CreativEats

(Dined 05/19/18 SA @ 8:30pm): I loved how these guys got creative with their eats!

I recently enjoyed a viewing of "E.T. The Extra Terrestrial" during an Eat See Hear event at the North Hollywood Recreation Center yelp.com/biz/north-holly… when I finally had my first eating encounter with the CreativEats food truck. Since I frequently attended, worked, or volunteered at the myriad of year-around events throughout Southern California, I've seen this food truck on many occasions but somehow never made it to them until now. Truth be told, by default I made a beeline for them this time because of the short line and I'd already tried those that were present; and if you knew me, I thoroughly believed in trying new things whenever possible. Would I consider eating their creations at future events!?:

QUICK BIO
Based out of the South Bay (Hawthorne to be exact), look for the giant royal blue truck with its scripted name across both sides and some brightly-painted vegetables scattered about. The menu is eclectic yet simple with a variety of gourmet-like dishes all prepared fresh upon ordering.

PURCHASE
Shrimp Yaki Soba Noodles ($9.00): I was looking for something "healthy" since I've been eating crap for far too long, and this item caught my eye with its abundance of soba noodles, mixed shredded vegetables, large portion size, and a heck of a price! The five pieces of shrimp were large but wished there were more. This wasn't overly seasoned, the noodles weren't cooked to near perfection, and the vegetables were fresh. I was thoroughly stuffed once I put this entire meal down yelp.com/user_local_phot…

SERVICE
It was towards the end of their shift before they packed up and everyone was watching the movie, so I placed my order quickly, and the food came out fresh and hot in about ten minutes! I even scored a Strawberry Fanta with my meal! Of course, it would be an entirely different story at the start of the day, but if they were still cool at the end of the shift when they simply wanted to clear out and leave, I imagined they were just as chill at the start. All was good in "No 'Wood"!

PARKING (Varied; FREE this instance)
Being a food truck, they were at the beck and call wherever the event was held. In this case, the venue was at the North Hollywood Recreation Center which had plenty of onsite parking around the entire place. Otherwise, there were plenty of metered and timed street parking around the area (valid until 6pm). Another option was to hire a driving service like a taxi, Lyft, or Uber.

ATMOSPHERE, DÉCOR, AMBIENCE
Your standard self-sufficient food truck yelp.com/user_local_phot… with exterior menus, order and pick up windows, an area for condiments, napkins, and utensils, no designated seating area, and natural lighting was prevalent during the daytime while electric street and truck lighting glowed at night. There were no TVs nor background music.

ATTIRE
Totally casual, so I would normally be in a t-shirt, boardshorts, and flip-flops.

OVERALL
I was happy to have finally tried the CreativEats food truck and would certainly try them again (FYI...they had salmon on the menu!). The prices were cheaper than I expected among the food truck scene, the options were highly varied from burgers, fried goodness, noodles, seafood, etc., and the service was very good. I found fairly good value based on the prices, service, and experience noted above (TOTAL paid experience was around $9.00 BEFORE any discounts and/or tip). And, although I paid in cash, they accepted my credit cards of choice...AMEX! 4.5 STARS

Do not book this food truck for any event, do not purchase any item from this truck either - unless you want to stand and wait for it for ONE AND A HALF HOURS.
I couldn't be more disgusted with the ridiculously slow service - we were at a martial arts championship which my husband was competing in, so thought we would quickly grab a bite from this truck.
After taking forever to actually open (despite there being a set short "lunch" period) we waited in the queue for half an hour as the woman very slowly took orders. But waiting for a full hour to receive two sandwiches was ridiculous. To add insult to injury, my chicken sandwich was so awful that if I hadn't been starving by this point I would have thrown it away.

I ordered the buttermilk chicken sandwich today.  I had gone out in search of a fried chicken sandwich, and when I saw the picture of theirs, I was pretty excited.

After about a 20 minute wait, what came out of the truck was not at all like what was pictured.  I didn't take a photo of my food because by this time, I was too hungry.  But I will try to describe it.  There was ample chicken.  It tasted as if it was breast meat with some flavoring on it and then perhaps fried in oil or in a pan.  It was dark brown, and someone in my office mistook it for catfish.  It was not crispy as one normally expects with fried chicken.  It just tasted like a spicy chicken breast that has been fried in a pan.  Overall it was not bad, but just not like what was pictured or what I was expecting.

