10/4/25 Saturday We arrived around 6:45 PM and stayed for about an hour. There were a lot of vendors, but only some of them served dumplings, so the event name is a little misleading. The $60 pass only gets you unlimited beer, not dumplings. Only tried one dumpling truck and it has mostly typical flavors we could get elsewhere. Not to mention it took one hour for us to get our food. Parking near the venue filled up quick, but there is another lot a short walking distance away with plenty of spots. However, the entrance and exit is the same spot and only allows one car to pass, so be careful. Free performance near the blossom hall and on the other end of the festival, there is a live DJ and Kids Zone. No entrance fee for this festival, thankfully. read more

See all

San Gabriel Dumpling & Beer Fest is a small event festival held at the Mission district of SGV. They only have 10 food trucks, 4 souvenir stands and a beer garden. Furthermore, the line to get your food is extremely long which is not worth your time. Food prices are extravagant for pork dumplings, crepes, etc. Plenty of parking in and around the event. Overall, it's a small nice event for the SGV-Mission district community. I'd say visiting it once in your life would suffice. read more

See all

A giant waste of time. Way too many people and not enough parking even when coming at 6PM. The beer garden is completely separated from everything else so unless your entire party has wristbands, you'll be drinking alone. I tried to purchase a wristband the day of and they completely disabled the system already. Staff kept saying to "buy it online" when it wasn't possible or walk ALL the way back to the entrance for a tent with NO signs whatsoever or indication on where to buy it. For a festival that promotes itself as a dumping AND beer festival, you can't have both at the same time. False advertising to the maximum. Over 50% of vendors did NOT show their menu with prices or no menu. Showing the price of your food is the bare minimum. Of course the ones that actually had a price tag on them were the only ones with lines. Who would've thought people want to know the price of food before waiting over an hour in line for food? No activities for adults to do (only activities for children), no vendors with actual goods to buy outside of things like the police, fire dept, and a bunch of random vendors looking to sell their services. There was nothing to do outside of buy food after a 1+ hour wait. Glad this was free because I would never come back. We waited in a vendor line for over 20min and it didn't move even once. Also there are only 6 portapotties total and only in the front, no where else. What a waste of time! read more

We got there at 7 but I wish we came at 6. Not enough Dumpling vendors or a lot of wasted street space because the vendors could be better spread out so the lines weren't overlapping. Maybe they weren't expecting so many people but the beer garden was absolutely packed too and those tickets you could purchase ahead of time . We waited over an hour for one dumpling vendor and by the time we got to the front half the dumplings were sold out which was a huge bummer. We could only go to one due to time. We also ordered Love to Go as we waited in line thankfully which took 20 min. I think for this Fest you can only do the beer or do the dumplings or divide and concur with friends because the lines. It was great to be back out but I think the operations could be a little more streamlined. There were plenty of officers around hanging out but the space could have been utilized much better. read more

See all

Ticket is just for beer. 130 for two tickets. No dumpling tasting. Very misleading. For just two people it was well over 200 and only able to get dumplings from one place due to long lines on only about four or five dumpling trucks. Definitely not worth it. read more

Had a fantastic time at the 5th Dumpling and Beer Festival(2019)! Thank you Yelp for the complimentary pair of wristbands! Made this year's experience truly amazing! Upon arrival a little after 6pm the traffic of cars started to build up. Parking was plentiful at this time. This year's festival is definitely bigger with a wider selection of food trucks, food booths to breweries. The beer garden is definitely where it's at! Unlimited beer tastings! Yess please! It was fun and great trying out different breweries and the different flavors that they offered. Very generous pours! Definitely got to see the different local breweries in the area, which I wasn't even aware of like Ogopogo (San Gabriel) and Mt Lowe (Arcadia). Highlights just to name a few: Boba Beer- finally I got the opportunity to try this concoction. Ogopogo collab with Labobatory! Soo good! Choya- from the makers of the plum in the wine bottles they showcased Yuzu cocktail, Singha, and sake bombs! Definitely on the look out for the Yuzu cocktail, makes the perfect spiked lemon ice tea. They also gave out free Choya sodas with an IG follow. Mt Lowe- Glitter AF- raspberry and hibiscus light beer. Amazing taste and looks glittery too! SLO Brew - Wow the Blood Orange beer is so good and refreshing. Definitely a strong blood orange flavor. Sakari sake- that is so fragrant and strong Yeastside- very nice fruity beers Waffleland- my once or twice a year binge on mochi waffles There's so many beer vendors! Dumpling varieties were increased this year as well as other foods! Saw a vendor selling jerk chicken and Jamaican patties! So sad I full of beer and mochi waffles already. Next time! One recommendation would be to post the event itinerary either on FB or a board somewhere, band slots, dumpling eating contest, special guests etc. Overall awesome experience! Definitely looking out for the early bird tickets next year! Hopefully it's on a Friday too! read more

