Late Night Food in the Bay Area

[honkman]

Drinking cocktails obviously also requires good options for a late night snack or meal. The Bay area has surprisingly few options and so it would be great to collect everybody’s experiences.
Let’s define late night as the kitchen at least be open until 11pm

Orale Taco Truck (San Jose)

Located in a residential area in East San Jose, this taco truck is open until 1am (on Friday and Saturday until 3am) and delivers really tasty tacos which can be ordered with handmade corn tortillas (highly recommended). Both salsas are quite nice with the green one moderately spicy and a smoky flavor and the red one having a significant spicy kick.
A few tables in front are also a plus to not have to eat in the car

Trio of tacos - Mar y Tierra, Campechanos, Birria de Res

Truck

[BoneAppetite]

Blast from the past:

[honkman]

Tacos Santo Toribio (San Francisco - Mission)

Close to the corner of Mission & 22nd is the late night taco truck “Tacos Santo Toribio”. It delivers good but not outstanding tacos but has the advantage of being reliably at this place even after midnight (some of the other close by places like Tacos El Charro have closed or very unpredictable hours in the moment)

Trio of Tacos - asada, lengua, carbeza

Taco truck

[bbulkow (Brian Bulkowski)]

I have rehearsal in Oakland until about 9.30p on Mondays, so i have been haunting places that are open till 11a on Mondays, a smaller set. Generally from say 24 / 980 “south”. My list so far ( places i have actually been in the last year)

Beeryland, the 5150 Burger with pulled pork is pretty great.

Monks kettle, limited menu, very good

Tacos sinaloa. Yum.

Hyphyburger ( haven’t visited late but have visited )

Low bar, great smash burger, sometimes closes early

New gold medal. It’s a classic for a reason.

Kaisen don, San Leandro. Great late night feel, average food.

Hotboys, hayward. Hella oakland. Medium plus was a bit much and i love the heat. Try the etoufee, they have me a free sample one night, the bomb

Fairwood cafe. Really unusual place, i feel the need to go more often. Wasnt actually good.

Metro taqueria. Meh.

Cafe raj, berkeley - above average but i am very spoiled in the south bay.

Tacos autolense ( hotsy totsy ). Such the vibe on a laid back Monday. Make mine three tacos and a pbr. Love it.

Place highest on my list to try is aamas kitchen, hayward. And the gold room.

A few non Monday spots

Cairo station (oak). No idea why they have such a high rating, average.

Tin & pig (oak, korean ), felt a little above average but. I only had one dish. Will return.

Lanesplitter oak, sad. How the mighty have fallen

Mua, honetable mention. Only 11p on fri and sat, but they will seat you at 9.50pm all the other nights and not complain. I still love the food after all these years

Nations burgers - i don’t get the hype.

Late night on the peninsula.

Tacos los gallos, rwc
Many el gruellense
Late night at zola ( always meatballs )
Zareens, constant favorite
Orens hummus
Curry house pizza. Its kinda meh its kinda addictive

[bbulkow (Brian Bulkowski)]

I forgot Roses on Adeline, as they are my after theater stop. Quite fond of them. Excellent end of summer salad last night, and pasta with burrata with friend chicken on top.

[honkman]

San Jose has a number of interesting late night taco trucks on some of these endless industrial/mini mall streets like Story Rd or Monterey Rd.

Tacos Panchitos Taco Truck https://panchitotacosfoodtruckca.com/ is on Monterey Rd and has the advantage, especially on a Sunday night, to be open until 2am. Excellent tacos served “naked” but plenty of options to dress it at their extensive salsa and condiments bar

Taco Trio - Lengua al Vapor, Cabeza al Vapor, Suadero

Taco Truck

[honkman]

Redwood City has a high level of latino population and so it is no surprise that there are a significant number of Mexican restaurants, including some which are open late for a midnight snack. One of them is El Grullense on ECR with good tacos and an otherwise quite extensive menu

Trio of tacos - lengua, carbeza, carnitas

Inside

Outside

[honkman]

After a concert in Mountain View there was a need to find a midnight dinner somewhere which is not that easy (and really not looking into fast-food crap) but surprisingly Saratoga has one late night Indian restaurant - Mandala https://mandalaic.com/ which turned out to be quite good (even though most likely the chef, server and me were the only people still awake in Saratoga at that time)
Flavors of the dishes were quite good and the naan was one of the better ones on the peninsula. Overall perhaps not a destination restaurant but a very solid choice for good Indian food (late night or not)

Gobi Manchurian - crisped cauliflower, onion, tomato, bell pepper tossed in soy, garlic and cumin

Lamb Rogan Josh - stewed Colorado lamb chunks, blend of spices, brown onion & tomatoes

Pesto Cilantro Naan

Basmati Rice

[bbulkow (Brian Bulkowski)]

I appreciate you said “one of” in a non committal way. Most of the El Grullenses are open late, i also like the over close to downtown REC (middlefield at the north end). However i honestly dither about the meat quality, i itch for better. This ends up pushing me away from tacos and toward something like a super burrito molida. Their molida sauce is pretty good. I think i usually get their al pastor which is fine and gets crispy so it stands up to the filling.

I thin Gemelos #2 is open late, and Los Gallos is 11pm (much closer to the freeway). Gemelos #2 has a weird vibe: i was there the first week and haven’t been back. Los Gallos is my general goto, gravitating to to the birria. LG has the great benefit of endless chips and a solid salsa bar, an amenity no longer standard, post pandemic.

While the EG you went to is PRETTY og, the actual og is a very limited menu window still operating on Bay St it of a gas station. It’s pretty good but not a standout.

