With over 60 vendors to choose from BottleRock 2026 had quite the menu. While I wouldn’t eat everything, most of what I did try had me playing these flavors on repeat and singing their praises on BruinLife’s Instagram — find us at @bruinlife. So let’s start things off at the bottom with:
Al pastor burrito — Vaqueros Taqueria — 0.5/5
Coming from Los Angeles, I’ve had life changing burritos. And for me, no burrito is more life changing than a burro con queso al pastor — or a pork burrito with cheese for my fellow gringos out there. So as a self proclaimed trooper of the trompo, I wanted to kick off my BottleRock bites strong with the al pastor burrito from Vaqueros Taqueria (a Tijuana style taco joint) and boy was I led astray. Despite paying $21 plus a buck fifty tax for un burro al pastor, I got served rice in a tortilla. Since the dish was 85% rice and 10% refried beans, the texture was straight, soft mush with really no desirable flavor other than seasoned rice bean flavor. What al pastor there was, was dry and crumbly, more resembling a pre-chewed chorizo link that got spat into my tortilla than the fatty chunks of juicy pork I know and crave. To add insult to injury, you know what could have been added? Guacamole and or sour cream or even just a salsa roja or verde. They have it on the menu. It is literally in every other item they sold. This burrito desperately needed a bit of juice because mucking down rice, beans and overcooked meat was a tough and dry swallow.
Cheese and basil slice — Homeslice Pizza — 0.5/5
BruinLife’s Travel Editor, Riley, once said “In Manhattan, we don’t put pepperoni on pizza.” So, I followed in his footsteps to BottleRock’s Homeslice Pizza tent for a plain slice, no peps just sauce, mutz and basil, that ran me 15 smackers. Going off the Dave Portnoy rules of pizza consumption, one bite everyone knows the copyright, this slice was pathetic. Since they forgot to garnish my piece of pie, this was just cheese and bread and it tasted exactly how it sounded. The dough had no color whatsoever, a disturbingly pale-skinned undercarriage with no pock marks even suggesting it was baked properly. Once I got towards the middle of the slice — please don’t come after me Mr. Portnoy, I beg you — there was a faint taste of parmesan, but the cheap birthday party packet crap — so salty cheese-flavored sawdust.
Catfish strips — Lil Sista’s Goody’s Soul Food — 1.5/5
As bad as the other two entries were on this list, at least they were a full meal. See, I like catfish because in the “you are what you eat” philosophy, I too like to eat stuff off the floor, so I am much like a catfish in that regard and can relate to its humble lifestyle. So when I saw Lil Sista’s Goody’s Soul Food had this bottom dweller on the menu next to their newspaper cut-outs of their accolades, I was salivating. The server told me it was being fried fresh, another good sign. I got my meal maybe a minute later only to open my to-go container to see two minuscule pieces of battered catfish no bigger than the paw of a malnourished coyote — this is what I spent $22 on, good grief. While the fish had a good crisp on it from the batter and the meat was flaky, it was under-seasoned — what soul food is under-seasoned? I will say, this pricey tag also came with potato salad which was quite good; right amount of whole potato pieces for texture, sweet relish, creamy egg salad base and daily cold as all starchy salads should be. However, this was the biggest waste of money at the festival and I can’t believe two innocent catfish died to bring me this pitiful meal.
Godzilla Dog — Sumo Dog — 3.75/5
I would love to give this a “minus one” for the joke, but then most of you might think I hated this hot dog — which is absolutely not the case! I’ve slammed many a sausage during my days at BruinLife, and while I have eaten reptilian dogs before, the Godzilla dog was sadly not made of a 600 ton radioactive breath breathing lizard, just a good old 12 inch, all beef frank — for reference, not that you asked, but the biggest dog I’ve devoured for work is 16 inches. I bring this up to say that eating a singular, six-inch hot dog (sorry fellas, that’s average) is linked to taking 36 minutes off a healthy life — meaning the Godzilla comes to an hour twelve. If you wanted proof that this job is slowly killing me, there you have it, folks — death by hot dog, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Kidding, please actually look at the study from University of Michigan, as it’s not as simple as eating a hot dog, it’s more to do with ultra processed meat products as a whole.
