Pera Turkish Tacos

Since today is Thursday, it meant another chance for free lunch thanks to Mastercard's PricelessNY campaign. I got tacos from the Kimchi Taco Truck the first week, but then missed last week's promotion because I had a work meeting. This week, there were 2 trucks stationed near Bryant Park and I decided to try for a free lunch.


One of the trucks by Bryant Park was the Pera Turkish Taco truck, which I had only ever seen in Central Park but had not tried before. We all know how much I love tacos, so even though their line extended down the block (at least 40-50 people ahead of me), I decided to wait. I was excited to see what a "Turkish taco" would be like.

Coupon from MasterCard in hand, waiting in (the very long) line and can barely see the truck
It was a long wait (at least 30 minutes) before I got to the ordering window, and after ordering, there was another ~10 minute wait to get food. This was nothing like my first Priceless lunch where I just sauntered up to the window (in the rain, which was probably a factor), ordered and got my food quickly. The line moved at a snail's pace and they didn't seem to handle the large crowd that well. My waiting and patience was not helped by the group behind me which kept hovering all around me, making me claustrophobic. The menu for the truck was slimmed down, so I'm not sure why they were moving so slowly. There weren't that many options to cook.


For one coupon (what you get for showing your tweet), you could get one taco, or one side/dessert, or 2 drinks. Once I got close enough to the window, I saw them handing out skinny foil packages and couldn't believe that could really be a full lunch for anyone. I was disappointed and disgruntled. I waited over half an hour for one free taco, and still had to figure out what to do for the rest of lunch?!

The taco - how could this be enough for an entire lunch?
Taco insides. It's not really that wide; I opened it up to show the insides
I ordered the lavender and honey roasted chicken taco. It was about the length of a snack wrap from McDonalds, although that is probably more filling since this was very thin. It was also more like a wrap than a taco. The tortilla on the outside was nothing special, and probably the most lackluster part. The chicken was cooked well, there was a nice garlic herb sauce and plenty of onions, which made for a really tasty snack. But, by itself, that's all it would be. Definitely not enough for a lunch (for me).

They gave out receipts for the orders, which listed the usual price of the taco. $4.50. I've previously ranted about tacos that cost $4 or $5. Sure, this was bigger than the Disney ones were, but it's still pricey for one taco that's not nearly enough for lunch. I wish the price point were a little lower. Then maybe I'd go back (if the line were short), because the flavors of the chicken and onions really were good.