Temaki Truck

bottom line at the top: totally hits the spot when you are desperate for sushi (or yellowtail, like i was) on miracle mile.
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combo c: one hand roll, cut roll, and drink! flamin yellowtail and a spicy green bomber is the way to go! they were both decent and satisfied my craving when i was in a rush and didn’t have time to get «real» sushi. they are upfront that they use imitation crab and i appreciate that honesty.

There’s a joke in a recent episode of 30 Rock about how Liz Lemon got a rare parasite from eating sushi on AmTrak… well, I guess eating sushi off of a truck could be considered just as risky, but hey, I’m an adventurer! I recently checked out this truck at the parking lot of the Victorian on Main St. in Santa Monica and I had no hesitation signing right up for one of their hand rolls. Granted, I went with their special of the night, unagi, which is technically cooked, but after tasting it I’d gladly eat one of their raw options too. The service was friendly and of course since it’s just a handroll it’s ready really quickly — a huge plus when lines get long at food trucks and you only have so much time to grab your food and go!
I’d highly recommend it… the menu is very straight forward so it may not be a flavor you’ve never tried before, but if you’re a sushi lover this will hit the spot in a pinch!

Who knew you could great temaki off of a food truck? I’ve always been weary of consuming raw fish assembled within a moving vehicle, but I will fear no more — Temaki Truck is here!
Came to the SaMo Food Truck lot with a desire to eat very bad, but the second I saw the Temaki Truck it was all over — I am a sucker for raw fish. The pictures of scrumptious handrolls lining the truck’s side caught my attention at first, but the simple, straightforward, healthy, and delish menu items and great prices (everything is about $ 5) is really what pulled me in.
The salmon hand roll was recommended by the Temaki guys and they were right. Huge chunks of fresh salmon, perfect rice (not too sticky, not too much). The salmon was like butter, which is why I loved eating this! Usually I take one bite and the entire filling comes out with it. The salmon was simple and cucumber sticks inside were incredibly crunchy, but I felt it needed to be spiced up a bit, pouring some soy sauce inside and smearing wasabi on each bite. This was perfect — I was just the right level of full by the end of my salmon temaki.
What really took me from a Temaki Truck fan to a believer is the spicy yellowtail handroll! I asked for it «extra, extra spicy» (nothing can hurt me!) and spicy is what it was — in the most amazing way! I could taste a good amount of sirachi mixed into the rice and the super fresh, super moist fish was perfect — no soy sauce needed. The nori maintained its crunchy texture, as did the cucumber, without absorbing the moisture from the wet ingredients inside. This roll was perfect — true finger food! I was walking around with my yellowtail temaki, mingling, talking, without dripping sauce from the bottom or loosing any of the roll’s contents along the way.
I love eating and multi-​tasking, which is exactly why I love temaki! The yellowtail roll was awesome and its going to be very difficult to avoid ordering that spicy little sushi burrito again and try something new — but I will. I trust you, Temaki Truck!

Thank goodness for the healthy food truck!
The truck was at the Victorian on Tuesday night. I had the Tamaki Maki $ 6 and it tasted of fresh ingreadients and delicious. My handroll was wrapped nicely and stayed together, when I bit into it. The rice was perfect, there was fish, a little vegetables and the seaweed still had crunch. Expect to eat 2 rolls to be filled up. Nice and friendly staff.
I can’t wait to try the other rolls!

The Temaki Truck always makes my day whenever they surprise us near our office!
At first, I was a little hesitant about trying this truck when my friend told me she saw a Sushi Truck on her way to work one day. But since I was sick of eating out at just McDonald’s, Costco, or Big John’s, I decided to check it out.
My first time here, I decided to be adventurous and get the Godzilla Roll! A burrito-​style sushi stuffed with a whole bunch of whole bunch of fish, rice and tastiness? Yes please! So flavorful and fresh. The only thing I didn’t like is that there may have been more rice than fish; and that’s because I’m trying to cut down on carbs. Yeah, didn’t happen that day.
Yesterday, I got 3 different handrolls: the Temaki Maki, Octo-​Shrimp, and the Slammin Salmon. Again, amazing! Pretty good for a Sushi Truck and when you’re craving new styles of sushi. Would be cool if they offered Sashimi.
The sushi is fresh, the prices are decent, and the customer service is great. The guys that run this truck are really friendly and cool guys. Makes coming back to the truck a lot more fun!

