Camino Alamo BBQ 老段烧烤
Three skewers to an order, lamb or prime beef or chicken wings, marinated in cumin, salt, white pepper, onion, Sichuan pepper and chili flake and cooked over charcoal troughs bolted to the front of the trailer.2
Why go
Diego Duan is from Shanghai and is not Uyghur.2 He opened Alimu BBQ there three years before this, named for a Uyghur friend who could not get hired, and was not allowed to use the name or hire the friend.2 The shop that followed was called Alamo.2 The menu is three meats, plus pilaf and grilled pineapple, and that is the entire card.1 Service starts at 5.30pm, Tuesday to Sunday.2 The Infatuation rates it 8.3 and lists it among the best food trucks in Austin.1
Order this / avoid
- Lamb. The spiciest of the three, cooked to medium for the chew, and the skewer that most closely matches what Uyghur cooking is known for.2
- Chicken wings. Duan trims the over-charred nubs off the skewer with scissors before it goes out.2
- Prime beef, tender and rich, and the mildest of the three.2
- Lamb pilaf or grilled pineapple on the side.1
- Say your heat level when you order. Normal comes out balanced and subtly spicy.2
- Avoid: arriving in a hurry. Three people, two grills, one hearth, and food takes a while if there is a line.1
What locals & experts say
- The Infatuation Austin rates it 8.3, bylined Nicolai McCrary, page dated 19 January 2024, filed under the trailer's other name, Remember the Alamo.1
- Evan Rodriguez in The Austin Chronicle, on the cooking, verbatim:
The wings are perfectly grilled.
And on the lamb,the spiciest of the trio, as it should be, and cooked just medium for the proper chew.
2 - Duan on his fuel, verbatim:
Charcoal is important, some people want to cook it with an electric oven, it is totally different. But charcoal is very hot and difficult to control the cooking process.
2 - Duan on the model he is copying, verbatim:
I also want to do the business like Franklin BBQ, every day open five hours and sold out every day.
2
Good to know
- Check the address before you drive. The Austin Chronicle in September 2023 and The Infatuation both place the grill at 1914 Guadalupe Street, suite A, on the Drag.1 Nothing in print gives a newer one, and the listings that put the trailer out on Anderson Mill Road are not the kind I would drive on, so message the Instagram account before you set off.
- Hygiene: no public score exists for a business of this kind. Austin Public Health's inspection dataset covers fixed food establishments; mobile vendors run under a separate permit program whose scores are not published as open data.3
- Two other businesses hold permits at 1914 Guadalupe. Austin Public Health inspects China's Family Restaurant and H & C Food Service in their own right. The Chronicle reports that Duan took over China Family's lease and was using their licence when he opened, which makes it more important, not less, that those scores stay with them and not with this grill.3
- The 2023 price, as published: $9.99 for three skewers. That is a September 2023 number and it will have moved.2
Verdict
should-visit — A one-man Uyghur skewer grill rated 8.3, cooking lamb, prime beef and chicken wings over two charcoal troughs bolted to the front of the trailer. The marinade is cumin, salt, white pepper, onion, Sichuan pepper and chili flake, and you are asked your heat level when you order. Diego Duan came from Shanghai by way of two failed shops and named this one after the Alamo because the word means freedom to him. Check the address before you drive.