Amy Y.
Yelp
Hoo boy, Giovanni's Shrimp Truck - the one food blemish in my Hawaii vacation. Honestly, I was first made aware of this shrimp truck from Terrace House: Aloha State, and I was super curious from how they were describing the very popular delicious shrimp. The graffiti truck is also a fun sight, although it's almost impossible to get a clean picture of it since there's always people around it or ordering in front of it.
Well, I made the trek here and my total wait was about 50 minutes from the time I got in line to the time I received my order, on a Tuesday at 2pm. They make the shrimp in batches, so people don't get their orders steadily - it's more like, if you're in a batch, you will probably wait for a while and get your order at the same time as a bunch of other people, even if someone ordered like half an hour after you already did. I think my order took longer because I got a half plate of their "NO REFUNDS" hot & spicy; they cooked in flavor batches because I was order 18 and still waiting for my food, but they were calling out numerous completed orders for people up to 32, who had all gotten just scampi.
Cooking in careless batches (or being ignorant of how to cook shrimp properly) made all the shrimp overcooked and sad. It just tasted like dried out frozen small Costco shrimp. I'm so happy that I went to another shrimp truck while I was waiting for my Giovanni's order so that I actually got to eat good shrimp, because this wasn't it at all. Yeah, their sauce was very garlicky, lemony, and buttery, but it was on bad shrimp. Their rice sucked too, as it was just overcooked and mushy; the dollops of cooked garlic on top helped it none, and I just simply didn't eat more than one bite. The hot & spicy sauce was a subtle sweet and spicy sauce that gave some tongue burn.
Everyone who enjoys their experience here must not understand what good shrimp tastes like, because this is possibly the worst shrimp experience I've ever had, and I eat a lot of shrimp - even shrimp from cheap buffets. I got a few mosquito bites while standing in line, so bring bug spray if you're here. The main reason this is not a one star experience is that the food was still edible, the sauce is good on a technicality, and I did not get sick from it. Please learn how to not overcook food. and source better shrimp.