Yoli’s Street Food

Tried Yoli’s at the Candler Park Music and Food Festival, and was quite pleased. Prices were very reasonable considering I was expecting inflated festival food prices… For $ 8 I got an order of 3 Piicadillo beef tacos. I will def try this truck again, if they happen to be at another festival or something.

Hm. Not really understanding the poor reviews for this food truck on Unilocal…
I got a Cuban sandwich ($ 8) for lunch; and was pleasantly surprised! This was my second cuban this week, actually, and honestly it blew Tuesday’s sandwich out of the water – though that offering was purchased at my company’s equivalent of a cafeteria, so what do you expect?
HOWEVER, I have also had the Cuban sandwich at Havana (on Buford highway) twice, and while that establishment has many an award announcing that it has the best cuban food in Atlanta, now that I have tried Yoli’s I beg to differ. I may not be an expert on authenticity of Cuban food, but Yoli’s version appeals more to my sensibilities at least: less salty, greasy, and generally heart-​attack inducing, with very tender perfectly seasoned roast pork and just the right balance of mustard, pickles, ham, and cheese.
The sandwiches also come with a side of black beans and rice! Both were tasty – the rice, especially. After eating at Havana I was under the impression that cuban style-​rice mostly came garishly yellow and overcooked…
Yoli’s and Yumbii were stationed side-​by-​side in Midtown; a crowd was swarming around the latter, which is why we gravitated toward the former instead. Hurrah for the underdog! Sometimes she’ll surprise you.

Ugh, METHINKS NOT.
Went to Yoli’s at Alpharetta Food Truck Alley.
I even said, before I ordered, «Hey, there’s no line there, I wonder if I should be worried.» Yoli’s = big, big disappointment.
A young, friendly boy took my order. I asked for a Cuban and Sweet plantains. $ 10. The plantains were admittedly to my liking. They were hot, they tasted good, the texture seemed right to me. all good.
The Cuban was a disaster. Right off the bat, the sandwich just looked sad, like something I might throw together at home with scraps from the fridge and tried to microwave. I have not had many-​a Cuban in my life, honestly, but I know what it should look like, and just in case I was horribly wrong, I confirmed this with both a Google image search :) and running it by a fellow Unilocaler friend who prides himself on loving and knowing Cuban food well.
The menu chalkboard said: Roast pork, ham, swiss cheese, pickles, mustard, butter on cuban bread. I think each item was represented, but not well.
First, and least offensive, was the fact that it was not even pressed. The sandwich was room temperature at best.
The «roast pork» looked like roast beef, and it was half-​an-​inch-​thick pieces and more gray than brown. I thought it was supposed to be more like thinly sliced, or shredded. but maybe this is just the way they do it.
Moving along the ham looked like a pink piece of cheese, and it was in the shape of a rectangle. The actual cheese, was kinda just hanging out there, un-​melted. the rest, well I didn’t look that close.
Before I opened the thin sandwich, I did taste it and it was not terrible. I was pretty darn hungry, so I just said screw it, and I ate it, although, I was sad about it.
I got through half the sandwich and started tasting/​noticing quite a lot of fat in my «roast pork.» I opened the second half of the sandwich and it was just not appetizing at all, and yes, there was a lot more fat than I expected. Although I had eaten half, and now felt guilty about doing so, I started to get angry. What kinda culinary pride do they have? My friends said to bring it back. The apathy of this sandwich and it’s people evoked strong emotion in me. So, why was I so hesitant to get my justice? I just felt like the dummy that blindly ate half a terrible sandwich.
I went up and sheepishly said I wasn’t happy with the meat. it was so fatty. So they took it from me, without saying anything, and exchanged the two fatty strips of meat for 3 better looking pieces, which at first glance looked edible.
I brought it back to where I was seated with my friends and started to dissect a little more. I don’t know how, but one end of one piece of meat was hot like it just came off the grill, and the other end of the piece stacked on top was cold like it just came out of the fridge. I swear, I felt them simultaneously.
So, now I’m feeling stupid and angry plus more stupid and angrier on top of that for this shoddy replacement. I went back up and finally said, «I’m still not happy with this, one part is hot, and the other part is cold, and it’s just not great.» A young Caucasian girl took it from me, looked at it, (it was so dark in there, how do they know what they’re doing?), she mumbled my issue to an older Latino woman, who said nothing. I didn’t want another try. so I asked «Can I just have my money back?»
The young boy immediately returned my money for the sandwich.
Out of these three people, NOT ONE OF THEM said one word to me this whole time. !!! No «sorry,» no argument. Nothing from them. I’ll refrain from going into how I’ve been in Customer Service all my life, and how you do and do not treat your customers/​clients/​diners… but I’m like dumbstruck, and unfortunately I was compelled to announce out loud to my friends and nearby strangers «They didn’t even give a sh! t, didn’t say one word to me and just gave me my money back.» (or maybe who cares? because Yoli’s obviously doesn’t!)
Why is this company in business? The women were not friendly or inviting, and they’re obviously not interested in customer service at any level. There are many ways to handle an unhappy customer without losing their business forever, but Yoli’s either didn’t know how to or chose not to do so. If they even tried, I might be singing you a different tune and telling you to check them out, but instead, I’ll let everyone know to not even bother.

The food here is Ok. Nothing to write home about. I assure

Too pricey. Poor quality. The beans were dried and over cooked. I wouldn’t accept the food they served for free.

Happened by this truck at the Howell Mill Food Truck Park. Very tasty Latin style food. I ordered a Cuban Sand which and was pleased with the flavor. They do take credit/​debit which is nice as well. Overall it was pretty good and I would be willing to try some of their other items.