Was finally able to try these guys at the Santa Anita Food Truck Festival this past weekend and they didn’t disappoint!
I had the Temaki Maki Hand Roll, which is filled with spicy tuna, salmon, yellow tail, albacore, octopus, and shrimp. I think this roll is a good first choice because you get to taste everything. It was really good and it was just the right amount of each ingredient. They offered a Godzilla sized Temaki Maki roll, which I totally regretted not getting because it was that good. Oh well, next time! :)

Searching for the best sushi truck is like searching for the cleanest asshole. It’s not ideal, but you’ll take the one that is the least offensive. I don’t know if my fear is founded on anything rational, but the idea of sushi on a truck just doesn’t scream fresh (or safe for that matter). But that’s what the letter grades are for. And Temaki says it right up front: «All Fish are fresh daily». So I should come to my senses and get over it.
They keep the menu simple mostly, which is good. It’s always better to do a few things well than million things poorly. Even so, something didn’t click for me. I tried the Temaki Maki – a royal sampler of various fish – and Albacore Galore – a streamlined albacore tuna variant. But with all the house ponzu involved, I couldn’t tell the difference in taste (soy) or appearance (beige). The fish was good I suppose, but was overwhelmed by too much sauce for my taste. Maybe I woulda had more luck with the Maki cut rolls.
And I hate to be That Guy, but I gotta say Lennie working the register needs to spend less time organizing his house of wasabi packets and more time tending people in line. At least give me a «be right there» or a nod. The box of condiments ain’t goin anywhere, step to it.
So in all, Temaki Truck isn’t bad as far as sushi trucks go. But at the end of the day, I’d rather just go to a brick & mortar sushi bar. The prices aren’t much different, and it’s not like sushi joints are hard to find.

Love these guys seriously.
Not only are their hand rolls so fresh and tasty, but they are so nice and reasonably priced too.
I love the octopus rolls, they are out of this world. I only wish they would come to the valley more often. I miss these guys! :)

I didn’t know temaki referred to hand rolls until I had this truck.
Temaki = cone of seaweed + Rice + pieces of fish + veggies + sauce
Even though the hand rolls were delicious, you won’t find me here again because $ 5 did absolutely nothing to fill my appetite.
Temaki Maki was pretty dang delicious! However, it wasn’t worth the $ 6 I spent on it. I’d probably return if it were $ 4 or less.
Spicy Yellowtail my big anus. Wasn’t spicy and didn’t even taste like yellowtail, more like tuna.

Absolutely my most favorite of temaki! That’s a handroll, or little cone of seaweed full of rice, fish bits, and fresh veggies. It’s a $ 5 dollar roll like most have said, but sooo worth it! The rolls are big and filling. Essentials to try are their temaki maki and spicy yellowtail! MMM-​mm-​MMM!
This truck is responsible for turning my sushi-​finicky sis into a RAW fish eater.
It’s just that damn good.

First time I heard about the truck, I was a little nervous. Sushi off a truck?
I was pleasantly delighted to find that the food is excellent. I had the Temaki Maki, which is my favorite. I also had the Unagi Maki, which is tasty.
I would definitely recommend this truck to everyone who loves sushi. I would love to see more of a variety of handrolls.

Don’t be put off by the truck. Sure it is a shade of magenta that only a love-​stuck tweenage girl could love, but in spite of that you can actually get some nice rolled makizushio at a nice price. I stopped by this afternoon to order one roll just to cross this truck off my list, but after taking one look at the menu I had to order two.
I had the Slammin Salmon, which was my favorite roll. The salmon was minced, but it was plentiful, the rice was fresh and they didn’t overload the cucumber or sprouts. The nori was a tad on the firm side, but otherwise I could not find any fault with it.
The Temaki Maki was good but not great. They advertise that it contains eel, spicy tuna, salmon, yellowtail, albacore, octopus, and shrimp. Not that would make a nice exhibit at the Long Beach Aquarium, but six different types of finely chopped fish are just too much for one roll. All the flavors pretty much merged into one. Like the other roll, it was made with rice, cucumber, alfalfa sesame and a type of nori that was a little mroe chewy than I am used to. it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great.
The Temaki Maki was $ 6.00, and the Slammin Salmon was $ 5.00, but I took advantage f the Unilocal offer and got a $ 2.00 discount.
Gourmet Food Truck #163 on my never-​ending quest to try every truck in «So Cal»

I was excited about this truck in the Food Truck Chow Down after reading the reviews here. 4.5 stars? It must be good right? Unfortunately, I left disappointed.
I ordered the famous Temaki Maki — a nice hand roll with spicy tuna, salmon, yellow tail, albacore, octopus, shrimp, and garnished with spring vegetables. It was really good at first. All of that seafood mixed together was an amazing combo, a delectable explosion of flavor. however, there was something seriously wrong with the nori. It wasn’t fresh at all. As I took bites at the end of the hand roll, the seaweed was just inedible. It was so hard to chew. and as I tried to swallow it, it just wouldn’t go down. It was so frustrating that I ended up spitting it out :\
Don’t get me wrong — I am a huge sushi fan but…
If food doesn’t stay in, there is a problem…
Maybe I had really bad luck this time around.
At least there was no line.

Ordered the Eskimo roll which has raw salmon on it…
What the hell was I thinking ordering raw fish from a truck…
The roll was pretty good, albeit pricey…
I’m neither dead nor doubled over with stomach cramps yet…
Not bad!

