Steel City Eats on Wheels: The Best Food Trucks in Pittsburgh

Remember the days when food trucks were all about things on a stick and snow cones? While you can still find them at carnivals and state fairs, today’s popular upscale food trucks are worth the wait in line. 

For The Steel City, food trucks are a way of life. You’ll find them at brewpubs and hanging out in the city proper throughout the week. What, exactly, makes them so popular? The menu, of course! From seafood to seasonal dishes, here are the best food trucks in Pittsburgh.

Cousins Main Lobster

Living in Maine and Eastern Canada for plenty of my childhood years, I know how popular lobster is, especially when it’s fresh and properly cooked. Enter Cousins Maine Lobster, an uber-popular Pittsburgh food truck that does just that. Each team member visits The Pine Tree State to get firsthand training, including baiting and hauling traps and measuring the crustaceans to come back to the city with the knowledge to cook hearty and delicious menu items.

Keeping with a “simple is better” menu mantra, its top sellers are its lobster New England rolls: “The Maine” comes with mayo and “The Connecticut” with butter and lemon.

Hills Snack Bar

Here’s a fun fact: I actually worked at Hill’s Department Store for a couple of years during my college days. The Snack Bar was the first stop for shoppers, and the aroma of popcorn, cherry slushies, and hot dogs cooked on metal rollers filled the air, making us all hungry even if we’d just eaten. This nostalgic experience is now beautifully recreated at Hills Snack Bar, a food truck that has captured the hearts of many with its love for the company and its food. 

Thanks to a love of the company and of its food, Hills Snack Bar food truck serves all of the fan favorites: Icees, hot dogs (yes, on metal rollers), buttered popcorn, pretzels with cheese, and even cotton candy. 

Mr. Nick’s

My family knows that when it comes to chicken, I’ll never refuse. For Mr. Nick’s food truck, its menu is small but packs a punch: amazing fried chicken sandwiches topped with sliced pickles. 

The chicken is perfectly seasoned and crispy, the bun soft and hearty, and the pickles crunchy with a flavor zing. Top it with some mayonnaise and add a side of crispy, fresh potato chips, and it is perfection on a plate for this lady. 

Vitalia Wood Fired Oven

While regular oven-cooked pizza is good, give me wood-fired pies, and I’m a happy gal. Vitalia Wood Fired Oven food truck has even imported its on-the-go oven from Italy. 

Each 12-inch pizza is cooked to perfection and the menu, while small, is the best of the best styles to try: margherita, cheese, pepperoni, and fun spins including The White Buffalo with homemade ranch and buffalo sauce. 

Kilimanjaro Flavour

If you want a real taste of Africa, Kilimanjaro Flavour brings it. You’ll get “food with soul” via an East African and Tanzania menu including coconut rice, plantains, and chicken kebabs. Additionally, keep your eyes peeled for made-from-scratch tamarind drinks and samosas. Yum!

Caribbean Vybz

Mix authentic Caribbean food and traditional American cuisine; you’ve got Caribbean Vybz. Always on the menu are Jerk Chicken and Curry Shrimp, but what I love is the fact that there’s a Chef’s Choice meal, so you never know what you’ll get to taste test. With a menu like that, all that’s missing is the Red Stripe beer. 

Pittsburgh Pierogi Truck

If Polish food is your vibe, you won’t need to hunt for the church ladies making homemade pierogies like we used to, happily (although I’ll always say yes to a takeaway order). Along with the cheese and potato-stuffed perfection in dough, at Pittsburgh Pierogi Truck you’ll also score tasty haluski and cabbage rolls. 

Lucy’s Banh Mi

If you’ve never tried Bahn mi, here’s the 10-second description: pickled veggies with the perfect crunch and a tasty sweet sauce stiffed inside crunchy bread slices. While the menu changes subtly with the seasons, Lucy’s Banh Mi offers everything from shrimp fried rice to hot and sour soup and even summer rolls. 

Emporio Meatball Truck

If you’ve been anywhere in the Cultural District in the past decade, walk by the three-story-tall Sienna Mercato, and your nose will demand you grab a table and order some of its meatballs. The lower floor, aptly called Emporio: A Meatball Joint, is famous for its meatball menu, and those of us who don’t eat meat are happy campers as there’s everything from plant-based to poultry varieties. 

Taking its popularity on the road, Emporio Meatball Truck serves meatball hoagies (we are in Pittsburgh, after all, so submarine sandwiches are called hoagies), the ever-popular meatball sliders, and crack mac and cheese. 

Blue Sparrow

Permanently parked at Dancing Gnome Brewery, Blue Sparrow is known for making bread from scratch and melding international cuisines into unique dishes. If you want to test drive popular dishes, check out its pork gyoza, the grilled kim cheese monster (complete with a dippy egg), and Chef Luke’s personal favorite pizza, The Sparrow.