Dan Dan BBQ

UPDATE: I was in a row of food trucks and here they were again… Like a curse I can’t shake. My unsuspecting friend ordered from Dan Dan when I wasn’t looking and managed to get his food in less than 10 minutes.
For God sakes, please learn how to cook a quesadilla. MELT THE CHEESE!
Second experience almost 6 months later, and still nothing’s changed. So sad.

Horrible, just horrible.
We tries this a couple of weeks ago at the Irvine Farmers Market. There were several other food trucks there, with better crowds and cheaper prices, but I picked this truck specifically because they said that their food was organic. That, and the fact that the line was short and I didn’t want to wait a half hour or more for my food.
Well.. .30 minutes later I received our order – a kimchi quesadilla and the chicken burrito with kimchi. Considering how long it took to get the food, it was kind of surprising that neither was all that hot. The quesadilla was absolutely awful. There was a ton of cheese, but it wasn’t properly melted. I am not a fan of half-​melted, warmish but coldish cheese. As for the kimchi, it was completely bland. I have eaten a lot of Korean food, and have never in my life experienced kimchi that could be called bland. No spice, no pickly goodness. Nothing. It might have just as well been cabbage. The chicken meat also had no flavor. There was a sauce on it, but it didn’t add any flavor and just made the whole thing soppy.
I guess its not surprising that we didn’t care for the chicken burrito either, given that it was a lot of the same ingredients rearranged. The same bland chicken was there, with the same bland kimchi and the same barely melted cheese. The filler was a lot of rice, which of course was bland. Of all of the Korean fusion taco trucks, the food here was by far the worst that I have tried. This makes me sad, because I love the use of organic ingredients, which I respect and am willing to pay more for. But organic doesn’t cover for just plain bad food.

Alright, quick review here. I was going to order a burrito for my first time but was instead suggested to try the sliders. Man, was this a good suggestion. The sliders had a very moist and soft bun filled with pieces of tender beef and layered with a cabbage mixture. I think these were the best sliders I have ever had, period.
Along with the sliders I had Dan Dan fries. Which would have been good, except they put wayyyyy too much salt in it. Tasted basically like eating fries within the ocean. This is pretty much the only reason this is a 3 star instead of a 4 star review.
But seriously, try the sliders.

We made our way to the OC Great Park’s weekly Farmer’s Market last Sunday and were pleasantly surprised to see the Dan Dan BBQ truck. My husband has heard so many great things and have been waiting for the opportunity to try them.
We ordered the kim chi quesadilla and their weekly special, cheese steak sandwich but only by default (they ran out of everything else). The food was quite flavorful and tasty. Although I tasted more cheese than kim chi in the quesadilla.
Pricing seems to be reasonable compared to all other food trucks in the area. But what knocked them down was the slow and lack of service we received.
The whole process took about an hour! From when we we first waited in line (and may I say we were like 4^th in line) until we got our food. It was completely unnecessary. By the time we got our food, my husband was so upset we couldn’t enjoy it.
We would have appreciated them giving us updates as to when to expect to receive our food or a simple apology for having us wait. This probably would have made a big difference in the overall experience.
For having to wait that long, I would much rather much have Kogi.

Great food and excellent and friendly enivornment. The pork sliders are a must if going to dan dan.

Okay —
we ordered loaded fries with short ribs — salsa on the side
and they gave us a pork belly taco — my son’s therapist ate the taco till my son stole it from her.
I ordered this food for my son and he would not share — he has autism.
Anything he likes gets 5 stars —- minus one for no napkins.
I am sure we will come again

These guys are awesome! I had the Korean cheesesteak and the fries with sesame seeds and toasted sea weed. Both were so good that me and my buddy (who got the loaded fries) had to go back and tell the guys how great it was. Fast service from cool dudes, great food, and decent prices.

The food truck adventure continued forward to Dan Dan BBQ. The crowd here is friendly and we had a great conversation with one of their staff members and ordered two of the black belt tacos — spicy pork and chicken.
Tacos are served on two corn tortillas with a bed of cabbage, mandarin oranges, lime, spicy meat filling, and some crazy sauce combo. I took a few bites of each taco and could feel the heat from the meat. It’s definitely got a kick to it but I wouldn’t say they’d set your tongue on fire.
Not a bad taco truck but I think I still prefer Taco Dawg.