As for the Godzilla itself, it had a good snap from the natural casing, the roll was hearty with an actual great smell to it (maybe like a French bread of something), while I wasn’t getting much wasabi from the relish, the jalapenos and fresno chilis made up for it and balanced the condiment’s sweetness with a bit of spice. My one knock is that the beef chili was very faint and thin, making it hard to taste amongst the other powerhouse ingredients. But overall, I was very impressed with Sumo Dog and would recommend anyone check them out.
And if I scared you with the hot-dog-takes-time-off-your-life thing, then just make sure you eat three PB&Js to counteract the effects because, in that same study, this simple sandwich is linked to adding 33 minutes to a healthy lifespan.
Hemi — Drewski’s Grilled Cheese Truck — 4.25/5
When the woman in line ahead of me said she came here on the first night of BottleRock and that it’s worth the wait, I knew my already high hopes were going to be met. While I am no stranger to a grilled cheese sandwich stuffed with mac n’ cheese, eating many of these in my youth, the Hemi from Drewski’s also came stuffed with a heaping amount of Carolina BBQ pulled pork. Visually mouthwatering with the pork and mac sloppin’ out the sides and expertly toasted french bread just trying it’s hardest to keep it all together. And in just one bit off the corner (because the corner should always be the first bite and I will die on that hill), it was INSTANT! FANTASTIC! Give me 14 of these! Sweet and tangy BBQ sauce in the perfect amount so as to not drown out the delicately tender smoked pork. Also, BBQ sauce on mac n’ cheese is a perfect pairing and it absolutely worked here. While the noodles were maybe a bit over cooked and a touch chewy, the cheese sauce was funky and creamy, with flavor enough where I’ll let it slide. And where everything in the sandwich was soft and could honestly be gummed down, that toasted French slice added a greatly appreciated crunch for that textual contrast. An expertly balanced sandwich both texturally and flavor wise, the Hemi from Drewski’s is one of the best offerings at BottleRock.
Apple pie with vanilla ice cream — Sweetie Pies Bakery — 4.5/5
Amongst a plethora of desserts Amy and I got on our last night, the apple pie with vanilla ice cream was by leaps and bounds our favorite. I typically don’t like cold ice cream on hot desserts because it just makes everything soggy, but since the pie was “room temperature” — the outside weather being 68 degrees Fahrenheit, the ice cream didn’t melt nearly at all, preserving the tender bite of the pie. The filling was sweet, spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg and the apples were still toothsome with a good bite. Always a fan of a strudel topping, this pie had it as the entire crust, a choice that may seem off, but really worked for me. And what bumped this dessert up to a 5/5 for me personally, was pairing it with a piece of peanut brittle from Vintage Sweet Shoppe to make a peanut butter apple pie — the best bite of the festival bar none.
Paella — Gerard’s Paella — 4.5/5
I am not above stunt food at a music festival, having eaten a footlong hot dog and a mac n’ cheese pulled pork sando. But the Paella from Gerard’s Paella was the only thing I ate I would actually eat again. Just walking up to the tent it smelled like heaven. Warm spices. Fragrant onions and peppers wafting from these giant vats of saffron rice. All of which topped with delectable chicken thighs and plump shrimp, both of which were well-seasoned. Too excited for my first bite, I didn’t notice the shrimp had the shell on but the food was so damn good I didn’t care. I would eat this again and again, shrimp shells and all with no complaints. Gerard’s must be a regular at BottleRock because I remember seeing them two years ago. So if you attend this festival, spend all your money at this tent and you will not be disappointed.
“Pigeon Dog” — Some dude outside the festival grounds — 10/5
No. These hot dogs do not actually contain pigeon, as far as I know. But even if they did, I’d still eat 50 of them. The best hot dogs don’t come from Manhattan or Chicago, but outside any event space in California. When that smell of meat fat, caramelized sweat from the onions and peppers catches the wind off that plancha, it doesn’t matter that I already ate a burrito and pizza that day, my stomach was growling for it. So while eating a hot dog takes 36 minutes off my life (again, I’m kidding, please do your own research), when it is this delicious, smothered in the flavor bomb of sweet ketchup, zing-ey mustard and luscious mayo, coupled with the textural contrasts of that snap from the farce casing and green bell peppers, all stuffed inside a bun softened from all that fat, there will never be a more satisfying bite after a music festival — especially for the price of $10.
