Is Outside Lands a music festival with food or a food festival with music?
If that sounds ludicrous, consider this: While there are 90 artists and bands at the three-day festival this year, there are 100 restaurants representing 53 different cuisines under the banner "Taste of the Bay Area."
From the hottest new spots, such as Parachute Bakery, to the gone-but-not-forgotten Shuggie's and Mozzeria, and classics such as Perry's and Original Joe's, it will literally be impossible not to find something you want to eat: trendy croissant cubes, parmesan espresso martinis, quesabirria tacos, Basque cheesecake, plus three different types of boba tea, three kinds of chicken Caesar wraps, and six pizzerias offering slices.
If you like fries, you're really in luck. There will be a staggering 31 different versions, including bougie garlic fries with caviar and crème fraîche, pulled pork adobo fries, paneer tikka masala-loaded fries, tzatziki fries, and chimichurri fries.
Debuting this year will be the Snack Series, in which more than 20 local restaurants are offering secret-menu items, snack-sized versions of select signature dishes priced at $16 or less. While all the menu items have yet to be announced, we know that participants include Abacá, Bodega SF, Bun Mee Vietnamese Sandwich Eatery, Charles Chocolates, Dolores Park Cafe, El Garage, Gumbo Social, Izzy's Cheesesteaks, Merkado, Om Sabor, Respectable Bird, Ruru Kitchen, Shawarmaji, Tiya, Total Meltdown, and Wooly Pig.
Over 90 percent of this year’s 100 restaurants are returnees, but there will be plenty of new dishes and a handful of new vendors, too. Here are just a few of the things we think are particularly worth checking out this August 7th through 9th at Golden Gate Park.
Limited-Edition Menu Items
The honey walnut pork and shrimp sandwich by Piglet & Co.
(Courtesy of Piglet & Co.)
You'll have to be an early bird to get one of the limited-edition items offered this year, since they’ll only make 10 orders of each per day. Keep an eye out for:
Piglet & Co., which brings its honey walnut pork and shrimp sandwich—a panko-breaded pork and shrimp mousse with candied walnut relish, namasu cabbage slaw, and burnt honey mayo on a brioche bun. // Saluhall's Smish Smash, which entices with an uni burger that pairs an American Wagyu patty with Santa Barbara uni, shiso leaf, and yuzu kosho ponzu aioli. // For those not afraid of the stinkiest of fruit, Little Sweet is offering up a durian sticky rice waffle with durian ice cream, sticky rice balls, toasted mung bean, coconut milk, and strawberry cotton candy.
Can't-Miss Collaborations
Hot pastrami dip sandwich with kimchi at the Wise Sons & Outta Sight Pizza collab
(Evan Bloom)
Don’t want to choose between two favorite restaurants? With several collaborations on tap, you won’t have to. Our top picks include:
Wise Sons & Outta Sight Pizza, which will come together to offer hot pastrami dip sandwiches with kimchi, pizza bagels with burrata, cacio e pepe french fries, and pickle lemonade. // Reem’s & Lion Dance Cafe, which will be creating lamb quesabirria flatbread wraps, fried eggplant and potato flatbread wraps with sambal tomat, Arab-style garlic fries with harissa yogurt, chocolate chip halawa cookies, and mint and orange blossom lemonade. Since Lion Dance Cafe is now closed, this is a rare opportunity to sample their creativity. // Jaji & Tallboy are two Oakland businesses that will come together to offer yogurt-marinated chicken lavash wraps, herb-crusted lamb tenderloin lavash wraps, pomegranate garlic mushroom lavash wraps, dirty martini olive potato chips, and feta-stuffed fried olives.
