Dine Out Vancouver Street Food Festival

Part of the Dine Out Vancouver Festival, Street Food City is a free event involving food trucks in the plaza outside the Vancouver Art Gallery in winter.

Note: If you like food truck-style events, you’ll likely also enjoy ones hosted by the Greater Vancouver Food Truck Festival. The Food Truck Festival at UBC , for example, happens on April 4th and 5th in 2024. There is also Food Truck Wars in Langley on April 19th to 21st.

To learn more about Street Food City in Vancouver, continue reading.

Vancouver’s Street Food City

The Dine Out Vancouver Festival is the biggest restaurant festival in the country and Street Food City is one of its various events. 2024 marks the event’s 12th year, so it’s called Street Food City 12. The event takes place outside the Vancouver Art Gallery.

In 2024, the Dine Out Vancouver Festival runs from January 17th until February 4th. However, as usual, Street Food City 12 only takes place for about a week during this period. It runs from January 21st to January 28th in 2024. It was going to start on January 20th, but got postponed a day because of snowy weather.

Street Food City in Downtown Vancouver — Food Trucks in the Plaza

Location and Hours of Operation

The trucks for Street Food City are set up in šxʷƛ̓ənəq Xwtl’e7énḵ Square outside the Vancouver Art Gallery. That’s the area formerly known as the North Plaza, on Georgia Street on the north side of the building.

In 2024 the event operates from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm on weekdays. On Saturdays and Sundays it runs from 11:00 am until 5:00 pm.

There is no admission fee to attend this event. It’s entirely free! Of course, the food itself isn’t free, but you don’t need to buy a ticket in order to explore all the different options.

What to Expect at Street Food City

Since this event takes place in January and sometimes February, the weather is likely to be on the chilly side. In case there’s rain, there are usually covered picnic tables at which you can enjoy the food. There’s usually live music for entertainment as well.

When it comes to the food there are a number of different cuisines to sample. There are over a dozen food trucks participating in 2024. Here are some of them:

Mom’s Grilled Cheese – as the name implies, this truck specializes in grilled cheese sandwiches along with soups and other warm foods.
Mr. Arancino – authentic Italian fare in the form of various kinds of risotto balls, with both vegetarian and vegan options.
REEL Mac and Cheese – a truck with gourmet macaroni and cheese dishes, all made from scratch.
Shameless Buns – Filipino food with an original twist, focusing on a number of different kinds of sandwiches.
Taste of Malaysia – a taste of Malaysian cuisine with satay, curry, rendang and more.

Street Food City

Street Food City Video

Below is a short video clip showing what the Street Food City event looks like on an especially busy day. Normally it’s a pretty quiet event, especially on weekdays.

At the event there’s a nice selection of food trucks to choose from. There is also usually an area under shelter to sit down at and enjoy the fare. Street Food City is far from being the Lower Mainland’s largest food truck event of the year, but it’s a nice opportunity to get some tasty grub!

Footage in this video was filmed in the winter of 2022.

Greater Vancouver Food Truck Festivals

If you like food trucks and food truck-style events, be sure to check out Greater Vancouver Food Truck Festival (GVFTF) events at other times of the year too. The GVFTF is unrelated to the Dine Out Vancouver Festival, other than that a lot of the food trucks are the same, including those belonging to the organizers of the Greater Vancouver Food Truck Festival.

The first GVFTF event in 2023 was Food Truck Wars in Langley. It took place on the weekend of March 31st to April 2nd. It featured food, drinks, live music and other activities. It also featured a competition between vendors to see which vendor people thought was the best.

For details about Langley Food Truck Wars from last year, see the Greater Vancouver Food Truck Festival‘s website.