Chip Truck Visit #1, Miss Crispy's (Whitby)

My family loves chip truck fries.  And onion rings.  And some even like poutine.  It's always fun to visit chip trucks in the summer and find some hidden gems.  I will be reviewing them as often as my wallet allows!
Keep reading all the way down for the latest updates.

First up is Miss Crispy's in north Whitby (map at the link).  We first stopped here a couple years ago, and found out a teacher at our kid's school was the owner.  Less than two weeks later, she sold it.  LOL.  We loved the fries the first few times, but our last trip...they weren't as good.

The menu board is not huge.  Unfortunately, I can't remember if we got a small or medium.  Probably a medium.

I prefer the cardboard tray, but the foam clamshell is a runner up.  Easy for sharing and spreading condiments.  I don't like the cardboard boxes, unless getting individual servings.  We sample our fries with malt vinegar, salt, and ketchup in the corner.  These fries were good, don't get me wrong, but not as good as last summer.  They were a bit soft on the inside, and left my teeth kind of scummy.  They're not too fast to get made, but not the slowest either.  A good mix of the tiny crispy fries, and the bigger ones (I love the tiny ones).  We will visit again because they are close to us, and super close to where my daughter figure skates.

The onion rings are absolutely awesome.  They are crispy, and when you bite them, you don't pull out the entire onion.  I highly recommend them.  They are a really good value compared to other trucks we've been to since.  We did try the poutine last year, and it was good too.

This is a great place to stop if you're passing north through Whitby up to the cottage.  Just bring some gum.  Going south on Highway 12/Brock St....a little tricky to get to, you can only get in if you're westbound on Taunton Rd, east of Highway 12 (also called Baldwin St, north of Taunton Rd), or northbound on Brock St, just north of Taunton Rd.  If you're coming from the north, turn onto Broadleaf (opposite to Wal-Mart), go straight to McKinney, turn right, then right again at Taunton Rd, then enter at the Petro Can.  If you're coming from the west, you can turn north onto Highway 12, and follow those instructions for people going south.

The score for ambiance is pretty low.  It's behind a gas station, in a plaza parking lot.  There are sea gulls.  Not really any shade, but often there is a breeze.  If you're not in a rush, I'd recommend heading over to the park behind McKinney Arena.  And stop at Menchie's for dessert, LOL.

Edit to add:   We got back again for a medium poutine.  At first, I was disappointed to see the cheese curds, LOL, but they melted wonderfully this time into gooey stringy cheese.  The gravy was about the same as everywhere, plenty of it, nice and hot.  We got a medium, which wasn't huge, but good for the two of us.  The next guy after us got a large, and it looked huge...and it was just for him!

Unfortunately, it was very hot and sunny, so we sat in the back of my truck.  There was only one seagull this time LOL.  I do notice that the small fries is the cheapest I've seen, though if the ones we got earlier were a medium, then how small is the small?  The fries were much better this time.  More cooked, they didn't leave a scummy feel.  I liked that there were "naked" fries to try without the gravy (or just a little gravy).  I have renewed my faith in this truck.  Plus, he gave my girl a Freezie while we waited, and even had a blue one :)

2016:  This truck has changed hands again.  The man working there when we tried it was not the friendliest, but not "unfriendly".  Our poutine was fine, but I saw him walk by with what looked like frozen onion rings on the cardboard serving box.  They were not as good as last time! They had more of a breaded type coating, instead of battered.  More like A&W onion rings.  I also got a report from a visitor that they saw a woman with a bag of frozen Great Value (Wal-Mart brand, and WM is across the street) shoestring fries, and her fries were shoestrings and not very good.  She said her friend got poutine and got the thick cut fries.  If anyone has any updates on this, I'd appreciate it.  It's possible they hadn't gotten into the chip truck groove yet, but I can't keep spending money just to see if they improve

2017: I had some kidfree time so I stopped in for onion rings. I'm not sure if it's  the same owners as last year. The man was friendly, telling me about this shredded cheese someone recommended, and he gave me a handful to try. It was No Name Italiano shredded cheese. It was good, but you know how packaged shredded cheese has that powdery dust? Yeah. I ordered onion rings, $4.50. I was a little scared when he walked by with frozen onion rings. They were really good though. More like our 2015 visit. I know they're not a huge seller, and battering to order is probably not practical. The Diet Coke was so cold and delicious.

 It does look a little smaller than in 2015, but since it was just me, this was fine. It wouldn't be, if I had brought kids!!

I forgot to get a menu shot so I tried to get it from my truck. I don't know what the third and fourth items are "Sweet Pot Pou" and "Sweet Pot Fri". If anyone knows, fill me in. There's chicken strips, deep fried pickles, mozzarella sticks, pogos, and some things at the bottom...hot dog....jumbo sausage. I don't see much creativity on the menu, just the standard stuff.

2018:
Finally tried the deep fried pickles! I had recently seen a flyer for "The Wholesale Club", a sort of food industry Costco type store run by the Loblaws company. One item in it was breaded pickles for deep frying (or baking). McCain's, I think. They were definitely fine and quicker than doing it at home from scratch.
The other item...onion rings. Yup, they are frozen. I saw the bag--President's Choice. They were also totally fine, but not nearly as good as a couple years ago. And in comparing with my other posts, I think other trucks also use these frozen onion rings. I guess I'll just buy a bag for at home. I've made Cavendish onion rings at home, and they were okay as well.

Considering the earlier photo were a bigger serving, and only $4, and were much more homemade tasting...I can't really recommend these if you can make them at home. If you're just out and about and craving onion rings, these will do.  But I much preferred the old ones--thinner, cheaper, and more of them!!  The picnic table has seen better days, but there was an umbrella at least, and I didn't notice any seagulls this time.

The good thing about this truck is that it apparently takes Apple Pay and credit cards. Just know that you're not getting homemade, "food truck" foods, you're getting frozen, pre-made "chip truck" foods.