See all

Went with family and arrived there 10 minutes before the festival was scheduled to "officially" begin at 5:50, hoping we'd be able to beat the lines for food trucks/vendors and get our wristbands for beer tasting. Operationally, a nightmare - We were not able to beat any lines, as they would not distribute wristbands and none of the vendors started taking orders until after the clock struck the start time 6:00. The line for wristbands was already super long (before 6). Doesn't make much sense - if you are fully staffed already, why not start handing out wristbands when the line begins to form? They only had 1 line for EVERYONE. So if you already purchased your wristband online ahead of time, you still had to wait in the same line as those who decided to buy at the gates. The lines for each food vendor were also insane, approximately 1hr wait for most places. They also blocked off a lot of streets for the festival (more than actually used for the vendors), but all the vendors were closely spaced between each other, making for long lines. And why are there cops everywhere? SMH Parking - There was tons of parking for free in designated lots and on the street. Food - Not bad, but very highly priced for really small portions. You could get way better and probably fresher dumplings at any of the 1000s of mom and pop shops within a 5 mile radius. Drinks - Good lineup of brewers from the SGV! Not as much variety in terms of actual brews though. Each brewery had 2 beers on tap to sample. However, most of the beers there to sample were light ales and lagers (cheaper, generic beers). Not sure I got my money's worth there. Seeing as it's the 7th year they've run this event, I would expect smoother operations. If I come back, I would probably eat before going and just go for the drinks. read more

See all

A Wonderful little festival around the San Gabriel Mission showcasing dumpling oriented food truck vendors, local independent breweries, and even a hot sauce maker. For a Thursday night, I couldn't ask for more. On top of the delicious dumplings and beer samples, there were bands playing, awards to be handed, and a dumpling eating contest. Highly recommend next year, as I can see this festival grow every year! read more

San Gabriel Dumpling & Beer Fest - Festivals Near Me - San Gabriel, California

My first time attending this event and my friends and I had a great time! Thank you Yelp for hooking me up with a couple of tickets - definitely will be coming back in the coming years! So to start off, the dumplings are NOT included with the ticket purchase. You have to purchase the dumplings from the individual vendors, trucks and stalls. What the ticket does get you is UNLIMITED BEER, which is a pretty good deal considering most of the breweries are local craft ones. All the beers were so tasty and the vendors were really friendly. Definitely more of a beer fest than a dumpling fest. read more

See all

Going on my second one now and this years San Gabriel Dumpling and Beer festival did not disappoint. The event takes place in the city's historic San Gabriel Mission District. They actually did better job organizing this years event than last year. I got here early and it was hardly crowded. The lines for dumplings and beer stalls weren't too long either. Traffic in/out of the area was minimal, compared to last year which was chaotic. Even found a parking spot at some of designated event parking lots. Last year I spent more than 30 min looking for a spot and had to park a few blocks away behind the San Gabriel Mission. Plus, this year they added dumpling eating competition, dance floor and several DJ's booth. For beer sampling and too save time, I purchased my ticket online ($25) or else $30 at the door. Printed my confirmation, showed it to ladies working pre-purchase booth, got my wristband and 4oz beer mug quickly. Love craft beers served here and most were situated in back patio area. Some of the notable beers that I enjoyed were the mango beer from Garage Brewing company, Octoberfest from Angel City brewery, Incline IPA from Mt Lowe and Lagunitas IPA. Though I came mostly for the beer, I did get a chance to try few of the dumplings stalls. Chicken and shrimp cajun bowl was delicious. It's classic Cajun style boil with shrimp, potatoes, corn, sausage and some chicken dumpling mixed in. Meal in itself and good value for $8. Will definitely be back next year and maybe sign up for dumpling eating contest. So I will be training and eating my way through all the yummy dumplings joints San Gabriel has to offer. See you in SGDB 2018! read more

