Five amazing NYC food trucks that Yelp totally ignored

New York Post

15-07-2025

We were trucked over.
When Yelp unveiled its list of the 100 top U.S. food trucks for 2025, it left out one crucial food mecca: New York City.
The West Coast and Hawaii comprised the lion's share of the Bay Area-based site's countdown — while Gotham didn't even place in this gastronomic drag race. The closest movable feast was mobile sushi bar Wisp Express in Jersey City, New Jersey — ranked 75th.
The Big Apple's mobile-dining gurus are understandably shocked by the diss, which was based on user reviews of 58,000 restaurants in its food truck category.
13 Birria-Landia specializes in Birria-style tacos on 70th Street and Amsterdam on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
Stephen Yang for N.Y.Post
'I take that very personally,' Ben Goldberg, co-founder and president of the mobile vendor advocacy group the New York Food Truck Association (NYFTA), told The Post. 'I mean, we have some amazing, amazing trucks in the city, and it is the culinary mecca of the world. So to not have [us] represented seems kind of crazy.'
NYC's bountiful meals on wheels scene is particularly impressive given the bureaucratic hurdles it takes to own and operate a food truck here. One of the biggest obstacles is the ever-elusive food truck vending permit issued by the New York City Health Department.
While the application process seems straightforward enough — aspiring street hawkers pay $50 to apply and are required to complete a food truck protection course ($53) — the delay getting a permit can be endless.
'There's a waiting list of about 10,000 people, and they're giving out about 400 a year,' Matt Shapiro, the legal advisor for the Street Vendor Project, told The Post.
So, truck you, Yelp — we're on a, well, roll.
The Post has compiled a non-loaded list of five of the hottest rolling restaurants in New York. For fairness, we're not including hidden gems known only by NYers, but rather institutions that have no business being snubbed by an international review platform.
My big fat Greek food truck
13 Shawarma spins at King Souvlaki in Astoria, Queens, a ground zero for Greek street eats in NYC.
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A far cry from the Midtown's dry-meat mongers, King Souvlaki is at the tip of the skewer when it comes to the Greek scene, lavishing the city with authentic Grecian street eats since 1979.
The cash-only mobile meat station, which also has outlets in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens (with two in Astoria alone), specializes in tender skewers from chicken to fragrant lamb sausage that are hand-spit and grilled over charcoal. They're then served kebab-style or swaddled in either pita ($11 for most items) or a baguette ($16) with tomatoes, onions, tzatziki sauce and hand-cut fries like a pan-Hellenic hero.
Customers can also get a platter ($11) with a side salad, pita bread and tzatziki sauce — best eaten with a side of Greek fries that's festooned with organic feta cheese ($12).
13 Queens resident Katerina Apostolopoulus lauded King Souvlaki's 'authentic' Grecian eats and 'kind' service.
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Unlike the Midtown Greek carts frequented by the 'I Love NY' T-shirt crowd, King Souvlaki is endorsed by the olive oil-blooded clientele who keep them afloat.
'Most of our customers are Greek,' second-generation owner Lampros Tsampas told The Post of their Astoria locations.
'It's really authentic,' 30-year-old Queens resident Katerina Apostolopoulus, who is Greek, told The Post. 'You want to get it in the bread. That's the classic.'
Also, don't worry if you have no cash on hand — King Souvlaki has an ATM built right into the truck.
That's a wheely good wrap
13 Thiru Kumar, aka the 'Dosa Man,' mans his cart in Washington Square Park.
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OK, it's technically not a full-on truck and is more of a cart. But when it comes to NYC 'wrap' battles, NY Dosas reigns supreme.
For over two decades, Kandaswamy Thirukumar has been serving this savory Indian rice and lentil crepe out of his cart in Washington Square Park, attracting Disneyland-esque lines around the block.
The à la cart fare is strictly vegan — a lifestyle the Sri Lanka transplant adopted 20 years ago — but the food doesn't sacrifice flavor for ideology.
13 A Pondicherry dosa with crisp vegetables.
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13 The line at NY Dosas in Washington Square Park.
Stephen Yang for N.Y.Post
Dosa highlights include masala with potatoes ($9), Pondicherry with crisp salad greens ($10) and even a vegan soy 'drumstick' ($3)
Not just a hometown hero, NY Dosas has been featured in international newspapers from the UK to Japan, as well as in Vice's now-defunct food series 'Munchies.'
In 2007, Thirukumar notably won a Vendy Award — essentially the Oscar of the NYC street food scene.
Just be sure to check the in-demand dosa dynamo's Instagram page to see if he's working that day.
Honor 'roll'
13 Jeremy Batista's Bodega Truck rolls through different boroughs, dispensing his renowned chopped cheese sandwiches.
bodegacity.com
