just okay. Wouldn't really want to come back. The venue was good just the options of food they had. Prices were from $5 & up - really not worth it. A bit over price for the one bite "snack" like meal. Others may have liked it but not me. read more

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500th review goes to the LA Street Food Festival!!!!! :D PROS: - 1st Annual Street Food Fest! - Over 30 food trucks and many local artists! - Great publicity! HUGE turnout! Thanks Dawson for a fun event! - Awesome foodie folks! - Great weather (I even got sunburned)! Love LA weather! - Drinks: new belgium beer, pomegranate liqueur, honest tea, izze, red leaf water (sponsored= free water) - Yay for blue recycling cans! Go green!! CONS: - It was madness all day! - Long lines to get in and get food - Venue was a bit small - Only a 6 hour event :( - Wished there were more trash cans 10:30 am: We got to the end of the line that wrapped around Beaudry & 6th! O_O While waiting to get in, we met some really friendly foodie people! 11:30 am: The flood gates were finally open!!! And we finally got inside!! :D $5 general admissions. We ended up staying the whole 7 hours there, but sadly only got to 6 food trucks. :( - Fresser: pastrami Sandwich ($5), pot roast sampler ($2) - Get Shaved: passionut ($2.50) - Grilled Cheese Truck: harvest melt ($3) - Qzillabbq: combo ($5) - Coolhaus: ice cream sandwiches ($3) - Oh Snap! photo booth ($5) - Dogzilla: mini hot dog sampler ($2) 5:00 pm: What? It's already 5pm? :( Aw time to go home! Can't wait for the next food fest!!! ------------------------------ Happy Valentine's Day foodie people and yelp fans everywhere!! Huge thanks to Dawson and Sonja for organizing this amazing event, thanks to all the food trucks for their hard work of keeping our tummies full and happy, and thanks to all the security and cleaning people for keeping the event tame and clean! Hearing about the event over a month ago, I knew this was going to be CRAZY. I was already expecting LOTS of people and long lines and possibly sold out food. I was just excited and happy to be able to flying into LA this weekend and attend!!! I ran into one of my bay area yelp friends, Bobby L. and his cousins!!! hihi! :D I also met so many wonderful foodie folks! It's always great to talk to people about what we love most, food! At first I was a bit sad that I wasn't able to get VIP tickets, but in the end, I was perfectly happy with just general admissions. The only gross part of the event was this kid near the Qzilla line puked on the grass in front of everyone!!! It was gross!!!!!! And the kid just walked away! Soooo... everyone that was walking through the grass after also stepped into the kid's puke. blehhhhhhhh. So gross!! Ew Ew Ew! So if you stepped onto any parts of the grass last Saturday, I'd recommend that you sanitize your shoes VERY well. Overall, I had a good time at this festival! Next year, I may want to get VIP tickets, bring more sun gear (sunscreen, hat, sunglasses), a food tray to hold all my little plates of food, hand sanitizer, etc.! read more

La Street Food Fest - so hungry that i was about to eat my food fest pass! - Festivals Near Me - Arcadia, California

There are times where you can rationalize why something is good and there are times where you can't even bring yourself to do that. The Street Food Fest was the latter of the two. While the whole concept is great, the only people who really gain from this were those who organized the whole thing. Let me put it into perspective for you. The taco truck craze has taken Los Angeles by storm and everyone wants a piece of it. I believe it started with Kogi, a korean taco truck. Not saying the true authentic mexican roach coaches aren't authentic, but they're not part of this huge trendy upscale food craze. The thing to keep in mind here is that these are trucks. Not full fledged restaurants. So, with the popularity of street food trucks storming LA at the steep incline, why not give the people a central place to try every one of them? GREAT Idea!!! Why not charge them $5 for it? Even better idea! (For the organizers). This is where the good parts stop. You have to realize again, these are trucks. These are mobile kitchens that don't have the capacity to keep up with the demand. The Ludo Chicken truck (the only thing I was able to purchase) had a line that went for 1.5 hrs. I got there at 10:30 am half an hour before the festival's SUPPOSED opening time and about an hour before it's actual opening. So you can imagine after standing in some form of line in the sun for 2.5 hours to order my first food wasn't exactly sitting well. What put the icing on the cake was that as soon as I got to the front of the line, the friendly cashier (no sarcasm here. she was actually quite friendly) informed me that after I order there will be an hour wait until I get my food. So.... Loooong wait story short, I wated a total of 3.5 hours before my first food that I ordered. In the sun. I would say that there were easily 1 to 2 thousand people in the gate within the first hour (Yes that's $5k - $10k for the organizers). With that many people and lines for every single truck with the kitchen smaller than my bathroom, expect long lines. And with the line to get in going around the block, it seemed there was no end to the lines. Do I regret going? No, not really. I did get to spend some quality time getting to know some random guy in front of me. And I did get to taste some tasty bites from other trucks. But the kicker for me was that with all this waiting and the prices high, the portions were not normal portions. It was a sampling menu. Look at my pictures and you will see, this event was not worth it. If you feel like you MUST go next year, I say go for it. Just bring about 15 friends, each armed with $70, split up, and each person go to one truck. Order 15 of every item, and then it MIGHT be worth it. All in all we spent quite a bit of cash for the 3 of us. I think our total tab came out to be $80 for 3 people with stomachs that were still crying for more. read more

La Street Food Fest - This was the non-crowded area. - Festivals Near Me - Arcadia, California

Since I'm a strong supporter of taco trucks and gourmet roach coaches, I was very excited to participate in this first Food Fest held in Downtown LA. Apparently, so were a million other street food enthusiasts. We arrived at 10:20 am with easy parking and not bad of a line. But as time went by, waiting even longer for the gates to open (11:30), we witnessed the expansion of a never-ending line around the parking lot. It helps to be early! We found short lines when we got inside. And by the look of the outside line, we were anticipating mass chaos very soon. So we indulged early at Piaggio, Fresser's, Komodo, Mama Koh's, and King Kone. -The chimi fries and bacon-wrapped hot dogs at Piaggio were exactly what I expected....nice and greasy. -Mama Koh's sweet and spicy chicken was just okay for me. -I liked the spicy shrimp taco more than the short rib at Komodo. -The root beer floats and ice cream from King Kone were refreshing on a warm, sunny February day. -My favorite was Fresser's ever so tender pot roast. Taste and texture was magnificent! To try only five out of 30 vendors, I felt disappointed, yet satisfied. We wanted to continue on to the Buttermilk truck, Fishlips sushi, the Grilled Cheese truck, and Chef Ludo's fried chicken, but the lines became intensified and got out of hand. With the crowds and long waits after 1pm, we decided to find these trucks at a later date at their normal locations. So that night we started with a truck that wasn't even at the fest....Kogi! Overall, this event was a great concept....to showcase gourmet food trucks in one area. To be the first of it's kind, with $2-$5 prices, it was okay for me. However, improvements can be made for future fests. -Trucks could be more spaced out to accommodate large crowds. Lines were enormous in limited spaces. At one point, I couldn't find the end of lines. -More trucks should be invited to accommodate the millions... Pluses were the free Honest Tea, music playing throughout, and bumping into fellow Bay Area Yelper, CeCe C. read more

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So many people gave this fest crappy reviews, but we had a blast! My media naranja JL bought us VIP tickets ($90 a pop) and we were happy with what we got. I can see why some people would give this event rather low ratings, but our system worked pretty well for our tastes. Got in at 3 and finished by 6, including lounge time inside the stadium. Do: *Get the VIP tickets *Arrive at least 45 mns before the doors open, or else you're SOL( We saw VIP people still waiting to get in at 4:30. I'd be pissed). That said, failing to plan is planning to fail. *Split up and get two of everything if you come with a buddy *Put the tequila shots in the aguas frescas *Wear a big straw hat *Bring a backpack for the swag. We got free Jarritos t shirts! *Sit back and people watch on the field/seats Don't: *Worry about bathroom lines. Never waited once for the women's! Yes, soy una chica. * Forget to drink...lots of beer! Overall, good times and an excellent Mexican section. See ya next year! read more

