Blink and you might miss it, but tucked into a U-Haul lot at 142nd and Meridian in South Hill is a new mobile food trailer. Out-n-About Burgers opened Wednesday Oct. 28 in the gravel lot off the always busy Meridian Avenue East.

I dropped in and casually chatted up Bob, who said he was the owner. He said it took about 18 months of L&I and health department permitting to open the mobile food trailer (both permits are on display). I looked inside and saw five people cooking and taking orders inside a pristine, but tiny kitchen. I’ll be curious to see how it looks after a few months of use. As for the food….

Out-n-About is not nearly the same scope as the Burgerville Nomad cart, which uses Twitter to tweet its constantly moving location (I wrote about the Nomad a week ago; still no news when the Nomad will be visiting Tacoma).

While the food was quickly assembled and the ingredients looked solid, the burgers won’t make a burgervore swoon. They may, however, fill your belly with something a touch tastier than a blah chainsville burger. The French fries and sweet potato fries ($1.99/$2.49) were of the frozen variety. The burger patties looked handformed, but were too thin and overcooked to really impress me. Leaf lettuce, grilled onions, thick-sliced tomato, American cheese and a tangy burger sauce came on a buttered and grilled bun that reminded of how Little Holland (rest in peace) used to grill their buns until they were crunchy ($2.49-$3.99 for burgers).

I’m curious with the Out-n-About location so close to Sonic – just across and down a block or so- how they’ll do (I still fall solidly in the “what’s the big deal” category with Sonic). I did notice when driving by Out-n-About a few times cars were lined up in the drive-thru side of the mobile cart. I think if in a hurry, I’d pop by, but for about the same amount of money, I’ll just go down the hill to Don’s Drive-In, which also has wonderful pie.

Out-n-About Burgers
Where: the gravel lot by U-Haul, 14214 Meridian Ave. E., Puyallup