Arriba Grill

Arriba is a pretty good burrito place by Adelaide standards which are unfortunately quite low. The usual bain-​marie of warm-​ish meats of your choice, with relatively fresh ingredients to add to you burrito. It was a pretty hot day and the two of us that had guacamole felt a bit queazy afterwards. Nothing special, just ok.

Muuuuch better than my experience at Arriba Grill at Kilburn (ordered vegetarian and got chicken…)
One of the guys here is vegetarian so I got lots of sympathy and even a recommendation to go both black beans and roasted vegetables. Great tip!
They also have the retro TV here like Kilburn. But instead they have the Super Nintento and Mario Kart. Nice choice!
Great vibe. Directly opposite is Red Berry Espresso which is also cool if you’re in the area between 7 – 4 most days.
Do it…

Now I used to work at a Mexican restaurant for 2 years. I believed that restaurant could have been the Chipotle Mexican Grill of Australia but sadly that ship has sailed, the former owner lost passion, it was eventually sold and has not been the same since. Now every man and his dog is trying their hand at selling Burritos.
Chipotle Mexican Grill in the US is amazing, not sure if you’ve been there or studied what they do. They cook everything fresh on site, no pre cooked stuff and everything has awesome flavour. I also visited a tonne of Unilocal’s top places in San Francisco and in my opinion none of them topped Chipotle in flavour, healthyness, size and corresponding price.
My standard burrito order at Chipotle was Half Brown Half White with lime and cilantro, Sauteed capsicum and onion, beef barbacoa (slow cooked awesomeness), sour cream, half fresh half hot salsa, cheese and lettuce. It was amazing and went for under $ 8. Understandably being organic and the fact Arriba are in Australia makes that price impossible to compete with. But it was a bargain healthy and decent feed.
Anyway my friend told me the other day about Arriba’s and I thought: awesome! Maybe this is the place that my former workplace could have been. I was keen to go check it out and sure enough I did.
My old workplace did the slow cooked steak, tortillas were nice and soft, capsicums & onions and awesome beans. Chipotle does all these and cooks everything on site without microwaves and it makes for a more enjoyable burrito.
I think Arriba have the potential to be the Chipotle of Australia (organic version) and I hope that they tap into that potential. The salsas looked great, tasted good and the beef I had the first time tasted alright but was a tad dry and was lacking in flavour, there was no slow cooked beef option (like Chipotle’s Beef Barbacoa) or any sauteed vegies like Capsicum and Onion. The beans are quite watery and lacking in salt, and the hot sauces leave things to be desired.
I expressed my detailed feedback to Arriba’s facebook page and recieved a quick response from Arriba. I was invited down for a free burrito, beer and a chat. They were eager to learn about how they could do better and to see what ideas I had for them. Thankfully the 2^nd Burrito I had was much better and contained the tastier pork option (I do prefer beef normally, but at Arriba the pork has more flavour) and the salsa was actually a decent spice level the second time around. So I have to say Arriba, you have the best bang for buck burrito I have eaten.
I must say though,
* get those standards consistent,
* add some flavour to the beans
* Introduce a slow cooked beef (with simple barbacoa marinade)
* bring in some sauteed capsicum and onion
and btw the whole menu card thing really takes away from the whole customer experience… I like talking to the staff as they make my burrito, and as a former burrito roller, I always enjoyed my interactions with people and am glad I was not just handed a menu card. But for how your restaurant is set up it is hard to have a nice flow to enable that customer experience where you follow your tortilla as the toppings get loaded on.
Good luck

I’d heard about Arriba from a friend, and I’m more than happy to tell others about how good it is. More variety, muchos grande flavours and not just different meats. There’s different bases, and a choice of either wheat or corn tortilla.
Despite the additional choices, it doesn’t take any longer to make your delicious burrito. This is probaby because they’ve steered away from the «Subway» style production-​line ordering method where you move along picking ingredients as you go (I always fail at this, never being able to decide on anything when put on the spot). Instead they have little order forms, and you just mark the boxes for what you want and they make it happen.
Unfortunately, I’ve been put off going to this particular Arriba. Too many times I’ve walked in looking for a quick meal, only to have to wait over 30 minutes for something that takes 2 minutes to make. If it’s not going to be quick, there really is no point.
Maybe I’ve just been consistently unlucky, but I’ll probably be going somewhere else until someone can tell me it’s gotten a little more reliable.

These burritos are amazing. Fresh, organic and delicious and with the most variety of any burrito bar that I have been to. The rad décor has a funky retro feel featuring a nintendo and old skool tv set. The food is amazing but the location is a little random. Street parking is also limited to 30minutes nearby which is a pity if you want to hang out for too long. I guess its more of a swing in eat and leave… hey as long as i get to eat those tasty burritos, i’m not complaining!