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I heard about the LA food fest for quite some time and I was very excited about going. Tickets are a bit pricey about $20 for general admission, this doesn't include anything but your entrance. I arrived on time, doors open at 2pm on Saturday afternoon. Parking was another $15 and was quite a walk. Once we arrived there was a short line where they had a security check and also scanned your tickets. I asked an employee if they had a map with the vendors and they told me no. They only had a map in front entrance where you can take a picture of it with your phone but that was no help. As we walked around I didn't see any of the vendors I came to see. I hadn't eaten anything all day and got tired of looking for "Birdies" so I grabbed "The Halal Guys" which was the next one on my list. The was amazing!! I was also looking for amazing acai which I never found. I also asked about 3 different staff and had no idea what I was talking about. We weren't there long, as the day became frustrated with lots of walking and the heat and nowhere to sit. I took cool pictures other than that coming from a foodie probably not worth coming in the future. read more

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I've been going to the LA Food Fest every year since the first one 8 years ago. Yes, I've been that loyal and each year (in the past 3 years) I've noticed it's getting worse and a complete waste of time and money. This year was the last and final straw...we practically paid $65 each to wait in line, approx 20-30 minutes for one bite size sample. And what was even worse was when the bite size sample was really awful and we had to dump it. There were some vendor booths that sold out and it was still early in the event. The only booths that didn't have a line was the water box carts. We invited another couple to attend with us, and I felt so bad that they had to experience this. We want a refund! If I would have known GA would've been this bad we would have paid for VIP. I am pretty sure they exceeded the amount of tickets they should've released because they just got greedy. I can bet that 80% of the GA customers will not return to the LA Food Fest next year. Or the GA customers may end up buying the VIP...then there will be too many VIP attendance and then they will be faced with the same issue. We had to pay $15 for parking....I wish we skipped this event and spent our time and money enjoying a nice fine dining course meal for the same price. We were left hungry at the end of a food event. Extremely disappointed. This has to be the worst food event I've been to. read more

This years event went pretty well. It wasn't as packed as all the other reviews had labeled it as being. Or perhaps last year was that horrible, that no one wanted to come back this year. Which ever the case, I had a blast. For $45 General Admission, I thought it was worth it. Lines were short and the food was prepped pretty quickly. There was a lot of variety to choose from and I got my fill up rather nicely. The longest lines were the ones for the drinks & the boba truck (what's so popular about this truck)? Being able to chill on the grass on the field was also a nice feature of the event. Great day to spend a Saturday :) read more

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This festival was a complete SHIT show! Whoever is the Head of Operations should be fired. And whoever man's the IG account should also be let go. First a foremost the only people who are happy about this event we're people who were in VIP that's because they got the catered experience we were all hoping for and we're advertised. False claims for GA guests! This is a greedy production that has horrible customer service. Instead of apologizing they wrote a long IG post justifying their actions and deleting paying customers comments. So unprofessional!!! I'm not sure if I believe that the fire marshal was present today. I think that they weren't prepared for any of the guests today. None of the food was properly prepared to accommodate 5000 people period! They weren't ready and made all their paying guests wait outside for an hour and a half to be ridiculed by protestors and once inside they were understaffed. The lady in the front didn't even scan my ticket and then they ran out of wristbands that had zero significance anyway They had no staff members greeting any of the guests to DIRECT the 5000 people to the right and left of the ONE entrance in an "NFL" stadium! So then the entire Right side was congested which was a safety hazard! Where were the fire marshals then? Then at each stand I guess the vendors thought it was time for chit chat hour. It's like you have 3 to 4 people working on booth for this amount of people. Does that make sense... NO! Don't you think you would have an assembly line going. Such slowwwww service because they weren't prepared. Hmm imagine this.... this is a stadium where they service more then 5000 people during football season. Wouldn't you hire a staff that was able to handle this amount of people? Aren't their facilities that can be used to prep all the food prior to the event? Are we in 2017 and is this festival in its 8th year... This was a horrible experience and I want my money back. I will never come back and I will be reporting to whoever is in charge of this shit festival. Please follow on IG @lafoodfestfail We're working all avenues to get a refund read more

La Street Food Fest - Now the owner has blocked people from IG for being unhappy and has called them trolls. Shawna Beer is also refusing to give people refunds. - Festivals Near Me - Arcadia, California

This was the most MISLEADING, HORRIFIC, POORLY, PLANNED EVENT!!!!!! You guys, this event was a JOKE!!! Truthfully, this event was a straight CON! Not matter if you paid for VIP ($102.25 per ticket) or the General Admission ($67 per ticket). The whole experience was a DISASTER! Save your money and don't come to this event! Because 95% of the people were dissatisfied with their experience. I was talking to hundreds of people that were just as disappointed as me. The way they marketed this event was so amazing and made it seem like a real food festival, with great portions, lots of music, fun and excitement. It was the complete opposite! The so called VIP line was ridiculous to get into. The line wrapped around the entire Coliseum. It was funny because at first glance it seemed as if we were walking into the general admission line... NOPE! That Loooooooooooooooooong line was the VIP line. We paid for VIP because we had our own separate entrances and were not supposed to wait a line. So you figure, ok we'll pay the extra to just walk right in and not have to wait in the line. DID NOT HAPPEN! Then they DELAYED the entrance because they were not ready. Once delayed after waiting about 2 1/2 hours they started to let people in and while the line was moving people were cutting and they did noting about it. Once FINALLY INSIDE... we waited even more lines to get the wristbands, then MORE LINES at the one vender that took another hour to finally get to the front where they gave a smaller portions then Costco! And when you asked for another sample the venders gave you a side eye. Just ridiculous! But by time we got to another vendor and had to wait in another long line the general admissions were already starting to get let in. Which means we paid for VIP tickets to only get to taste 2 food venders with their "samples" sizes as portions. It got so packed that made it impossible to get to any other venders in an orderly fashion. We ended up leaving early because it was very upsetting how unorganized this event really was. Everyone I talked to felt the exact same way... very disappointed and very much mislead of the entire event. Oh, and they didn't even have anything for handicap people. Super iconsidrrate for those g read more

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The difference between 20 bucks at an event like this: VIP hour: http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/10Wt9O8CyxHOtPDywqLmzg?select=DjshesxlQ7kf3_RQWPHdSQ GA http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/10Wt9O8CyxHOtPDywqLmzg?select=Gp9WJ0A1JzIvYzQGkjYKZA I cut into my bakery fund to fork over that extra 20 bucks and was it worth it? the above comparison tells me yes, but did i eat my money's worth? I TRIED and what a food hangover... THE GOOD: Dogzilla was there. Coolhaus was there. There were cupcakes. Between 3 people we sampled from over 20 trucks. Saw a cool performance by my fave upcoming dance crew KM (new generation of Kaba Modern) (see Ken C's awesome video of them http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ho7XWyoIVA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbggisyj6pU THE BAD: no running water to wash your hands! (atleast in the main women's restroom) So if you had to take a piss or even worse, you were on your own if you didn't have any purell or didn't want to soil the drinking fountain to wash ur hands. At the risk of eating a vendors germs ( don't look Tony Y Jr!) i still had to eat my 70 bucks worth of food, so like Kobayashi, i tried to eat everything in sight. And there was no PIG at the Flying Pig. THE UGLY: Resulting from the forced gorging, Dude was not feeling well half the time, but was a trooper and got his second wind. A nice cold bottle of water would have been awesome in the horrible heat, instead of sweet drinks and beer, but it was part of being "green" - which Javier J pointed out, had a lot of loopholes anyways. I could go into more negatives, but many of these are to be expected. It would be like actually getting to eat as much as you can and not expect to be 10 pounds heavier the next day. Bah I forgot my stretchy pants. read more

