Chef Shack

Kim chi pancake was disappointing.
Mcdonner was better but a little too much bread to sausage and egg ratio.

I’ve tried food trucks before in different cities and I continue not to «get it».
Tried the barbacoa nachos from the truck on Nicolett. Without a drink or any other sides, a small paper bowl of chips, pulled pork, and some vegetables topped with a small dollop of guacamole cost $ 9. You can get a giant thing of nachos with more toppings plus a large soda from Taco Bell for $ 5 so I’m not sure what I’m paying extra out of the side of a truck for.
The location also doesn’t provide anywhere to sit so while that’s fine for people who are working in the area and can go back to their offices, it’s no fun for the rest of us.
While the nachos were good, I felt a little remorseful that I didn’t take my $ 9 and get a lot more in the Skyway somewhere.

I am really sad to post this low star rating. I ordered a bison burger last year at the downtown Minneapolis food truck and it was absolutely delicious.
Today, I went and picked a bison burger up at approximately 11:45 AM before the line got too long. After they swiped my credit card for $ 10, the gentleman said the burger would take 5 – 7 minutes. I was happy to wait in order for my burger to get cooked.
When I got back to my desk, I took a bite and saw that the inside was not cooked at all. I had to throw out half the burger due to raw meat. So sad to throw probably $ 5 worth away.
My coworkers went about half an hour later and ordered bison burgers. They too had problems with the burger being undone.
The burger itself had good flavor and substance, but lots of points get lost when a burger isn’t cooked.

5 words: Bison Burger with Quail Egg.
Holy Hannah; this burger is amazing. I was very nervous to try it at first… quail egg? wtf? I’m so American that sometimes it makes me sick. My response now:
Quail Egg? Quail Egg!
It’s amazing; All of the flavors meld together so perfectly that I wish time would stop for the duration of the burger. Nobody talk. Nobody breathe. Leave me alone while I consume this masterpiece.
This is all I’ve tried from Chef Shack but it was beautiful enough to make me want to go back to try everything. I’ll be hitting up their new brick & mortar soon. Brilliant!

Chef Shack, I MISS YOU! You were my staple on my Saturday mornings as a volunteer at the Mill City Farmers Market, and now I’ve up and moved to the east coast. I still dream of your hot-​from-​the-​fryer spiced mini donuts and your once-​a-​season softshell crab sammy. I still taste the Arnie Palmer that you served in your compostable cups. I still wear my «follow me to the shack» Tshirt when I’m feeling especially nostalgic. We’ll meet again, one day!

Style points for no-​showing a Children’s hospital: 0
There two types of promises in the world – to adults and to children. Adults are cynical, not fully trusting promises unless made by their closest friends. Children are yet to be corrupt by modern day cynicism – they take promises as promises.
We had brothers and sisters of patients, children of employees, and other family members ride their bikes, get dropped off, or come to work with their parents to eat from your somewhat-​famous truck.
No show – all class.

Update! It’s been a while since I stopped by the Chef Shack (although I feel like I can taste their donuts whenever the truck comes into my sightline), but it was parked very conveniently for me downtown last week for lunch, so I decided to give it a go.
I tried the sweet potato tacos. They were great! Relatively simple with just sweet potatoes, black beans, and a little bit of a creamy sauce and slaw, they were exactly what I needed on that day: not too heavy, but enough food to get me through until 5ish. My only suggestion would be to add a bit more spice/​salt/​something to the fillings.

Oh My Gawd… I had the Man Hash you know the one with the Pulled Pork at the King field winter market, Oh My Gawd it was Die-​Licious. I’m looking forward to more more more. Thanks Ladies for making Fresh Forward Cusine.

On my way toward the local Chipotle at lunchtime, I took a different turn than usual and found myself on Marquette Avenue; facing me was a stream of tempting food trucks. I walked right on past Chipotle without a backward glance and found myself at the red truck with «Eat Chef Shack» emblazoned on its side.
I ordered the first thing that caught my eye on the menu: the Moo Mee Thai Pork sandwich ($ 8). Well, $ 8.62 with the credit card fee, I was fairly warned. I dodged across the busy sidewalk to wait my turn.
Service
A ten minute wait and a credit card service fee, I was warned about both. Chef Shack employees I encountered were friendly and relaxed (and the donut guy posed for paparazzi, thanks man!).
Presentation
My sandwich was beautiful, with the colorful cabbage and the green chips.
Taste
Beats Chipotle any day.
Value for Dollars
$ 8.62 is about par for the course for food truck lunches; the portion was generous and it’s such unique food that I’m willing to pay a bit more for it. The mini donuts were pricey, but the portion was huge! Amber and I couldn’t finish half of them so I had plenty left to share with coworkers.
Overall Food-​Truck Experience
Marquette Avenue isn’t the most scenic of downtown locations, but my tasty sandwich and amazing donuts were well worth it.