See all

This year was my second time at this event and it was so much better than last years! Thanks to Yelp, I even got free wristbands to sample a wide variety of beers from many different breweries. What was also cool was that the breweries were from all over so you really do get to try a large selection of beers at this event. The beer garden is definitely my favorite part of the event because the vendors are all super friendly and really generous with their pours! My friends and I arrived a little after 7pm and were able to find parking in a lot close by. When you first walk in, there are a bunch of booths and food trucks lined up on the street. Some booths had longer lines than others but surprisingly the lines moved quickly and we didn't have to wait too long for the food. The food selection in general was just okay and although there were more food vendors this year, nothing really stood out too much. We tried many dumplings from different vendors but they were all pretty mediocre. Regardless, the event was still a lot of fun and I loved that it was on a Friday night this year! read more

See all

I won tickets through Yelp and I was really glad to have experienced this event. So first off, the event itself is free. However, if you want unlimited beer samples, you need to pay for a wristband. The wristband comes with a cute small beer glass. There were a wide selection of beers. While there were lines for some beers, it all moved pretty quickly. One place had boba beer which was pretty fun to try, essentially it was green tea mixed with a beer but still an interesting concept. There was everything from IPAs, lagers, amber ales, etc. I didn't try any dumplings here and actually opted to walk to a restaurant nearby. There were about 3? food trucks that specialized in dumplings and one tent that specialized in dumplings. Every other place had at least one dumplings choice on their menu or had nothing related to dumplings at all. All the places that specialized in dumplings had very long lines. Luckily I've tried all those places before but I was still sad that the lines were so long that I opted to go elsewhere to eat. Recommendations: - To see each company's beer selections, you had to come right up to the front of the tent. It would be better to have big signs of which beers the company brought so that you can decide if you want to wait in line or not - More beer companies outside of ones you normally see in stores - More tents/trucks that specialize in just dumplings - I know it's not a craft fair but it might be fun to have some shopping tents for small knick knacks read more

San Gabriel Dumpling & Beer Fest - Festivals Near Me - San Gabriel, California

I heard this is their first annual festival, so I guess they still have some things to work on. The street that this is located on is fairly small - which is okay - but that means there should be more regulations on the lines are for each stand. I waited in line for a dumpling place, and it turns out the guy in front of us (who was standing there for a good 15 minutes since we got there) thought that the line was for the Korean food. It was a bit chaotic, and it definitely seemed like each stand was taking orders way too fast and way more than they can produce the food. It took an hour and a half for my number to be called, so we ended up only trying to stands. Also, beer is part of the title of this event, so it would only be logical if there are more than 4 beer stands. No one was taking the tickets for the beer as well... luckily I got my tickets for free (thanks Yelp!), but for those who did buy their tickets... that's not very fair. Another huge thing.... no one checked ID's... AT ALL. Definitely something they need to work on. Because that is quite a huge deal. Overall, good music and good vibes (except for the patience growing thin when waiting for food). Nice try though! read more

See all

I received complimentary tickets for 2 from Yelp! All the food vendors were on the street, there was a stage for music and dumpling eating contest and a beer garden in the back. The beer garden was actually pretty big. It is separated into 2 sections, one side has local beers and the other side had games and international beers and sake. I thought it was cool how each food vendor had to make their own special dumpling menu item. There were some pretty interesting ones like the mac & cheese dumpling. I wasn't able to try them all, but it was cool to see. Overall, it's a cool event for a Thursday night but I don't think I would've spent the money for a beer wristband ($40/per person) unless I was that into beer. read more

Awesome event! Only wish it wasn't on a Thursday so my friend and I could enjoy it more without having to worry about our responsibilities the next day! 2018 was San Gabriel's 4th Dumpling & Beer Fest. Think of it like an Oktoberfest with an Asian twist (dumplings!). The event had an option of making it PG (just dumplings and some dessert/drinks), or 21+ with the beer garden (and unlimited 5oz pours!). My friend and I bought the beer garden ticket online (it comes out to ~$30 per person) and it was so worth it! We basically hopped from booth to booth getting unlimited beer (and sake). There were plenty of options with at least 10 booths and each booth having more than one type of beer to choose from! The best part was - the vendors weren't stingy with their alcohol AND there was barely any line for alcohol!! Now onto the food, I like how this is much lower key and less crowded comparing to 626 night market, and that it is free entrance for those who are just looking for some bites. There are more options than just dumplings, and they were amazing! The price point is just right as well and the food were great! I just wish this wasn't on a Thursday so I could enjoy the event longer! read more