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What a fuckshow! Got there a little later than I would have liked (11:15 or so), thanks 101 traffic. Parked for free on 2nd street, walked the 4 blocks to 6th and then I saw The Line. The line to get into the place wrapped around, and around, and around, and snaked through a parking lot, and wrapped around, and around, and around. It was seriously close to 8 blocks of line. Just to get in. After that, I assume there were more lines to wait and wait and wait...to get food from a truck. Eff that! We left to go get lunch and cocktails with some friends. As we were walking back to the car (and it's about 11:50 or so) we see cars and people streaming into the area. I can't even imagine how long people waited. I realize that long lines means that an event is popular, but, seriously?!?! Can't planning be more effective so people aren't waiting hours to get inside an event to wait more to get food? I'm just waiting for the reviews later where people say the trucks ran out of food. After the debacle at the KBBQ fest last year, I anticipate that with this. Maybe these types of events aren't for me; that's just my two cents. read more

This event is the biggest joke and/or scam ever. I have a number of issues with this event but let me just outline the main ones. I really wish I had checked yelp for this event as I definitely would not have gone. 1) Way oversold. The line to get in for general admission was several hundred people long and I'm not exaggerating. So even though the doors open at 6, you don't end up getting in till 7 or so unless you show up super early and wait in the scorching heat. Also, once you get in, it's so extremely jam packed that you can barely walk. (Make sure your purses are zipped in case of pickpockets.) 2) Way overpriced. Tickets were $60 each for general admission. You're promised food and open bars but the reality is that the food portions are literally bite size and the drinks are maybe a quarter cup if you're lucky. You also have to wait in line again (about 15 mins) to get a second sample. 3) They ran out of food and utensils!!!! Within an hour of the event, booths ran out of food and utensils! I couldn't believe it. We are paying these people $60 each and they can't even bring enough to feed us?!!!???? 4) Very limited vegetarian options!! I had a lot of bread and cheese.... Most booths did not even have a vegetarian option. 5) Super unorganized!! They didn't even check our tickets and I am sure people just walked right in. Ugh all in all, this is a total scam and I want my $ back. Really disappointing. read more

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My story is similar to those who tried to check out the venue, with hopes of trying these amazing food trucks, but maan, it was disappointing! We arrived around 1pm, thinking the morning line would have died down, but shoot! We witnessed a line that snaked on forever! It was probably about 1.5 miles long of a line to the admission table/booth, seriously! The hot weather didn't help much either, as it made us and everyone in line a bit antsy. There was a moment where we caught a no-name taco truck sitting across the street and were tempted to grab a taco from them instead. Within 30 minutes, we were inside the fencing area, but waaay in the back of the parking lot. We decided to bail on this since we were starving. Folks in front and behind of us also did the same. Instead, went to the famous "Clifton's Cafeteria" for some good grub, A/C, indoor restrooms and seats! A kind suggestion for the 2nd Annual event would be: 1) Choose a location that would accomodate 2 entrances; 2) Make this a 3-day event (may ease the crowd); 3) Have some of the food truck vendors be on the sideline with those in line to serve some refreshments or appetizers or something - maybe $1 water bottles and $1 sample plates? read more

So apparently I drink my beer like a wuss...and I guess it didn't help much that I was carrying a green purse?! http://www.yelp.com/user_local_photos?userid=3-t_uaPKVQQmOUAIu7C-PA&select=DpbAFBmcz2HN7IH5QZ93eg Nevertheless, I had a great time! The wife loved the mac n cheese grilled cheese sandwich best...I liked the popcorn ceviche from Gastrobus amongst others... We got there late and STILL ate WAY too much and left completely stuffed. Oh..and the award for the BIGGEST BALLS of ANY of these vendors goes to The Flying PIG....for the simple fact that they showed up and served FUC*ING TOFU TACOS!?!? At first I thought it was a joke...but lo and behold NO PORK IN SIGHT! SO....yeah, like the old saying goes....you can put lipstick on a pig...and it will still be delicious....but if The Flying PIG puts tofu in a taco...it's still gonna taste like sh!t. Yeah I know that makes absolutely no sense but neither does taco tofu. read more

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2 months... 3 months... FOREVER since the rumor started... but it's HERE!!! Food Festival in Downtown! HOLLY GUACAMOLE! who would've known....The power of YELP/ The Word of mouth.... People WRapped..and I mean WRAPPED around the entire downtown to get into this place... I can't believe I only got to try out Flying Pig and shaved ice....after 2 hours of wait!!! but hey...they gotta do it again next year! it was AWESOME!!!! P.S: Many fellow yelpers wondered how I was able to have 4 Star experience here at the Truck festival. My secret to 4 Star experience. 1. Create an event on facebook two weeks in advance. 2. Invite responsible and fun friends. 3. Scare them in advance with the long line alert. They will show up two hour advance with fishing chairs. 4. Show up at 11:10am, find the friends and get in with no wait. 5. Plant your friends on each truck line 6. Give extra cash and tell them what you want. 7. Go around take pictures while your friends are getting your food. 8. Find awesome grass/eating area and get all of your friends to one place. 9. Everyone gets to try everything and have a feast . 10. Thank all the friends for waiting in line with around of drink and take pretty pictures for them. read more

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This was the biggest disappointment that money could buy. I didn't purchase VIP tickets because the website was misleadingly made it seem like this event would be well spread out and accommodating to the number of tickets that were sold. The pictures on the website even show grass which made a lot of us think that we had access to the inside of the stadium which is pretty roomy. All of the booths for food and drink were set up outside the actual field, where you normally find stadium vendors. However, because the lines were so long and the booth area so narrow, it was impossible to walk through the general area without having to pass through lines and hoards of people. The lines were not organized at all and so it was complete chaos. The people who ran this event didn't accurately account for how many people could be accommodated inside the venue. Therefore, the average wait was 20 minutes for a bite of food (literally, a bite). While I did see other people grab more than one bite at a time, the policy is that everyone gets one bite/drink per person and I wanted to be respectful to the vendors since it wasn't necessarily their fault that there were so many hungry people. So with all of that said, after being in the event for 3.5 hours and waiting in line to try food, I left still very hungry. The beer booths ran out of beer way before the 9 pm cut off which was a huge disappointment as well. The beer was served in sample form too (with the exception of 2 beer spots), so you couldn't even enjoy a regular sized brew to combat the heat and frustration with everything else. The icing on the cake was trying to find the map that listed where all the booths and vendors were. A lot of the general staff booths were out of them so I stopped by the media booth and asked if they had any, and the guy in charge of that booth was inexcusably rude about reminding me that that was the media booth and if I want a map, they're around somewhere so go look for one. I didn't see any other staff member at the event aside from these 2 booths so I'm not really sure what I was supposed to do. I could honestly go on for hours and list all the other negative things about this event, but I've included the highlights and what I think was the tipper for me. I noticed the other positive reviews are from people who purchased VIP tickets and I'm assuming they didn't have the same problems because they get exclusive access before everyone else did. Regardless, the price for this event coupled with the actual experience is not worth it. You couldn't pay ME to attend another one of these. I feel so dumb for believing this could be a well run, fun event. Shame on you LA street food fest for taking our money and leaving us hungry and thirsty. read more

