Clay Pod Food Trucks

This review is for Liba falafel. It was a great switch up from the permanent places in city center. For $ 9 for an organic salad with the self serve sides, I was happy. The sides were great, except I’m not a fan of lemoney hummus.
Update: They are closing down Dec 18^th b/​c there weren’t enough customers. I’m very sad.

Clay Pod for food trucks may be the busiest of the five pods approved by the oakland city council. it is the least accessible by car. only meters nearby. no «free» parking for blocks. have no desire to pay for parking if i don’t have to.
locale: 14^th & Clay, in front of dellums
time: tuedsays, 11:30−2
food trucks present (¹⁰⁄₉): seoul on wheel, hapasf, liba’s falafel.& one reserved .
–good to see frisco trucks joining the scene.
–all participating trucks must share the costs of the «pod» (meter fees, license, permit, etc.)
-«lead» truck (liba’s) responsible for all costs.
notes:
–food sales must stop at 2 sharp or else fines & additional costs kick in.
–seldom stop. no visible «free parking» nearby.
–usually only oakland based food trucks are here and at he other pods.

This isn’t a bad food pod, it’s just not really an impressive one either. The trucks hardly rotate, but some of the food served at these places are bay area unique — very «sustainable» and compostable. I worked in the state building over the summer and saw these trucks out every Tuesday. They also do a hard close at 2pm, which is unfortunate as on two occasions I was turned away. Add another truck or two and/​or rotate them around and this would be a solid 4 stars.

apparently, every tuesday is food truck time on Clay and 14^th st in downtown oakland.
being that this was my first time, i was worried about the typical food truck scene… lines and lines and lines of people with zero parking…
this was not the case… there is street parking all over the place and a parking garage directly across the street as well…
as for the trucks… only 3. i suppose this is better than having only 1, right?
i ended up grabbing a couple things at Go Streatery (
) and at Hapa SF (
)
–oxtail and grits at gostreatery was pretty good. fall off the bone tender… fatty…tasted like it was cooked french style… pretty good stuff… being that im not a big fan of grits or rice, i asked if i could pay for extra meat, so they charged me 2 more bucks for a total of 4 pieces of oxtail… a bit pricey for the amount of food, but the flavor lessened the blow to my wallet… the brisket sando was damn good as well… flavored well and very tender and fatty… all served up on a warm bun with some sweet and savory sauce, topped with spring mix or some other greens… i asked for extra meat on this sando as well and they only charged me 1 extra dollar for this one, and it was plenty more than enough…
the only thing i ordered from the hapasf truck were some tacos. they were good… not too stuffed, it had some type of fried pork, pickled veggies, cilantro, guacamole, and some salsa… id definitely eat em again the next time around…
all in all, relatively affordable… very convenient… and who doesnt like to mix and match their food at any given meal? both trucks took cash and credit so no worries there… hopefully there will be other trucks in the future there, but we always make due with what we got…

Clay Pod Food Trucks
Pod updates:
Hours: Tuesdays 11:30am-2pm
3 food trucks
Revised regulations earlier this year in Oakland, now allow mobile vendors to seek permits to assemble pods of 3 or more food trucks. So a handful of new pods debuted last month.
The Liba Falafel truck organized this pod, the first to open (May 8) under the new food truck policy. It’s located just 2 blocks away from the 12^th street BART station. Every Tuesday, the trucks park for lunch on Clay street between 14^th and 16^th streets (there’s no 15^th street in that section, because it’s blocked by Frank Ogawa Plaza). Special green signs that say «Tow Away. No parking, mobile food vending group site event» mark the spot. Enjoy!
I walked by Frank Ogawa Plaza and saw the trucks parked. Didn’t know what they were doing there, so after doing some research I posted this review later in June. If any readers have concerns about my reviews, ask me instead of flagging the review.
**Note: another pod for Thursdays (same time, same street) organized by Ebbett’s Good to Go truck was approved, but has not started yet.
**Update: CLOSED on December 2012.