Ernie’s Al Fresco

Go with the special of the day. Especially the beef flautas, tacos dorados, or fish tacos when available. Those are the best. A little heavy to eat all the time, but solid quality for the price.

3^rd time buying lunch at this truck.
1) Chicken Cesar sandwich: Chicken was a thin dry slab, but the worst part was that the baguette was slathered with some kind of grease on both sides, then grilled to the point that the grease had adhered to the bread like a thin layer of prosciutto. nasty! Threw the buns out, ate the dry chicken. good thing it came with fresh tomato and lettuce cuts ($ 5).
2) Chicken Tacos: Super dry and ground looking chicken pieces, topped heavily with onions.($ 5)
3) Chicken Mole plate: Chicken very bland. Beans and rice. This dish will put you in a food coma. Not recommended for lunch at work ($ 6)
Will not buy again.
Recommendation: Get yourself a couple of Trader Joe’s salads, they’re packed with protein and fresh superb ingredients for only $ 3.99.

Been eating Erne’s since I was a kid. Love their tuna melt, Jaws Burger, and the Mucho Macho Burrito is pretty awesome to. Price isn’t that bad and for a food truck they’re pretty affordable for breakfast and lunch (around $ 5 – 8).

If you are looking for a roach coach without the roaches this is it
I love their breakfast burritos. They put «McDonalds» style hash browns in the burritos and it’s amazing. With fresh homemade salsas and food that doesn’t get you sick Ernies is the truck for me.
Sincerely
El Don de Hamburgers

Yummy food and honest hard working owner!
I ordered chicken tacos plate which came with rice and beans. The price was only $ 5 which is very reasonable.
My co-​worker ordered a burger and that was just under $ 5 — it smelled great!
I love supporting small business owners that are good :)

When it comes to great food, great prices, and friendly service you just cannot top Ernie’s food truck. Almost every item on the vast menu is $ 5 and there are also daily specials. Mostly known for his Mexican plates, but his burgers cannot be ignored. A true gem in Pasadena for lunch.

Now that food trucks are a thing, you should probably know that Ernie’s is more of the original food truck, the kind that used to be called roach coach. I don’t know where else it goes in Pasadena, but the stop I’m familiar with is it’s 10:30 — 11 am stop on Ramona St. near Pasadena City Hall and next to the Hale Building permit center.
A lot of my coworkers go regularly. They tend to get the carne asada salad which they totally rave about as being delicious and affordable. On my two visits, I was looking for fish tacos, which they only sell certain days of the week. I kept missing fish days so my first visit resulted in my getting a tuna sandwich with some sliced oranges, perfectly ho hum. The second time, I ended up with a grilled cheese special with tomatoes and bacon inside, very heavy.
There is a ton on their menu, ranging from Mexican to American griddle classics like burgers and hot dogs. I think their stuff is palatable and convenient but that’s about it.

Great food. Filling and inexpensive. Also very customizeable, if you can dream it, he will make it. Flautas Burrito, spicy chicken quesadilla, no problem!

«Alternate to to pricey Cal Tech campus food «
Ernie’s Al Fresco is the only food truck in this campus. Always a line except in the early morning, food quality well is pretty mediocre, don’t expect this to be restaurant quality, a bit step up from Del Taco Problem with the food is they put too much beans and isn’t hot, also they don’t serve fries.
Wish they add the tax in to the menu price to avoid confusion. Finding this truck is like try to find your loss key. Better ask someone who go there, they sometime change the location, but when you see a long line in the campus usually is for this.
Bottom line, you can fill up under $ 5 or little bit over, which you would be half full in other options in the campus. If you want to drive, Alberto and Amigos offer better quality for slight more.

I think I’ve been coming to Ernie’s for the past 8 or so years at least, and he hasn’t changed one bit.
This guy is amazing. Quite possibly my favorite place to eat — ever. The only problem is that serving out of a truck means I have to come eat at a specific time. He needs to open a restaurant so that I can go every day, multiple times.
Anything you get from him is delicious — and cheap. I don’t think I’ve gotten anything above $ 5 from him. He serves both Mexican and American food… both of which are great. I personally enjoy his Mexican stuff better, but the Jaws burger is nice too. His flautas, tacos, burritos, and rice and beans — all amazing.
He also has a wonderful personality. He calls me mijo every time I visit… and he’ll talk with you too. Some of the regulars sometimes bring their own glassware, and Ernie will serve them their food in that. I found it really interesting that this method of saving the world could result just from familiarity.
Go here.

Cheap, fast, good food

I worship at the temple that is Ernie’s.