Chicken sandwich looks nothing like on the menu it was burnt and tasteless and tough and leathery garlic fries just ok never going back to this truck. But the man was really nice

Had the chicken sandwich today and it was truly amazing. The gentleman in there puts a lot of hard work into every order and you can really taste the quality. The menu at this food truck is really random but you can tell each item is personal and well thought-through. I don't know for sure but it feels like there's some family recipe action happening here and it's working.

Had the impossible burger last night and burger was SOOO GOOOOD. I love that they have vegetarian and vegan options with good portions. Highly recommend this place!

Buttermilk chicken and fries BOMB!!! Definetly will order this again the combination of spices, sauces so good.

Travis is very creative with his food.. I really enjoy his chicken sandwiches with the cabbage pickles and habaneros sauce.  Down-to-earth staff just awesome!

This place is terrific! Everyone I interacted with (staff and costumers alike) were so friendly and welcoming, even at almost 1 in the morning when I stopped there. I got the cheddar cheese burger with beacon, grilled onions, pickles, and their mango habanero sauce, with garlic fries. He was super generous with the fries and it was one of the best burgers I've ever had. Truly a wonderful experience!

I've been  a huge supporter of the Gourmet Food trucks for over 5 years, but have mixed reviews on my recent visit to Creative Eats.  

On September 30 they were at the Pioneer HS in Whittier and  I had the Panko buttermilk chicken and wild rice waffle with a side of dijon maple syrup.  I've had fried chicken on other trucks, and usually had to wait quite a while for my food.  Creative Eats made my chicken to order, and it took about 5 minutes, which was fantastic.

For the price of $9 I got a Belgian sized waffle and 3 good size pieces of  piping hot boneless chicken.  

The chicken was moist, but either the oil was too hot or it was in the fryer too long, because the outside of my chicken was overcooked, to the point it was extremely crunchy, but not "quite" burnt.   I agree that panko should be crunchy but should also have a softness to it when you bite it.    These chicken pieces was like eating Cap'n Crunch cereal.  I conveyed my experience to Travis on my way out, and hopefully didn't offend him.

The wild rice waffle was a nice change to the typical "buttermilk" waffle.  It was a huge, fluffy Belgian style waffle.  In fact, I felt it was too big.  I ate 1/2 and tossed the rest so I could enjoy other food truck items.

The dijon Maple syrup was my favorite part of the meal.  I am not a mustard fan but I do like the honey mustard sauces, and this paired very well with the chicken, and the waffle.  

In the competitive world of the Gourmet Food Trucks, $9 for my meal was a bit on the high side.  Just a few doors down, the BBQ truck offered 1/4 rack of ribs for $5, and they were meaty and juicy.

My suggestion is to offer a 1/2 waffle so that the food truck fans could try other items on their truck (or other trucks, for that matter).  They could even charge $6 for a 1/2 order, make it more affordable, and they could probably sell more, and use less food.  (Just my 2 cents).

I'd rate this a 3 1/2 star experience, and I"d love to try them again.

I can't speak highly enough about this place. I live in the Bay Area and had to go to LA for court and they happened to be parked next to the court house. Me and my fiancé ate here and holy shit was it delicious..!! It's been two years since we ate here and we STILL talk about how good the food was. We hade that bacon burger and the salmon and the broccoli and god damn it was good..also the people that work here are SOOO nice! I wish this place was in the Bay Area it's some of the best food I've ever had.

Ordered the Spring Mix Salad $7 and added Salmon $6 = $13

Very tasty and I was full afterward..

They cram everything into a french fry boat, which made it somewhat challenging to get my desk from the truck and eat without anything falling over the sides.

I will visit them again to try some of the other menu items.

Update:
Went back to try something different today and went with the pulled pork waffle sandwich ($10). Not as good as the salad. Pork was slightly dry, but the good BBQ sauce helped. Not a whole lot of coleslaw to meld the flavors. The waffle was cooked fine, but it wasn't crispy. there wasn't anyway to eat this as a sandwich due to the waffle getting too soggy. It was good, but would not order that again.

Best salmon salad I've had in a LONG time. They put so much salmon on there it felt like they were trying to give it away. Thank you, Creative Eats! Talk about getting your money's worth.

If you see this truck, I def recommend trying it out. Everything looked tasty on the menu and the girl working was super friendly. I'm looking forward to this truck coming back to our area.