The fourth annual LA Street Food Fest was held in 100 degree Pasadena Rose Bowl weather with thousands of people packed at the gates when the VIP entry began at 3 PM. The crowd was getting very restless when it was 3:10 and the gates still weren't open. But moments after, people were filing in one by one to get their VIP armbands and all were at peace and one with the world. It was great getting greeted and handled cups of Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum, and Milagro Tequila with mixed berries and mint. One of the unsung heroes was Hawaiian Springs mineral water that was handed out constantly for 6 hours straight to sweating hoards. That by itself deserves 5 stars indeed. One coconut water was also handing out their cartons. We started at the middle where we grabbed bigmista's pulled pork, Maestro's sausage, Starry Kitchen's gumbo, Dante Fried Chicken pieces, and Short Order's pork belly sammie. All were a great starter and Short Order's took the group. (http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/la-street-food-fest-pasadena?select=ee_RMbohHkQWm8yA6ajTDA#ee_RMbohHkQWm8yA6ajTDA) before the hoard is unleashed (http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/la-street-food-fest-pasadena?select=ObuabRj8KrdgX63o2IAFLg#ObuabRj8KrdgX63o2IAFLg) sausages everywhere (http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/la-street-food-fest-pasadena?select=1R8piJuC8RVqNQxEq2Je5Q#1R8piJuC8RVqNQxEq2Je5Q) balls everywhere (http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/la-street-food-fest-pasadena?select=zjG8fSMW5XfmvMMtvq3K3A#zjG8fSMW5XfmvMMtvq3K3A) a perfect combination The next major stop was Sushi Roku, 9021 PHO (which offered both a veggie and chicken pho), Dog Haus had different offerings. At the time I had the Reuben dog sampler. Jalisco's Mobile Taco Grill truck gave out street tacos with carne asada, and pork. Bling Bling Dumplings had a nice presentation and they had two fillings to choose from, Taco or Cheeseburger. The Taco dumpling was better than expected. My personal favorite was Mama Musubi's rice balls, (http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/la-street-food-fest-pasadena?select=zxHxhV0oLuuAmCbZPw_8LA#zxHxhV0oLuuAmCbZPw_8LA) the dumpling hoard (http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/la-street-food-fest-pasadena?select=KZWLt5lUmmpAlL2FHMtq9w#KZWLt5lUmmpAlL2FHMtq9w) dumping cart (http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/la-street-food-fest-pasadena?select=jaIFCFDXCj907zd02dQ0Pg#jaIFCFDXCj907zd02dQ0Pg) dog haus reuben (http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/la-street-food-fest-pasadena?select=I0_MLZpKa797Jjk6xsKb7Q#I0_MLZpKa797Jjk6xsKb7Q) musubi Badmaash Indian curry was very tasty. I was told Badmassh means "Bad Ass" in Hindi. George's Greek was giving out Chicken gyros and falafel. Fred62 was giving out their famous fried mac 'n cheese pork belly balls. On a hot day, hot balls in the mouth aren't very desirable. Tried Currywurst, but wasn't too impressed given the other sausage comparisons. The gimmick of festival was Dang Brother's Pizza. It was an ebay-bought fire truck that was turned into a brick oven wood-fired pizza oven. (http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/la-street-food-fest-pasadena?select=ZA5mhbeLN9stnEFG12JgYA#ZA5mhbeLN9stnEFG12JgYA) The Dang Brother's Fire Truck The Beignet Truck and The Donut Snob took my votes for best donuts. Can you say maple bacon donut? Still not as good as the nickel dinners, but good enough. Fluff Ice, Float, and the Cream'wich were also notable. (http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/la-street-food-fest-pasadena?select=8GRdi2yiS-nYff6712pF8Q#8GRdi2yiS-nYff6712pF8Q) The donut trio I was too full to enjoy anything else, but The Ceviche Project had a constant wait. Jarritos were handing out their flavored sodas that helped to quench the thirst. The Taste of Mexico was on the west side of the stadium, so it was hard to stay there for very long as the Sun sets in the west and heats things up. My only suggestion is that the venue keep all food offerings on the Norith/East/South side of the stadium the next time. But it's hard to predict weather and the event was still a great success. Jack FM had a booth there as well and we won Adam Ant (goody two shoes) tickets... Isn't he like 105 years old? The Street Fest VIP tickets are $75. A bit steep in my opinion for all you can eat "street food," but our tickets were won from eventbright.com I thought I would have walked out of this Fest five pounds heavier, but because I sweated so much, I call it an even wash. This was a well organized event and I give props to the promoters, logistics, and organizers. 4.5 stars. read more

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Loved Loved Loved the event!!!! I can't believe there are so many negative reviews! I have high standards and this place exceeded my expectations! We had VIP tickets but we thought the event was Sunday so we ended up getting there a little before 6! I was luckily able to find a parking spot in the closest parking lot which was so great since we were running a little later than we had anticipated! We got in super quickly, although we weren't there to drink. Those people that were needed to get wristbands and wait in another long line to check IDs, but as I said, we got to mosey right on in! There were tons and tons and tons of booths! Food everywhere! Some famous chefs were there helping man their booths! Yes, some vendors were more generous with their offerings then others, but there were so many vendors and most of the lines moved surprisingly fast, there was rarely a time that we weren't nibbling on something or another! Most of the portions are rather small - it's more of a tasting,(ie a slider or a chicken wing) then a pig out on one vendor fest, but I honestly prefer to eat this way, almost tapas style! I love getting to sample a lot of different things and as I said, there is just so many places to try. We really only were able to try maybe about a quarter of the places because there were just so many! I loved the little coffee bar section! I was able to sample every single one (they also had teas as well!) which was so awesome since I've heard about many of the places but never had a chance to actually go to them! Besides in a tasting way, you could really compare them more effectively and see what you personally liked most! At the very end was the dessert section! I was a little sad that we didn't get to try the salt and straw ice cream from Portland but we did try a couple other amazing ice creams, donuts, cupcakes, shaved ice and just so much more! Also, on a side note, I really liked that there were a lot of drinks available! From the coffees to the sodas, lemonades and other non-alcoholic drinks, I was set! Yippee! We were there from a little before 6 to 10 and we were beyond stuffed!! I really stuffed it! I could not eat another bite even if I wanted to! And so was Pump! And we have healthy appetites and came off work hungry so there was plenty of food to go around! :) I would go again in a heartbeat! I REALLY loved it!! read more

La Street Food Fest - The only thing I took a picture of! They're pro-dog!! :) - Festivals Near Me - Arcadia, California

A couple that we are friends with invited us to join them at the LA Street Food Fest this year. They were purchasing the VIP tickets so we did as well. The difference was $45 for non-VIP, you can enter at 5pm and you park in a farther lot. $65 for VIP, enter at 3pm and park in the close parking lot. Do I think I ate $65 worth of food? Probably not, but I still liked this event. The only other food event I have been to is OC Foodie Fest and this event was WAY better. Why? -Each truck/chef/restaurant was serving one item (a couple had two) so there were no choices to be made, the food was (for the most part) ready, and the lines (if any) moved fast. - All the food was included in the price of the ticket! Another thing that eliminated lines - you didn't have to wait for people to pay. And really, when I am paying that much for entrance, I shouldn't have to pay for food, which is what happened at OC Foodie Fest. I think it was $50 admission, PLUS pay for your food. Rip off! - Free alcohol. Granted these were not massive pours, but I did have a mint julep, two mini shots of tequila, and two mini glasses of wine, for free. - I really enjoyed all of the food I tried. I think there was only one item I was iffy about. The portions served were small, maybe three or four bites of food, but it was top notch stuff. Favorites included Gravy Train's Poutine with Cheese Curds, Fat Spoon's Beef Tongue Curry, Sushi Roku's Baked Crab Roll, and Yxta Cocina's Shrimp Taquitos. My only complaints: I am not a fan of the sun or the heat and I don't know why these events always take place in summer. Why not winter? Or why not start until the sun is already setting when it is cooling down? It was nice getting in early to avoid lines, but it was so effing hot that I had a difficult time enjoying myself. Many of the businesses provided business cards or flyers, but some of them didn't. So now I have no idea who was serving the yummy chicken curry - it's not listed on the event info page either. The lamb tacos? Who knows who made those. They were good though! read more