Every time I find myself Twitter-​drawn to another gathering of foodie trucks in south Orange County, Dan Dan is usually almost always there to serve the masses. I’m sure that some of their regular menu items are probably pretty satisfying to many of us mobile connoisseurs. But the one time I decided to give DDB a shot, the one time I was pretty hungry and figured that Dan Dan had served a regular enough amount of people to get things moving along, I was so severely disappointed that I probably will not ever manage to give them another shot — not with so many other tasty, quick, and enjoyable options out there.
I decided to order the smoked shrimp gordita, and my brother the spicy pork taco and regular fries. As I stood waiting around for my shrimp gordita, I noticed that eeeeeveryone who had ordered right before and right after me had gotten their orders. I figure, hey, maybe they made my order fresh from the start, and everyone else’s had somehow been par-​cooked or pre-​prepped. So I didn’t complain — I’m not that person. I know how hard people work to give great service even to those who don’t deserve it, so I’m not going to raise a stink.
I check my watch: HOLY SH*T it’s been almost 40 minutes!!! I don’t understand what could possibly be taking so long. It’s shrimp for chrissakes. I seriously was about to tweet: «Hey @DanDanBBQ are you still catching my shrimp out on the boat? It’s been almost 45 mins!» when they called my name. FINALLY. No apology, no nothing. Wow, this truck’s food must be HELLA good for people to be willing to wait this long.
And a large ‘gordita’ at that! The shell was a deliciously toasted, thick gordita wrap that was too large to eat with one hand and too cooked to eat with a plastic fork. It was tasty, but inconvenient. There was a good amount of shrimp, and it did have a nice subtle smoke behind it, but that was about it. The fruit salsa covering it added nothing to the complexity, or lack thereof, and the veggies tossed in some mayo-​based whatever sauce were just meh. There was so much potential in this heavy boat of creative culinary gold — but the flavor was absent, the depth was nonexistent, and the difficulty was too much to overcome.
My brother’s pork taco was also missing that extra notch of popping flavor as is typically expected from Korean bbq. The texture of it didn’t help either — it was like someone cooked a bunch of random pork, tossed it in a food processor and then took it out with some ‘Korean style’ sauce just before it became mushy. Weird. I do have to admit though that the fries were fresh and a nice accompaniment. Was there supposed to be some kind of seasoning on them?
I wish you the best of luck, Dan Dan — I think you’ll be alright judging from your increasing popularity at these random events — but for now I just am not impressed.

A review in two parts. This is one of a half dozen fusion «gourmet» trucks that forms a «food truck brigade» for lunch Wednesdays in Irvine (on Teller off Michelson).
Part I) Last week was my first experience. I tried the kimchi quesadilla. Made with short rib meat (and plenty of it), kimchi, and a darn good spicy/​sweet secret sauce. This was a winner (and by itself 4-​star worthy). Highly recommend this for your first time.
Part II) So today there was new face (The Burnt Truck) in the brigade that had all the foodie’s attention with the requisite loooooong line, and DDB, had just a few folks at their spot. Not wanting to spend all of one hour lunch in line (been there/​done that), i headed over to DDB.
On the hand written daily «specials» board was the Korean Spicy Lobster Salad Sandwich for $ 10.
I am a big lobster fan, and thought that this might be interesting. wrong!
The french roll was dry and bland and probably picked out from a clearance table at a local supermarket a few days before. As much as we tried, my friend (who tried the same thing) could not even find a hint of lobster in what was basically a $ 10 celery and mayonnaise salad sandwich.
Well DDB you let me down so much today, that I actually had to walk over to another truck and purchase something that would cure my hunger pains. I believe in second chances for everybody and everything, so I may be back someday to figure out if I really like this place or not. Today i felt cheated.

Review of the short rib burrito.
I give it 2.5 stars. Maybe I caught them on a bad day? The beef smelled great and looks great but I was a little disappointed with overall taste. There was some Kim chi in there but it was very subtle. If I’m eating Kim chi, I want Kim chi.
If it’s convenient I may try a different item next time but I wouldn’t go out of my way. Just had a bad first impression.
Definitely dos chinos over dandanbbq.

YUMMM! Would have gotten 5 stars, but the tubes w/​the hot sauces ran out an hour into thier service. They were notified, but they said they were out (although we did see some salsa inside there on the top shelf, but maybe they add stuff to them and didn’t have time to do so during service).
I ordered the Bolgogi Burger, but enjoyed the bite of my boyfriend’s black belt short rib burrito way more. We shared the short rib tacos as well and that was good too.
All in all, great food — friendly service

We recently went to the OC FOODIE FEST and the best food their in our Opinion was DAN DAN BBQ check them out when you see their truck out and about. The food is a treat to the mouth. NO MSG and ORGANIC vegetables. Reasonable prices and the owner was a fun guy to meet. The Food IS KOREAN FUSION