Midtown Lunch

Today, Nick from My Inner Fatty is hitting up the food trucks again, this time for some good old American sandwiches.

I’m gonna go right ahead on a limb and say that I’m definitely not the only one who constantly has a craving for breakfast foods. I mean, breakfast shouldn’t have to end at 10:30 AM just because McDonald’s says so. No, that’s not fair to those of us who wake up at arbitrary times because of work or class. Freedom to have breakfast whenever is just plain American, and depriving me of my eggs, breakfast sausage, and bacon because it’s 1 PM is just plain wrong. Luckily, you never have to make that choice in University City… because Bui’s Lunch Truck exists.

A favorite amongst Penn students, Bui’s Lunch Truck is a relatively plain looking grey truck parked on the corner of 38th and Spruce, open early for the breakfast crowd with virtually no lines or wait time to speak of. Compared with the other’s in the area, there’s actually no visual cue that would tell you to ever go there (there’s never a line!), but for some reason, it’s been suggested to me time after time. A brief glance at their menu reveals that they’re your general breakfast/sandwich/cheesesteak truck with a fairly robust menu, supplemented by a list of ’special sandwiches,’ (all around the $5 mark), all of which are still pretty ordinary, so I’m left wondering where all this praise stems from. That is, before my eyes reach the sandwich listed as the ‘Hangover Special.’

Such a glorious sandwich. In a slap in the face to the limits set on breakfasting at lunchtime, the ‘Hangover Special’ is a footlong packed with a fried egg, cheese, bacon, ham, and sausage. Basically everything that’s good in the world that exists at 9 AM, but for the lunch crowd. None of the ingredients are fantastically remarkable by themselves. Considering the fact that you get prepackaged sliced ham, processed cheese slices, and frozen breakfast sausage, you’d expect an end result of mediocrity along the same lines as the individual constituents that make up the core of the fillings. This assumption would be wrong. Yet again we have an instance of the total being greater than the sum of parts. Maybe part of the reason it tastes phenomenal to me (and apparently drunken kids alike) is the novelty of the fact that it’s available all day, but there’s very little that’s offensive in this equation. Factor in the size (a solid 11-12″ of hoagie roll) and the price, and it certainly feels special, regardless of if you’re hungover or not.

As for this one… well, in a slight bit of fail, while I eventually received the glory of the ‘Hangover Special’, on my first visit to try to order it, there was another guy there who ordered the ‘Pepperoni Pizza Steak.’ In a mess of confusion, I ended up with his order, and he with mine (sorry man!). Listed as steak with provolone, pizza sauce, and topped with pepperoni, what I got was actually quite delectable. The ‘steak’ that he mentioned seems to be chicken cheesesteak instead of beef, but it works out perfectly fine. A tad messy, you still get a massive sandwich stuffed to the brim with cheapish meats that’s a deceptively good value. The best part about this sandwich is the oil that permeates the bread from the layer of semi-spicy pepperoni. The bread adopts a quaint greasiness that can be experienced the length of the sandwich. No it’s probably not good for the heart, but when it tastes like it does… that’s just irrelevant.

After trying both the sandwiches, I can see why there’s a certain charm about Bui’s Lunch Truck that students find charming. Namely, large and greasy sandwiches at a price that’s difficult to match.

THE + (What somebody who likes this place would say)

• I <3 greasy sandwiches and questionable lunch meats
• Wish they made McMuffins into footlongs… wait they do?
• It makes me happy I can eat breakfast 3x a day
• Little to wait time is fantastic when you’re hungry

THE – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

• It’s just sandwiches
• If you mess up orders with only 2 people waiting…

Bui’s, 38th and Spruce, 215 573-9750