SouthBites
Where to eat during SXSW: Favorite food trucks and must-try bites
At SXSW, the food is almost as important as all the movies, music and panels you'll encounter. To help you stay fueled up during the fest, we've mapped out the areas to hit up — and your best bets for easy bites and awesome food truck fare.
Austin Convention Center
This central hub for SXSW activity has more than just vending machines and salad bars. Peached Tortilla, Burro Cheese Kitchen, Chi'lantro, Downtown Burgers and Hat Creek Burger Co. have all set up shop outside of the building. Across Cesar Chavez Street from the Convention Center you can choose from Short Bus Subs, Kosher Carne and Double Trouble.
SouthBites
SouthBites is the sweet little pop-up trailer park curated by the festival but completely open to the public. Located in the Rainey Street district at 604 Driskill St. you'll find an array of the city's greatest food trucks — as well as a few out-of-towners. Stand-out vendors include East Side King, Chi'lantro, Kebabalicious, Micklethwait Craft Meats, Ms P's Electric Cock and Burro Cheese Kitchen. There are also food trucks serving up Brazilian, Taiwanese and Mexican fare as well as coffee, juice and ice cream treats.
Rainey Street
Take a little walk down Rainey Street and you'll find everything from pizza to gyros to tacos. Firefly Pizza Pies, The Beef Cake Shop, Big Fat Greek Gyros and La Fantabulous are located at the park near the end of the street. Peppered throughout the bars and venues there are some more gems, including Tapas Bravas, Art of Tacos, Via 313 at Craft Pride, and Mandala Dhaba. We suggest finishing off your meal with a treat from Little Lucy's Mini Donuts.
Sixth Street
Sixth Street has no shortage of food options. The intersection of Sixth Street and Red River Street offers grub from Grindhouse, Turf 'N Surf, Shawarma Point or the classic Roppolo's Pizza. Chi'lantro, Austin's Pizza and Wahoo's Tacos have outposts on Sabine Street, which is a great place to check out if the lines at the convention center are getting too long.
Red River District
Heros Gyros, Miguel's Cuban Cafe, Llama's Peruvian Creole and Blue Basil are stationed at Seventh Street and Trinity Street, but any vegans our there should definitely hit up Arlo's food truck by Cheer up Charlies.
East side
The east side tends to be little less crowded until SXW Music is in full swing. Evil Weiner, Fried and True, Way South Philly are posted up at the Eastside Filling Station and a Kin and Comfort pop-up is taking place at the Kyoten food truck. On East Sixth Street there are two great pizza options in the form of Via 313 outside of Violet Crown Social Club and the newly opened Spartan Pizza brick-and-mortar across from Shangri La. If you're feeling Texan, get your meat fix at La Barbecue or Kerlin BBQ on East Cesar Chavez Street.