Chef Roy Choi is rolling with his homie Jon Favreau with the new The Chef Truck at Park MGM. A friendship between the two formed when they worked together on the 2014 movie Chef and later on their 2019 documentary-style Netflix show, The Chef Show, and now the two creative minds have teamed up to open an actual food truck (it’s the real deal, not prefabricated), where they’re serving up new creations and some of the most popular dishes from the show.
“For 10 years, Jon has been asking me to open a restaurant together and I have always said, ‘No,’” Choi said in a press release. “I know how tough running a restaurant can be, and I didn’t want to risk it getting in the way of our friendship. But with Park MGM as our partner, I knew it was finally time to complete the trilogy. We started with the Chef movie, then came The Chef Show and now, The Chef Truck.”
“Opening a restaurant with chef Roy Choi is something I’ve been hoping to do since we first worked together,” Favreau said in the release. “Over the past decade we’ve collaborated on pop-ups, and now we have a permanent home where people can finally taste the food we’ve been cooking together.”
The Chef Truck, near the casino floor, is the perfect spot for grab-and-go or to chill out at the adjacent dining space, which holds just a few tables and high-top seating. Food can be ordered from early afternoon until late in the evening, and we suggest frequenting the truck a few times to get a taste of all the goodies. And there are many goodies!
Fans of the Netflix show will see fan favorite recipes on the menu like the mouthwatering Chef Truck Cubano. Choi’s and Favreau’s version of the classic takes a pressed butter roll and stuffs it with eggplant, portobello mushrooms, grilled mojo tofu, cheese, pickles, mustard and salsa verde. The Medianoche is like the Cubano but gives carnivores satisfaction with roasted mojo ham, pork, cheese, pickles and mustard inside a torta-style bun. Another show fave is the grilled cheese sandwich, a classic that gets the two bros’ upgrade with thick slices of buttered griddled sourdough bread piled with Gruyère, Parmesan, yellow and white cheddar—an egg can be added for that extra pop.
Medianoche
A chef’s salad mixes fresh lettuce and veggies with a choice of tofu, pork or chicken added, and the breakfast burrito is plump and filling for that morning-after-partying-all-night hunger. It’s stuffed with pork, eggs, potato, cheddar cheese, salsa verde and pickled red onions.
Sides at The Chef Truck are just as much stars on the menu as their main brethren. Not to be missed is the spicy watermelon, a simple but lip-smacking recipe made of cubes of the juicy fruit marinated in kimchi paste and lime. The mozzarella cheese croquettes and ham and cheese croquettes are rich and filling. The plantain chips are ginormous and come with the salsa verde that Choi recommends putting on almost every dish—he’s right, it’s freaking amazing.
Another Chef Show favorite makes it on to the dessert menu, the molten chocolate lava cake. You won’t want to share it with friends, but maybe get the group in on an order of perfectly fried and light beignets with a chocolate dipping sauce.
“I hope this food lives up to people’s hopes when they try it,” Choi said. Mission accomplished, buddy.
Park MGM, 702.730.7777, mgmresorts.com
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