Aren't most major problems also major opportunities?

Has nobody started a great 24/7 food delivery service bringing overpriced food to tech workers on demand?

That's a major over exaggeration and you know it. Name any neighborhood in the city, and I'll give you at least one place open until midnight.

You probably couldn't see anything open from your hotel in Union Square or SOMA, but it's there. Just open foursquare or Yelp.

I worked at Yelp, and I've lived here for nearly a decade, and I'm here to tell you: there are maybe ten decent restaurants open in all of SF at midnight. On a good day. You're screwed on a Monday night.

Even if we lower the standard to include fast food and/or greasy post-drunk food, the number jumps to perhaps 30, on a weekend night. So there might be a late-night restaurant in every neighborhood, but there's definitely no more than one. If you want something good, you need to eat before 9.

Great, now even Yelp employees think that they're food critics.

Also, get off your high horse for implying that a greasy spoon can't be good or have high standards.

NYC is really the outlier. Not that I'm typically out eating late in the city but what you describe isn't all that different in Boston/Cambridge (and Cambridge bars closed at midnight until relatively recently). And, last time I got into downtown Chicago late (11pm or so) on a business trip, the only food available near the hotel was takeout delivery from some pizza place.

NYC is not that different. The only things open 24hrs are bodegas and diners, which serve shitty food. Even the Whole Foods in Union Square, the busiest in the nation, closes at 11pm, which is later than the grocery stores in suburban TX. I guess bars can stay open late.

As someone who routinely worked quite late in NYC, that's just not accurate.

I routinely had good meals at 10pm or 11pm at night. Never once did I eat at a diner.

Lots of restaurants stay open later in NYC, and then there are plenty of gastropubs serving great food even later.

Used to be out real late and always got food. Pizza at 4am for a dollar, chicken gyros from the halal carts, chinatown restaurants.

Its not just about the stuff in your neighborhood.

In NYC at 4am, I could Seemless any meal/quantity I wanted!

In Seattle, I can only get pizza past 2am.

You can find bunches of places in lower Manhattan (for example) that serve good food and are open til 2 or 3am or 24 hours.