Food trucks have come a long way from burger vans at festivals and hot-dog carts on corners. These food vendors were so popular, they started on wheels and worked their way up to bricks and mortar. From a global all-day breakfast spot to a Korean-Mexican fusion restaurant group, here are the incredible restaurants that started on the street.

You might know Korilla from its string of New York restaurants, but it actually started life as the first Korean BBQ taco truck in the city in 2010. It was launched in the immediate aftermath of the recession, yet that didn't discourage economics graduate Edward Song from pursuing his dream. He spent four months in cooking school before heading onto the streets of Manhattan to serve tacos, burritos and rice bowls out of the legendary tiger-print Korilla van.

Fast forward nearly ten years and Korilla has three permanent outposts, plus the taco truck still in operation. Its enduring popularity is down to its salads, burritos and rice bowls, and lunch-goers can’t get enough of the bacon kimchi fried rice. Top it with bulgogi (thinly sliced rib-eye), corn and blue potato salad.

When trained dietician Tamara Brown started the Sassy Spoon food truck in 2012, a restaurant was not in her plans. Her main intention was to reach a wide audience with health advice and balanced meals. With this in mind, she drove a bright pink truck around Minneapolis catering for the lunchtime crowd with gluten-free tacos.

For Tamara, the best part about moving to bricks and mortar is that she can now serve slow-cooker meals that simply aren’t viable in a food truck. Slow-roasted pulled pork topped with pickled onions and a side of ginger-garlic slaw is the restaurant’s signature dish. It’s not all juice and water either – head to the bar for a gluten-free beer or wine on tap.

One of the most popular, provocative and instagrammable all-day breakfast spots (both sides of the pond), Eggslut started life as a food truck in Los Angeles in 2011. Classically trained chef Alvin Cailan turned his back on a career in fine-dining restaurants, scraping together $5,000 (£4,102) to launch the street-food business with his cousin. At the start all he had was a good idea: to create a business that revolves entirely around eggs.

Eggslut’s number-one dish is the Fairfax: soft scrambled eggs, chives, cheddar, caramelised onions and sriracha mayo in a warm brioche bun. Another must-try is the Slut, a coddled egg on top of potato purée, poached in a glass jar, topped with salt and chives, and served with slices of baguette. The brand now has four California sites, as well as restaurants in Las Vegas, Kuwait and London – there are always queues, but that's all part of the experience.

Not your average Indian joint, Curry Up Now started life as a San Francisco food truck in 2009. Inspired by a magazine article featuring Roy Choi from Kogi, husband and wife Akash and Rana Kapoor wrote up a business plan to serve Indian food with a twist – and two weeks later they were on the road. 

So successful is Curry Up Now’s unique take on Indian cuisine, it has multiple permanent California locations, a bar and a catering business, as well as food trucks. There are also more openings on the way, with opportunities to franchise, so watch this space. The menu contains such delights as spiced ghee butter and tikka masala burritos; Naughty Naan, a flatbread covered in cheese, caramelised onions, jalapeños and chicken or paneer; and deconstructed samosas.

Kogi, often dubbed the pioneer of the gourmet food-truck movement, was started in 2008 after a late-night glass of champagne. Mark Manguera was eating a taco with his fizz, when he had the lightbulb idea that Korean barbecue and tacos were a match made in heaven. Some weeks later Kogi BBQ Taco Truck hit the streets serving dishes such as Korean short-rib tacos and Korean hot dogs with kimchi. Roy Choi was in the kitchen, Mark Manguera out front, and Caroline Manguera, Mark’s wife, out back totting up numbers.

The team took to Twitter, constantly updating their location and interacting with customers, and things started to heat up. Soon they were drawing in crowds of 300 to 800 people each time they parked up, which could be several times a night. Now Kogi has a permanent taqueria, a bar, a restaurant called Chego, a catering arm and four trucks in operation.

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It's hard to resist melted cheese, so it's no surprise that Ms. Cheezious in Miami’s MiMo has so many die-hard fans. The concept was dreamt up on holiday in Vegas in 2010, "under the fog of the reflecting sun and poolside persuasion”. Husband and wife Brian and Fatima Mullens, plus their business partner Christian Dickens, decided to start serving gourmet grilled-cheese sandwiches from a truck.

The gourmet cheese concept expanded into three trucks and one permanent shop – and they're not serving any old cheddar and pickle. Bacon, blue cheese and green onion on sourdough, goats’ cheese and prosciutto on rye and fried chicken and waffle were all favourites from the off. At its permanent location, Ms. Cheezious also serves braised short rib, jack cheese and pickled onions on sourdough, as well as chilli, American cheese, jalapeños, onions and Fritos on sourdough.

