Two tasty Orlando food trucks go brick-and-mortar | Review

Good things often come in twos. Like this week’s write-up.

Two popular Orlando food trucks. Two adorable couples. Two venues for both Filipino and Hawaiian fare. Two recent forays into brick-and-mortar. Two worthy stories with serendipitously synchronized timing — with each other and Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. It’s not just a no-brainer, it’s ono brainer.

“‘Ono” means delicious in Hawaiian.

(Annnnnd, I’ll see myself out.)

Sweet & Salty in Sanford

There are many good chicken sandwiches in this city, but the hot butter chicken katsu sandwich ($15) from Sweet & Salty Island Grindz — an unforgettable handheld featuring a girthy fried thigh, slathered in spicy butter, piled high with mac salad, green onions and spicy mayo and crammed into a brioche bun, a chicken sandwich so good that when I first tasted it, I thought it was pork — is truly top-tier.

This is why when I showed up at their new outpost at Henry’s Depot, I thought I might die a little inside if I didn’t order it.

READ MORE: Forget the chains, eat these chicken sandwiches instead

I was there to check out the new digs and the new eats, you see. Co-owners and marrieds Will Adkison (he’s also the chef) and Sonya Rogoobeer recently retired the truck they’d spun up with great success during the pandemic, joining the Sanford food hall fray back on Jan. 1 to deliver their blend of Filipino and Hawaiian fare to an all-new audience, plus the legion of loyals who have followed them on their journey.

It’s a bigger kitchen. It’s a bigger space. And with that, comes a bigger menu. Knowing their proficiency in the sandwich arena, I rolled the dice on a dish that’s not usually top-of-the-list when I peruse traditional plate lunches: Loco Moco. But here, it’s transformed into a two-patty smashburger ($14). It sounded intriguing.

And it is.

Instead of rice? A brioche bun. It’s a little sweet and a lot sturdy. And enough to handle the gravy-slathered beef, the sunny-side-up egg topper that pops and oozes, and the housemade garlic aioli beneath. It’s a condiment so strong, so good, you’ll taste it effortlessly through the rest in a symphony of serious-best-burger-contender yum.

READ MORE: Sweet & Salty Island Grinds: Plate lunch classics and twisted takes off the truck

“It’s been a crazy hit,” Rogoobeer tells me. I believe her.

“Everybody loves a good smashburger,” she says. “And especially on Sundays, people are always looking for a brunch item. I tell them to get the burger and they come back raving.”

Specials, one-day affairs before, are now weeklong affairs, which fans appreciate.

“On the truck, if we weren’t in the right spot for someone to come out and try it, they missed it. Now they have a whole week to get here,” says Rogoobeer. She and Adkison appreciate not only the effort their followers have made since hanging out the Sanford shingle, but the warm welcome new guests — and their Henry’s Depot neighbors — have given them.

“We really feel like we joined a family,” says Adkison. “The other owners are great and we hope when people come here to check us out, they check everyone else out, too. There’s such nice camaraderie here.”

Highlights outside the burger and chicken sando are many, including a luscious new mango mousse cake and the spicy musubi ($4 and shhhh, also my favorite!), courtesy of Rogoobeer’s West Indian roots. Back when Adkison would make it for her visiting family, the basic proved a little too mild, so he jazzed it up. Whatever the savory heat concoction in this Hawaiian powerbar, it does the job of slaying that signature Spammy seasoning: salt, turning it into something seriously scarfable. But don’t let that rice brick fill you.

There’s a lot of edible aloha up here.

More info: Sweet & Salty Island Grindz, Henry’s Depot, 212 W 1st Street in Sanford, sweetandsaltygrindz.com

OverRice keeps on truckin’

But you might not find co-owner Joel Paoner on the truck. Because he’s digging everything about OverRice‘s new digs.

“We have more space, more cooking surfaces, plus there’s AC!”

It’s a predictably positive take from Paoner, who seems like he’s never not smiling. In fact, he’s so chill, I’m surprised the air conditioning even matters.

Paoner’s 10-plus years on the OverRice truck have been exceedingly successful — especially when you consider he met wife and partner, Mayra, while working it — and back in March, the pair opened the doors of their Lee Road outpost.

It didn’t take long for longtime fans and an all-new crowd to find it. When I ambled in for lunch on a Thursday, the 33-seat joint was jumping with people, including a family celebrating a 67th wedding anniversary. The groom, nearly 100, looked more like a man in his 60s. Apparently, that’s the power of Aloha.

“We sat down and talked awhile,” Paoner told me. Like the patriarch, he spent 10 years in the Rainbow State, and it makes an indelible impression. “And not many places do the food the right way. It means a lot to us when we have Hawaiian people or those who know the food very well come in to have the food they miss eating and like it.”

Paoner, who is Filipino, found a huge community thereof in Hawaii, “but it’s just a massive melting pot. Filipino, Japanese, Hawaiian, Samoan, Korean. All walks of life, and they put it all on the plate.”

With the bigger kitchen, Paoner’s put more on his own, including hefty platters of sisig ($17) that get a fajita-style treatment, delivering all those aromas as they make it tableside on a sizzling comal.

Also new, chicken katsu, loco moco, “and we’re also going to do chicken adobo because when we did it out of the truck, people loved it.”

The truck, meanwhile, is gonna keep on truckin’. You’ll not only find it at events like the Milk District’s Tasty Takeover and elsewhere but every Sunday at Lake Eola.

“We’re in front of Aku Aku from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.,” says Paoner. And they’ll bring the classic plate lunches where you can mix and match Hawaiian and Filipino entrees with your two scoops rice and one scoop mac. (That mac, sold for $4 as a side, is called “ono salad” for a reason. Get some.)

We did a huli huli chicken/kalua pig combo, savory and tender, with an extra-long lumpia tucked amid wonderfully sticky rice and pancit ($15 and masarap, my friends!).

You don’t see much haupia around these parts, but OverRice has it now ($5.50). The silky Hawaiian dessert — kind of a coconut jelly/pudding hybrid that comes layered with chocolate over the top — is a new addition. Paoner says more sweet endings may be on tap for the future.

Paoner’s loves all the new, noting that he’s got more Filipino customers than ever now that they’ve gone brick-and-mortar. They’ll plan some ticketed kamayan dinners in the future, so keep an eye on their social media.

“It’s really cool, but they’re also the most judgmental,” he notes, laughing. “They say, ‘Are they better than my grandma’s lumpia?’ I’m like NOPE! I’ll just be straight up with you. She’s been doing it for 60 years!’

“I don’t compare stuff, because everyone’s doing their own thing,” he says in his easygoing way. “That’s just how cooking is.”

Whatever thing OverRice is doing, the full tables and the truck lines — 11 years’ worth — say the lumpia’s just fine. I bet his grandma would agree.

More info: OverRice 1084 Lee Road in Orlando, 386-416-9030; overricecfl.com

Find me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram @amydroo or on the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com. For more fun, join the Let’s Eat, Orlando Facebook group.