This was another food truck in front of the Hall I had to try. Sushi? From a food truck? Oh why the heck not… So I did…
I got the temaki maki hand roll. It took forever to make. And it was just OKAY to me. Now I don’t know if they just raised the price, but it was $ 6. Other hand rolls were $ 5. Another reviewer said $ 4 for the temaki maki… oh what the?
Meh. It was a nice thought, but no thanks. Unless you drop your prices, then maybe we can talk.

This truck specializes in hand rolls. Their hand rolls are around $ 3-​$ 5 each.
I got to try out the Temaki Truck when they were at the Century Food Truck Lot on Tuesday.
I ordered the Slamin Salmon Hand Roll and the Albacore Galore Hand Roll. I liked both rolls, but out of the two I liked the Albacore Galore more.
The consistency of the fish in both hand rolls was something similar to ground pork or ground beef. Kind of mushy. I guess it made it easier to eat the hand rolls. Easier than other ones i’ve had. Those things always fall apart after the third or fourth bite.
I like this truck and I will definitely be back!

I’m very impressed at the quality of temaki, rolls and sashimi this truck offers. Prices are very reasonable (cheaper than most sushi restaurants) and so much care put into each order. hard to believe it’s from a food truck.
Favorite items so far…
— tamaki maki: «their most popular item», combination of seafood, made very well,
— spicy green bomber roll: very tasty nice spicy kick.
— sashimi: very good quality, generous on the serving (special items of the day)
Service was friendly, a little slow because of the quality, but wasn’t a big negative for me. It was definitely worth it. Can’t wait to order again!
This truck was parked at First Friday @ Abbot Kinney and with many food truck choices this stood out that night for me. It was their first time at First Friday and they actually ran out of food! I’d give that as a sign of how good this truck is. There was always a crowd. I was lucky to have ordered a couple times.

dude #1: Dude, let’s go grab a quick bite for lunch…
dude #2: Cool, what and where at?
dude #1: How about some raw fish from a truck?
dude #2: Dude, what the fu*k is wrong with you?
Once you get over the initial hurdle of grasping the simple fact that you will be ingesting raw fish from a truck… you can spend the rest of your time really enjoying their tasty creative hand rolls!
ALBACORE GALORE HAND ROLL ($ 5)
Finely chopped spicy albacore drizzled with ponzu sauce. Garnished with seasonal spring vegetables, sprinkled with sesame seeds, and wrapped in special sushi rice and nori.
The albacore was chopped SO finely it was almost a TAD bit «mushy» but still flavorful and well prepared in terms of the balance with the ponzu and veggies. Nothing amazing but not too shabby either.
TEMAKI MAKI HAND ROLL ($ 5)
A hand roll medley filled with spicy tuna, salmon, yellow tail, albacore, octopus, and shrimp. Garnished with seasonal spring vegetables, sprinkled with sesame seeds and wrapped in nori.
NOW, this was packed with distinctive flavors and unique textures… you get some nice tastebud confusion from the spicy tuna in contrast with the shrimp and octopus not to mention the crunchy veggies, also a tiny bit saucy/​spicy to make it all the more interesting. It all tasted relatively fresh, quite satisfying and delicious.
So, in summary… ditch those preconceived notions about truck sushi, give ‘em a try… what’s the worst that could happen… c’mon it ain’t gonna kill you! …I mean… unless… you, like… physically get run over by the ACTUAL truck itself… I guess you MAY get like seriously injured… but dude, it’s extremely DOUBTFUL that you’d still ACTUALLY die is all I’m sayin’…

Pretty impressive stuff, I have to say. When I saw a truck slanging hand rolls I had three thoughts:
~Uh-​oh…
~Gonna be horrible quality…
~Probably way over priced…
I was so glad to find out how wrong I was on all accounts, 100% wrong. At $ 5-​$ 8 for hand rolls they’re in the same range as a sit-​down sushi joint and the quality was soooooooo bomb. I saw many’a’customer jump with joy at how tasty they were, I could have ripped through those things all day. Fine, people weren’t really «jumping» with happiness, but you could honestly see it in the eyes of people biting in for the first time. For my veggie peoples out there, the Bunny Wrap is where it’s at. Asparagus, avocado, cucumber, pickle, and sprouts.
Shockingly good quality, exactly what a truck needs to be successful. You can’t get away with mediocre food just because you look all cool driving your kitchen around. Temaki truck figured it out, quality is king.

Yellow tail hand roll was really good with the Japanese mint leaf in it gives it that taste I recently discovered at a sushi restaurant last week with friends in Santa Ana. I was very skeptical of getting sushi from a truck of all places but turns out it was well worth it. It’s about the same price you would pay for a dining experience of a sushi bar but the only thing missing is a good sake bomb. Otherwise, the hand rolls are very fresh as I am really picky with my sushi.
If they ever carry toro, I’m chasing this one down each night of the week.
There goes my paycheck, I’m serious too. I guess so much for any future check-​ins for trucks if they are out this way again in the SGV.