The Cajun dumplings was the bomb!!! Quite a few different food trucks to pick from. Food is pricy. Free beer with yelp elite ticket. Or you can purchase it. The music was entertaining and fun. The weather was good. I enjoyed it very much read more

San Gabriel Dumpling & Beer Fest - Festivals Near Me - San Gabriel, California

I love festivals. It's free with live music and an awesome DJ. There was a small line of food trucks, less than 10 and a couple of dessert booths and a few vendors. The selection of dumpling vendors was underwhelming. Vintage Dumplings from Mad Dumplings was delicious. Since it's dumpling festival, I was hoping for small orders so everyone can try from several food trucks. I might go again next year and hopefully they'll have more vendors. read more

See all

This event is currently in full swing - too bad it only happens once a year. I love the location of San Gabriel play house - make sure you check out the party in the back (DJ and lots of beer). It is a gorgeous night and people are having a lot of fun. Love music in front of the playhouse, food trucks parked across the street and all kinds of food - not just dumplings. Lines are getting longer as folks are getting hungrier :) The beer option is $25 for 16 tastings or $40 for unlimited. You can't buy just one, but there is wine to be purchased by glass. Local businesses are open as well! And if you are curious like me, they will let you peak inside of the playhouse :) read more

San Gabriel Dumpling & Beer Fest - Festivals Near Me - San Gabriel, California

See all

Definitely not as great as i expected. Starting off with the unicorn bao. DISGUSTING. for $4/bao?! I think the food coloring in the bread did something to it or they just do not know how to make the bread. The meat inside was alright i guess. I waited in line so long, so we bought 6 of them to give them out to friends. Lets just say they didn't make it to those friends. all the other food was whatever. Definitely was not worth my time. And I now feel like i need to make a good dim sum strip to make up for this and spend half of what i spent here $30 for unlimited beer. I mean sounds great right? I thought so to until i was handed a beer cup that was the size of a shot glass. -____- read more

What fun. We got here early got to try a lot of different things. No lines if here early. We got a table ate our food and listened to good music. They have all sorts of dumplings . Some traditional and some with a little more of a bite(Cajun) lots of fun for the whole family. read more

See all

Cool event with live music. Nice that it's free. But I'll be honest and say some of the dumplings were anti climactic. Also unnecessarily expensive. On average, paid about 2-3 dollars per dumpling. Not worth it.... Tried the fried octopus balls and those were good. Had "Dina's dumplings" and tried the shrimp, pork and beef. All delicious with tasty sauces. This was the highlight for me. Fell very flat with "mad dumplings" food truck. They won last years best dumplings. Tried the longasina (pork) and the vintage (turkey and Chinese chives) dumplings. Both SUPER greasy and heavy. Stuffing just not tasty. Big disappointment. Just didn't understand what they won an award for exactly? Also ordered bulgogi rice and felt it was drenched in spicy mayo and the bulgogi didn't taste like beef. Tasted like some weird foreign animal meat. NOT beef. All in all: was a fun event and excuse to get together with friends. But the "award winning" dumplings were nothing to write home about. read more

