Mom’s Grilled Cheese Food Truck (Sandwiches)

Restaurant: Mom’s Grilled Cheese Truck
Cuisine: Sandwiches/American/Food Truck
Last Visited: February 18, 2013
Location: Vancouver, BC (Downtown)
Address: 800 W Georgia St (map)
Transit: Vancouver City Ctr Stn Southbound
Phone: (604) 767-9768
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: FMF Must Try!

Food: 4.5
Service: n/a
Ambiance: n/a
Value: 3.5
Overall: n/a
Additional comments:

• Grilled cheese sandwiches
• Artisan breads
• Local favourite
• Busy/long lines at peak hours
• Daily specials
• Vegetarian friendly
• Vegan options
• Gluten free options
• Kid friendly
• Budget friendly
• For locations/hours: @momsgrilledchz

**Recommendations: Monday’s Mom’s Meatloaf Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Wednesday’s Hot Angie Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Roasted Tomato Soup

Alright mom! Show me what you got! My mom can make a pretty good grilled cheese sandwich, and so can I… and even my 10 year old cousin. So what’s so special about yours? Well after a couple bites I can tell you what makes Mom’s Grilled Cheese one of Vancouver’s favourite and busiest food trucks.

Photo from Sherman

Yes, it’s her grilled cheese sandwiches, but it’s also the whole package. I was able to meet Cindy Hamilton on a couple occasions while being hosted for lunch, and I think anyone who has visited this food truck can agree she’s one of the friendliest vendors. I think the only person who could beat her is Raphael from Slavic Rolls, both very different kinds of awesome.

Cindy is a full time mother, owner and operator of Mom’s Grilled Cheese. Having no formal culinary experience her first catering gig was for the movie set of Kill Bill while she was living temporarily in Beijing. Until this day this hot mama still claims she can’t cook, even though she has catered for several movie sets including Mission Impossible 3.

After 20 years of experience in the food industry she wanted something with flexibility that would allow her to spend more time with her 3 year old daughter Maxine. So she decided to make her business perfecting this nostalgic comfort food. Her retro designed food truck features a painted mural of her and Maxine on the back. I should also mention this Canadian mama speaks English, French, Mandarin and Patois. I bet that caught you off guard. Who knew superwoman could make a killer grilled cheese while speaking fluent Chinese?!

Now the tough love. Honestly, it’s a grilled cheese sandwich. Do we really need a food truck making grilled cheese sandwiches? It’s something everyone can make at home and it doesn’t even require many ingredients, but I admit I wanted to try it too.

I’ve mentioned “gourmet comfort food” being one of the 10 Food Trends I Want to See Die in 2013, however I am a sucker for it, and I think almost all of us are. It is called “comfort food” for a reason and it brings back childhood memories. I just don’t like when it is overpriced and reliant on “gourmet” ingredients that are not even very gourmet, and this one wasn’t.

Her grilled cheese sandwiches are fancier than what one would ordinarily make at home, but they’re also not as fancy as what you might find at a nice restaurant – which is fine because this is a food truck. Her take on gourmet is based on old fashioned North American classics rather than modern and inventive originals. Personally, I prefer the latter (a bit more typical to Pacific Northwest/West Coast tastes), which means we have an appreciation for different styles of “gourmet”.

There are grilled cheese sandwiches where I think “I could actually make this at home”, and then there are grilled cheese sandwiches requiring a little more effort, and the right equipment. At Mom’s Grilled Cheese they take things a bit more seriously, and her process involves pre baking them in the oven to melt the cheese, and then brushing the bread with butter and finishing it off on a flattop grill.

For a grilled cheese sandwich it was very good, but I think her daily specials are where these sandwiches shine most. Regardless, if you love grilled cheese, then Mom is calling your name. Don’t disappoint her and she won’t disappoint you.

