What the truck: Salt, Abu Dhabi

So it seems everyone's talking about Salt these days. No, not the stuff that you shake over your food, but the food truck that has been roaming the streets of Dubai. There's been a lot of chat and a lot of hype about it, and now, along with the new evening Ripe market at the equally new Mushrif Central Park, Salt has finally rolled into Abu Dhabi and it looks like it's here to stay for a while...

Salt is housed inside a converted retro, airstream caravan so it instantly has the cool factor, a factor that has been helped along by their clever social media usage with the hashtag #findsalt on Instagram, which has allowed people to track down the truck's location each day.

And with the new Ripe market, Salt has also rolled into town for a while. We popped along again to the market, this time after dark in the hope it would be a bit cooler (it was), and thought we'd have a bite to eat at Salt for dinner. Well, its reputation certainly precedes it as there was possibly the longest queue I've ever seen for anything in the UAE, and a wait time of an estimated whopping hour and a half....! Needless to say, with Baby Arabian Notes in tow we decided to give it a miss this time, but the very helpful staff member told us that the Salt truck is currently opening outside Mushrif Central Park every day from the afternoon until midnight, so it's not just on Saturdays - and even better, the truck will be hanging around for a good while yet.

Since we needed to get our Salt fix and see what all the fuss was about, I got Mr. Arabian Notes to stop off there on his way home from work on Sunday to bring some takeaway back for dinner. Thankfully, the queue was A LOT shorter with only about three or so people queuing, though plenty more already eating in the open air dining area.

The menu is short and features only gourmet burgers and fries since of course the kitchen is very small. All burgers are served slider style, with two pieces in each order, though they are not as small as you might imagine sliders to be. There are two choices of Wagyu beef burger, each available in a single or double, and a chicken choice also, with a local twist...

So what was it like..?

I went for the 'Original' burger (double patty) and cheese fries though they were bigger than I had expected given the use of the term 'sliders' and really the single patty Original would have been enough for me. The burgers were soft, juicy and tasty with a buttery bun, though as a lover of pickle on burgers I felt that they could have done with an extra slice of pickle or so. Mr. Arabian Notes went for the 'Cheetos:Chicken' option out of curiosity and so we were able to share. It had a light spice to it which gave it good flavour and the addition of the cheetos was something very unusual which provided an interesting texture but really, to us, it was just a bit of a novelty and certainly interesting to have tried, though I much preferred the Wagyu beef option. I'm also not normally a big fan of cheesy fries but I will confess I enjoyed these, despite them having cooled a little whilst sitting in the car on the journey home, they weren't the yucky congealed mess I usually find cheesy fries to be.

Overall, it's definitely something a bit different, and for me - it's an exciting development to life in the UAE to see things like this slowly becoming more and more prevalent. Both me and Mr. Arabian Notes said we would go back again to get our burger on, though I would probably like to sit and eat fresh off the truck next time in the open air which would add to the enjoyment (just possibly don't go when the queues are massive when the Saturday Ripe market is on!).

The Salt truck is currently parked outside the new Mushrif Central Park and is here for an undetermined limited time, but according to the staff - probably for a while yet.

Have you eaten at the Salt truck yet? I'd love to hear what you thought!