San Gabriel Dumpling & Beer Fest - Festivals Near Me - San Gabriel, California

See all

Hello, dumpling lover here. I am a man on a mission to find the perfect, yummy dumplings. Today I crashed the San Gabriel Dumpling and Beer fest. In addition, my friend flaked, or she had stomach issues on that same day, so I checked out this by myself, however, I managed to have a great time and plan on going again next year. (hopefully not alone haha) Atmosphere: There was huge police/firefighter presence throughout the evening so I felt safe and like nobody gonna try something stupid. I applaud the event planners for the excellent security planning to ensure our safety, without inconveniencing the customers. I expected to see unruly, drunken folks possibly entertainment but alas none to be found. Personally, I don't mind as long as we are safe. Indeed, it's better to be safe, than sorry so kudos to the ones responsible for excellent security planning-I am impressed. In addition, I am glad of the opportunity to meet the SGV community up close and personal. The fest's atmosphere was majestic and everyone was joyous as a result my inner child was overwhelmed with the joy! :-) Heck, in return for social media exposure, yours truly got a clapper, yes a plastic clapper, that I later lost this evening (boo!) but later I UPGRADED to a 5oz beer cup. (See pic) Woot! Moreover, good live music drives good vibes and interesting mixes of generations to come out to play: young millennials getting their moves out on the dance floor, plenty of Asian Generation Xers (I'm a Generation X) just hanging out chatting with friends, and Baby Boomers having a good time on the dance floor outshining those millennials. Plus, I could feel the good vibes, energy and love throughout this place-I really miss that as a result I felt really inspired. GOOD TIMES GOOD TIMES GOOD TIMES! Food & Drinks: Undoubtedly, my mission was to get yummy dumplings. Unfortunately, I arrived late and I did not get the opportunity to sample beers (also the long lines, the high price and I have to drive myself home), nor any dumplings bummer (lack of availability and expensive price). :-( Around 8:30pm, everything was sold out and most were overpriced anyways (let's be fair as expected at an event like this) therefore I'm saving my $$$ for another rainy day! There were long lines throughout for alcohols, beers, wines, and foods. Furthermore, I was hungry so I quickly googled all the food trucks. Most were two-three stars meh. Only one stood out that met my high expectations: Kai Kai Dumpling Co. so I will be checking them out soon! For the ones complaining about the long lines for beer/food, this I say is to be expected and not really the fault of the event planner. Fail to plan is planning to fail. Pro tip: arrive early to beat the crowds, rush, and most importantly to save yourself lovely migraines. Parking: Easy peasy: there are signages everywhere just follow the signs that say, "Event Parking", and you will be ok, aight? I find a parking spot near City Hall. In the end, I recommend the Dumplings and Beer Fest (once a year), should you wanna have good times/vibes and people watching. Again, I'm just a man on a mission to find the perfect, yummy dumplings. Haha If you read up to this point, please give yourself a pat on the back for reading this far. Thank you for the support, my fellow Yelpers, eternal gratitude SYOY! ;-) read more

See all

I've seen this event pop up last year and wanted to go but couldn't due to class. This year I was like I definitely have to go check it out. Called out my friend and we went around 8p.m. There's a couple parking lots where you can park for the event. There weren't as many people as I expected and the event wasn't as interesting as i thought. There were a couple of food trucks and then a couple of other booths selling desserts, tea, and other merchandise. The main stage had live performances and a cool host so that was fun. Around the main stage was where they had the beer tasting. It's 20$ for the wristband for beer tasting and they hand you a little cute glass cup to get your samples in. I'm not a big beer person, as in I'm not a fan of IPA's or like special beer. I like my originals like coronas, Stella, Sapporo, Heineken, stuff like that, but 99% of the beers offered were citrus like, IPA styles, so it definitely wasn't for me. We ended up getting an order of dumplings just so I would be sober to drive home but the dumplings were pretty good. The sauce was the best part though! I believe the truck was called yumplings and it was about 5 dumplings for 5$, so not bad at all. Overall, It was a great first experience and I would definitely come back with friends for the event itself, but I wouldn't get another beer tasting ticket. read more

San Gabriel Dumpling & Beer Fest - Woohoo!! - Festivals Near Me - San Gabriel, California

This years Dumpling & Beer festival was a lot bigger this year. I loved it and so many varieties of beer tastings. I approve. They really stepped up their game this time around which is great!! My advice: go early to this event. Less crowds. More opportunities to try the different beers. read more

Best beer fest ever! I love that they bring out all the local breweries and mom and pop dumpling restaurants. Looking forward to it coming back this year! read more

Been going three years back to back now. Pretty solid line up (I'd say about 15 breweries) of the breweries with 2-4 taps per brewery. Early sale price was about $30, which is a pretty good price for an all you can drink event. However, $30 gives you all you can drink beer but dumplings are not included. Dumplings are a bit expensive but it's pretty good. Highly recommend and will be going again this year! If you are looking for another all you can drink beer festival, I strongly recommended Driftwood down at Doheny State Beach. A bit more expensive at about $40 but much more selection of beer (about 30) breweries. Will be going again this year! read more

Not worth coming here at all. Stopped by this Noriganitaco, people lined up in a long line, people who works here super slow. Had been waiting for an hour for a taco. Are u kidding me? If you pay with card, they have to charge 3% transaction fee. How could 10 minutes wait became 60 minutes wait? Couldn't understand. Totally waste people's valuable time. Food alone has nothing special either, just the skin of the taco changed to seaweed with deep fried rice crackers with a lot of mayonnaise :( read more

