The Great Food Truck Race review: Go big or go home

In the new season of The Great Food Truck Race, the Food Network has created a season that is bigger, better and beachier than ever.

Did you watch the premiere of The Great Food Truck Race? This new season is the ultimate summer beach battle. With nine food trucks taking on the challenge, this new season is poised to be the longest and hardest season yet. Were these food trucks ready to roll?

As the competition kicks off in Myrtle Beach, the food trucks must create the perfect boardwalk bite. While still staying true to their food truck style, these boardwalk bites are a good introduction to how each food truck approaches their brand.

Since this challenge is the first one, it is a little hard to tell which food truck has the skills to win the season as a whole. Looking back at last season’s eventual winner, it is quite possible to go from worst to first in this Food Network competition.

Overall, the boardwalk bites seem quite tasty. While the bites weren’t necessarily all food that you can carry, the plates did sound tasty. From eggroll s’mores to a donut sammy, the majority of dishes seemed slightly more sweet than elevated savory.

Winning the first challenge was Sol Food Collective. The food truck’s street corn was smart. The brightness of the sauce and the flavorful corn was a huge hit. No one cared that it was vegan.

For winning the first challenge, Sol Food Collective received an extra $300 in their final till. It is the first time in The Great Food Truck Race featured a vegan truck. It will be curious to see how this food truck adapts to the various challenges throughout the season.

Although this season seems focused on going big, no one could have predicted that Sol Food Collective would have gone from top to bottom in a matter of minutes. This food truck hit another food truck on the way to get supplies. Could this accident be a bad omen for the rest of the season?

As the food trucks set up for their first challenge, the trucks seem to be having lots of issues. Fryers are going down. Water is getting into the trucks. Luckily, once the rain stops, the food trucks get into a selling groove.

To kick off the second day of selling, the teams are challenged to create a dish with lump crab. The team which sells the most of the signature dish would get immunity.

For Sol Food Collective, this challenge presents a huge problem. They are a vegan food truck, which means no seafood. They choose to completely skip the immunity challenge and stick to their principles.

That choice has both positives and negatives. While they should be applauded for their convictions, they are at a big disadvantage.

The team winning the crab challenge and immunity was The People’s Fry. This team went from fifth place to automatically moving onto next week. Sometimes, the special challenges are as important as the main selling challenges.

Based on the first two challenges and days of selling, it is clear that the teams which have a restaurant or culinary background understand the efficiency needed to be a successful food truck. Even though it wasn’t a huge focus of the first episode, the teams who got orders out earned more sales.

This week’s top food truck on The Great Food Truck Race season premiere episode was Nola Creations. Spurred by their delicious beignets, the food truck made almost $1,800 in the first episode. That number is impressive. It will be curious to see if these food trucks can continue their success.

Comparatively to last season, all the food trucks did well in the first challenge. It was surprising that everyone had big numbers.

Still, actions have consequences. Since Sol Food Collective hit another food truck, they had to pay for the damages. That mistake had them go from safe to the bottom two.

The bottom two food trucks in this week’s episode of The Great Food Truck Race were Sol Food Collective and Make It Maple. Even though Sol Food Collective sold a lot of food, the accident hurt them.

Make It Maple didn’t seem to have the knowledge and skills to work efficiently in a food truck. From dropping the milk to be slow on tickets, this food truck seemed more like a fun experience than wanting to make a successful business.

The first food truck sent home on this season of The Great Food Truck Race was Make It Maple. Given their many struggles, it was probably best that they didn’t move onto the next city.

What did you think of this week’s The Great Food Truck Race? Do you have a prediction for the ultimate winner?