BB Chips Chip Wagon

Address: Cooper at Bank St, Ottawa
Hours: 10:30am – 5:30pm (Mon – Fri); closed Sat – Sun
Website: Ha!
Green factor: Styrofoam containers for poutine and burgers; plastic utensils; no waste bins on site

It’s hard to go more than a block or two in Centretown without hitting a chip wagon, and BB Chips lays claim to the corner of Cooper and Bank. The truck is hard to miss, with its colourful, eye-catching wrap.

The menu is what you would expect from a chip wagon: burgers, hot dogs and sausages, fries and poutine, with various combinations of the aforementioned items available. I went with my now-standard order to gauge chip wagons – a cheeseburger and a small poutine.

I didn’t have much of a wait since the lunch crowd had already dissipated. My burger was passed to me open-faced, so that I could top it to my heart/stomach’s desire. It comes with lettuce and tomato by default, and I added on some chopped onion, pickles, relish and mustard. As always, repping #TeamNoKetchup.

Once I had my poutine in hand, I had the fun task of finding a place to sit along Bank St, which is oddly difficult in the Centretown section.

Pale iceberg lettuce – no one’s friend

My cheeseburger ($4.50) had reasonable fundamentals at a glance – cheese melted on the patty, sesame seed bun, and a good meat-bun ratio. Alas, it was also a from-frozen patty. The patty was a bit thinner and wider than the burgers of some of their chip wagon competition, so it ended up being less mushy than other, even more disappointing, chip wagon burgers.

By the time I found a place to eat, the curds in my poutine ($5) had mostly melted. Don’t worry, it wasn’t topped with shredded mozza, this isn’t a half-assed Halifax poutine! *shudder* Due to their state of melted-ness, I can’t comment on how squeaky the curds were, but they had a pleasant salty and cheesy flavour. However, the fries themselves were less browned and crisp than I like.

While conveniently located, and done up to get the attention of the people in a high traffic area like Bank Street, BB Chips doesn’t really stand out when it comes to their food.