Well I won’t lie, I had been looking forward to trying out the Shrimp Guys food truck for awhile now.   One of my favorite activities when I visit Oahu is to go eat at the shrimp trucks there.  My two favorites are the Blue Water Shrimp truck in Waikiki and Giovanni’s Aloha Shrimp truck on the North Shore.  Just the thought of those 2 trucks make my mouth water.  Anyway, I digress.

After some quick research, I learned that the two owners (Rich Narne and Rico Libang) started the Shrimp Truck after a visit to the aforementioned Giovanni’s in Hawaii.  Although neither owner hails from the 808 area code, their objective is to evoke memories of Hawai’i for its customers.  Sounds cool enough to me!  I started following the Shrimp Guys on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/theshrimpguys) and saw one night that they were gonna be in my neighborhood on Sawtelle and Olympic.  Needless to say, I rushed there with a quickness.

First off, there were about 5 trucks on Sawtelle that night which I thought was pretty cool.  They added to the already great selection of restaurants that Sawtelle has to offer.  I made it there around 9pm (closing time) so the line was not that long.  I went ahead and ordered the full plate of spicy garlic shrimp.  My first gripe is the price.  $9 for a plate of shrimp is pretty steep for a food truck.  Granted this is how much they charge in Hawaii, but then again, those are tourist areas where they usually jack up the price anyway.  I think $6 is more of a fair price but keep in mind, I have no idea what their finances are so $9 might be what they HAVE to charge to make ends meet.  It took them about 10 minutes to make the plate and off I went back to my lair to devour my food.

So here it is in all of it’s glory.  My first thought was, “man this plate is pretty LIGHT”.  For $9, I better be getting a crapload of shrimp.  Alas, I think you get about 8 shrimp total and 2 scoops of white rice.  I finished the thing off in about 10 minutes.  I have to admit, it WAS GOOD.  Maybe not as good as Blue Water Shrimp but it definitely satisfied the taste buds.  The only thing was, I was STILL hungry!  I think 2 plates would have sufficed to slay my hunger but the thought of spending $18 for a food truck meal does not appeal to me….AT ALL.  All gripes aside, I will be back next time the Shrimp Guys are in town.  I’ll just make sure to cook a side dish on my own to complete the dinner.  Enjoy!

Shrimp Guys Website:  http://www.theshrimpguys.com

Shrimp Guys Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/theshrimpguys