Primo’s Parrilla

They come around by my office a couple times a week. Really loved the plates they had before the city cracked down and took away their ability to setup a huge grill by their truck, booooo. I know there’s a petition to allow them to grill again, but it looks like Emeryville is looking to make it harder for street carts to serve tasty foods, boo again.
Anyhoo, they now serve sandwiches and empanadas. I had the rib eye sandwich which was good, but the meat was very rare — hard to get a clean bite without grinding the meat w/​the teeth or pulling out the whole piece of meat, for an unbalanced mouthful of meat, leaving an area of your sandwich that is only bread (no meat, sad!). I’m sure you guys know what I’m talking about here, haha.
The sausage sandwich on the other hand was very delicious. It’s like a hot link sandwich but I’ll take their word that it’s an Argentinian delicacy — I think it was called charipa or something, I know I’m butchering that. There’s a slight kick, not super spicy, but all around delicious.
My only real gripe w/​this truck is that I feel things are a bit overpriced. $ 7.50 for a smallish sandwich, yikes. The Empanadas are great, but tiny and at $ 3.50 a pop, definitely feels overpriced.

Primo’s parrilla was at eat real feast 2010 but thankfully i skipped them. heartell the meat wasn’t that fresh cuz of the long hours. at this location, primo is primed to excell. just 3 hours to sell their goodies and they didn’t disappoint
locale: 62^nd & Hollis (varies), emeryville, fridays, 11 – 2
menu: flank steak sandwich (8.50), argentine especialites, etc. menu varies daily, updates on facebood, twitter,
sampling: 100% grass (edited) feed flank steak sandwich. not a lot of meat. but the flank present was tasty, tender (sans sauce) in a ciabatta like spicy chewy bun.
–pretty enjoyable but kind of small. guess good meat isn’t cheap.
foodnotes:
–the grill guy very helpful in explaining menu items.
–one grill item doesn’t use flour which is nice.
–friendly, fast service
–pricey? cheaper means cheaper cuts of meat =toughness, chewiness.
–got a note from primo saying their beef is 100% grass fed. if so, it must be domestic beef since almost all imported beef is grass fed. just 1−2% is grain fed (corn).

Tri tip sandwich: tender meat cooked (mostly) medium rare and crunchy bread flavored with olive oil/​herbs with a tiny bit of kick!
Beef empanadas: I tried a bite, and it was heaven!
The only complaint is the price. I agree with the other reviewers… it’s a truck, so it should be a bit cheaper! Nevertheless, I’ll still be going back for more!

I am so glad they came to Eat Real Festival. They were delicious and I think I am actually drooling as I am typing this. The meat was so tender and cooked perfectly. It had the brown outside and the pretty pink inside. It was the perfect combo of smoky flavoring with salt and topped with chimichurri sauce. The side that came with it was a spinach sweet potato mash that was out of this world. I love the combination of the sweet and savory. It was so creamy. I love mashed potatoes and meat. Knowing that at least there is spinach in the mashed potatoes ease my guilt a little bit.

Overpriced plates of food, served on the street, where food trucks need to serve food that comes in well under the $ 10 price point. After all — you ain’t paying for restaurant space, utilities, and all the other costs that normally contribute to the higher price of prepared foods.
Tri-​tip, my friends, is not Argentinian. It is Santa Marian. That’s right — from the Central Coast of California. And the good part about that, is that under normal circumstances, it’s affordable. That’s the point. It was a cheaper, forgotten cut of meat that used to be ground up. Then a butcher in Santa Maria decided to leave it whole, coat it with a rub, and let it roast. And tri-​tip was born, as the butcher then gave it the moniker that is virtually unknown outside of the Golden State.
This truck parks often in Emeryville, where he takes up two parking spots to accommodate his grills. This guy should be limited to using his truck only (if at all), and not smoke out the neighborhood with the grills.
And my problem with the new wave of ‘taco trucks’ (the Mexicans do deserve all the credit, as this was THEIR invention), is that they try to target areas that, despite being lower income (E-​ville as a whole), these areas have a large, commuting, working population. So these guys figure that a $ 12 plate of food, is all of a sudden a bargain. Fat chance. I can list half a dozen places all right on or off of Hollis Street, that I would prefer give my money to.
The whole idea behind grilling tri-​tip, is that traditionally it was done over red oak wood, and they would leave a whole side of the cut untrimmed, so that the ½ inch layer of fat would rain down, and baste the meat. Here, this is not the case. Grass-​fed? REALLY? Then go sell your overpriced meat to the uneducated foo-​foo masses who think it’s better, cause it’s not. You need the fat, and when grilling, the more marbling, the better.
Latest update on this guy’s website says he may not get a permit from Emeryville to further pollute our weekday air with excessive smoke. I really hope they deny him, so he can move along to greener pastures. Why not try selling your expensive lunches in East Oakland? Good luck with that.