I don’t have much to add that hasn’t been said already.* Instead, I’d like to make this review a tribute to my favorite item on Ernie’s menu: the «Jaws» burger.
$ 3.95 will get you two hamburger patties with bacon, pastrami, avocado, onions, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, and some concoction of sauces on a sourdough bun. He serves this with either chips or a salad, but the salad is loaded up with ranch sauce by default so you don’t have to worry too much about the meal approximating anything remotely healthy.
I’ve found myself ordering this beast roughly 75% of the time I patronize Ernie’s food truck. Heck, I’ll probably get one this afternoon. I’ll die early, but I’ll also die happy.
But, seriously, try the Jaws burger. It’s flippin’ delicious.
*Mexican fare along with sandwiches, burgers, and salads for $ 4 or $ 5 with a drink; in between the Center for Student Services and the Holliston parking garage from 11:45 AM to 2:00 PM or so.
[Edit: All meal prices have gone up by about a dollar since this review was written.]

Ernie’s is the best mexican food truck in the Pasadena area. Most meals cost $ 3~4 and are really filling. Typically located off of Holliston on the Caltech campus Monday thru Friday from ~11:30 to 2pm (after 2pm he heads down to California Blvd near Wilson). A line of Caltech students, staff, and faculty forms pretty quickly, so you may want to show up before 11:45 or after 1. Otherwise, the wait is worth it and you’ll probably get some free chips and salsa.
Favorite dishes:
Chicken mole (ask for corn tortilla)
Tacos dorados (potatoes)
Tacos carnitas
Chicken enchilladas
Chicken flautas
If you’re REALLY hungry:
Mucho macho (beef)
Poco macho (chicken, otherwise the same thing as the mucho macho despite the name)
Jaw’s burger (I forget what’s in there, but its big and tasty.)
If you’re vegetarian you can get the cactus quesadilla or tacos dorados. I’m sure there are other options like salad and stuff, I just don’t usually order it.

Since my first day on campus, everyone kept talking about Ernie’s. There are some in my building that go everyday.
It’s ridiculously cheap (less than $ 4) for a plate full of food. Some of the items are bit bland for my taste, but the specials are always great. The spicy beef (not too spicy) and potato plate is great.
Ernie is also great with substituting anything you want as long as you have it on the truck. The line gets long quick with all the regulars, but it moves quickly.
Favorites:
Beef Flautas
Potato Quesadilla
Fish Burrito
Chicken Poco Macho Burrito
Chicken Milanese Sandwich
Veggie Burrito
Breakfast Burrito

This is one of the better lunchtime deals in Pasadena. Lunch and a soda, under 5 dollars –and the portions are big. breakfast is also great here.
it is all good, but I am especially partial to the potato quesadilla plate.
Ernie is a pleasantly friendly and hard working man, it is a pleasure to do regular business with him.

I’ve been working at Caltech since 1995 and during that time Ernie has fed me well. For breakfast or lunch if your hungry and want some good inexpensive food try Ernie’s Al Fresco.
Items I’ve ordered and have been happy with are:
–Breakfast burrito — I like to order it with bacon & sausage with beans instead of potatoes.
–Carne asada /​chicken tacos and burritos
–Chinese chicken salad
–Caesar chicken wrap
–JAWS hamburger $ 4.74 (my favorite!) a lot of food for the $. This bad boy has 2 meat patties, bacon, cheese, pastrami with tomato & lettuce served on roll with chips & salsa.
Ernie’s truck arrives for lunch across the the Arms building around 2 p.m. Monday thru Friday.

Yay, I’m a fan!
Ernie’s is better than almost everything else I’ve had on campus, but I hate how the really good stuff makes me feel really bad after lunch.
I try to order something different each time:
Chicken Mole burrito — bland
Nopales Tacos — very bland (tasted like canned cactus)
Potato Quesadilla — solid
***Veggie Burrito — best thing on the menu***
When I have time, I try to go off campus for lunch. But might as well go to Ernie’s if I didn’t bring lunch and I’m hungry.
P. S. Ernie is really nice. He is always smirks when I ask for a veggie burrito with bacon in it. He never charges extra for the bacon. I love it when he calls me «Mija» with a little wink. Nice.

I think this place should get 3.5 stars.
This is a mobile truck that stops at various places around Caltech’s campus and serves Mexican food and some other dishes (sandwiches, hot dogs, burgers, salads) for breakfast and lunch.
This place is cheap! Most dishes cost around $ 3.75. I would recommend the Mexican dishes, as they are the most flavorful. I had a Cajun chicken sandwich, and it not only wasn’t very spicy, but it was actually kind of bland.
They have a decent selection of drinks, including grape and orange sodas, Mexican sodas, and sangrias (bottled).
ALERT: While this place may look like a grease truck, it is not! The fact that it has «al fresco» in the name should have tipped me off since I took 4 years of Spanish in HS, but it didn’t. I asked for some french fries, because everyone knows grease trucks have the most amazing fries, and he looked at me with a straight face and said we don’t do fries here. I thought he was messin with me. but he was not.

I miss Ernie now that I’ve moved away from moved away from Pasadena…
I was addicted to the Poco Macho while I was at Caltech, although I did enjoy the potato tacos on Fridays. Plus, everything costs $ 4 and Ernie will tell you stories about the time he was pulled over for drinking beer in his convertible on the 110.