What gives, Mpls? This is great? Chef shack at Fulton leaves me going «huh?»
Nice service, friendly. I feel bad crapping on nice people, so two stars.
Now — If this truck is «chef driven» this scares me. The crime is the only food transgression I consider unforgivable — charge premium and be boring. Being bad is to dare — being boring as raw potato is the dealbreaker for me.
2 tacos, a breakfast and a sweet potato. Nothing I can’t make myself. Better, actually, way better, and I am no pretender to the throne of food.
Tortillas are sysco or close to. Not even heated up to challenge the runny eggs, the personality-​free beans, the sweet potatoes that, yes, deserve better treatment than some homemade but uninteresting slaw, some aioli with nothing interesting doing, and those poor beans.
I’m not one of those people to whinge about money much, but when people go all «14 bucks for THIS?» in this case, it makes sense.
It’s great that it’s organic, but if you’re shopping the farmer’s market you, too, can do better.
Foxy is 32 089 320 830 times better. It’s rustic but awesome. This is coasting along on the magic of its mini donuts — if you don’t want mini donuts, truck on by. They smell great, but man cannot live on donut alone.

I’m sorry I have to give you 2 stars Chef Shack. I don’t want to but I have to after today. This afternoon I wanted to experience my first downtown food truck lunch and took quite awhile deciding what to get. Of course I wanted something terrible for me but I am trying to eat a little healthier after the past couple weeks of overindulging, so I settled on the Farmer’s Market Salad from Chef Shack.
The two things I enjoyed about the salad were the beets and the fresh corn off the cob. That’s where my enjoyment ended :(
The lettuce was cut into HUGE chunks that needed a knife to get through (which they didn’t have) and some was orangey and old which I would only expect at Wendy’s or McDonalds. The saddest part is that I didn’t realize that it had no dressing until I had gotten to my car so I had my salad sans dressing. Not good. Maybe they should let customers know that there is no dressing before they walk away. To top off my sadness the salad was $ 6 or $ 7 and I could have made the exact same salad for maybe one dollar.
Hopefully I can return again and try something else that people have been gushing about. Hopefully I can raise the rating too.

Had the watermelon gazpacho a couple of years ago and though I remember liking it, but I wasn’t Unilocaling at the time so I did not write a review of this place. Then last weekend I was at the farmers’ market and I was hungry and they had a soft shell crab on the menu and I decided to go for it despite its $ 12 price tag (pretty steep for a sandwich in my book). And I loved it!
When biting the juices of the crab would melt with the tartar sauce for an unbelievably delicious result. I loved every single bite!
My friend had the fried green tomato salad and, although I didn’t get to try it, I have to say it looked super yummy. The tomatoes where only slightly battered and looked particularly yummy. And my friend commented the beets were really good.
I think I might try something again without letting 2 other years go by…

I have twice consumed the bison, fried egg and cheese burger, and twice I have been made happy. Twice I have finished said burgers with a shiver of ecstasy that can only come from consuming foods that in all likelihood are taking days off your life. So delicious. Seriously. Believe me, I ain’t joking. They are good.
I also have had the Arnold Palmer here. Its okay. But the bison burger thing is better. The Arnold Palmer helps you eat the bison burger, so its gets points there. The Arnold Palmers are in no way whatsoever bad, but when their candle of good is held up to the bison burger’s flame thrower of incredible… nothing can withstand the awesomeness.

It was some GORGEOUS weather last Friday and naturally, the only thing that could make it better was some food truck goodness!
I trekked downtown and found myself standing in front of Chef Shack in no time, drooling over everything on their menu (like always)…the ladies of Chef Shack knew just what I needed and fixed me up a bison burger with a fried egg on top. Yum. Yum. YUM. See you soon, Chef Shack ladies! :)

I can’t believe practically the whole summer passed before I realized that there is a yummy food truck one block past where I usually walk during lunch. I got the squash blossom quesadillas today, which had a combination of ingredients that totally worked. And for a quesadilla, it was surprisingly light while filling me up. Lots of good veggies that complemented the cheese. I think I’ll try the sweet potato tacos next time. I grabbed a lime basil soda from Dandelion on the way back to work and had a delicious lunch for under $ 10.
My only complaint is that it took 10 – 15 minutes to get my food and that was with a minimal line. Not sure if that is normal. Hopefully not. The food definitely makes me want to go back, but a 15 minute wait each time would be a deterrent.

I’m generally not one to dole out the 5-​star reviews, but given the fact that Chef Shack is one of the driving forces behind the street food movement in the Twin Cities it’s definitely warranted on this occasion.
I’ve been able to track down the Shack on multiple occasions now and have always been very happy with my meal. Topping the list are the beef tongue tacos, shredded pork tacos and although it sounds domestic, the grass fed burger — the latter can hold it’s own against any burger you’re going to find in the sit down joints in the cities. It appears that the menu varies by location, but there’s always plenty of inventive and comfort choices to appease most palates.
I’m glad to see that some of the Shack trucks are going to become regulars in downtown St. Paul every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this summer. Where others have failed in the past (miss you Curbside), I’m hoping that the Shack, Magic Bus and other newcomers (e.g., 128 Café, Barrio taco truck, etc.) can give both St. Paul and Mpls the shot in the arm needed to make street food commonplace in the Twin Cities. I know I’ll be heading back around home for lunch to hit up the Shack and company…
Kudos to chefs Summer, Carlson and the rest of the gang and vendors for their efforts and here’s to hoping street food thrives in the Metro.

