Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

The Bachi Bus stops daily in South Park

From steak to lobster tail, the food truck brings hibachi to the street

Bachi Bus doing business in South Park
Bachi Bus doing business in South Park

The food trucks in South Park seem to be multiplying. Alongside the usual Mariscos/fish taco truck holding down the Target parking lot, there’s now a Sonora-style grilled taco truck. The Shawarma Guys truck is a Yelper favorite on the next block. And joining the party lately is the Bachi Bus.

Doing business since September, the colorfully painted Bachi Bus specializes in teppanyaki, also called hibachi, best known as charcoal-fired Japanese barbecue. The truck is a pandemic-inspired side hustle of a group of nightlife and sports marketing vets, as well as NBA player Thomas Bryant (starting center for the Washington Wizards ‘til a recent, season-ending injury).

Sponsored
Sponsored

I found it doing brisk business on the sidewalk adjacent that Target parking lot, with one crowd of customers waiting on their orders, another lined up to place theirs. Seafood options abound, including shrimp, salmon, and lobster tail, the latter going for a pricy $28.50. On the meat side, chicken plates go for $15, while I indulged in the filet mignon plate for $19.75.

These entrees feature steamed rice and sauteed vegetables, in my case a tender Kabocha squash sautéed with onions. A selection of tangy and spicy sauces may be added at 50 cents apiece, beginning with the house ginger sesame concoction dubbed Bachi Sauce.

It all sounds good to me, and my take-out box had an admirable heft to it. However, while there’s a lot to look at painted on the sides of the Bachi Bus, when I opened the box, there wasn’t much to see. It was just three separate piles of steamed rice, sliced squash, and cubed steak. A side order of chicken fried rice was more of the same: just fried grains of rice and chopped chicken meat.

The colorful logo of South park's newest daily food truck

I’m an admirer of simplicity in cooking: using fine ingredients and treating them minimally to let their quality shine through. And that’s happening here, to some extent. Good beef, and a tasty variety of squash, help the drab looking meal taste much better than it seems. But I didn’t find enough flavor to justify the roughly $20 price tag, especially with the Shawarma Guys’ super tasty wagyu beef shawarma going for $12 less than 100 yards away.

Add-on sauces were the saving grace, lending the flavorful punch needed to make the meal memorable. The truck has started offering an option to “hot drop” sauces — that is, slather heated sauces ranging from garlic butter to spicy “diablo” directly on the meat or seafood before serving. It’s an extra couple dollars to do it this way, but may be worth it.

An almost too simple plate of cubed steak, kabocha squash, and white rice

One can easily spend a lot of money at Bachi Bus. If you can’t decide between the steak and lobster, there’s a combo of the two for about $36. Or, you can add shrimp for a three-meat combo for $45. Between the available combos and large portions of rice, you’ll walk away from the meal with a full belly.

It’s fair to say you can’t go wrong, but also fair to say the more you spend, the happier you’ll be. It might be that kind of cachet keeping the mobile kitchen busy. Just when I thought that yet another food truck had appeared in the area, I was told that the Chubby Burgers truck parked beside the Bachi Bus was there operating as a second Bachi kitchen, to help keep up with demand. I guess it’s been that kind of year, where people just want heaps of steak and seafood, packaged to go.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Live Five: Songwriter Sanctuary, B-Side Players, The Crawdaddys, Saint Luna, Brawley

Reunited, in the round, and onstage in Normal Heights, East Village, Little Italy, Encinitas
Next Article

Live Five: Songwriter Sanctuary, B-Side Players, The Crawdaddys, Saint Luna, Brawley

Reunited, in the round, and onstage in Normal Heights, East Village, Little Italy, Encinitas
Bachi Bus doing business in South Park
Bachi Bus doing business in South Park

The food trucks in South Park seem to be multiplying. Alongside the usual Mariscos/fish taco truck holding down the Target parking lot, there’s now a Sonora-style grilled taco truck. The Shawarma Guys truck is a Yelper favorite on the next block. And joining the party lately is the Bachi Bus.

Doing business since September, the colorfully painted Bachi Bus specializes in teppanyaki, also called hibachi, best known as charcoal-fired Japanese barbecue. The truck is a pandemic-inspired side hustle of a group of nightlife and sports marketing vets, as well as NBA player Thomas Bryant (starting center for the Washington Wizards ‘til a recent, season-ending injury).

Sponsored
Sponsored

I found it doing brisk business on the sidewalk adjacent that Target parking lot, with one crowd of customers waiting on their orders, another lined up to place theirs. Seafood options abound, including shrimp, salmon, and lobster tail, the latter going for a pricy $28.50. On the meat side, chicken plates go for $15, while I indulged in the filet mignon plate for $19.75.

These entrees feature steamed rice and sauteed vegetables, in my case a tender Kabocha squash sautéed with onions. A selection of tangy and spicy sauces may be added at 50 cents apiece, beginning with the house ginger sesame concoction dubbed Bachi Sauce.

It all sounds good to me, and my take-out box had an admirable heft to it. However, while there’s a lot to look at painted on the sides of the Bachi Bus, when I opened the box, there wasn’t much to see. It was just three separate piles of steamed rice, sliced squash, and cubed steak. A side order of chicken fried rice was more of the same: just fried grains of rice and chopped chicken meat.

The colorful logo of South park's newest daily food truck

I’m an admirer of simplicity in cooking: using fine ingredients and treating them minimally to let their quality shine through. And that’s happening here, to some extent. Good beef, and a tasty variety of squash, help the drab looking meal taste much better than it seems. But I didn’t find enough flavor to justify the roughly $20 price tag, especially with the Shawarma Guys’ super tasty wagyu beef shawarma going for $12 less than 100 yards away.

Add-on sauces were the saving grace, lending the flavorful punch needed to make the meal memorable. The truck has started offering an option to “hot drop” sauces — that is, slather heated sauces ranging from garlic butter to spicy “diablo” directly on the meat or seafood before serving. It’s an extra couple dollars to do it this way, but may be worth it.

An almost too simple plate of cubed steak, kabocha squash, and white rice

One can easily spend a lot of money at Bachi Bus. If you can’t decide between the steak and lobster, there’s a combo of the two for about $36. Or, you can add shrimp for a three-meat combo for $45. Between the available combos and large portions of rice, you’ll walk away from the meal with a full belly.

It’s fair to say you can’t go wrong, but also fair to say the more you spend, the happier you’ll be. It might be that kind of cachet keeping the mobile kitchen busy. Just when I thought that yet another food truck had appeared in the area, I was told that the Chubby Burgers truck parked beside the Bachi Bus was there operating as a second Bachi kitchen, to help keep up with demand. I guess it’s been that kind of year, where people just want heaps of steak and seafood, packaged to go.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Tuna within 3-day range Back in the Counts

Mind the rockfish regulations
Next Article

Gonzo Report: Jazz jam at a private party

A couple of accidental crashes at California English
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader