A Touch of Greek at YUL EAT

The Pitch

Our city is currently witnessing an explosion in outdoor food festivals.  Oysterfest, Lobster Clam Jam, First Fridays, Poutinefest, BBQ Bonanza… it seems a glutton can feed his hole all throughout the warm season!  This past Labor Day weekend, YUL EAT returned to Old Port for its second edition, and we were on site to check it out.  Among the many food trucks on hand, the menu at Zoe's appealed to us the most.

tagged:  CATCH SOME SUN

The Food

Think of Zoe's offering as spruced up, casual Greek food.  Gyro and shrimp sandwiches are made with handmade pita and spiked with foreign ingredients such as harissa and saffron.  Portions are generous considering the price, making this a rare truck where even big eaters such as ourselves can actually get our fix for around $15 per person (mind you we went for the entire menu…).

Main

Main

$11

$11

Lamb & Beef Pita

"handmade pita, with harissa aioli".  An excellent take on your classic gyro.  Moist and chewy bread, thin slices of gyro meat and a faint kick from the aioli made us wish we ordered two of these.  We did, however, find there was too much coleslaw; which, yes, made the pita fuller, but also very messy.

Main

Main

$10

$10

Saffron Shrimp Roll

They say the eye eats before the mouth.  Our eyes loved this beautiful roll with all the colors and the shrimps cascading on top of the (mountain of) coleslaw.  Alas, our taste buds did not agree much.  The shrimps barely had any flavor and were overwhelmed by the slaw.

Side

Side

$8

$8

Greek Poutine

"garlic scapes, goat feta cheese".  Some might argue that it is not technically a poutine if there's no gravy.  We are not of this opinion and actually appreciated the not-so-garlicky "sauce".  You can't go wrong with crispy fries with tangy feta yogurt that doesn't leave you with garlic breath.

Dessert

Dessert

$3.50

$3.50

Confit Lemon Mousse with Baklava

There was really nothing remarkable about this dessert.  Everything from the lemon mousse to the baklava was standard and did not tickle our fancy.

tagged:  TOO MESSY

The Service

As is symptomatic with most food trucks in town, preparation seems to take a little longer than desired.  Considering there was only one client ahead of us, the fifteen minutes we had to wait didn't necessarily bother us given we weren't pressed for time; however, it did leave us wondering what things would be like during a busy lunch hour for instance.

tagged:  NOT SO QUICK AFTER ALL

The Verdict

We realize we belong to a rare breed of Montrealers that are not super stoked about food trucks so far.  Don't get us wrong; we love that our city officials finally allowed them.  Regrettably, save for a few standouts, every truck we've sampled suffers from overpricing, small portions, difficulty of eating and/or slow service.

As for Zoe's today, while the pricing seemed right, there just wasn't much excitement with the food except for that tasty gyro meat.  Would we go out of our way to try it again?  Probably not.  If the truck happened to be in our area?  Possibly.

tagged:  PLAN B.

Price per person:  $14.50