On the table:

Roasted Tomato Soup – 3.5/6 (Good-Very good)

• Topped with basil mascarpone. Shot $1.00 Cup $4.00
• A lot of people love this soup, and while it was very good, I thought it tasted like marinara sauce.
• It was made with stewed tomatoes, onions, garlic, dried thyme and fresh chopped basil.
• The soup was quite thick and it had texture. The pieces of puréed tomatoes could actually sit on top.
• It was very simple and good for dipping sandwiches into.
• It was dairy free so it is not creamy, nor watered down.
• There was a marscapone basil cream on top which I got as a heart (very cute), but it was more like a garnish.
• There ins’t much marscapone for the amount of soup, so it doesn’t show a significant difference even after melting it in.
• I actually found out after, that this is her marinara sauce used for her grilled cheese sandwiches. She just turns it into soup!
• Personally I prefer a bisque style of tomato soup, but this was still good.

**Mom’s Meatloaf – 4.5/6 (Very good-Excellent)

• A hearty slice of homemade meatloaf surrounded by melted mozzarella and marinara sauce on crusty French bread. $8.50
• This is Mom’s Monday Daily Special and I wish it was a permanent feature. It is the most popular grilled cheese sandwich.
• It was a meatball sandwich meets a sloppy joe under the name of a grilled cheese.
• The bread was hard and crisp and almost crunchy, but in a good way that wouldn’t scratch the roof of your mouth.
• It was buttery, but not greasy with a nice slab of meatloaf and then ooey gooey melted cheese.
• I could taste more meatloaf and marinara than I could cheese, but it was all very good.
• The meatloaf is 100% lean ground beef and it was garlicky with fennel seeds.
• It was tender, moist and sausage like, but I personally love pork so half and half would have been great too!
• It was mixed with breadcrumbs and parmesan, but it was quite subtle and it tasted meaty and not filler.
• There was also a ton of marinara sauce so it can get a bit messy and saucy.
• The marinara sauce was simply stewed tomatoes, onions, garlic, dried thyme and fresh chopped basil which she also turns into her Roasted Tomato Soup.
• If you like this I also recommend Mommas Meatloaf Panini at Nooch Snack & Chill.
• Another very excellent meatloaf I had is from The American Sector – see their Meatloaf.

Mom’s Meatloaf pre-marinara sauce.

The combos come with a standard side of locally made (BC) Hardbite Chips as well as pickles. These all natural flavoured chips are kettle-cooked, gluten free, non GMO, no MSG, no artificial anything, no trans fat, no cholesterol, low salt and made in small batches. They reminded me of Miss Vickie’s, but maybe even less oily. (You can’t typically order half and half for the grilled cheese sandwich.)

The Baby Daddy Special – 3.5/6 (Good-Very good)

• Roast beef, horseradish, havarti and green peppers on potato bread $8.75. Add Hardbite Potato Chips & pickle $10.
• I had this during Street Food City Food Truck Festival and it was pretty much a take on a Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich.
• It was thin shavings of roast beef, crunchy green bell peppers and melted havarti cheese, but I couldn’t taste much horseradish.
• Again, the bread was hard and crisp and almost crunchy, but in a good way that wouldn’t scratch the roof of your mouth.
• It was buttery, but not greasy and the harvati was well melted.
• The roast beef was quite standard and not as tender, and I found it just okay, so I probably preferred it without.
• I wouldn’t have minded the green bell peppers more cooked because they were still pretty raw and crunchy, and there were a lot of them.
• Green peppers aren’t always desired cause of their bitterness, but if this was based on a Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich then that’s what it will be.

**Olive Bread & Cheddar Grilled Cheese Sandwich – 4.5/6 (Very good-Excellent)

• Add sliced red onion, sliced tomato $.50/add on
• All the breads are sourced from local bakery Swiss Bakery.
• This was a green olive bread, but I couldn’t taste or see much olive.
• However there was lots of ooey gooey cheese and it was a very good grilled cheese.
• The red onions were still a bit crunchy and raw, so caramelized would be better, but it was still good.
• Again, the bread was hard and crisp and almost crunchy, but in a good way that wouldn’t scratch the roof of your mouth.
• It was buttery, but not greasy and I actually ate this with the Hardbite potato chips on top of the sandwich for extra crunch. That was delicious!