The Outside Lands music festival, coming to Golden Gate Park’s Polo Fields and Hellman Hollow this weekend, is known for eclectic acts. To those in the know, it’s also a culinary mix with its own all-star lineup. This year’s culinary program Taste of the Bay Area features 100 local food vendors.
As ticket prices for the three-day event have climbed in recent years, it’s still possible to find reasonably priced, and hopefully delicious, options for snacks and meals. You just need to know where to look.
New to the food programming this year is the Snack Series, a way for participating kitchens to offer half portions of some dishes, all for less than $16. This is a good way to try a lot of things, but it’s also a good way to spend most of your day in lines.
If you’re envisioning a more utilitarian approach, here are some whole meals that are worth the wait and the price.
SF fave Saigon Sandwich will be peddling its celebrated banh mi sandwiches. At $14.75 apiece, they’re more than double what they’d run you at Saigon’s Larkin Street location, but this is one of the more affordable and reliably delicious meals you can grab at the festival. Saigon will be selling chicken, pork, and marinated tofu. This is the perfect portable and won’t be ruined if it gets a little crushed as you dance to Charli XCX.
For a similarly mobile meal at $16, there’s always Sandy’s hush puppy corn dog.
While we’re on sandwiches, A16 will be serving up veggie paninos for $16, and bagel chain Wise Sons is teaming up with darling Outta Sight Pizza for a pizza bagel, also $16. Dolores Park Cafe is also offering a breakfast sandwich for, yes, $16.
Kajiken from San Mateo has a $13 serving of takoyaki octopus balls, and Afghan fusion food truck Kaböb Trölley has a $14 falafel mezze that is protein-packed and tried and true.
For noodles, you have two great options from Oakland: Chef Smelly’s garlic noodles, or FOB Kitchen’s stir fry glass noodles, which will run you $15 and $16, respectively.
Tallboy, Oakland’s coolest place to sip a martini, is teaming up with Oakland Afghan restaurant Jaji for $15 loaded dirty martini chips. Great for groups and wallet positive, think of this dish as a briny, salty plate of nachos. Or, for $16, you can sip on Arquet’s New England style clam chowder as if it were a martini.
Your $509 ticket (before tax and fees) may have left you feeling pretty empty, but at least a few of these places will fill you up cheaply.