[bbulkow (Brian Bulkowski)]

Visited Dan Sung Sa, telegraph ave Oakland last night.

Tldr, preferred tin and pig a few blocks away, but they are similar. Similar menus similar floor plan different vibe.

Dan Sung Sa has the urban vibe going on. It’s hard to explain without pictures, like wheatpaste collages with childish street scrawls and lots of google eyes. I’m sure it’s rocking on a Friday night. On a Monday with only a few late nighters like me in, it still has a good vibe.

I got a stone bowl rice spicy pork. The pork was good, but i did find myself reaching for the spicy sauce. Rice took a while to crust and wasn’t as deep and crunchy as is should be. Banchan was average. 4 types, large plates, refills offered, but the taiwan mac salad was an odd choice, and the tastes were a bit muted. Price frlt high for what i got, Bowl was 24 on the menu so more like 30 out the door, but that is the modern way .

Of my post rehearsal monday wanderings, beerylands burgers still doing well.

[bbulkow (Brian Bulkowski)]

Pleasantly, not sure whether to post this in Street Tacos or Late Night Eats, but pleasantly there’s a new taqueria at the corner of Willow Rd and 101 in Menlo Park. It’s “street tacos” in the sense there’s an outdoor grill in the parking lot, and an overhang with a few small tables for munching. They have a trompo and appear to be open till around 11pm every night. They go by the name “mi tienda” which is a chain of a few small groceries with taquerias around here.

[honkman]

Is it on the corner where Cibele’s ice cream shop is or on the other side of the 101 towards El Rancho Markets ?

[bbulkow (Brian Bulkowski)]

Toward El Rancho (west-ish). Where Baneth’s Pharmacy was back in the day, more recently some “farmer’s market”.

I call the other side where Back a yard is

[bbulkow (Brian Bulkowski)]

It appears the festive outside scene is 5pm to 11pm. I had some al pastor from the inside grill today and it was promising.

[bbulkow (Brian Bulkowski)]

Highly recommend this spot, and it seems popular! There isn’t a restaurant listing yet in google maps - I just submitted - and even Mi Tienda supermarket doesn’t show up in a general request.

Since I drive by 4 to 5 times a day on various errands, I can tell you there’s people sitting and eating most of the time, and often a few people in line at the grill. Great advertising, very convenient location.

It’s very old school in that it’s a list of meats and a list of things they can do with them, more like what you’d get in a taco truck. They run the taqueria inside until 5pm then roll out the portable grill and salsa bar. They have AYCE salsas and they’re quite good, but no chips. They have (interesting innovation) AYCD aquas.

I got a quesadilla, and it was MONSTEROUS. I also saw he cooked it by spreading the cheese and melting it directly on the grill until it had a slight brown on the face-down side, warming up the meat, then assembling by putting a big tortilla, flipping the (very large amount) of cheese on it, then moving the now-warmed meat, folding and grilling to a slight sear on the tortilla (as usually). The step of doing the cheese directly on the grill was new to me. They don’t have a frier for cali style, I’m not sure the grill guy had beans for that style of taco, if you want your burrito wet - well, there’s the salsa bar! No melting the cheese on the top after the fact. Stripped down! They move the grill, aguas, salsas in and out every day.

I wouldn’t put the food above half a dozen other places in the fairly immediate area, but at least on par. It’s the price and atmosphere / convenience that sets the place apart.

The al pastor, at the hours of 10:45 pm, was not freshly sliced, although they have a little mini-trompo. But the seasoning was good, and I actually kind of like the crisp you get on “refried” al pastor, so I don’t consider this a sin. In any case, I was REALLY PLANNING HARD on only eating 1 part. Then maybe two (half). Then I looked down — it was gone. I regretted it a bit the next day.

Then you go inside to pay. THey’ve paired down the operation so the security guard is also the cashier, and there’s no stickers or stamps for items. Which made this very large amount of food $11 out-the-door (no obvious place for tips, I would have put in a couple). THey may “pass the savings on to you” by not including tax on cash? I’m not exactly cool with that but I do appreciate a discount.

Given the line, I think the location right on the corner of willow road, the bright lights advertising, the very high price performance, is a hit so far.

[honkman]

So they are in the previous Marvin’s Farmer’s Market location ?

[bbulkow (Brian Bulkowski)]

Yes, aka, the old Baneth’s pharmacy location.

Mi Tienda is a local chain afaiu. They’ve repainted with colorful outsides, and spent the last week adding a lot more shelves and goods, much more the stock you’d expect from a local mexican market. There’s also some strange asian characters on the sign that I haven’t parsed yet.

I can’t think of a place quite as freeway accessible with this price/quality/time combo, and I’ve been looking. It’s highly above Metro along 880 in the east bay, for example. I think the quality might be above Los Gallos in RWC and Los Gallos is a few more minutes from the freeway - but Los Gallos has a full bar and beer. Anyway it’s a good add.

[honkman]

Late night taco snack in San Bruno at El Tacotento https://www.instagram.com/eltacotento/ (There seemed to be a few other interesting late night trucks on that stretch of El Camino Real - I think I saw a Brazilian burger truck and a doner one).
Overall good tacos with tasty meat options

Trio of tacos - suadero, lengua, carnitas

Taco stand

[honkman]

Needed some late night dinner around midnight in Berkeley after a concert. There are a few pocha places close by in Oakland. Picked To the Moon https://tothemoon0301.com/ for a quick dinner. Overall good food though the bibimbob could have been a bit hotter (they have a lot of other (perhaps even more) interesting dishes but most of them are quite large sized and these pocha places are often better with a larger group)

Banchan

Korean chicken wings - soy and garlic

Bibimbob with pork