Grinds on wheels

Good, cheap meals on a truck

By Kawehi Haug
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

The venues, menus and hours change without notice. You never know what — or if — you’ll be eating. It’s flexible dining at its purest, but that’s part of the fun. It’s what makes lunch wagon dining feel more like an escapade than lunch, and that’s why we love it.

What’s better than driving through the streets of Kalihi, stumbling upon a lunch wagon parked in an otherwise empty dirt lot, and finding the best pork laulau you’ve had in months? It’s a surprise party, a scavenger hunt and a good cheap meal all bundled into one satisfying experience.

While we concede that not knowing when or where you might come across one of the hundreds of lunch wagons parked all over the island — there are 309 permitted lunch wagons operating on Oahu, according to the state Department of Health — we took some of the guesswork out of the search.