Rib-eye…Whoah Nelly that was some good meat. 100% grass-​fed, at that. Let me tell you, my friend’s Fiancé was on their JOCK. He’s Argentinean, so upon spotting the Argentine Food Truck… he went nuts. I must say though, it was pretty jockable.
The guy grilling the meat was awesome and very personable, and hooked us up w/​some good sized samples straight off the grill, enough to convince us to put in our own order. The sweet mash was a nice pairing w/​the meat. The whole dish was comforting. I could do w/​out the chimichurri sauce on top of the rib-​eye, but it didn’t ruin the meat or anything. We came back again later for my friend who ordered more.
They’ve only been in business for 4 months, but I think they established themselves even more by appearing at the Eat Real Fest. A must try for meat lovers!

The chiken was tender, flavorful and delicious. I was underwhelmed by the corn empanadas.

Went to Beehive to try the empanadas, and was disappointed to find that they cannotbsell empanadas there. The chicken was on the grill and looked very tempting but I opted for the ribeye.
The ribeye was delicious and was served with mashed sweet potato and a green salad with tomatoes. The chimIchurri sauce was average but it did not detract from the meal in any way. I
In talking with the grillmaster, I asked who their ribeye supplier was and he mentioned that they had just switched suppliers and were now getting Uruguyan Estanincia beef.
Looking forward to trying the chicken next time. there was a cupcake truck there that made for a great dessert.

Great, delicious yummy food truck! I wouldn’t think twice about coming here again!
Tried their chicken sandwich, corn empanada, and pork sausage sandwich.
The chicken sandwich seasoned very well with the onions, but the chicken itself was just ok… the pork sausage sandwich was really delicious tho!
I liked their corn empanadas, however, I was pretty disappointed that they fell apart when I took them out of the bag. The dough was too thin to keep the corn together inside. still tastes great though!

So I was totally butthurt because when I got there, the truck wasn’t opened yet but it gave me a chance to read so that was okay. I scanned their menu and noticed they offered the chicken plate, with the potato/​spinach mash and a salad. I was butthurt again when they finally opened and they had changed the menu and were only offering sandwiches and salads… Hmph… So I decided to just get 6 empanadas and try to catch up with the truck another time for the chicken plate. I must say the empanadas were EXQUISITE. I had 3 beef and 3 chicken. If they had vegetarian I would of tried that too but they didn’t have any.
None-​the-​less… I have resorted to stalking this delicious food truck via twitter to try and catch them on days that I have off. If you see this truck out and about do stop and try at least their empanadas (2 for 6 $). This food is delicious and should have its own restaurant if you ask me, but I guess the mystery of location and tracking them via internet is only half the fun:)

So far, I’ve only tried the Tri-​tip and Chicken plates at the Bee Hive.
The Chicken is INSANELY delicious, probably the best I’ve ever eaten, and now I’m spoiled for life. The Tri-​tip while a little on the tough side has an amazing depth of flavor that only grass raised beef can provide and the chimichurri really makes this great. The spinach/​sweet potato item. I was a little lukewarm about at first, but then found that it kinda grows on you, and along with the simple salad provide perfect foils to offset the deep flavors of the meats. I’m now going to make this a weekly stop.
I’m really looking forward to trying the sausage sandwich, but unfortunately, they only have a limited number of them and are usually out by the time I show up.

Review is only for empanadas:
Just saw the truck today on Doyle & 62^nd. Wanted a small something and got 2 chicken empanadas ($ 6). The grill master was hard at work cooking the tri-​tips and chicken. Anyway, both my 2 ½ daughter and I loved the empanadas! Chicken was moist with a hint of spice. Perfect. It came with what I think was this chimichurri sauce. Very yummy. Will have to try their combos next time. Very nice people and will definitely look for their truck.
*had Cupkates for dessert, her truck was just around the corner! Love all this food trucks movement!

Awesome, really great. Meat could’ve been slightly more tender (or I could just get tougher teeth), but it was seasoned perfectly!
Track it down. The chimichurri is awesome.

Primo’s Parilla Tri Tip and chicken is amazing. You can’t go wrong with either one if you can’t decide. The lunch combo comes with fresh greens, sweet mash potatoes, and the meat of your choice. They also give you a sauce called chimmichurri which is a great alternative to your normal BBQ sauce for the meat. What makes it even better is that everything is all organic.
They start setting up shop and grilling really early which makes the meat really tender. The BBQ scent in the morning also makes me stomach growl earlier then it should… Follow their twitter page to find out where they are located each day.

Their chicken is the bomb! Free-​range chicken grilled to perfection topped with tangy chimichurri sauce and a sweet potato mash. Holy moly.
I discovered these guys one afternoon during my pre-​lunch walk with some coworkers. They were parked on 62^nd between Doyle and Hollis. We stopped by to check out their menu and they offered us free empinadas. That just shows how rad these guys are.
They have tri-​tip, chicken and empinadas. Their prices are fair, considereing the quality of ingredients. The chicken plate costs $ 10 and I think the tri-​tip was $ 12.
I’m totally loving this food truck movement going on in Emeryville. Check them out on Twitter for their latest locations. Trust me, the chicken is the bomb!

Fantastic!!! Stopped by there for lunch and was super impressed. The chicken was amazingly juicy — and the chimichurri sauce to top it off… YUM. With some salad and mash on the side this is definitely more than you would expect from this colorfully painted truck.
I can’t say enough about Javier and Walker’s creation — so just go and check it out yourself!