What a fun festival! It was one of the smaller beer festivals I've been to, but they still packed it full of fun events and venders. We got there right at 6 and found free parking right next to the venue luckily. When we arrived, we first walked passed all of the food trucks (probably 15-20) to scope out what we wanted. Mad Dumplings was at the top of our list originally and there wasn't a long wait, so we decided to go check out the beer first. We were disappointed at first when we saw the 2 beer tents in the front, but realized that the main beer venue was behind the building. There were probably around 20 breweries offering a wide variety of beers! The festival came with unlimited pours which was awesome. Definitely got my fill up and then decided to go venture out to get some food. By this time it was around 7pm and the lines were getting long! We waited around 15-20 minutes to order at Mad Dumplings but it was so worth it. Their dumplings are some of the best I've ever had. One of the best deals we found too! Their combo was around $11 and came with 4 dumplings and your choice of waffle fries or rice topped with pork belly or bugulgi beef. So glad I did the waffle fries, they were insane. Great festival, hoping they have something similar soon! read more

I expected more out of this festival. The dumplings were mediocre and I just kept thinking to myself that I should go home and make my own dumplings. One of the booths served dumplings that were frozen and thrown in the pan. It tasted like burnt, smoked dough. I was extremely dissatisfied. There is a $30 charge for a wristband to sample unlimited beers. This seems appealing, if the cups were larger.. Other than that, you're not getting your $30 worth of beer. Along with that, the entertainment is where the beer was located, and sectioned off. This festival could've been better if the director(s) had put more thought into organization and held it on an weekend. read more

Interesting people and food! Enjoyed it, it was my first time being at this festival wish I knew about it earlier. The dumplings were great especially the shrimp Cajun dumplings! Those were fire I hope they come back again! They were the booth selling the UNICORN something. And the music was great, the setting was wonderful, and I also saw a few famous peeps enjoying themselves over there!!! read more

I only came here for their beer garden because it was worth my $30 for unlimited beer. All the local craft beer came out to show their drinks ranging from IPAs, rice beer, etc. All the dumpling trucks were over priced so I didn't bother checking them out. read more

This was my first time attending this event and I was super excited! Beer and dumplings together? Sign me up! I thought that the event was an excellent idea, but unfortunately, it did not pan out how I expected it to. I did appreciate the number of vendors that were available and how there was no admission cost. I'm sure the organizers put a lot of effort into it with coordinating schedules, entertainment (which was great!) and so I do appreciate all that they did for the event. Lines for food weren't awful, the worst I probably waited for was about 30 minutes, but the quality of the food was what was underwhelming. I guess that would be feedback for specific vendor, but every single place (assuming they served dumplings) seem to produce the same mediocre looking dumplings that were a bit pricey. My favorite style is pan-fried dumpling, and I couldn't find a place that served dumplings like this (most were either steamed or just warmed up in the pan). Also, most places cost at least $1 for one dumpling and knowing how easy it is to make these, I was pretty surprised how steep the prices were. I left feeling hungry and wanting to go home to make my own dumplings. I'm all for diversity at food festivals, but if the vendor doesn't at least serve one kind of dumpling in their menu (or some variation of it), why are here? I felt bad for vendors who served food that weren't dumplings, because there weren't any lines or people around their booths. Also, I know this isn't exactly a dumpling, but I was surprised that there wasn't a single vendor that had XLB on their menu! The beer situation was also not very conducive if you didn't want to purchase a wristband and just wanted one pint or one regular sized beer. I'm not sure why it wouldn't have been possible to have beer vendors have separate opportunities to purchase a serving of beer instead of just doing the mini samples for people with wristbands. read more

