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Dining

The Best Meal in Southern California Might Come Through a Window

No reservation required. No dress code. Just some of the most extraordinary food in the region, served from the side of a truck by people who mean it.

Gary Domasin

• 2 min read
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The Best Meal in Southern California Might Come Through a Window
The best meal in Southern California might cost eight dollars and come through a window. Don't argue with it.

Southern California invented the modern food truck. Not in the way that cities sometimes claim inventions — loosely, defensively, with footnotes — but genuinely. Los Angeles is the food truck capital of the world, with over 4,000 mobile food vendors roaming the city, drawing foodies from around the globe for only-in-LA culinary experiences that get better year over year. What started as loncheras serving the working lunch crowd has evolved into one of the most creative, diverse, and frankly delicious dining scenes anywhere in the country.

Here are the trucks worth tracking down.

Kogi BBQ

This is where the modern food truck story begins. Chef Roy Choi started Kogi in 2008, combining Korean and Mexican influences to create short rib tacos that became a sensation — using social media to post the truck's location in real time and drawing lines that stretched around blocks. Choi was named best new chef by Food & Wine in 2010 and is now recognized as one of the founders of the modern food truck movement. The short rib taco that made him famous is still the order. It has earned that status.

Mariscos Jalisco

Founder Raul Ortega launched Mariscos Jalisco in 2002 and built it into a Los Angeles institution — earning a spot in Michelin's guide, winning the Los Angeles Times' Gold Award, and expanding to multiple trucks and brick-and-mortar locations. The hard-shell shrimp taco that made it famous is still on the menu and still the reason to seek it out. There is usually a line. The line is always worth it.

Leo's Tacos Truck

On the corner of Venice and La Brea, Leo's has built a following so loyal it operates more like a landmark than a lunch spot. The al pastor — carved from a rotating trompo right on the truck — is among the finest in Los Angeles. Cash only. Lines always. Worth every minute of both.

Mariscos El Pez — Palm Springs

The desert has its own food truck culture, and Mariscos El Pez is at the center of it in the Coachella Valley — serving Baja-style seafood tacos, shrimp cocktails, and ceviches that taste like they were assembled fifty feet from the Pacific. Find them on Instagram for current location and hours. Come hungry.

Angelenos Wood Fired Pizza

A wood-fired pizza truck operating across Los Angeles, drawing consistent praise for its flavors and earning a loyal following that shows up wherever it parks. The Angeleno specialty pizza is the order. It is exactly what pizza from a wood-fired truck in Southern California should be — personal, specific, better than it has any right to be given the circumstances.

Vivace Pizza

Made with a 200-year-old sourdough starter in a 5,500-pound Naples-made pizza oven transported on wheels across Southern California. The crust alone is a philosophical statement about what pizza is supposed to be. Follow their social media for location updates and go on an empty stomach.

The food truck isn't a compromise in Southern California. It's often the point. Some of the most honest, most specific, most genuinely delicious cooking in the region happens through a window on wheels — made by people who chose this format not because it was easier, but because it was theirs.

Follow them. Find them. Eat standing up. It's the right way.

How to Find Them:

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