The Lime Truck @ Pasarbella Suntec by autodidactic Chef Daniel Shemtob travelled all the way from California USA where it won Yahoo’s “Top 10 Food Trucks in America” for three consecutive years (2012-2014). It is also the  the grand winner of The Food Network’s Season 2 “The Great Food Truck Race” in 2011.  Singapore is the first overseas outpost of the Tex-Mex truck.

They make the tortillas and sauces from scratch, and combines different and often surprising flavours so you know for sure they do not serve traditional Mexican tacos. It is recommended to get two tacos and a side for a person’s serving. On Taco Tuesdays, each taco goes for $3.50 although on normal days, the tacos are affordable, ranging from $3.50 to $4.60 each. For a couple, you may want to get the taco sampler ($24.90), which includes 5 tacos and 2 sides. Besides tacos, they also have rice bowls ($9.90) or salad bowls ($9.90), which uses the taco ingredients on rice or greens.

For sides, there is elotes (roasted corn $3.90), but we had the chicken skin ($3.90, above) and Brussel sprouts ($3.90, below). The spicy cream sauce (Sriracha mayo?) on the chicken skin does nothing to alleviate the blandness of the skin, but the slightly charred brussels sprouts give an intense flavour. It doesn’t have the bitterness which some brussels sprouts have because of poor cooking. Rather, it is mixed with bacon and a creamy sweet sauce (something mayo?), which adds umami to the vegetable. It’s a must-order here.

On the tacos: They say they make the tortillas from scratch but to the honest, I didn’t like it because it is thick and dry and generic, not much different from the wraps you can get from supermarket.

Out of the five tacos we tried—they have only 7 varieties and one of them is vegan, yucks–the best is without doubt the Gringo ($4.50/piece). It consists of slow braised ribs, buttermilk onion ring, arugula, and horseradish sauce (which I mistook for wasabi mayo). What an amazingly smart combination that runs through the gamut of textures and flavours, from crunchy onion ring to tender shreds of meat, from bitter arugula to a choking horseradish. Must order!

The other beef taco, #1 steak ($4.60) is the type you see at most places. Cubes of beef come with soy-ginger slaw, strips of wonton skin, and cilantro chimichurri. Although it is sourish (some may say piquant?), it is not bad.

The fried chicky ($4.20) is one of the two chicken tacos (the other is grilled chicken $4.30 which we didn’t order). The buttermilk fried chicken is undercut by the house-made pickles, and it tastes like honey lemon although the menu doesn’t state it. Quite delicious, almost like the Chinese honey-lemon chicken.

In general, I love barramundi taco, but the version here ($4.60) isn’t up to par. They used to serve grilled barramundi taco but now they deep-fried it. The sauce tastes funky and there is too little meat, too much batter. Maybe the grilled version would have been better?

The sugar-and-soy slow braised pork belly taco ($4) sounds awesome but is disappointing. The pork belly is topped with green pico, sambal, cilantro in a house-made corn tortilla. There is no taste of sambal at all. The pork belly is slightly gamy and not tender, but the overall flavour is pleasing and tastes like a familiar sweet-and-sour pork.

The cinnamon churros ($3.90) is probably one of the best in Singapore. It was served together with the savoury food—shrugs–so we took some time before we could actually eat it. Yet it remained slightly warm. It was still crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. The cinnamon sugar was just nice, not cloying. This is the third must-order dish here.

We paid $28.80 for two persons. Good value for the food. The flavours in the tacos are smart and creative and delicious. Definitely worth coming here at least once or twice or whenever you have cravings for tacos. We had, and Lime Truck did scratch the itch for us.

Menu

Food: 7.25/10
Price/value: 7/10
Ambience/decor: NA (food court)
Service: NA (order at the counter, but the cashier was helpful and nice.)

You may be interested in…
–LES45, Singapore Land Tower: Delicious, Affordable Mexican Food with a Beautiful View
–Vatos Urban Tacos, South Beach Quarter: KoMex (Korean-Mexican) Food, Best Tacos in Singapore 
–Chimichanga, Dunlop Street: Affordable Mexican Food at a Hipster Joint
–Super Loco, Robertson Quay: Super Delicious Mexican Weekend Brunch + Super Hot Angmohs

Written by Dr. A. Nathanael Ho.