turkey sandwich and their fries but the best menu item has to be their Buffalo Chicken sandwich! Oh. My. Yum!!! They ran out of egg buns so mine was on a pretzel bun. I typically don’t like pretzel buns because they’re too salty but this one was made perfectly! I also am not a fan of blue cheese so I got it with truffle sauce which they cleverly name the truffalo… DELICIOUS. Well done, you have my vote for the best truck :)

Amazing BLT and fries. Great lunch spot and very friendly ppl greeting and taking orders.

There is a Reason I go back to the Fat Shallot week after week.
Not only is the food great tasting, it’s also extremely consistent quality.
At this point I’ve tried almost every sandwich on the menu, and nothing falls short of impressive.
Really a top notch establishment, try their food, you won’t be disappointed.

Absolutely love this food truck! I’ve eaten here twice, and can’t seem to stray away from the amazing buffalo chicken sandwich to try something else:). I have had the spicy sesame fries, and the regular rosemary fries– both delicious. Would recommend to anyone passing by!

If you see this red truck and they are open, drop everything and get in line. After reading about the Fat Shallot I saw that they were a block away. walked over and got myself a Grilled Cheese, they use Sourdough which I love, and spinach inside! what?! their fries were nice thick cut with an audible crunch when you bite into them, whats more is the spicy sesame aioli made it that much better. I dont have a twitter but you can follow the truck and pray that they are in your neck of the woods. Believe me. one lunch is all it takes. you will thank me later. Oh. and i will put the Fat Shallot on my Vegetarian Friendly list.

I have been wanting to try this for as long as I have known about it. Their truck is on Adams & Wacker on Thursdays usually but it just never worked.
Went today with a coworker and was pleasantly surprised by how fast the line went and the quick service. A++ there.
I ordered the BLT and the spicy fries. Fries were great, there was a lot of flavor and you couldn’t really stop eating them. I am disappointed by saying I didn’t like the BLT. The texas toast was a dud (had too much flavor of whatever was on it), maybe there was too much aoli or seasoning. And, the avocado was non existent.
Will come back to try another sandwich, however I won’t be coming back for the BLT.

Fat Shallot is one of those guilty pleasures. After finishing your sandwich at the Fat Shallot you will feel satisfied and full, and a lil greasy. Not that grease is bad by any means. #teamcheese.
The grilled cheese: My favorite thing on this menu. Although doesn’t have any meat in it, the flavors are astounding and is probably one of the best grilled cheese’s I’ve had. Of course, expect a greasy mess as you eat it, but oh so satisfying.
The BLT: Truffle mayo is amazing, but it’s a huge sandwich and a little difficult to eat. It’s served with bacon, tomato, avocado, and arugula, which I can always get behind.
The FRIES are also important. Big fan of the spicy sesame fries.

All I can say is wow, wow, wow. In a vegetarian’s perspective some might not think there are very many options but that’s ok because the grilled cheese is on point. Toasted to perfection with ooey gooey cheese melted in the middle this one may be the best I’ve ever had. Today there was a special roasted veggie sandwich that was to die for. The portions are huge and the fries have a fabulous unique flavor. Asian flavor is nothing I’ve ever experienced. This truck is a must try.

Amazing. I will follow them around the whole city wherever they are to get one of their sandwiches.
Tried them for the first time a month ago when all the food trucks rolled into Daley Plaza for their food truck Fridays. My coworker and I immediately headed for their truck, as I had been stalking them on twitter for some time and viewing their foodporn.
It was lent so I ordered the caramelized onion, spinach and Gruyère grilled cheese. Coworker ordered the croque monsieur. Both sandwiches came out in about five minutes, despite there being a line. The guy in the truck taking our order was super nice and struck up a conversation with us while we waited.
We took our sandwiches back to the office, and eating them made us strike up a conversation of the best meals we’ve had around the city. They were that good. My grilled cheese was garlicky, gooey, smokey, and the bread was oily and crispy. My coworkers looked and smelled amazing, and he said it was the best croque monsieur he’s ever had. For 7 – 9 $ a sandwich, you’re looking at the price of a subway meal, but instead you’re getting a huge handcrafted gourmet sandwich.
Try them today if you haven’t and follow them on twitter @thefatshallot to see where they are headed for the day! They also tweet new menu options and daily specials.

