Review: 41701 Street Food Market
Posted by MeganL,
The early Friends wave is looking particularly strong! One of the more intriguing sets of the new wave is 41701 Street Food Market. While there have been many food-centric Friends sets in the past, this is a fresh new twist. A bonus with this set is that all three minidolls have two heads provided. This allows for some diversity in expression, which has been lacking in minidolls until now. There's plenty of other things to like about this set, too.
Inside the box there are five numbered bags, four instruction booklets, and a sticker sheet. The four instruction booklets (one each for the table area, food truck, and each food stall) allow for concurrent building. This seems to be a trend in Friends sets this year. The sticker sheet is a pretty modest size, especially considering the subject matter.
Minidolls
There are three minidolls in this set, Sebastian, Nandi, and Emma. Sebastian and Emma are both new characters to the Friends world. As with 41702 Canal Houseboat, there is a diversity of the skintone with the minidolls - three minidolls, three skintones! I love this diversity. Sebastian (left) looks dressed for a day outside with a varsity style jacket and some board shorts. Emma (right) is dressed with a denim vest over a lacy tank and some chunky jewellery. She has a new hairstyle, which looks great. For me, the star of the minidolls is Nandi (middle), who sports a one shouldered blue top with a bright pattern that matches perfectly with her skirt. I love her gladiator style sandals, and her hair is absolutely fabulous.
All three minidolls are given alternate expressions by providing another head, as minidoll heads don't lend themselves well to dual sided expressions. In their alternate expressions, Emma's winking, Nandi has her eyes creased in laughter, and Sebastian looks like he's about to take a bite out of one of the treats.
The completed model
There are two small auxiliary builds in the set. One is a sign in the shape of a cactus (how cute) showing some of the offerings. Nearby there's a box filled with fruits and veggies as additional snacks available.
The taco truck is a delightful build, and I love the brick built taco on the top of the truck. The sign revolves on the top of the truck, so the happy face is looking at you from every angle.
The truck accommodates two minidolls, and I really like the brightly covered awnings on the front and side windows of the truck as well as the brick details on the roof. The driver's side has a menu (provided by a sticker) and a serving window. On the shelf there's bowl of guacamole and some nachos.
There's another window in the back of the truck, as well as a mushroom vent.
The other side is pretty straightforward, and also shows the hinges to the truck, which shows the best part of the truck (in my opinion).
The truck hinges open to allow for plenty of room for play. Inside there's a small cooking area, and some chilies that are hanging on the wall. I really love the ingenuity shown in the design here.
The eating area has lots of fun details. It's a relatively standard construction but has lots of wonderful details. There's plenty of food on the table, with a ramen bowl, some sushi (the goldfish are provided by a sticker) and a quarter circle taco piece, which I think may be new. Not to be left out, there's a food dish for a local cat. It's unclear whose cat this is, though I'm guessing they belong to either Sebastian or Nandi.
I love the flowers in this area. The sign strung between to the two lamps is very eye-catching, with the details provided by stickers. Of course, where there's food, there are interlopers.
Note: sloths are not included in this set.
The first food stall is a sushi bar. Again, I love the brick built sign with the leaves and chopsticks on the top, along with the cherry branches right underneath. The whole build oozes Asian flair, especially the lanterns and the red brick built awning (which is a little tricky to get fully straight, and I still didn't succeed).
On the counter there's some sushi, and two stools for patrons to enjoy the offerings. You can just see bottles of soy sauce and other condiments just behind it. It looks like the interlopers like this station, too.
Note: sloths are not included in this set.
The back of the sushi stand shows additional details, with some knives hung on the wall, a fish ready to be filleted, and a transaction pad. Chopsticks are provided as an accessory for the minidolls (not pictured).
Last but not least, there's a juice bar. Again, I love the brick built sign, this time of a giant carrot. There's a stickered menu in the front, as well as three juice/smoothie offerings in yellow, red and blue. I really like the 1x1 round orange slice tile used as a garnish.
The sticker details of the seats in the front just seemed to invite more of the interlopers.
Note: sloths are not included in this set. Just had to include this picture because of the colour scheme, though....