This is a tough one bc I totally get that it was the first ever Street Food Fest (hence the 2 stars /:) but I guarantee you that planning for next years SFF started as soon as the gates closed tonight. The promoters delivered what was promised to us all and that was many a food trucks. I know we all knew it was going to be packed and lines were going to be long but the amount of people there and the disorganization of lines was out of control. And when that started happening @ 11:45am was when I noticed chaos starting to fill up in the area we were at (all stinkin day) then that's when the "planners and staff" should have stepped in as "event planners" and start organizing asap. I didn't see any type of "event staff" around at all. The only staff I saw working was the people taking out the trash and keeping the areas clean. AMEN we took advantage and purchased the overly priced VIP tix. We only had to wait about 20 minutes to get checked in instead of 2 hours. We didn't partake in any of the amenities that were offered through the VIP tixs (too busy waiting in line to make it there) except for the goodie bags and what they gave out was quite lame. A Street Food Fest tee shirt would have made an awesome take away and would have made the $30+ dollar VIP tix worth it. I will say that VIP check in was organized and fast once you got to the registration desk. I had a list of trucks I wanted to try but didn't get a chance to make it to any bc my primary truck was of course the Ludo Bites Fried Chicken truck. I am a Fried Chicken snob. I frequent Napa often and plan my trips around TK's Monday Ad Hoc Fried Chicken Nights. So as soon as I saw that Ludo was serving up FC I just had to see how the french chef cooks up fried chicken. I knew the line for this truck would be the longest so that was our first stop and turned out to be our only stop. We waited 1 hr and 50 minutes to get our tickets to come back in another hour to get our FC. So Krissy asked for me to keep the timer running and when the total Ludo Bites truck time hit 2 hours and 46 minutes we finally had our FC in hand. LB FC verdict = giant herbed up chicken nuggets that were tender, juicy and crispy. Really good but didn't beat out Ad Hoc. Worth the wait??? Yes! We also tried some Chicken Tacos from Komodo, the outsourced desserts from the Sweets Truck SUCKED. I can't believe I spit out a cupcake but I did (looks were deceiving on that one. it was so stinkin cute). The highlight from our SFF day was the Lemon Basil popsicle from PopShop. It was AWESOME! So refreshing and flavorful I am craving another one right now. There was ample parking in lots near the site. We scored a $5 lot spot 1 block away. Street parking was sparse bc most spots were only 1 or 2 hour spots. I will definitely return to next years if there is one. I hope for better crowd control and line management as well as a larger venue. VIP price should go down or give out cooler stuff in the goodie bags. read more

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Just like many of the other yelpers have stated, the LA Food Fest this year was a HUGE disappointment. Went on a double date with our friends who have gone 3 years in a row and have said nothing but great things about the event. However, many promises were made this year that couldn't be kept. + Admission - No one even checked tickets. People could have texted their friends to come and a price of ZERO dollars since tickets weren't being scanned. It said on the paper to PRINT OUT tickets yet I saw many show their tickets through the smart phones. + OC Fair tickets.. the hussle and bussle of this. All ticket buyers were sent an email the day of the event stating that we would receive a free OC Fair Admission ticket upon entering. We asked several people upon getting in where we could receive our tickets. Initially, NO employee had heard about it, or they would direct us somewhere else. Towards the end of the event, we asked a couple more people who then told us they heard that the tickets were given to the first batch of people and they ran out. Seriously? Doesn't the LA Food Fest keep a track of how many tickets were purchased? Shouldn't you have the amount PLUS some extras? This was poor planning executed on their end. + No walking room. Seriously I've seen the Facebook posts from the LA Food Fest saying they didn't oversell. Well shit did you see the venue? There was NO walking space since almost every effing line was ridiculous. It was a mission itself just to get through. Employees knew the layout had to be different this year since the Rose Bowl was in construction so the amount of tickets sold should have been significantly smaller than last year. Everything was so compact - You basically had to get real friendly with people because we were all stuck in a can of sardines together in the heat. + Event ends at 10? .. By 8:30pm only about 1/3 of the vendors were still serving. Most had left because they ran out of food. What the hell? I did NOT pay $50 for 2.5 hours when we were all promised a fair 4 hours of food. One of the most unorganized events I have been to. As a first time goer, I don't know if I want to come back ever even though they said the venue would be "back to normal" next year because construction would be done. Seems like the people running the LA Food Fest got greedy and wanted to sell more in a smaller space. More than an OC Fair Ticket should be given to every attendee after the chaos and confusion Saturday. read more

3.75 stars. We got in line early for VIP and were able to eat most of the food we wanted to try out. I agree with some of the comments for this year's event though -- many people had taken multiple samples. If the organizers are reading this -- possibly have a punch card for next year's event -- so that everyone who goes has a chance to try each vendor and you don't end up with a few vendors getting slammed by people. One punch = one sample. Move on to the next booth and so forth. This might help distribute some of the heavier lines too. VIP section -- not much except some white table cloth tables -- there's no way of controlling traffic here (it can be accessed by anyone) and not many perks to this area. The purpose of the event is to have everyone attending be able to sample the foods. I'm hoping the event will be more organized the next time around -- it's a fun concept but there can always be improvement. read more

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LA Food Fest is a combination of tasting and a night market experience. This is first time I see this been put together under one place. They are in different time and it seem they do a good job in crown control. But i think they are over overcharging for what you get. That's like going pprivate school for the same degree that you can get in public school the whole UCLA vs USC debate. Funny is that this event take place very close to USC in the Exposition Park. My experience is based on the general admission market experience. They said that vendor will provided special signature food for discount price in $5 and $9 but reality most vendor give you a lot less then what their normally offer in their restaurant and some vendor like Halal guy i charging their platter for $13 about $4 more than their own already overpriced restaurant and about double the price of what you get in New York City (the food stand one) There's hardly any seating and the only shade area were use for the food porn cinema lol. Well the good thing is that. There are no photobooth, and no stage (zero entertainment) I do like the nice little paper box they give you to hold your overpriced food. To be honest if you had yelp and had internet on your phone, you really no need to go this type of market. Just drive and you can eat the full experience in the restaurant that what they made for. You rarely find food in the market are even close what their offer in the restaurant. They don't bring their best staff and usually food are cook under staff and lack the full kitchen equipment. General admission of $15 is too high in this type of food market consider many other place are get in for free since you are paying the food in overpriced already, if they gonna charge that money then they need to offer entertainment. 626 night market is super crowded but they offer much affordable admission and has entertainment. Here is come is debate whether you wanna go to overcrowded or crowded place for some price difference. read more