People always use «like crack» to say things are really tasty and addictive, but I ask you: would crack really be that pleasant to munch on? Nay I think not… it’s time for a new drug-​food metaphor.
Rambling setup aside, I’m pretty sure they mix molly into the sauce on their spicy sesame fries. That shit is off-​the-​chain delicious, like a yummy rave in my mouth. And since molly is a powder it’s not as nasty as crumbled up crack.
Sandwiches are all massive and indulgent as well. There’s so much chicken on the buffalo chicken sandwich that you can take some off and have a side of buffalo chicken with your buffalo chicken sandwich.
A little on the pricey side, but you’re paying for a gourmet product. Anytime I see this truck parked in a herd with other trucks, I make a bee-​line for it.

I’m long overdue for a review update on the Fat Shallot, and I’m happy to report that they’ve stayed consistently good since I first visited them a year and a half ago (wow, that seems like a long time).
A lot of the reviews will mention the BLT (heck, even I did on my first review). I admit, it’s a crowd pleaser, but how could it not be, stacked high with bacon and truffle aioli, atop buttery Texas toast? Here’s the secret: the BLT, while delicious, is actually not the best thing on the menu. The real star of the menu, in my opinion, is the turkey.
Their regular sandwich rotation is the BLT, the grilled cheese, the buffalo chicken, and the turkey. I’ve tried all but the buffalo chicken (I don’t like buffalo sauce, ever, no matter what restaurant/​establishment makes it). While all of them have been tasty, the turkey sandwich is the standout for me because it has the best flavor combination and tastes exceptionally fresh, and it’s also one of the lighter options on the menu — the others are a bit too rich/​fatty for me. The grilled cheese and BLT are on the obvious side — duh, buttery bread, cheese, and bacon taste good, and they’ll taste good pretty much in any combination with any other toppings. The turkey, on the other hand, combines basil aioli (officially one of my favorite ingredients now), arugula, avocado, cucumber slices, and turkey breast, all served atop a pretzel bun. The pretzel bun is actually worth singling out — I’ve never given much thought to bread before, especially not sandwich bread, but their pretzel bun is amazing. I’d probably eat it by itself even without the sandwich filling. I don’t know what they put in the bun to give it so much flavor, but it adds a lot to the sandwich and is worth the price of admission in and of itself. The veggies are always crisp and fresh-​tasting, and are the perfect complement to the richer aioli and avocado. And finally, the turkey itself is thinly-​sliced and packed with flavor.
Oh, and the fries are great as well (the house fries are great, truffle fries are great, but I’m not as big a fan of the sesame), but I’d have to be rolled out of there if I ate the entire sandwich with a side of fries. For those with small to medium appetites, it’s probably too much food to get both (it’s certainly too much food for me).
The owners are super nice and I’m very appreciative of the fact that they seem to always run on schedule and update their Twitter feed accordingly — something I cannot say for all food trucks.
As you can see, I’m obsessed with the Fat Shallot.

I recently got a new job working in the loop and now that the weather is getting nicer, I can finally try all these food trucks I have been dying to go to! The Fat Shallot was number one on my list, mostly because I had seen those fries they have smothered in aioli all over instagram. The line wasn’t too bad, about 10 minutes, and the lady taking orders was so nice! I got the turkey sandwich, and it was the BEST turkey sandwich I have ever had. It had arugula and avocado and some sort of pesto mayo I think. It was also HUGE. Along with that, I got the spicy sesame fries which were SO GOOD. That aioli though. Yum. I loved my experience with The Fat Shallot!

Let’s face it: a lot, and I mean a LOT of these food trucks are overrated. You stand out there on Clark Street in some ridiculous line only to finally get some food that is «meh» at the very best.
Not so, Fat Shallot. This is gourmet comfort food at its finest. The grilled cheese sammies are totally delicious and the ingredients are high quality — I don’t tolerate dairy well, but their sandwiches don’t give me the bubble guts.
And then there’s the piece de resistance: Can you say «truffle fries»? I knew that you could.
When you see the little red truck coming, queue up. It’s worth your while!

