Los Brothers serves up top-notch street food

If you’re looking for a juicy, flavourful and cheesy burger, the Los Brothers Street Food truck is the place to go.

On my walk over to the food truck, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Earlier on Wednesday, I visited the Los Brothers Restaurant, where the menu consisted of a fusion of Mexican and Salvadoran food. The double-sided menu included delicious-looking variations of nachos, tacos, burritos and tortas.

When I turned the corner of 10th Street onto Louise Avenue, in the parking lot of Black Wheat Brewing, I was greeted by a bright yellow food truck matching the colour of the sun on the hot summer day. On the side of the truck hung a menu, much shorter than the restaurant’s, with typical food truck items — smash burgers, fries and poutine. It’s safe to say I wasn’t disappointed.

While the menu may have been standard for a food truck, the taste was anything but.

I decided to order a smash burger with fries and a cold can of Diet Coke. Between two fluffy buns were two smashed patties stacked on top of one another, cooked just enough for a slight crisp on the outer edges, with melted cheese and a classified mayo-mustard sauce. While the burger also comes with caramelized onions, I chose to go without since I simply don’t like onions on my burgers.

The fries, which were plentiful, were thick-cut with salt sprinkled throughout and achieved the perfect balance of crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.

At first glance, the meal didn’t look like anything spectacular — a simple burger and fries in a grey takeout container.

After having a few fries to get my taste buds warmed up, I took my first bite of the burger and was pleasantly surprised. The combination of beef, cheese and sauce made for the juiciest burger I’ve ever tasted. I love cheese, and this burger was full of it. The mayo-mustard sauce was, in my opinion, the key ingredient in making the burger so flavourful.

Ben and Alex, who were running the food truck, greeted every customer with a smile. They even invited me into the food truck to see how the burger I just ate was made.

Ben placed a ball-shaped piece of beef on the grill, and once it was warmed up, he squished it down with a piece of metal with a handle until the beef was completely flat. Once the beef was mostly cooked, he placed a slice of cheese on each patty, waiting for it to melt onto the meat. He grabbed a small pile of onions, and placed them on the grill alongside the beef until they were the perfect shade of yellowish brown.

Once everything was cooked to his liking, he scooped up the beef, added it to the bun that was already glazed in sauce, added the onions and it was good to go.

Ben said smashing the burgers was difficult on that particular day since the beef was frozen, and usually it’s fully thawed out before putting them on the grill.

The owner of Los Brothers Street Food and Restaurant, Rick Yanes, grew up in El Salvador and moved to Canada when he was 18. Growing up, his parents owned a traditional Salvadoran restaurant, which he said he grew up in.

He said cooking is his passion, and he especially loves doing it for his family and friends.

Yanes, 32, said the business started out with him selling food out of a hotdog cart in 2019. Later that year, he opened a restaurant on First Street. In 2020, he opened the food truck, and in 2023, he moved the restaurant to its current location on 10th Street.

Over the years, Yanes said the business has picked up traction throughout the city and province, adding that the food truck brings attention to the business since they move it around the province for different events.

While the presentation wasn’t perfect, the taste most definitely made up for it. I will be back and might even try the bacon smash burger.

Overall, I rate Los Brothers Street Food a 4.5 out of 5 stars. If the meal was presented just a bit better, although I understand that it can be hard with a burger, I would give the food truck full stars.

» sanderson@brandonsun.com