La Street Food Fest - Festivals Near Me - Arcadia, California

I had a great time, this event was fantastic. Purchasing the VIP tickets allowed me to go to some of the favorites or more popular booths for a taste of what they had to offer as their best or signature dish they decided to share with event attendees. Knowing what happened at the first event, my group and I already knew it was going to be a mad house. I had more than enough to eat and drink then ate some more. Getting into the shorter lines to try new items was the best plan we had all day. The only complaint I would have is that there aren't any ferris wheels to ride on but I'm sure that will be coming in future events when this becomes an even bigger operatiion everyone will enjoy. You can't make everyone happy but this Yelper certainly is. Ok, not true, my biggest complaint are those idiots who are the most laziest of the laziest. One of these days I do hope karma works in this way for some people. There were many trash cans around and recycling bins around but do you have to throw your trash on the ground or leave it on tables after you're finished? I hope to God one day some trashes your house for being litter bugs. I'm sure there are going to be a few idiots that read my review that will say the people who pick up trash will earn their pay for the job they signed up for. Everyone is a person and there is never a reason to have to pick up after a person. The only ones in the world who are allowed to leave a mess behind are animals. If you are a pet owner, you should pick up after your pet's mess or don't own a pet at all. If you can't pick up after yourself at these kind of events, don't come to the event at all. Go ahead, flag my review, I'll put it right back up. But that just tells me you were one of the attendees who didn't enjoy the event. You know what?? I enjoyed the event, so you make whatever you make of it. No expectations and go with the flow. That's how I'm doing my review whether you like it or not. read more

Talk about your sour grapes... I mean, were there kinks, sure. The lines were long, it was a warm day and a shit ton of people showed up. But, quite frankly, it was a pretty sweet deal. I paid for the VIP treatment and that is why I think I had a better time than those whining about the lines. I got in after waiting about 5 minutes, I went to the VIP room and had repeated servings of dim sum, mini donuts and booze...for FREE (well, for the cost of my ticket, but you get the idea). And included in my VIP price was a picture from Oh Snap! with the lovely Victoria C. Sure, I tried a few of the trucks, roughly 4. But, being that I'm an adult with above average reasoning skills, I figured if the line was short, I would wait for a shorter period and was, therefore, able to navigate the time consuming waters of food truck service. People, really, it wasn't that big of a deal. I walked around and got the names of trucks that I didn't want to wait for for future hunting, I checked out the vendors form UniqueLA, I chillled with the homies and a drank enough booze to knock out an elephant for the low tip price of 5 bucks. To put it simply, I had a great couple of hours with great people at a really interesting and unique event. Next time, I hear tell they plan on doing all pre-sale which would eliminate many of the issues mentioned in the negative reviews, and being that practice makes better, I'll be happy to return, realistic expectations in tact, to have another great time. read more

AMAZING!! Got there at 10:15 to line up and there was already a long line. When we left at 1, the line went around the block, through the parking lot, and out onto the street again. Hit up the following trucks: Ludo - amazing fried chicken. the batter was nice and crispy, the inside was juicy and tender! ($5) Qzilla - had the little daddy combo that had pulled pork, rib, and brisket. I really liked the bbq sauce ($5) Buttermilk - the buttermilk brick was delicious. The chorizo gravy was very tasty on the egg and hash brown. The biscuit was ok, not that amazing. ($4) Dogzilla - had the dogzilla and the karai furikake. DELICIOUS!! the dogzilla had avocado and grilled onions on top. the karai furikake had this japanese mayo, with onions and seaweed on top. ($2 each) Flying Pig - had the tamarind duck taco and pork belly bun. Pretty good, but nothing amazing. the pork belly was nice and fatty. ($3 each) Popsicle - had the avocado vanilla and the aph-rose-disiac (pomegranate, orange, rose). The avocado vanilla was really bland, didn't taste much avocado or vanilla. the aph-rose-disiac was really good, tasted like grapefruit. The citrus was very refreshing on a hot day. ($2 each) Cool Haus- had the wasabi ice cream with gingersnap cookies and the dirty mint chocolate chip ice cream with brownies. The mint chocolate was very good since there was a strong flavor of mint there. For the wasabi, didn't taste much wasabi, tasted more like vanilla. ($3 for two) Grilled Cheese - line took WAYYYY too long. stood there for 45 minutes and the line barely moved. Gave up and left. Overall, a wonderful experience. They should definitely do this again! The free honest tea was delicious as well! Must go early to get good parking and to avoid long lines! read more

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The worse food experience I've had in my life. I've been to many food festivals including the 626 and OC night market so I was ready for the crowd and lines. But this festival turned out much worse than I imagined. Lines: I got there at opening time for GA to find the line wrapped around the parking lot. I had to wait almost an hour in line under the heat. I saw several people pass out from the heat/dehydration that paramedics had to come to their aid. Once I finally got inside, there were more lines at each booth - which I anticipated. However, what made this experience ridiculous was the tiny sample size serving of food each vendor gave us. I was in line for 45 minutes for ONE chicken wing (vendors only give out one serving per person). I would have to return to the beginning of that line if I wanted to get a second wing. This would never be an issue at any other food festivals. A comment to the organizer/vendors...if you want to reduce the amount of people in line, feed your customers more so they won't feel inclined to go back and fill up the lines. Food: The portions are laughable sample sizes comparable to Costco's samples. This festival should be called LA Food Sample Tasting. You won't get that full unless you spend the entire afternoon there. The popular fried chicken booth gave out one wing per person. The fries booth gave out 2 small sticks of fries per person. The smoked BBQ booth ran out of food right before I got to the front of the line. I tried to strategize with my friends by having each of us wait in a separate line to order multiple dishes but the vendors would only allow each person to order one item at a time. So we are forced to get in line and suffer together. Furthermore, the water stations are at the corner of the venue when it should be centralized for customer convenience. Summary: I would NOT recommend this to anyone. I paid $65 for a chicken wing, 2 Mac and cheese balls, some mochi ice cream, a drink, and a churro. I could've eaten MORE and BETTER tasting food at a regular food festival for LESS money. The food here was nothing spectacular. 4 hours of my life was wasted on this event (3/4 of that was spent waiting in line). This is my first and last time going. If you're reading this I advise you not to waste your time and money. read more

Wow, It got even better!! I went last year and left quite happy (and quite full). One key to my happiness was the fact that I went with a group and we tried to put together a strategy so that we could get through as many of the food vendors as we could (while getting through those beer lines too). Long lines were a bit of a problem last year, but the vendors were great, their food/drinks were great, the atmosphere was great, the people were great, etc...like I said, I left happy. This weekend, the event was broken down into two sessions. The first was early afternoon and designed to be family friendly. The latter was an evening session (6-9PM) and was 21+. I went to the second session, which you'd think might be a little rowdier, but the fact is, there were more people surrounding Cool Haus ice cream than any of the beer or spirit booths. Not that lines were at all an issue this year. I don't know how this all worked out, but the whole experience as flawless as the coinciding uncongested Carmageddon. Seriously, it couldn't have been any smoother. My hat off to the organizers!! Not only were there no issues with lines this year, but there was very little if any waiting for food to be prepped by the vendors. They were ready!! Even the Grilled Cheese Truck, which last year had a line that was literally 100+ people deep, this year flowed...walk up, grab some a cheesy mac sandwich and move on... With 60-something hand-picked vendors, there were plenty of options too...you want spicy? Get the sea urchin tostada...you want comfort food?, you want vegetarian options? you want a cocktail? you want dessert? It's all there. They even had maps and menus available before the event so that you could plan your attack! I'm happy again... read more

