When I first arrived to Penn State and began this very blog, I was convinced that Downtown had little to offer us outside of maybe Primanti Brothers and The Tavern, but even those restaurants leave a lot to be desired – like affordability – for a poor college student like myself. Outside of those two restaurants, the other food spots incur most of their traffic between 1:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. on Friday / Saturday nights (for reasons that will not be discussed in this blog), which turned me away from them from a food review perspective. That was until I tried the saving grace of late-night food, which is perhaps surprisingly tasty at all times of the day. This place is none other than Yallah Taco – pictured below.

At first, I was skeptical of Yallah due to the aforementioned high-volume late night traffic and seemingly dead day-time atmosphere. If you look closely at the photo above, you’ll see the building is lined with different colored bulbs. These bulbs work in tandem with loud, festive music which serves as Yallah’s honing beacon for drunk college students looking for late-night meals. And it definitely works. As you could expect, the lines can and do get rather long at times, but I would recommend waiting in that line and getting some food anyway.

Before I truly get into the review, I would like to apologize for not having written a review on Yallah sooner, especially if you are unfortunate enough to have not tried it before. I can remember the first time I tried Yallah, by now it was months ago – and it was heavenly. I was with my parents and we were able to take advantage of their large menu because we all ordered different things and shared them, which I highly recommend doing with your friends (or me if you want to email me through canvas- I will never pass up a Yallah run). What’s more is we were able to sit outside on some of their picnic tables! Great wholesome family fun.

Anyway, I recently visited Yallah (which will always be a true statement for me), but this time I didn’t just go for myself – I went with you in mind. I made sure to order a pretty neutral dish so that I can try to persuade you to try this place out if you haven’t already. As you can see, the menu is pretty expansive and you have a lot of great options at what I believe are very fair prices. I got the chicken quesadilla, a classic, but I have come to learn that simply ordering this right off of the menu is not the way to go. When I order my quesadillas, I always make sure to add the salsa, onions, and sour cream (make sure to say sour cream because I don’t always get it if I don’t ask). When you go *DO THIS*, you’ll be glad you did!

Once you’ve correctly ordered your chicken cheese quesadilla with salsa, onions, and sour cream, it’s time to sit down and eat at their picnic tables as you enjoy the festive salsa music and lights (if you go at night of course). When eating your thicc quesadilla that I’m sure will be spilling everywhere due to how they cut them (this is a big obstacle), NEVER FORGET to add the Yallah sauce! If you have yet to pick up on the name of the restaurant, the taco shack has an Arabic influence which is evident in it’s name, Yallah, which means “Let’s go” in Arabic (if you’ve watched Who is America before you might recognize that Erran Morad says this a lot). Explaining the Yallah sauce is next to impossible because it is so unique yet so good. It’s comparable to Chick-fil-a sauce insofar as (shout out to one of John’s favorite phrases) it is so good but also such a mystery.

But back to the quesadilla. Should you trek over to Yallah, please order what I have laid out above! It’s my favorite item off of the menu, and believe me when I say that I’ve had just about everything. Their big portions, great taste, electric atmosphere, and low costs make Yallah my #1 place in State College from an all-around perspective. Let me know if you love it as much as I do!