Headliners might rock the stage at Coachella, but at Outside Lands, food takes center stage — at least when Chappell Roan isn’t fucking killing it.
Here at The Bold Italic we’ve been trying to be a little less effusive, but I was just gushing to my editor about how great the OSL food was. It’s true you could have skipped the festival and streamed it online, but then you would have missed some genuinely amazing bites.
Bites of the Bay
If you’re like me and want to try everything but not poop your brains out, this year’s Bites of the Bay had the best opportunity. This pilot program cost $20 and allowed attendees to sample a pre-determined bite-sized dish from the 70 participating restaurants. I’m particularly jazzed about this because I’m usually full after a normal-sized plate, but I didn’t come all the way to OSL to eat one dish. I came here to conquer, one bite at a time.
Okay, but uhhh: The $20 fee does not pay for the food. You still have to buy the dishes, which range from $5 for a mini s’mores bar at Sharona’s Chocolate Shop to a $20 order of lobster tots — all the perfect size for sampling while wearing a crop top. These were my picks:
Pork Laab slider — 10 out of 10
Joe’s Modern Thai
3725 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA
This one had a little bit of spice, a lot of flavor. It was juicy but not greasy. LOL I can’t remember what was in it: Pickled red onions, cucumber, pork, Thai basil, and a brioche bun. Listen I may have been a little inebriated but it was amazing.
Bacon grilled cheese — 2 out of 10
This was part of the “Baconlands” kiosk; We think it may have just been for Outside Lands.
Yeah so this just had bacon and cheese in it, and frankly “underwhelmed” is overselling it. It was stale; This isn’t something I’d sacrifice my midriff to eat, but my friend really liked it. She said the kiosk made her a fresh one that was both crispy and greasy, the way this sort of comfort food is supposed to be.
Mandu Dumplings (pictured top) — 11 out of 10
um.ma
1220 9th Ave, San Francisco, CA
These dumpings — pictured at the top of the above image — changed my life: The sauce was so good, it was the only thing that I ate twice, and didn’t want to eat anything twice. It was just really fucking good.
The meat was flavorful to the point where I still really liked them in spite of the fact that they were fried, which I loathe as a general cooking technique. They did have a kick — not spicy for my Mexican taste buds but for the average person, which I appreciate.
Was Bites of the Bay worth it?
While the program is the news we’ve been waiting for, the communication was off to a rough start. None of the vendors knew what it was, so every time I handed them the booklet I was met with a perplexed look. A few of the vendors had to phone a friend. We worked it out in the end, but as the lines grew throughout the day we wanted to find out — is the food at Outside Lands worth the wait?
What else was good
I went straight to the Lands End food stalls where they were dishin’ out the hits, starting with the OSL-sanctioned standouts: the Smashburger Slider from Smish Smash, a Mini Lobster Roll from Woodhouse Fish Co., Bulgogi Mandu Dumplings from um.ma, ½ Birria Grilled Cheese from El Garage, and a sweet treat from Out the Dough.
We started off strong with the Cheeseboiga slider meal at Smish Smash. New to the concept, I found the smash burger to be extremely practical for the occasion because no one wants beef juice all over your festival makeup.
Sadly, El Garage and Out the Dough delivered mid. The Birria quesadilla had very little spice and the vanilla cookie dough ice cream sweet treat was, uh, vanilla. But not like “I’m a cool mom” sort of vanilla — it was just blah. Listen Out the Dough we’re not coming for you: Just make it a sundae next time. Add some marachinos, chocolate syrup, spice it up okay? The base cream was decent.
What others told us
San Francisco native Marcus Ghiasi — who dined with 15 Outside Lands restaurants — told us that the Hard Knox Cafe fried chicken sandwich, Konjoe Burgers truffle burger, and Marley’s Treats Ube milkshake were “definitely worth the wait.”
He told us he wouldn’t wait in line again for the Swedish hot dog in the VIP at Kantine area, and that the tacos from Merkado were expensive and tiny portions, noting that he feels like prices have increased substantially from last year.
Forbes food journalist Chelsea Davis— pictured above enjoying the ice cream I hated— also made it a point to eat as much variation as she could during the 3-day feast.
Final verdict
Some food really ages badly, but something about the OSL experience got better once it settled for a day. I felt critical of several dishes at the time I ate them, but today I miss pretty much everything I consumed at Outside Lands, except maybe that bacon sandwich — sorry.
Courtney Muro is a San Francisco-based content strategist, producer, designer, and creator.
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