Lisa and Carrie are my heroines. These ladies started the Chef Shack from scratch, make everything from scratch and have scratched out a very loyal food truck following here in the Twin Cities.
I finally had the chance to try their fare as a customer at the Kingfield Farmers Market last weekend and holy guacamole was it good!
For $ 8, they delivered me to taco nirvana with their beef tongue tacos, topped with fresh cilantro, salsa, cheese and avocado. For those meat eaters that are squeamish about beef tongue… I used to be one of you. But a while back I said, «Come on, Annie. You’ll eat the breasts of a chicken and the ribs of pig, but not the tongue of the cow? WTF.» Anyway — thanks in part to my food-​venturous beau — I got over myself and found out that beef tongue is wonderful, especially the Chef Shack’s recipe.
I wish I had gone with a friend and tried more. I had a hard time choosing between the soft shell crab sandwich, watermelon gazpacho, shack nachos and Indian spiced mini donuts. They also had goat milk ice cream for dessert, but I was too full to partake.
Guess I’ll just have to go back to the Shack. Poor me… :)
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Update (7÷18÷10): Two words… Hangover Hash.

Been meaning to come down the to Mill City Farmers Market for some time now and one big reason was what I had read about the Chef Shack. Well I am glad I came and glad that I parked a longs ways off so I could justify a nice big lunch.
I tried the Pulled Pork Nachos and they were fantastic. Very savory and fresh tasting. The pulled pork wasn’t overboard with flavors but had a very nice taste. The chips were fresh with just the right amount of salt on them. The Guacamole was very fresh and tasty. I tell you there is no better way to start a day than something like that (well maybe a couple but not in public).
After letting those settle and chugging down a Latte, room was made for the Shack Fries. Very good, crisp, salty and done just right. I really wanted to try these so I had a reason to try the condiments that they had out. The mustard was really good, ketchup was yummy and the the salsa (I think that’s what it was) was really good as well. The fries would have been good on their own but with everything they were very good.
Well worth the extra drive and walk for the Mill City FM just for the food. I will sample more next Saturday and will look forward to it.
KT

I really wanted to love this place, the other reviews made it sound so great, but it was a little underwhelming. Maybe it was just what I ordered or maybe it was just an off day. I visited Chef Shack at Mill City around 10:00A and there was already quite a line, despite the freezing temperatures. Luckily they kept the line moving pretty quickly and the wait for food wasn’t too long. The live bluegrass and cloggers helped keep us distracted.
I had a hard time deciding what to get, but in the end chose the Thousand Hills hot dog, french fries, and «Indian spiced» mini doughnuts. The hot dog was good, although not $ 5 good. The fries were pretty average, about the same caliber as Five Guys, but at more than double the cost, yes another $ 5. I really only got them because I wanted an excuse to try the bacon katjup, but that was also disappointing, extremely sweet with no discernible smoky pork flavor. The doughnuts were mostly a little too brown, extremely oily, like little oil soaked sponges, and didn’t have much flavor beyond the sweet and salty.
If I had paid $ 7 or $ 8 for my food, it probably would have been 3 stars, but $ 15 for food that was just ok, as in the case of the dog and fries, or less than wonderful, as in the case of the oil soaked dark brown doughnuts, did not make me a happy camper.

One morning, early in the season I walked over to the Kingfield Farmers Market, which is a smaller neighborhood farmers market that is well organized and has a good selection of items. I raised my eyes and, lo and behold, sitting in the back of the market was the revered, lauded Chef Shack. I remember actually Unilocaling aloud, «Oh My God, the Chef Shack is here!!!»
You can go other places to find out the fabulous story behind the mission of the Chef Shack as they try to reinvent street food for Minneapolis. I only want to tell you about eating there. Normally, you have to wait in a big, long line at the Mill City Farmers Market. Now, on Sunday mornings they are smack dab in a lovely SW Minneapolis neighborhood ready to dazzle your taste buds.
This is not normal fair food. I would know, I was a carny in my youth and there is nothing harder than making good food in a hot trailer. Seriously. However, no fears here. From the Shack Nachos, which I adore, to the homemade goat milk ice cream, everything is awesome. I second Zachary S’s review, «Insane on the taste scale.»
They even have good food for vegetarians, including a vegan PBR braut. Top that. Don’t miss the homemade condiments on the side like the pickled jicama for your sandwiches. All and all outstanding.
Bless the Kingfield Farmers Market and Bless the Chef Shack for making Sunday mornings fantastic.