Stopped by for lunch and ordered the Truffle BLT. Huge sandwich with bacon, avocado, argula, tomato, truffle aioli on texas toast. Also ordered a side of spicy sesame fries. The sandwich is loaded with bacon and quite tasty. It’s a little difficult to cut in half. The spicy dipping sauce was fantastic! I’m not a fan of spicy food and this sauce is not spicy at all.
When I got in line there were about 15 people ahead of me but the line moves fairly quickly. Extremely friendly and they accept debit/​credit cards. They were also serving grilled cheese, buffalo chicken and turkey sandwiches which all sounded great. I’ll definitely be back! Plus, if you check in you can get a free drink.

I love food trucks. We don’t have a lot of them on Chicago’s North Shore due to various licensing laws and zoning permits, so I’m thrilled that I got to meet these guys at Highwood’s Gourmet Evening Market.
So, I don’t eat garlic, really. In fact my stomach can’t usually handle digesting it very well at all. But there was something so powerful about seeing The Fat Shallot truck at the market! I don’t know what came over me, but I headed right over there and ordered up what I thought would be the easiest thing to digest. I ordered a Jumbo Sausage with sauerkraut on a pretzel bun with yummy mustard (ha!). There was no skimping here on the beef. It was a lot more mild in flavor than I expected, which was a perfect complement to the piled high kraut and brown spicy mustard. I really loved the pretzel bun thrown in to the mix, but it didn’t hold everything together very well. Needless to say, I went through a lot of napkins — but it was sooo worth it!
There’s more! I was enticed to try their spicy sesame fries. Oooh wee were they a bit spicy for me, but I was amazed at how crispy the fries stayed under the spicy aioli topped with black sesame seeds. Talk about a real kick to the palate! I had to surrender them to my picky eater husband, who surprisingly gobbled them up before my eyes! I was honestly shocked. When he eats anything and likes it, you know you’ve made a super tasty side of fries.
The owners are really sweet and seem to take pride in what they serve. I’m looking forward to these guys again real soon. Hope you bring the pulled pork with you!

I work in an area I like to call food truck Hades: a street full of restaurants (oh yeah yeah, pity me) but no good spots to park a food truck. And sometimes one just needs something different for lunch. When I read on Twitter that one is within decent walking distance and I have time for lunch to make said walk, I’m on it. Helloooo The Fat Shallot.
I first tried them at a mini-​food truck rally event thing-​y at Daley Plaza. I was intrigued by the truffle fries with aioli sauce and knew that’s what I needed. Ok, maybe not, but I was starving. It was quite a big order than I expected. Hot and messy — just the kind of fries I like. Thank goodness I wasn’t going anywhere fancy after. I caught the truck again over by City Front Plaza (NBC Tower/​Pioneer Court-​ish area). That time I ordered the BLT. Again, I was surprised by this order: tons of bacon for such a big sandwich order was at $ 10. Hot damn. I thought the Texas toast style bread was just ok, but I still ate every last bit and totally not ashamed.

My new favorite food truck!
The food is terrific, all top-​notch, well-​prepared, and made fresh to order. The staff (a husband and wife team) couldn’t be any nicer.
I’ve tried the Fat Shallot (love the name!) twice in as many weeks. On Wednesdays, they’re located a stone’s throw from my office, so when it’s cold out or I’m pressed for time, it’s ideal.
So far I’ve tried the grilled cheese (muenster, carmelized onions, sautéed spinach), turkey sandwich on a pretzel croissant with avocado, arugula, and herb aioli, as well as their truffle fries and rosemary and sea salt fries. Everything is so delicious. I love that I can get gourmet fries and they’re still piping hot by the time I get back to my office.
You can order online or via their app, saving you even more time (and no standing outside in the cold!). Today I took advantage of that and it couldn’t be easier; place your order, and they’ll text or email you when your food’s ready (usually in about 15 minutes). I arrived at the truck, and they were just pulling my fries out of the fryer. Talk about impeccable timing! Bonus – first-​time users can save $ 2 on their online order.
From this day hence, Hump Day will be known as Fat Shallot Day.