Contreras Eatz's New Mexibachi Bowl: A Food Truck Review

Key Takeaways

• The new item: Contreras Eatz's Mexibachi Bowl — a build-your-own Mexican-hibachi fusion (pick noodles or rice, your meat, and from about nine vegetables), served hot with sauce.
• The sleeper hit: the Jerk Chicken Tacos — smoky, well-seasoned, with a jerk sauce Britten swears tastes of steak sauce.
• The whole spread came to about $34 — and Britten called it the best he's had from them.
• Contreras Eatz are birria specialists and won Best Fries at the Heartland Food Truck Championship.
• Find them at Food Truck Friday in Vine Grove, confirmed to run through June.

Summary

Hardin County's go-to foodie review team, Britten and Michele McDowell, brought the Experienced Eater segment back to a familiar favorite with a brand-new reason to visit. Contreras Eatz — the Radcliff-based, husband-and-wife food truck featured earlier this season — caught Britten's attention at Food Truck Friday in Vine Grove with a new menu item: the Mexibachi Bowl.

What followed was an enthusiastic three-dish review: the build-your-own fusion bowl, the messy-but-beloved El Elote street corn, and a surprise standout in the Jerk Chicken Tacos. Britten and Michele added the kind of detail that only comes from people who really pay attention to food.

It's a returning truck, a new dish, and a verdict that lands somewhere around "go get this."

Watch this segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcuXcG9-yVA Full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c98g4e2AHMA Read the full S2026E23 recap: https://hardinlocal.com/podcast/s2026e23-pillar/

Full Article

When a food truck reaches out and says they've got something new, the Experienced Eater answers. That's exactly how Britten McDowell ended up at Food Truck Friday in Vine Grove last week, standing in front of Contreras Eatz with a camera and an empty stomach. "Contreras has got a massive bit of fusion going on here," he says in the clip, "and my mouth's watering."

The headliner is the Mexibachi Bowl — Contreras Eatz's take on Mexican-hibachi fusion, and a genuinely flexible one. As Britten and Michele detailed back in studio, you pick your base (noodles or rice), then your protein (chicken, shrimp, or steak), then build from around nine vegetables — onions, bell peppers, corn, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and more — all served hot with plenty of sauce and extra sauces on the side. "Build your own, completely build your own," Britten says in the clip, before taking the first bite: "Oh, that's tasty. That's a hit."

The El Elote — Mexican street corn — sparked the segment's best little moment. Grilled corn, tangy and seasoned, finished with cheese, mayonnaise, lime, and cilantro. Michele, in Britten's ear the whole time, couldn't believe he was eating something mayonnaise-based. Britten didn't budge: "It's messy. I like it." He broke down exactly why it works — the sweetness of the grilled corn against the sour of the lime and the salty cheese — before landing on the honest summary that he's not a big mayo guy, "but I know lots of people love it. And it looked great."

The surprise of the night was the Jerk Chicken Tacos, something Britten hadn't tried from them before. Jerk usually runs spicy; this one came in smoky and flavorful instead. "I like their sauce. It's a little bit different," he says in the clip. "I think it's got A1 in it. It's got a steak sauce vibe to it. That's very good. Very, very good." Back in studio, he diagnosed it like a chef — the chicken smoked or hard-rubbed and roasted, then chopped and finished on the grill in a corn tortilla, almost quesadilla-style, with a Caribbean-leaning jerk seasoning. He liked the tacos even better than the bowl.

For all the fusion, Britten was careful to anchor Contreras Eatz in what they're known for: birria. His personal go-to is the birria box — birria tacos, two birria egg rolls, and a "birria ball" of rice, meat, and cheese. These are, he reminded viewers, the same chefs who won Best Fries at the Heartland Food Truck Championship and consistently placed in the food-truck judging the show ran. "Some of their things were like my favorite of the day," he said — high praise, given that day involved roughly 175 bites of food-truck food.

The practical notes were good news, too. The full spread — bowl, corn, and tacos — came to about $34, with portions Britten and Michele both called generous. And the truck isn't going anywhere soon: Vine Grove's Food Truck Friday is confirmed to run through the month of June, extended a month because it's been doing so well. You'll find Contreras Eatz there, and on Facebook at facebook.com/contreras.eatz.

Britten's closing line in the clip doubles as the verdict: "These guys are proven winners. They've won championships, and this is an experience you've got to have."