La Street Food Fest - Festivals Near Me - Arcadia, California

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I really enjoyed LA Food Fest because it was amazing to see the best of greater LA's culinary scene all in one spot, including many places I've been wanting to try. But the event definitely fell short of my expectations. For one thing, we were promised live cooking demonstrations, and there was a stage for that but I didn't see anything the whole time I was there from 5:30PM until 9:30PM. It's possible I missed it as the MRKT (general admission) portion started at 3PM but that was a bummer since I love following local LA chefs and seeing them in person. Also the festival ended up costing way more than anticipated. Depending on when you bought your ticket you could get either $10 or $15 online presale tickets. I bought mine 2 days before so they were $15 on EventBrite, or $17.85 after fees. That's pretty cheap considering that a lot of food festivals cost over $20 just to get into the door not including any food or drink. The fest was advertised as having food for only $5 or $9, but most of the booths had that plus more desirable options for $13 or $15. These were items I knew that cost cheaper at the actual restaurants. For example, at the festival, I bought a Fritzi chili dog (that famous all-carrot sous vide prepped vegan "hot dog" with soyrizo and grilled onions) for $9 plus tip. Pretty sure it's only $7 at the actual location at The Grove but I've been wanting to try this place out. My friend got uni butter pasta from the Cento Pasta Bar booth for $13. There were also $7 sliders (each) from BOA Steakhouse. That's definitely not $5 or $9! The four of us each spent about $30-40 on food from the booths and food trucks, not counting the ticket price, so I realize now that we should have just gotten the $69 "golden hour" ticket which lets you eat unlimited food for 2 hours (sample portions of selected items from ALL booths). Also, there was a list of 100 vendors but a lot of them weren't there when I got there, such as Donut Friend and Starry Kitchen. Did they possibly sell out and shut down after only 2 hours? Or did they never show up in the first place. It was cool that they had a giant map that showed the different themed areas so that booths were sectioned off by themes: Donutville, Beverage Barn, Gastro Cerveceria, Central Market Bar etc). I'm glad that they did have the Food Porn Cinema tent as promised, as there you could watch an endless stream of colorfully shot recipes being made and I learned and got ideas for stuff to make at home including stuffed avocado cheese balls and homemade fortune cookies (easier than I thought!). Places we tried: 1) Bling bling dumpling: they don't have a storefront and just go to festivals. Got a 3 dumpling sampler on a bed of spinach salad for $5. Great deal, delicious. 2) Salt & Straw: the longest line, all day long for the famous ice cream from Portland with a few shops in LA now. The non-dairy berry sherbet was outta this world as well as the dairy birthday cake with blackberry ice cream. So fresh! $9 for a double scoop. 3) Pirozhki food truck: Russian meat pies. 4) BOA Steakhouse: my friends got some delicious looking $7 wagyu beef sliders from one of LA's most famous steakhouses. They also got attacked by a literal mountain of ants at this booth though. I saw other booths had ant bug spray by their tables! 5) Califia farms: love their non-dairy coffee drinks with almond milk. They even had ginger turmeric milk! Only $1 (vs $2) later in the day. 6) Waffles de Liege: REAL Belgian style Liege waffles ($5 each for plain or with speculoos/chocolate syrup) with those nice caramelized edges. I'm glad they made these fresh whereas some of the booths just had food sitting out ready to go. 7) Poke stop: one of the better values for a booth. We loved the Peruvian style ceviche ($9) in a big cup with plenty of fish. Great value! They also had $10 mussel-filled paella which looked like a good deal. 8) Fritzi dog: $9 vegan chili dog that is actually a giant carrot. The carrot is simmered with 26 spices "sous vide" style which means it was boiled in a bag. I was surprised how good this was for being a carrot. 9) Angel City Brewing Company: there were lots of cocktail and bottled beverage stands, but this was one of two places with live taps. 10) The "Treat Yoself" balloon display was pretty awesome. It really peeved me though when people stole the T and the R balloons so that it said "eat yoself." I even saw the T-balloon stealer walking around the festival with his girlfriend. How rude! 11) Cento Pasta Bar: uni butter spaghetti ($13). Nice that this was prepared fresh to order. There was also Knead & Company and Knuckle & Claw next door. read more

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Was so excited to experience this event. Was so disappointed I went. $45 + online ticket processing fee of about $4. So almost $50/person wouldn't seem so bad for a few hours of good food and fun right? Wrong. I will never go to this event again. I thought the unlimited sampling of food and beverages would be awesome until I realized the lines were long, food mediocre, and vendors only sorta enthusiastic. Pros 1) Friendly and well behaved crowd 2) Free parking 3) Nice concept Cons 1) Looooong lines at every vendor. I'm talking min. 15 min per line. That means every hour you'll get a maximum of four BITES of food. I'm not kidding. 2) Quality of food was just okay. Considering most street food is served to order, expect cold food that's meant to be hot. For example I tried some delicious fritters that were cold, and really wished they just came out of the fryer the whole time. 3) Expensive-I guess now that I think about it, my party of three spent about $150 for tiny portions of food that required LOTS of standing in line. Could have just went to a nice restaurant or hunted down the food trucks at their normal street for much cheaper price. Seriously, please take my advice and DO NOT GO IF THEY COME BACK IN TOWN! RIP OFF! read more

The Fyre Fest of food festivals. If I lI could give this zero stars I would. We had the WORST experience here . I'm honestly shocked they are even trying to do another food fest- especially at the same location!! The high reviews are bizarre to me...were we at the same event? Were you paid to give a good review? It was insanely hot and there was only one seating area with shade ( not nearly enough room for everyone). We got there early but all of the boxes to put your samples in were already gone. Apparently they ran out before the VIP people even got them. If you preorder tickets that means whoever set this up knows how many people are coming right? So they should be able to buy enough boxes for everyone...right? The samples were Costco sized and the lines to get the samples were extremely long. Without a box to put your food in we were forced to eat one sample while waiting in the heat for our other samples. I mean it was outrageous. DO NOT do it. read more

I flew in from Portland,OR and my friends flew in from AZ/ ATL. We spent girls weekend in LA! We purchased the pre-sale VIP tickets! We stood in line for about an hour due to the fire Marshall not approving the exit to safety. At first I was getting upset but then the ice cream man came by twice! We also had a churro while waiting! Once we got in we grabbed trays and got to walking. I was surprised how big the portions were! We thought we would get mini tasting samples however they were pretty large! Tequila tasters were full shots, full drinks and lots of beer and wine! Half-way through we had to break from eating and drinking far too much! Since the gate time was pushed back they pushed back letting in general admission! By the time they came in we were done! Great event overall and I would go again if I were local! read more

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Lets start off w/ the good: - 1st Annual Street Food Fest - GREAT idea! extra credit for pulling it off to have these trucks parked in one location for people to try. - Plenty of parking whether it'd be free street parkings if lucky, or just pay $5 for parking lots. - the excitement for this event - great promotion. - free Canadian bottled water because that one free drink was just NOT going to quench my thirst for the day. The Bad... now i totally understand lots of people means long lines. And I understand that and expected that... BUT: - sampling these food items ADDS up! Sure the price sounds great and it's unbeatable ($2, $3, $5).. but wait till you see the size / portion that they give you! - Ludobites - Eric L. waited 2.5 hours for this and i heard they were filming?! great choice in choosing the time to film, putting everyone on hold. $5 for two chicken pieces..and these pieces where just bite size. NOT worth it. - Dogzilla - $2 for each dog.. i thought NICE! this IS cheap! and guess what? i get a size of a King's Hawaiian roll (that was like two bites for me!) - Mac & Cheese - dude, another long line. $3 / $4 for one order - i really hope this isnt the real size for normal business. I honestly give props to those who coordinated this event. I do feel bad for those people waiting outside to get in. As I was leaving, I heard one of the guards saying that they're going to stop letting people in - sucks. this lunch for the cost of 3 people: $5 parking, $15 admission fee, $6 on dogzilla, $16 on komodo, $20 on ludobites, $12 grilled cheese truck, $20 on ludo bites ... a grand total of $74 for a 4-hr lunch..(and this was with us three people waiting in different truck lines) would i go back for the next annual street food fest (if there's one)? most likely not. I'd rather just follow these truck on twitter or something. I honestly did NOT hate the event.. i think it's a brilliant idea.. i just didn't find it being worth it in terms of cost, portion, and time. okay.. i'm done w/ this review.. time to review the trucks itself. read more