Primo’s Parrilla is hands down one of the best food experiences in the Bay Area. I’m a native and consider myself a black belt in food snobbery, and without a doubt this is the complete package. Amazing to think such a high quality plate of food comes from a truck!
With Javier Sandes grilling on the street and in front of the truck, you really get a sense of his passion for food. Walker is a character and a half and he served me a plate of chicken which was literally, THE juiciest and best chicken I have ever eaten. Sorry mom. The empanadas are delightful also and you should give them a whirl for sure. Everyone keeps going on and on about Primo’s trip tip, but the chicken dish is the one for me.
When the truck is parked at Hollis Park @ 62^nd, there is a genuine sense of community which ends up forming right before your eyes. Hot moms converge with the locals who smelled the grill from a half mile away. Construction workers rap with the Twitterati and regular joe prep school types like me do our best to soak it all in. The park benches get full, as does your belly, all under the direct supervision of the one like Javier Primo!
Do yourself a favor, check your preconceived notions at the door, and go to Primo’s Parrilla as soon as you can. You won’t regret it, and you’ll probably be back for more with all your closest friends.

The Primo’s Parilla food truck
debuted this month in Emeryville.
Javier is the Argentinian grill master of this business partnership, that brings slow-​grilled «Asado» (traditional Sunday barbecue in Argentina) to the bay area using organic and sustainable ingredients.
The menu
includes: trip tip ($ 12) and chicken ($ 10) plates served with salad, spinach sweet potato mash and chimichurri sauce. Plus empanadas ($ 3 each, 2 for $ 5, or a plate of 2 with salad for $ 8) and 3 types of alfajores ($ 2) made by Dolce Vita. Sodas and teas are $ 1.50-$ 2. On a few occasions they’ll also offer choripan (chorizo sausage sandwich).
3.5 stars.
Update: I didn’t like the rib-​eye — too chewy and way too much fat (thick layer), not enough meat. Threw most of it away. Unless they can improve the meat cuts I would AVOID the rib-​eye, stick to the tri-​tip or the chicken if available.
Check Twitter or Facebook for location updates (closed on rainy days). Some of the frequent stops:
* Park Ave. & Harlan, across from Pixar.
* East side of Doyle Hollis Park @62^nd & Doyle.
Update: a new stop added, Saturdays 10am-​3pm at the Beehive Market in Berkeley.
CASH only.

I love the expression «the difference between night and day.» It aptly describes the culinary adventures in Emeryville, CA. The difference between eating in Emeryville during the night and day are kinda like comparing Lindsay Lohan when she was a Hollywood child sweetheart, to when she discovered she had big tits and now smokes an asteroid of crack a day.
See what I mean about the difference between night and day?
During the night time, Emeryville has one eat: the East Bay’s most ghetto Denny’s. If you’re brave enough to eat here, you obviously watched too much Indiana Jones and want your body studied by archaeologists after they unearth your remains from the Bay in the distant future.
Well, the good thing is during the day it’s blessed with Primo’s Parilla, the newest food truck in town. Primo has rewritten the standards by upping the quality of truck food by 10,000. Don’t believe me?
Organic greens, grass fed beef, free range chicken? Check:
.
Cooked over an BBQ right in front of your face by grill master Javier? Check:

Javier gives samples if you can’t stop drooling. Check:
I ordered the grass fed trip tip
which clocks in at 12 bucks. Yeah, it’s expensive, but Jesus Christ (If you say Jesus backwards, it kinda sounds like sausage… hehe Oh God, I’m going to hell)… look at this close up:
Perfectly salted, might I add.
The Organic seasonal mixed greens were phenomenal
and the sweet mash, which had potatoes and corn from what I could tell
was delicious.
A fully belly later, I realized you’ll have to call the EMT to use the jaws of life to remove my face from this truck.
Follow them on Twitter
so you know where they’re going to be next.

Whoa! I’ve never been to Argentina but I feel like Argentina has just come to me!
Primo’s Parrilla, an authentic Argentinian BBQ mobile cart is hitting the streets of Oakland and Emeryville, coming soon to a neighborhood near you! It sounds like they are still sorting out their schedule so keep your eyes peeled. Word is, they’ll also be available for private events and some catering gigs as well.
Their menu features slow-​grilled asado, hand-​made empanadas & unique side dishes (all made with love & commitment to sustainability & community. So sweet! Sadly (in my case) I’m a vegetarian so I didn’t get to indulge in the real deal (though it’s quite impressive) but I can say that the vegetable empanadas are the bomb! I wasn’t familiar with chimichurri sauce before this, but ‘Hot Damn’, I think it’s my new favorite sauce/​spread/​condiment! Deelish!
Oh, and I have to mention the authenticity of having the grill out and in view, really makes you feel like street food in other countries or perhaps just a family picnic/​party/​fiesta.
I love Primo’s and I love seeing another creative and original street food vendor that really raises the bar while representing the diverse culture of the East Bay. Vamos Primo’s!