Exclusive: Here’s the Entire Food Lineup for Coachella 2018

A first look at the annual music festival’s food and beverage offerings

by Matthew Kang@mattatouille Apr 3, 2018, 10:19am PDT

Matthew Kang is the Lead Editor of Eater LA. He has covered dining, restaurants, food culture, and nightlife in Los Angeles since 2008. He's the host of K-Town, a YouTube series covering Korean food in America, and has been featured in Netflix's Street Food show.

This year Coachella is going even stronger with its food offerings, and David Chang’s fried chicken sandwich shop Fuku headlines the new picks. Fuku goes into a massive new covered food hall fittingly named Indio Central Market that’ll feature 15 different restaurants inside.

The annual music and arts festival that takes place in Indio has increasing improved its food and drink selections as an ideal complement to the top tier music acts. And thanks to its proximity to Los Angeles and Southern California, it’s mainly local restaurants and chefs that get to show off to the 250,000 some people who attend the festival over two weeks starting on April 13.

Two main themes revolve around this year’s food at Coachella: burgers and vegan. Expanding New York City burger chain Shake Shack will make its first appearance at the festival while popular street food stand Cena and musician Moby’s Little Pine will show up as well. Shake Shack will even build a full scale replica of their original Madison Park burger stand at the festival.

Finally, Coachella is beefing up the cocktail situation quite a bit, with a takeover from Broken Shaker in the VIP section. There’s even a totally non-alcoholic cocktail bar that’s set up to look and feel like a regular bar, plus the hit underground Tiki bar that everyone was talking about last year. And of course, classics like pad Thai and spicy pie will return to fulfill their place as festival favorites.

Here’s a full rundown of the food selections from Coachella, noted with its location (either General Admission, Craft Beer Barn, Indio Central Market or VIP (which requires a separate ticket to access):

After’s Ice Cream — Various locations around the festival

Backyard Bowls — Main VIP

Dragon bowl with bee pollen from Backyard Bowls

Beer Belly — Craft Beer Barn

Bludso’s Barbecue — Craft Beer Bar

Cassell’s — Indio Central Market and Rose Garden VIP

Cena Vegan — Indio Central Market and Main VIP

Chego — Indio Central Market

Clover Juice — Terrace North, General Admission

CocoBella — Main VIP

Eureka! — Craft Beer Barn

Fat Dragon — Indio Central Market

Fuku — Indio Central Market

Fuku’s Coachella exclusive sandwich: double habanero chicken thighs with spicy slaw, Fuku sauce, and pickles with a strawberry lemon slushie

Go Get Em Tiger — Indio Central Market

GT’s Kombucha — Indio Central Market and Main VIP

Guerrilla Tacos — Main VIP

A white paper plate holds two tacos, with beans. — Tacos from Guerrilla Tacos

Hanjip — Indio Central Market

Hayden — Rose Garden VIP

Herbivorous Butcher — Terrace West, General Admission

HiHo Cheeseburger — Main VIP

Joe & The Juice — Main VIP

Juice Crafters — Terrace West, General Admission

Kogi — Main VIP

Delicias Laguna Azul

Little Damage — Terrace West, General Admission

Little Fatty — Craft Beer Barn

Magpie’s — Main VIP

Mallow Mallow — Food South, General Admission

McConnell’s Ice Cream — Food South, General Admission

Me’ze Bar — Rose Garden VIP (Weekend 1 Only)

Menotti’s — Main VIP

Milk Bar — Indio Central Market

Milk Box — Indio Central Market

Ms Chi — Indio Central Market

Phorage — Craft Beer Barn

Pinche’s Tacos — Food West, General Admission

Pizzanista! — Craft Beer Barn

Playa Provisions (Weekend 2 only) — Rose Garden VIP

Pot Pizza Joint — Rose Garden VIP

Ramen Hood — Main VIP

Rocco’s — Rose Garden VIP

Seabirds — Indio Central Market

Shake Shack — Food South, General Admission

A full tray of burgers and crinkle-cut fries from Shake Shack, shown above. — Burgers and fries from Shake Shack

Sumo Dog — Craft Beer Barn and Indio Central Market

Sunny Blue — Main VIP

Sweet Rolled Tacos — Indio Central Market

Sweetfin Poke — Indio Central Market and Main VIP

The Burger Show — Terrace West, General Admission

Burger from Alvin Cailan, host of The Burger Show

The Ponte — Main VIP

The Base — Terrace South, General Admission

Top Round — General Admission

Trapizzino — Main VIP

Trapizzino, a handheld pizza restaurant from NYC and Italy

Trejo’s Tacos — Craft Beer Barn

Van Leeuwen Ice Cream — Terrace West, General Admission

Vibe Organic Kitchen — Main VIP

Wingman Kitchen — Indio Central Market

Wolf — Main VIP

VIP Sit-Down Dinners

Lamb ribs with burk leek yogurt from Gwen

Every year there are three fixed dinner options in the main VIP hosted by three restaurants, and this year it’s Curtis Stone’s Gwen, Moby’s Little Pine, and Downtown LA’s The Exchange (at the Freehand). Book each $50 seat, which comes with a full tasting for one person (often with choice of dishes, via OpenTable. To see an example of Gwen’s menu, click right here.

Outstanding in the Field Chef Dinners

Sara Kramer (left) and Sarah Hymanson (right) of Kismet

Each of these dinners requires a separate ticket that must be purchased on the Coachella website. They take place on a sprawling dinner table in the Rose Garden VIP, but festival goers can access it during their dinner with any GA wrist band. Tickets cost $225 per person for each dinner, with seatings beginning at 6 p.m.

April 13: Bruce Kalman (Union) and Tyler Anderson (Millwright’s, Connecticut)

April 14: Brooke Williamson (Playa Provisions) and Shirley Chung (Ms Chi)

April 15: Kyle Johnson (Bourbon Steak, Glendale) and Josh Smith (Bardot Brasserie, Las Vegas)

Right to left: Arjun Mahendro, Nakul Mahendro, and Pawan Mahendro

April 20: Christian Page, Elia Aboumrad (Cassell’s), Fabian Gallardo (La Esquina) and Oso Campos (Kokopelli)

April 21: Pawan, Nakul, and Arjun Mahendro (Badmaash)

April 22: Sara Kramer and Sarah Hymanson (Kismet)

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