Nashville’s Best Food Trucks

Jun 23, 2023

Even with tools like social media and the Street Food Finder website and app, tracking down a local food truck still feels a bit like a game of hide and seek. But the reward can be so satisfying it makes the chase well worth it. Listed alphabetically, here are Nashville's essential food trucks — mobile food purveyors serving some of Music City's best meals on wheels, including everything from top-notch Nashville hot chicken and fish to lobster rolls to refreshing shaved ice.

Nashville's roving shaved ice truck brought snow cones to the streets in 2010. The soft Hawaiian ice is drizzled with an array of fresh fruit-infused flavors made with 100 percent cane sugar. A rainbow of rotating flavors includes refreshing watermelon basil and Georgia peach, which can be topped with snow cream, shredded coconut, or li hing mui, a salty dried plum powder popular in Hawai’i.

Enjoy a wide selection of Thai and Laotian street food like pad kra pao chicken, drunken noodles, Laotian pork sausage, and Thai milk tea as well as fusion dishes such as Hawaiian fried rice with tofu, eggs, and pineapple from Chang Noi Thai-Lao Fusion. It's also a solid option for vegan and gluten-free diners.

Daniel and Kai Yarzagaray's empanada food truck offers a selection of traditional Colombian masa pockets filled with meat, cheese, lentils, or even chocolate. Beyond the main draw, the repurposed school bus also serves patacones (fried green plantains), yuca fries, and tomato avocado salad. Bonus: It's all gluten-free.

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This food truck run by a couple of Maine cousins has locations all over the country, and it's one of the limited options for Maine- and Connecticut-style lobster rolls here in Nashville. Other crustacean-crammed menu options include lobster grilled cheese, lobster-topped tater tots, and lobster tacos.

A perennial favorite and the last of Nashville's first three food trucks still standing, the Grilled Cheeserie continues to draw lines of hungry cheese lovers today. The truck serves unusual grilled cheese options, including a few over-the-top favorites like a gooey sandwich stuffed with pimento mac and cheese. If you don't feel like chasing food trucks, hit up the company's permanent location in Hillsboro Village.

Burger lovers flock to Hoss’ for meaty patties stuffed with melted cheese, a Minneapolis specialty known as a Jucy Lucy or Juicy Lucy. Try the signature Hoss burger: a beef patty packed with cheddar and topped with bacon, barbecue sauce, crispy onions, barbecue sauce, and cilantro. This popular truck also has a permanent restaurant in Nolensville with even more menu options, including frozen custard and draft beer.

With a name like Lamont Hurt, the owner of this trailer was perhaps destined to serve some of the area's best Nashville hot chicken and fish — flavorful and, to the untrained palate, a bit painful. You’ll usually find Hurt's in Mount Juliet in a Dollar General parking lot (look for references to "tha spot" on social media).

It's easy to identify this trailer since it sports a giant painting of a green-and-yellow Jamaican flag and constantly huffs a jerk-scented cloud from its metal smoker. Kingston Jamaica Foods is usually parked at a gas station on DB Todd Jr. Boulevard in North Nashville, and fans rave about the stewed oxtails, curry chicken, and rice and peas in addition to the jerk chicken and smoked salmon. Service is fast and portions are huge.

King Tut's offers Tennesseans a taste of Egyptian fare via family recipes straight from the Nile Valley. Is it a bit of a cheat that this Nolensville Pike truck is stationary? Maybe, but you won't split hairs when you’re sitting on the shady patio with owner Ragab Rashawn's crispy falafel plate or tender chicken shawarma sandwich. Don't forget a side of homemade hummus here.

Outside of poke bowls, Hawaiian cuisine isn't well-represented in Nashville, so it's a good thing Taste of Aloha roams these streets. Supporters often form long lines for island-style hospitality and dishes like kalua pork, huli huli chicken, and spam musubi.

As seen on the Food Network, the Travel Channel, and the Cooking Channel, chef B. "Yayo" Jimenez's Music City truck was born in 2011, dishing out a few taco variations. One to note is the Legend: a soft corn tortilla brimming with brisket, chicharron, and chorizo. Get it Yayo-style and he’ll grill it up on a cheese-crusted tortilla for an epic, crispy cheese-edged taco. Yayo's has expanded to include a second truck as well.

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