The back of the juice bar shows additional details: a spoon the wall, the transaction pad, and a blender with fruit to make the smoothies. A bottle for flavouring is included. At the side of the juice bar there's a trash can in what I think may be a new colour, with a banana in it. Maybe that didn't blend well for the smoothie?
Overall thoughts
I was sceptical when I heard about yet another Friends food based set. Restaurants, cafés, and the like are a common theme for Friends. However, this set feel so much different. It's bright, colourful, and a lot of fun. The minidolls are fantastic - kudos to the Friends design team for continuing to add diversity to Heartlake City's population - and the addition of extra heads to allow for alternative expressions is long overdue. Heartlake City is a lovely place, but really, all the citizens have done nothing but smile the entire time. I'm looking forward to seeing more of these expressions, which we'll see in some upcoming reviews.
There are many opportunities for play here, and the detailing in the set is fantastic. I love that the taco truck hinges open to allow for easy access inside. The new food elements are great, and I particularly like the addition of the taco piece!
According to lego.com, this set is 592 pieces and will retail for $49.99. This is a set that would fit into any City set up, and I think it's the best Friends food based set that's been released since 41379 Heartlake City Restaurant.
Many thanks to LEGO for providing a copy of this set for review. All opinions expressed are mine.
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31 comments on this article
I don’t follow Friends closely but this seems like a very strong year. Some of the best I’ve seen. There are about 3 or 4 sets that I’m tempted to get including this one and the tree house. Thanks for the review!
Good review! This Friends line has some amazing sets that can easily crossover into City. Was not expecting "gladiator sandals" in this XD
Without the minidolls, this could quite easily fit into a city area with regular minifigures. I'm liking that they're toning down the pink and purple in these new Friends sets, too.
Lovely review of a lovely set! The cultural variety on display here is amazing, and I love the beefy-looking taco truck and its highly accessible interior.
I think Nandi is the first mini-doll with a reddish brown skin tone? More skin tones in Friends are always welcome—I'd seen criticism about how even "Black-coded" mini-dolls in earlier years tended to have fairly light Medium Nougat skin. Because of how mini-doll customization works (with legs and arms being inseparable from the hips and torsos), having a variety of options for each skin tone can be essential for customization, so I hope we continue to see this level of variety going forward. The introduction of alternative faces in this year's sets certainly doesn't hurt either!
The taco piece was in a couple of Friends sets in 2018: 41338 and 41347.
This looks awesome! Friends sets just keep getting better and better. I suspect this one will be finding its way home...
This is a great set. Cactus is good, taco truck is good.
Is this the first friends set with alternate heads? I don’t think I have seen that before. I also like that they really went all out with those other expressions rather than just something equally as boring as the original head.
Goldfish sushi? Is that a thing?
When my daughter came of age for Lego, I was suspicious of Friends. Too much pink and purple. Too stereotyped. But the range has improved at speed and frequently embarrasses City when it comes to interesting builds, play quality and value (even more so now you sink a load of cash into bits of road in City). This looks like another fun set.
LEGO Friends sets have never quite interested me, from the color scheme to the Minidolls. Dare I say this might be the first set of the theme that I get. The food stands are just so cool NGL, I’m a bit confused as to why the taco cart has sushi but solid builds and stickers/prints. The other two overshadow the carrot stand imo but as a vegan I’d probably go to that one first if these were real.
I was never interested in minidoll-scaled sets, but I've been reading most of your Friends review just to see the sloths (not included in this set) invading Heartlake City :D
That said, I really like the colours on this one and it looks like it could easily accomodate minfigs as well.
The truck is definitely the best part of this set. Like that it is 8 wide so you can easily fit 2 figs in it. And pretty sure those are not goldfish, just regular fish sushi. Just happen to be similar in color.
@Trigger_ said:
"LEGO Friends sets have never quite interested me, from the color scheme to the Minidolls. Dare I say this might be the first set of the theme that I get. The food stands are just so cool NGL, I’m a bit confused as to why the taco cart has sushi but solid builds and stickers/prints. The other two overshadow the carrot stand imo but as a vegan I’d probably go to that one first if these were real."
The taco and sushi mix sounds like a California/ West Coast thing to me. But that’s purely a guess, me being a boring midwesterner. :)
Not goldfish sushi indeed, pretty sure that's supposed to be ebi nigiri, so shrimp. But maybe goldfish sushi is actually good, who knows? Just don't eat the green fish from your aquarium, they're not ripe yet.
