This post is going to go off the rails. As it should, given it is talking about my favorite late night food spots. For almost all of the below, the only time I eat or have eaten there is after some drinks. Many are after some drinks and some dancing and some balloons and what-not.
The OG first - Wawa is a national treasure as it should be. Honestly, some of the hoagies are fine any time of day, but for the amoutn of times their meatball shorti, or just bread, or just anything, has comforted me and my friends between the hours of 1am-5am, it needs to have a spot on this list. Wawa is to me by far the best 24-hour chain, so far exceeding 7-11 (at least the US version), or QuickCheck, or anything like it. What I also love about Wawa is despite its success branching out to gas stations and what-not, they've not lost what made them special - just fucking great hoagies.
9.) NYC Halal Carts (pick one of the million)
Many of these will be some variation of gyro/doner/kebab/etc. - basically a spit-roasted meat on a pita with sauce and veggies. New York City has turned this into a commodity with its carts, and realistically they're all equally good and effective when you need a snack at 3am. Over time I've turned from pita into getting lamb over rice, with no real regard for which place I get it from. This leads to some misses, primarily a place whose hot sauce is too hot, but it beats trying to remember each purveyor. All I'll say is never go to the Halal Guys - I didn't like it back in 2011 when I was living two blocks away and it wasn't all that famous yet. Don't go to whatever new one has come up in that spot. Just go a few blocks in any direction, find one that has the neon sign scrolling on its top and side and go to town.
8.) Banh Mi Stand (Hanoi, Vietnam)
I'm sure it had a name, but what it had more was location, The club Savage is randomly placed right off East Lake - not a late night hub of activity in Hanoi (other than of course Savage itself). The purveyor had a genius idea to set-up shop there every weekend and attract drunk, high, balloon-ified patrons leaving Savage with just great banh mi. It wasn't the best banh mi, and on the whole I find banh mi a bit too messy and crumbly (the bread, mostly), but damn did it hit the spot.
7.) Street Basil Beef Spot (Bangkok, Thailand)
I will say, either I've become worse at finding these type of spots, or they've just been swallowed up by the normal doner-related fare, but back in the day, these stands that flash-grilled basil beef and what-not were just amazing. The spice so raw and real, with lemongrass and basil, and really well cooked beef - all in like 10 seconds right in front of you. It tasted great, of course, but also the smell, the aroma, was so inviting. Again, I do fear these places are becomign less common in Bangkok as slowly the gyro invasion is happening there like it is everywhere else (as you'll see in a second...), but for a moment in time, these were golden spots to hit up at 2:15 on the way back to the hotel.
6.) Belgicus (Lima, Peru)
Call this and the next one my celebratory "doner is taking over the world" picks - as a couple blocks away from the party hub of Lima, near the buzzing Bizzaro club sits Belgicus. No idea where the name comes from - it isn't Belgian in any way. It serves basically gyros - with a sweeter hot sauce that has a bit of Latin punch to it (the guy serving it described it this way). The one criticism I'd say is they are slow. Now, they make everything to order, but still it takes a while. Of course, that usually leaves you with a window to chat with some other party-goers and Peruvians and others, so it isn't all that bad. I'm really curious to know what the name is about, but the place was golden.
5.) Fancy Itaewon Doner Spot (Seoul, South Korea)
I may come back and update this after my one day in Seoul this upcoming Saturday. I say that because I don';t even know this places name, because in that little stretch of Itaewon lay about five kebab places, all competing for crazed customers. One had a giant stone fire inside which did it for me - that and the great kebabs. Having gone there in 2022, that is when it hit me that these stupid little gyro/kebab wraps were basically, undoubtedly the world's late night food. What was funnier was the employees at this place were all from the Middle East as well - they just know that this type of food is purely a "if you build it, they will come" type of cuisine at this point.
4.) Taco Boys (Phoenix, USA)
So, on weekends Taco Boys closes at 2am. Sadly so too do the bars. To me it still counts because I generally have decided to get a burrito before hitting the bars and then still enjoying it hours later because they wrap those things brilliantly. You know what else they do brilliantly? Make tacos and burritos. The meat is brilliant - char grilled over a giant open fire in the kitchen. The fixings are brilliant. The place is amazing - just a hub of activity at all hours, at all times. This might be the only one on the list, other than the one next up, that I would absolutely recommend going to even at non-late-night times. That's how good Taco Boys is, and how much of a mainstay it is in Phoenix.
3.) Hoagie Haven (Princeton, USA)
The OG in Prnceton. The late nights, the fighting for attention, the hoping that their half-brained systems of taking orders and warming bread would actually end up with you getting what you want. Hoagie Haven was a perfect drunk food heaven. Sad to say, post Covid they've taken the hours of a normal deli, instaed of a late night spot catering to drunk college and post-college students. The food was super unhealthy. Granted, almost all of this food is unhealthy, but the Dirty Sanchez, or the El Mexicano were worse than normal. Anyway, long live Hoagie Haven.
2.) The Adana Kebab Spot in Istanbul (Istanbul, Turkey)
Honestly, about ten places could fit here in Istanbul - you're in the home of kebabs dammit, and the late night options are aplenty. But there was one spot that made just Adana Kebabs - they were made to order, with teh guy holding court in front of the charcaol fire filling the rods of metal with the meat and flipping them in front of you. On the pita, he spread the usual sauces but also there was a pan catching drippings off the meat that he would throw a few drips on as well. It was truly incredible. It honestly is a place you should go to during the day. Thsi type of food works as late nigth food basically everywhere on earth, but rarely so as well as it does here.
1.) Pho Quynh (Saigon, Vietnam)
I wrote about it when I talked about my 2024 trip to HCMC, but Pho Quynh is just perfect. The pho is good - with plentiful meat, noodles and a broth that is worthy of a pho spot. Are there better pho spots in Vietnam? Assuredly so - but then again there are probably better doner spots in each of the cities that I've ranked here. Anyway, going to Pho Quynh after a night at The Observatory is one of the great joys in life. I honestly doubt there will ever be a better spot - a great late night food spot that I go to after going to my favorite late night club.