Super. Yum. A+

Food is whatever... I won't complain about the costs like most people-- it's a food truck, they are always pricey. But I ordered sweet potato fries which is basic but even that was screwed up. I waited 35 minutes for fries that were cold and the chipotle sauce is really just pink colored mayo. I am having trouble understanding how you fail at fries. And any business should be considerate that people are on their lunch breaks, if you can't handle a simple order of fries have the courtesy of returning the money if you won't complete the order in at least 10 minutes!

Overall, it's 3.5, rounding up to 4 star because of the nice staff.

CreativEats is one of the food trucks kind enough to stop by at our work since work does not feed us these couple weeks.

They have quite a few choices for entrees: Grill Salmon ($11), Sandwiches & Burgers (I think it's $7-$10), even Chicken & Waffle. I think there's a salad too.  Since prices include tax & tips (if you want to tip extra, there's a tip jar), I think most of the entrees were reasonable priced (could knock a dollar off on some the sandwiches, but oh well)  For sides, that's another story: Garlic Fries (a full container) is $5 and regular Fries is $4. They also offer Bottled water & soda @ $2, Mexican coke @$3.  

I had Pulled Pork Waffle Sandwich served with syrup ($9) with an order of garlic fries ($5). Food is made to order, it took a few minutes. Staff service was nice. Pulled pork was nice, the waffle got a bit soggy toward the end, but overall was a good meal.

I might grab another lunch from them if they return next week.

Worst food truck ever.  Waited 45 mins for our chicken sandwich and garlic fries.  Chicken was overcooked (super well done to the point it was like chicken jerky).  Asked for ketchup on the fries and order taker guy said they dont have ketchup.  Helper in the back said they did.  Dont tell me a food truck that sells fries doesn't have ketchup.  What a liar.

Kind of like a diner in a truck.

Put your fancy pants on because the menu items here are upscale for a food truck.  Besides the menu, I also appreciate the two folks working hard inside the truck to create inventive meals for the masses. I can't say I'm impressed by the truck's design (or name for that matter) so in a sea of food trucks I would probably have skipped them by.

That would be a mistake though. Where else can you get fresh wild pacific salmon with sauteed broccolini? Or Buttermilk Fried Chicken and Waffles at the same time? Or red pepper crab cakes?

I went for the chicken sandwhich because of the photo. It looked blackened and that always draws my eyes. Blackened btw is cajun seasoning where the meat also looks charred. I think it also tends to result in dryer meat but I'm not sure.

As Britney Spears probably didn't sing: "Char me baby one more time!"

My chicken sandwich was built with buns, homemade cheese sauce, green chile, and blue corn chips. It's about $8 and for food truck prices, that's below my average spend of $12. I would rather pay $12 here than $12 at other food trucks that's for sure. The sandwich itself is on the cajun salty and vinegary dry side. I know i'm not selling that well but it works well for me.

Five stars! One star for the truck's design though they really need to change that up. I want this truck to be on the truck-of-fame one day.

For a truck, the preparation time is extremely slow.  There wasn't a line and I had to wait at least 15 minutes for my order.  I know, that isn't a lot at a restaurant, but for a truck during lunch time, that really cuts into your time.

I got the grilled cheese and sweet potato fries.  The bread as overly greasy and the cheese was not fully melted.  The fries were pretty good and they gave so many that I barely finished half.  Overall, the meal left me feeling heavy and fatty.  

Maybe I'd give it another shot, but I'm not sure.

Always a dilemma for lunch in DTLA. Today I choose CreativEats, and so happy I did. I ordered the Salmon and Broccolini. They asked how I liked it cooked, and I replied as well as reasonable. The outcome was perfect.

The salmon had deep char marks from the grill, and what tasted like a semi-sweet vinaigrette. No fishy taste at all, and it was light, and flaky, and cooked well. It was the best salmon I have had in as long as I can remember (maybe ever), and salmon is one of my favorite foods the last 25 years. The broccolini (which looks like, but is actually not broccoli) was great as well. Taste like it was sautéed in garlic and olive oil.

I will definitely  try them again :D

I was very surprised how good this truck was.  For $10 I got grilled salmon and broccolini.  It was so good I looked for them the next day at Food Truck Alley, but they were not there.  :(  The broccolini was spiced with red pepper flakes and something else so had a nice kick to it.  The salmon was fresh, moist, and delish!