I was not excited about having to eat a walking taco. The fleet of Flavor Hive food trucks gained notoriety last year thanks to a video by TikToker Keith Lee. In his video, Lee purchases bags of chips at Walgreen’s and has them filled to the brim with meat, vegetables and sauces. In the kindest of words, the images did not whet my appetite.
But last month, Flavor Hive opened its first brick-and-mortar location in Annandale, around the corner from K Market. Looking at photos of the menu at the fast-casual store, I realized that there’s more to the restaurant than a polarizing gimmick.
Though you can still bring a bag of chips to Annandale, the focus of the concise menu is to build your own bowl, à la Chipotle and Cava. Customers choose from two sizes: regular or “Feast Mode.” There are options to have the walking taco made or to use rice, fries, or salad greens as a base. By force of habit at such a line-up, I went with the salad.
The staffer who helped me told me that chicken is the most popular protein by far, so I tried that instead of beef or falafel. She spooned out the halal meat so liberally that I initially worried she’d made a mistake and thought I’d asked for extra. But no, the regular amount is exponentially more generous than you’ll find at the big chains.
Toppings include purple pickled cabbage, cool sesame chickpeas, cilantro, and crispy potato strips. As with everything else at Flavor Hive, the sauces are applied with gusto — my bowl was drenched in yogurt-based white sauce and a splash of the spicy green one.
In the clean dining room with the latest hits bumping away, I dug in.
The thing that I’ll remember is the tingle of spice. Layers of piquancy build with each bite of chicken, sauce, marinated vegetables. It turns out, the name Flavor Hive is more appropriate than I realized. After finishing my lunch, I left with my lips abuzz with heat.
It’s clear why expansion is in the cards for this emerging business. When there’s a Flavor Hive on every corner, I’ll be choosing their bowls over those of the competition.
Feature image courtesy Flavor Hive