All jokes aside, pretty solid set overall. Friends is having a good run this winter.
Loving the two new hairpieces and the brick-built signs.
I do like that orange print tile.
The printed taco piece has appeared in some previous friends sets, so not new to this set
That truck at 6 studs would be perfect. Might pick this up for my city.
I was sure this was going to be a City set before I saw the minidolls.
Its disappointing that they used so many stickers, especially for the stickers for the food (like the shrimp one for the 1x2 tile, considering they had a similar type of design for an actual tile print from the CNY dinner set from a couple of years ago).
@B_Space_Man said:
" @Trigger_ said:
"LEGO Friends sets have never quite interested me, from the color scheme to the Minidolls. Dare I say this might be the first set of the theme that I get. The food stands are just so cool NGL, I’m a bit confused as to why the taco cart has sushi but solid builds and stickers/prints. The other two overshadow the carrot stand imo but as a vegan I’d probably go to that one first if these were real."
The taco and sushi mix sounds like a California/ West Coast thing to me. But that’s purely a guess, me being a boring midwesterner. :) "
I live in California and I've never seen a restaurant that serves both tacos and sushi but I can see someone making that, not gonna lie. There is this one mostly/all-vegan restaurant I forgot the name of but they have edamame guac there, which is pretty close conceptually. It's also way better than it sounds, I could use some right about now, maybe I'll make some at home the next time we get edamame from the takeout sushi place? I'm getting sidetracked here but there's not that much for me to add, I was expecting more prints than there are in the set but I still think it's a great deal nonetheless.
@MeganL Emma is old character, not new.
This is one of the best sets from the friends wave but it’s hard to say since all are great to perfect! I’ve loved friends the moment I saw it and I’m so glad for the amount of things lego is trying next year for friends although I would have liked more interior detail
@MZ_1 said:
" @MeganL Emma is old character, not new."
and @DavidBrick
Agh! This is what happens when I don't proofread twice!
Didn't your set include the new silver fork? This is the second new set you've reviewed that should include it, the first being 43202: The Madrigal House, but it didn't appear in that review either. Really excited about at last getting this long-awaited part (even though its design doesn't quite match the spoon), now we just need a silver knife too!
https://brickset.com/parts/6361354/fork-no-1
This would have a chance at being my Set of the Year if it were a City set. Still an excellent set otherwise and it gets an A+ for every build being good.
@DavidBrick said:
"Pretty sure the fork isn't new new. When Friends first came out there was a bag of parts that included a fork. Aquazone already did a knife in 1995."
It's new, it doesn't look like the one in the colourful multipacks. And I meant a cutlery knife, which did also appear in those.
I love how you can build Pigsy's Food Truck from the Monkie Kid theme out of this set. (In seriousness, as much as I love Pigsy's truck, it would be more fun at this scale).
Best set of 2022 so far. It will be hard to top that.
Cute set!
@Trigger_ said:
" @B_Space_Man said:
" @Trigger_ said:
"LEGO Friends sets have never quite interested me, from the color scheme to the Minidolls. Dare I say this might be the first set of the theme that I get. The food stands are just so cool NGL, I’m a bit confused as to why the taco cart has sushi but solid builds and stickers/prints. The other two overshadow the carrot stand imo but as a vegan I’d probably go to that one first if these were real."
The taco and sushi mix sounds like a California/ West Coast thing to me. But that’s purely a guess, me being a boring midwesterner. :) "
I live in California and I've never seen a restaurant that serves both tacos and sushi but I can see someone making that, not gonna lie. There is this one mostly/all-vegan restaurant I forgot the name of but they have edamame guac there, which is pretty close conceptually. It's also way better than it sounds, I could use some right about now, maybe I'll make some at home the next time we get edamame from the takeout sushi place? I'm getting sidetracked here but there's not that much for me to add, I was expecting more prints than there are in the set but I still think it's a great deal nonetheless."
I'm pretty sure that's a general sign on the cactus for the entire food court with all three foods on it (taco, sushi, juice). Just like the penants on the common seating area have all three stalls represented.
Great set!