General Admission Top Picks
Tamales by Alicia's Tamales Los Mayas
(Courtesy of Alicia's Restaurant)
Even if you don’t have a VIP ticket, you can eat like you do. These are the restaurants and dishes we’ll be making a beeline for during the festival:
Abacá's carioca mochi donuts are a must! Of course, you could also partake of their sisig fried rice with poached egg, crispy pork lumpia, or lechon manok chicken sandwiches. // We love everything from Alicia’s Tamales Los Mayas. This year she brings guajillo chile pork tamales, nopalito and bell pepper tamales, and pumpkin mole tamales. // Ferry Building stunner Arquet goes all in on seafood with lobster rolls with brown butter and chives, BBQ West Coast oysters with garlic butter, and New England-style clam chowder. // Another long-time favorite, Azalina’s brings mee goreng mamak Malaysian stir-fried noodles with meatballs, crispy shrimp spring rolls, and golden veggie spring rolls. // Bini’s Kitchen, the undisputed queen of Nepalese cuisine, offers up Nepalese lamb momo dumplings, gurkha chicken rice plates, vegan Nepalese chili, and mango lassis. // French fave Caché brings a variety of crepes, including those filled with ham and cheese, mushroom and onion confit, butter and sugar, and Nutella & strawberry compote. // Charles Chocolates tempts with Dubai chocolate bars and ice cream sundaes, churro tots, gourmet chocolate-covered s'mores, and European-style hot chocolate to keep the chill at bay. // Chi Chi’s Kiosko, a La Cocina incubator participant, brings grilled chicken wings with tamarind BBQ sauce, and garlic tostones with sofrito aioli. // Also affiliated with La Cocina, new vendor Chiricana offers up
Panamanian herb-marinated chicken wings, and purple and green cabbage coleslaw with cilantro-lime crema. // Ferry building fave Humphry Slocombe serves peanut butter fudge ripple scoops, secret breakfast sundaes, bourbon caramel Coke floats, and cold brew floats. // New vendor Jollof Kitchen offers Nigerian grilled chicken with jollof rice, spinach and black-eyed peas with jollof rice, fried sweet plantains, and fufu and egusi soup. // From Merkado, expect not only adobo chicken tacos with habanero aioli, slow-braised beef birria tacos, loaded Impossible nachos, and carnitas rice bowls, but two Snack Series items: poke nachos and a Sonora blizzy. // Outside Lands newcomer Meski draws on both Latin American and Ethiopian culinary traditions with Dominican braised chicken sambusas, beef tenderloin tibs pintxos, Ethiopian sampler platters with injera, duck fat yucca fries, and East African donuts. // Forget standing in line at the Ferry Building. Stand in line at Golden Gate Park instead for Parachute Bakery's vanilla and passionfruit croissant cubes, morning buns with toffee glaze, everything kouign amann, gochujang pimento twists, and yuzu and black sugar pastries. // Get fancy with The Caviar Co.'s caviar corn dogs with Sun Gold tomato aioli, or loaded caviar tater tots. // Oakland Native American restaurant Wahpepah’s Kitchen offers bison burgers with blueberry aioli, black bean veggie burgers, golden fried potato wedges, and hibiscus lemonade.
VIP Top Picks
Beef tongue skewers by Restaurant Naides
(Courtesy of Restaurant Naides)
If you actually are going VIP, we recommend checking out three new exciting vendors and one OG fav:
Copra will bring both dosas and rice dishes. On offer will be their chicken kari dosas and Mysore masala dosas, as well as butter chicken basmati rice bowls and spring vegetable biryani. // New Restaurant Naides, recent recipient of a Michelin star (something we predicted back in March) brings Filipino BBQ pork and garlic rice bowls, adobo mushroom and garlic rice bowls, beef tongue skewers, lobster lumpia, and tomato-raspberry-guava leaf refreshers. // Pop-up bakery sensation Tano offers classic salt bread, salt bread with ube diplomat cream, sourdough focaccia crazy bread, and sesame toffee chocolate chip cookies. // Last but not least, you can't go wrong with A16, a VIP stalwart. They are offering Neapolitan Bianca pizzas, eggplant and sun-dried tomato panini, braised meatballs with Grana Padano, and arugula and stone fruit salad.