Jeremy Batista's Bodega Truck is a rolling chopped-cheese depot created in homage to the Bronx corner store where he spent a lot of time as a kid.
It specializes in different varieties of the bodega staple that consists of griddle-cooked beef topped with cheese and paired with lettuce, tomato, ketchup and mayo, and bookended by either a classic roll ($9) or baguette ($11).
The truck has become such a sensation that it's spawned two brick-and-mortar stores — one in Brooklyn (139 Havemeyer St.), the other in the Bronx (1091 Ogden Ave.) — with a UK pop-up slated for London next month.
13 The Dominican sandwich at Bodega Truck.
bodegacity.com
'My mother owned a bodega when I was younger, so I grew up in a bodega — that was just my life,' the nostalgic 'Chop Cheese Papi' told The Post. 'As you get older, things just start getting modernized and gentrified, and things are really not how they were, the old New York that I grew up and loved.
'So, one idea turned to the next, and I had the opportunity to open up a food truck, and I was, like, 'Wow, let me pay a little tribute to my childhood.''
Other varieties include the Good Mawning ($12) with hash brown and egg, and The Dominican ($13) over fries with fried cheese, salami and cabbage.
Unlike many food trucks, this bodegamobile is not stationary and hits up a different borough each day like a roving ice cream truck.
'If you have a truck and you can move around, why wouldn't you?' said Batista, who posts updates on the chopped-cheese carriage's location via Instagram.
Alas, like many things in the city, the food truck scene is demanding and ever-changing, and due to the grueling nature of his operation — Batista logged 18-hour days that started with finding parking at 4 a.m. — he has temporarily pulled the mighty Bodega Truck out of commission.
'It's a lot of things to juggle with the truck,' he lamented in a testament to his success. 'I know the truck is just a hard life, brother.'
But hang in there: Batista plans to have the uber-popular food mobile 'back out on the street for three days a week by the end of the summer.'
Landia ho!
13 'I don't underestimate [using] good quality meat in the tacos,' said Birria-Landia co-owner José Moreno (middle).
Stephen Yang for N.Y.Post
While many food trucks do a hundred different dishes poorly, Birria-Landia specializes in one item — and knocks it out of the park.
They arguably helped birria become a city-wide sensation with copper-colored pouches of goodness springing up on nearly every corner, helping fill a void in the NYC Mexican scene.
For those unfamiliar, birria is a flavorful Tijuana-style beef that's baptized in tangy, brawny consummé — the lifeblood of the restaurant.
13 The wondrously coppery and crunchy birria tacos at Birria-Landia.
Stephen Yang for N.Y.Post
The bronze liquid is also used to coat the corn tortillas, turning them crimson before they're deep-fried and paired with cilantro, onions and spicy sauce ($4).
The broth is so prized that people can even order it individually ($5 for a small cup, $6 for a large).
For owner José Moreno, who started the concept with his brother Jesús, it's all about the quality of the beef, which is cooked daily.
'I don't underestimate [using] good quality meat in the tacos,' said the proud owner, a former Eataly NYC chef.
In 2017, Moreno was inspired to create the concept after seeing its prevalence in San Diego and visited Tijuana to see how the sausage was made, so to speak.
Fast forward to today, and the brothers have a convoy of five mobile taco vendors across the city, as well as an immobile outlet in Flushing, Queens.
When pigs fry
13 Lechonera La Piraña owner Angel Jimenez poses with his restaurant's roast namesake.
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It's hard to believe that some of the city's best lechon — roasted suckling pig cooked over charcoal — would be served out of Lechonera La Piraña, a post-apocalyptic-looking trailer in the Bronx.
Featured in Vice, on 'Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern' and more, Angel Jimenez's swine dining depot at 766 E. 152nd St. is always swarming with customers, some of whom hail from as far as Connecticut or New Jersey to get a bite.
The pig is cooked in a four-tiered sidewalk barbecue and ferried to the venue via handcart, where the crackling, moist hunks of pork are hacked to order with the Puerto Rican native's machete.
13 A dish of lechon, shrimp, rice and octopus at Lechonera La Piraña.
Stephen Yang for N.Y.Post
13 Foodies sample the popular roast pork in The Bronx.
Stephen Yang for N.Y.Post
Go whole hog with all the trimmings: a dune of rice, sparklingly fresh octopus salad, stewed shrimp, and a whole, al dente plantain ($25).
Best of all, the congenial proprietor, clad in his token straw hat, will serve waiting customers samples straight off his blade. On a recent visit, a small girl was briefly startled by his sharp hog-hacker — until he handed the beaming child a ration of pork.
This jewel of Nuyorican cuisine is only open on Saturdays from noon to 6 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 6:30 p.m.
Jimenez has retired his old vehicle but has kept on truckin' — he's currently running his operation out of an interim tent, with plans for pulling up in a brand-new mobile meal station soon.