I think the people who rated this event low had no idea what they were rating. It's $30 for UNLIMITED beer tasting which last for FOUR hours. So yeah, cups are small 3 oz pours so you can try many beers without having to pour out and waste a lot of beer that you don't like if you got a pint. Yeah, people pour out beer when it's unlimited. Does it matter if it's 3 oz if it's UNLIMITED? Lines for beer was never very long all night, we never waited more than 5 mins. Best thing was they didn't run out of beer like other beer events I've been to. Live band in the main area with chairs in front facing the street, a huge dance floor under a tent and a cool grassy area with 2 different DJs. DJs and band were great. You didn't need the wristband to enter the music /beer area. You only need it to get beer, of which there were plenty of tasty options. Not enough tables? You've got to be kidding, what festival have you been to where there were dozens of banquet tables, cocktail tables and sitting areas that fill all available space? The location is not in a 20 acre field but an avenue and plaza. We never had a problem finding a table to have our food all night. Just be willing to share with strangers who become friends. Rate the slow food stand, not the festival. How is it the festivals fault that a stand is slow? No one said this was a gourmet event. Food stands of various quality is the norm at any event. So are long wait times when food is cooked on the spot, unless you want room temp pre-made food. I admit, some stands needed to be more efficient but I've experienced worse at other events. Prices were not the best deals but not unexpected for a festival. Don't take it literally that this is like Oktoberfest because no event is like Oktoberfest, you'll have to pay the price to get to Munich (which I highly recommend, wee worth it). This is a community beer event with a riff on Oktoberfest to support the COMMUNITY. Overall well run event. Security /police were prominent without being intrusive. No ruckus at the event with drunk people. Cleanup crew kept the place clean all night, not waiting til the end of the event. As you know, there are people who are not always very considerate about cleaning up after themselves. Did I mention free parking? read more

See all

The Dumpling festival claims that it's comparable to Oktoberfest, but I was a bit disappointed. There were about 10-15 food trucks and some of them didn't even have dumplings. The lines were not regulated and not a lot of tables/chairs to sit down to eat. Parking was really difficult to find as well. There is also a $30 alcohol-sample wristband closed-off section. It felt really segregated because the stage was in that closed-off section and all the music/entertainment was on that side also. read more

Beer tasting requires that you taste and smell the beer. but this past Friday, the fest was on but a horrible odor radiated throughout the event. it was Stinky Tofu. I get it that some people enjoy it, but the smell or rotten poop did not make the event a joyful one. Eventbrite required people to buy their tickets to this event online in advance. When walking up to the event, I thought the City of San Gabriel had broken sewer lines, but no, it was that stinky tofu truck. I've asked the beer vendors to protest and to not allow that truck near the event for next year. I mean, come on, who wants to smell crap while you're enjoying good beer?! read more

This event was really awesome The dumplings were real good The Bulgogi burrito was amazing And most importantly the beer tasting garden was amazing since there were games for everyone to play I will definitely come again next year! read more

Nice time at the San Gabriel Dumpling & Beer Fest 2016! A bunch of beer choices and multiple food trucks and booths. Good live music from band called Cold Duck! Lots of Police and Fire personnel present to relax you and help you feel safe. Only negative was it's on a Thursday! read more

See all

The event was a nice location, but the parking and route to get around was just horrible. Took me a while just to get out of the street to find parking around the other side of the lot and the limited/ unlimited beer tasting ticket is not worth it. You can barely get anything before they ran out or even closed. I was only able to get 6 drinks out of a "5oz mug." Overall, there were good amount of food selections, but beer tasting was not worth it. It is less expensive to just buy a few flights from a local brewery. read more

San Gabriel Dumpling & Beer Fest - Norigami Soft shell crab tacos. - Festivals Near Me - San Gabriel, California

Got there right at 6pm so parking wasn't a problem for me. Unlimited beer ticket was sold out so I got the limited, but to be honest you don't want to buy the unlimited because limited had enough tickets to enjoy yourself; plus the lines were long towards the middle and end of event so it's not like you can get beer after beer unless you got there early like I did. Food was good but long wait. Over all it was really fun and everyone was super nice! Loved it, and I'll probably go again for sure. read more

San Gabriel Dumpling & Beer Fest - Festivals Near Me - San Gabriel, California

Small line of food trucks, very few specialized in dumplings but had some dumpling selection. Example, Nathans which is not known for asian dishes had some duck chili dumpling. It had no one trying it for obvious reasons. Only a few actual dumpling places and on average they were all overpriced (6 dumplings for 8 bucks kind of deal). For the 40 dollar beer sampling ticket, you get one small 6oz beer and samplings of a very limited selection of brews from sapporo and anchor steam. You could get a few decent six packs of quality local brews for the same amount. Overpriced, limited selection, cramped and lame. I would hardly classify it as dumpling fest and even less as a beer fest. It is a blatant cash trap and definitely not worth the time, even if they get some d list youtubers out read more