This was a great event to try lots of different food trucks! I will not have another hankering for food truck food for a while! Highlights: -Cheeseburger dumpling from Dim Sum Truck. Amazing!!!! My fave dish of the event. -Quinoa fritters. Mary Sue won with this dish on Top Chef Masters! Excellente! -Water bottles filled with Thai Ice Tea @ Sedthee Thai. Yum! -Ballywood meatballs from Great Balls on Tires. Very unique! -Jinya ramen!! Really flavorful!! -Meeting a bunch of Master Chef contestants!! :) -Cucumber cocktails from the Luxe Lounge. Refreshing! -Lots of shot glass souvenirs. -Getting a case of Izzy's to take home!! :D @ $75 for the Luxe tickets (+ $5 for processing fees) it is kind of steep to pay for but it was awesome to get to attend this event. read more

This event has so much potential, but just isn't quite there yet. You've read the other reviews....long lines, lack of communication, lack of signage, not green as advertised, vendors running out of food, etc., etc. I see what they were trying to improve upon from the first event, but since this one was a completely different format, I don't know that lessons learned applied here. Instead of serving out of their respective trucks, vendors on the field served from booths. They knew 5,000 participants were expected so many of them prepared ahead of time by doing small portions of easy to mass-produce food. I didn't think it was a good representation of what most of these trucks serve on a daily basis. Lines were still long. Restrooms and water fountains required a trek back to the front of the Bowl. No signs indicating ID checks were required to secure a wristband that was mandatory to receive alcoholic bevs. Several of the first food booths I hit up at around 4:30 were not ready yet. Food was not unlimited. In fact, it was very limited. After standing in line, you were allowed one serving per person, so for our party of four that was out dividing and conquering, we would meet up to share our goodies only to have limited tastes....or stand in line again. Got old. On the positive side, parking was easy. We had VIP so we got there early and had easy and plentiful access to the beer stands. (At first, they were giving us two beers each. Nice!) Tables with umbrellas were a nice touch on such a hot day. The grass on the field was amazing and was perfect if you brought a blanket for picnicking. Will we go back? Well, we didn't leave hungry but also didn't feel we got our money's worth. Something to think about if another one comes along. read more

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When I stood in line for 30 minutes and anxiously received my cute little Chinese food takeout box, only to open it and find 1 dumpling in it...I decided that this food festival wasn't worth it. Stood in another line that swirled around great lengths of space to include about 100 people waiting for the grilled cheese truck. At the front of this line, you receive a quarter of a sandwich. Another 30 minute wait. The beer garden, THAT was worth it. You got a full cup of beer, equal to a full bottle pour. All the liquor was generous for sure and enough to get you toasted. I was just disappointed with the food. Some people maximized the situation by getting a box and standing in every line, compiling a master selection of samples, then taking their cold gatherings to the rose bowl field for a mini-feast. No thanks :) read more

Overall, I had a good time. How could you not? Eating and drinking all day and laying on the Rose Bowl grass to hybernate for a few hours. I actually dieted for this even a week before. I paid for the VIP ticket (well worth it) which allowed us to get an hour and a half head start over 60 vendors. At first, we were waiting in line for a few minutes but come 5:30 or so, some of the lines were too long. Food was good and unique. Not great but you can't expect much from street food.. Could of been organized a bit better. The dessert vendors were on the side which we didn't know of until later in the evening. There was also no water! Choices were rum, tequila, beer, green tea.. Not a bad combo though. Looking to come back again soon if another one is organized. I'm sure in time it gets better. read more

It's the first event ever like this in L.A., the organizer could definitely take some pointers of advice given by some people here. Hands down to Dawson for getting these trucks together and offering their food at much lower price than usual. The line was just way too long to enter, but thank God for presale tix, because I saw the General Admittance was still going even though it's only 1 hour left to go. My suggestion would be to limit the amount of people to enter, because that day, the capacity was overloaded, because people had to wait at least another half an hour to an hour for each stand that they chose to go and I think it's pretty ridiculous. However, like I said, it's the first event of all, so it's totally forgiven. Food choice was great, and people were pretty disappointed with Ludobites, including me, because they shouldn't do filming while customers were lining up that long for it, it's unacceptable in my opinion. Thankfully I've stuffed my stomach with 4 stops, so I was pretty full and happy when I walked out from there. It's just that, the weather was just so HOT! otherwise, it's all good! read more

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I would have LOOOOOVED to give this event 5/5 Stars because in theory this was a fantastic idea with the potential to be one of the most anticipated events every year.... but in all honesty it was not, and although i have indeed "experienced better" I'm giving it an OK because it was just that.... OK..... I'm not beating around the fact that this might have been on of the most disorganized Food festivals of all time, but I'm hopeful that the 2nd Annual SFF will be MUCH better organized and prepared! I think the promoters knew that a lot of people would show up, but i'm not sure that they were expecting what happened on the 13th of February.. 11:00am the official start time, and there are already over 1000 people in line wrapping down Beaudry, around the corner onto West 6th, THROUGH the giant parking lot on 6th, back out onto 6th, and around the corner again onto Bixel. Thats where we got in line, and there were 100's more showing up every minute. To our delight though the line would move a fair pace every couple minutes and it only took us about 50minutes to get into the event (and when you used to waiting that long or longer for just Ramen, it doesn't seem so bad) And we're in! woooowwww look at all the people here... oh wait.. wtf... now we have to stand in more lines just to get food... yes.. that was our immediate reaction to entering the food fest after waiting nearly an hour to get in, we were now waiting near an hour at each food truck we wanted to try. Thank god the Shaved Ice truck was a quick and short line through-out the day.. All in all we got to try to Sushi Truck, which was surprisingly fresh and really pretty good, and the Chicken Wing stand. Yes we did grab some of the complimentary booze, and shaved ice, but we were wanting to try soooo much more, but after waiting in like for the Grilled Cheese truck for over and hour only to realize that it wrapped back down around the start of the line and back towards the truck again we decided to take the hit and bail from the event. It was 3:00pm when we left.. what a crying shame.. Now the verdict.... Anyone who came to this event unprepared HATED it. I mean c'mon people.. check the weather, wear light clothes, sunglasses, sunscreen and bring good company, because obviously there will be some sort of lines (admitted that no one anticipated what happened that day, until maybe the day before when yelp and facebook were showing 4,000+ people going). Its the people that were prepared that really got the most out of it. Groups of 8-10 people showing up and then splitting off into groups of 2 at 4-5 different trucks at a time and then all re converging into a group and splitting their new found glory food amongst the group were the real winners. The ones that wore the right clothing, brought sun screen and glasses, or even umbrellas, and the ones that really looked on the "bright" side of the day LOVED IT I was caught right in the middle of those two groups. Not Completely prepared, but somewhat more than not at all. Only came with 1 friend and seeing as its no fun to wait in line by yourself, were rarely split up to wait in separate lines, I brought sunglasses and a light shirt, and although the crowd was gigantic, I tried to really look on the bright side of the day and when I did, I saw 4000+ people all gathered for their love of quick, cheap, and diverse street food, and it was quite a sight to see! I really am looking forward to next year because i believe the line-up will be even greater (both food trucks and maybe participants),the Venue will be bigger (god i hope), and the grouchy unforgiving people of this year wont show up again next year! +great diversity, great support for street vendors, great prices, great time with friends, great experience to have been apart of, found free parking a couple blocks up, free booze. -lines, relatively small space, lines. read more

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