While food trucks have been around since the days of the chuckwagon, their current renaissance arguably started in California and continues strong throughout the state. While we await the “threat” of taco trucks on every corner, here’s a few trucks of all stripes to check out.
Editor’s note: These spots are all taken directly from travelstoke®, a new app from Matador that connects you with fellow travelers and locals, and helps you build trip itineraries with spots that integrate seamlessly into Google Maps and Uber. Download the app to add any of the spots below directly to your future trips.
The Korean fusion truck, Kogi, was instrumental in starting the whole modern food truck thing and is still worth seeking out for its fusion tacos when in L.A. The new project from Roy Choi, founder of Kohi, is Locol. Its mission is to bring healthful food to underserved communities, and they’ve opened brick and mortar places in both NorCal and SoCal. Only SoCal so far is blessed with the truck!
Urban Oven
Urban Oven offers Napoli-style thin crusts from a wood-fired oven on wheels and travels widely around Southern California. Other pizza trucks to seek out are Pizza & Co. and Fox Pizza Bus.
San Diego Food Truck
CoolHaus
For desert, seek out CoolHaus for ice cream sandwiches. Not only can you eat the sandwich, you can eat the wrapper!
Del Popolo
Del Popolo is a wood-fired pizza in a shipping container on a flat bed truck, which can often be found at San Francisco’s Mint Plaza at lunch or Off the Grid on sundays at Marina Green. More pizza at Casey’s, or head to sorta-truck All Good Pizza, with a physical location in Bayview.
Hella Vegan Eats
Obviously NorCal based, Hella Vegan Eats delivers on its name in Oakland and SF. Carnivores as well as vegans and everyone in between can be found standing in line for their brunches.
Wanna-E
Wanna-E is a San Francisco-based Burmese food truck – make sure to try the tea leaf salad!
El Tonayense
For tacos, head to El Tonayense which is consistently delicious, and solid. As with taquerias in the Bay Area, there’s endless debate about which taco truck is the best but you definitely can’t go wrong at this Mission District staple. Other top local taco trucks are Tacos El Gordo or El Gallo Giro.
The Chairman
The Chairman started as a truck in SF, and now has physical locations in both SF and LA as well as a SoCal food truck. Amazing Taiwanese gua bao, also known as buns.
Bowl’d Acai
Healthy eating and dining at a food truck can be synonymous at Bowl’d Acai, serving bowls as well as smoothies and juices. This truck is usually found during the week at San Francisco’s Mint Plaza and Spark Social, with guest appearances elsewhere.
Johnny Doughnuts
When you’re looking to treat yourself, head to Johnny Doughnuts, recently named among the top five donuts in the country. They pride themselves on creating deliciously different doughnuts made from scratch with real, organic ingredients. They now have a physical location in San Rafael, as well as three trucks. Truly delicious doughnuts!