Brothers Sameh and Saed Wadi started World Street Kitchen in 2012, with the aim of bringing global cuisine to Minneapolis. They drove around the city in a huge red vehicle serving dishes from Asia, the Caribbean and beyond. Immediate favourites were the Yum Yum Rice Bowls, topped with grilled meat or tofu, shiitake, Chinese broccoli, egg and peanuts, and the Bangkok Burrito, a flour tortilla stuffed with fried rice, secret sauce, coriander, basil and red curry chicken.

That same year World Street Kitchen opened its first brick-and-mortar location in Minneapolis, which is still going strong. When it comes to the menu, they’ve stuck to what the locals love, bar a few extras such as a shrimp po boy and a Moroccan fried-chicken sandwich. The truck now only operates downtown between May and October.

A sure bet for meat lovers, Bacon Bacon began as a food truck in 2011, spearheaded by Jim Angelus, who had 15 years of prior restaurant experience. Original dishes include the mouthwatering Bacon Bouquet – a handful of bacon strips wrapped in brown paper – and pancakes with bacon batter and maple bacon syrup.

One year later Bacon Bacon opened its first brick-and-mortar outpost in Cole Valley, but it temporarily closed in 2013 as the smell was upsetting neighbours. Back up and running with a new ventilation system, it continues to peddle old favourites (the Bacon Bouquet) but also new wonders such as the bacon fried chicken sandwich: panko and bacon-crusted chicken, bacon, bacon mayo and coleslaw on a poppy-seed bun. The truck continues to operate in the Bay Area.

The first outpost of this futuristic quick-service restaurant was a vegetarian food truck at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2008. It was founded by environmentalist and entrepreneur Ayr Muir, whose goal is to get people to eat their way to a better world future. He began serving items like the chickpea-fritter sandwich and, to ensure his customers were happy, he began interviewing people who visited the truck.

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In 2010 Clover opened its first brick-and-mortar location and in 2017 it took all its trucks off the road to focus on its flourishing string of restaurants. Quite different from the street-vendor experience, its 12 permanent Clovers run a slick operation, with Ayr Muir believing the brand could one day grow as big as McDonald's. Restaurants are light and minimalist, with flat-screen monitors displaying up-to-the-second availability of items, such as the Impossible Foods Meatball Platter and the Zucchini Sandwich.

A fusion of Southern comfort food and Asian cuisine, The Peached Tortilla is a permanent Austin restaurant. However, it all started in 2010 with a food truck under the same name, pioneered by owner Eric Silverstein. The beautifully designed vehicle drove between food festivals and craft events serving bahn mi sliders and pad-thai chicken tacos.

After proving popular, The Peached Tortilla opened its catering arm, and eventually its restaurant in 2014. As light and visually pleasing as the truck itself, the joint serves dishes such as Korean braised short ribs on kimchi gouda grits and bacon, egg and cheese udon. The latest from the fusion restaurant was a cookbook called The Peached Tortilla: Modern Asian Comfort Food from Tokyo to Texas and a bar called Bar Peached in 2019.

A fusion of Mexican cuisine and barbecue, Mexicue has five locations between New York and Connecticut. However, it started as a food truck founded by Thomas Kelly and David Schillace in 2010. Inspired by the scene in LA, they wanted to see whether food trucks could take off in New York. Driving between Manhattan and Brooklyn, they served up pulled pork, brisket and duck tacos and sliders.

However, over the years, as competition increased in New York, so did the fight for parking spots. With things becoming more and more difficult, Mexicue moved to a brick-and-mortar location in 2011. New dishes include poblano mac and cheese, which can be topped with lobster, and tuna ceviche tostadas. The truck now only operates at festivals, events and weddings.

 

Three siblings, Andrew, Margaret and Irene Li, started Mei Mei in 2011, serving scallion pancake sandwiches and pork buns at a pop-up in a restaurant. They gave customers feedback forms asking how the food could be improved and news of their Chinese-American cooking spread quickly. By the time they opened the Mei Mei food truck in 2012 they were already popular and ready to be crowned Boston’s Best Meal on Wheels.

Proof that hard work pays off, one year later Mei Mei opened its first restaurant, which was named Eater Boston’s Restaurant Of The Year. Guests loved the Chinese dishes with American twists, such as pork dumplings with cheddar, made with local and ethically sourced ingredients. Now, with the truck and restaurant thriving, they’ve added wedding and party catering, dumpling classes and a dinner club to their repertoire.

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