No Second Helpings NC

Ok you guys...I'm going to warn you upfront this is going to be a little rough. The title speaks for itself in regards to our review of the Second Helpings food truck.

Another reason why this is so rough for me to write is because of the "About Us" section on their website page is honestly something I support and advocate 100%! Please read below:

"As a Christian-focused family business, Second Helpings N.C. is proud to provide financial support to a 501 (C) 3 nonprofit charity, located in Kailua, Hawaii named, Second Helpings Hawaii (secondhelpingshawaii.org), which provides hope and empowerment to women in transition, seeking improved quality of life, as they exit the Kailua Community Correctional Center. Our vision inspires and motivates our family to assist the women by offering employment opportunities working on the local mobile food truck, providing faith-based support and rehabilitative service referrals to these women as they are furloughed or completing their “maxed out”sentences."

I have said this many times before, when food trucks give back to their community, it speaks to who they are and serves a great impact on the communities they serve. Period.

I didn't get a picture of their menu, because I was busy arguing with my picky children! They weren't impressed with what was on the menu and the fact that their wings didn't have sauce or flavors to pick from. My kids love wings, but they want flavor from some sort of sauce! I don't blame them because that is how I am too because what are wings without the sauce!?

This is their chef's special rib plate. I asked if their coleslaw was homemade and they said no. I hate store bought coleslaw so opted out of that option.

The two sides I ordered were baked beans and potato salad.

Their mission statement:

"Serving distinct fresh, tasty and affordable Southern-style foods passed down from generation to generation, providing friendly customer service."

The "About Us" section further states their food is "freshly prepared, high quality and healthy", stating they use "natural and homemade ingredients."

Those statements alone is why writing this is so hard because from what I found out, that is not true.

The potato salad, store bought. You know how I know without asking? Because I hate store bought potato salad. It is under seasoned, potatoes taste overcooked and it's just not authentic to the actual souther style of potato salad. I could tell from the smell, the way it looked and of course, the taste. I couldn't even finish it.

The baked beans...you might as well give me a tortilla, put some cheese on it and call it a burrito. Those were not baked beans. They were refried beans with ground beef in it. Were those homemade? Probably the beef but those beans were not fresh.

The ribs. Well for starters, the BBQ sauce used was not good. I don't know what kind it was, but it was drowning in the fat from the ribs. I also had to dig through the fat just to get to the meat, which once found, there was not a lot of meat.

The whole dish was boring, plain, not fresh, not original and I don't understand how this was passed down from generation to generation when I can buy that all at the store.

This is their sausage dog. It tastes just like a bratwurst. I know I have said before that Eli usually orders his plain...well that's the only option they had. My question is, why did you put ketchup and mustard on the bottom of the bun? You know the bun soaked all that up, making you eat a dry sausage dog where you could hardly taste the condiments.

Now, my bad....we didn't see the sausage dog in the bag. It was only wrapped in foil and put on the side where all the napkins and fork was put. So we told them we didn't get one and they gave us another one. Well we finally realized there was still something in the bag, we went to go pay for it and they said it was ok, come back again and buy something else.

I'll be honest, we made a mistake, owned up to it and they were nice enough to forgive us and show some kind customer service. But, I'm not sure we will be back.

This is their shrimp and fries plate. The shrimp had no seasoning and I think were over fried because we had to keep pulling these string things out of our mouths...no it was not the vein in the middle, you could see those were clearly cleaned out. Thank goodness we got cocktail sauce or I would have not been able to eat it.

The fries, again, not seasoned. Not even with salt. Plain, not crispy, but not soggy. We had to dip in ketchup.

Eli said "if I didn't pay for this food, I wouldn't be eating it", and that's the truth.

It looks like they have been around since 2019 and only have 3 reviews on their facebook giving them a perfect score. So we are confused...did ownership change? Did you want to try shortcuts? Is it cheaper for you to buy prepackaged food and call it your own? No matter what, the mission does not align to what we encountered. #foodtruckmania

Overall rating....