Mac Off

My husband and I were absolutely looking forward to this event. Never having attended one of the previous mac-​offs, we didn’t know what to expect. The website looked great but was pretty tight lipped about logistics details (map of the area to expedite mac and cheese getting, detailed information about tickets as in how many tickets things were expected to cost) so I crossed my fingers and hoped things would go smoothly.
Alas, it was terrible. Parking was easy — we paid the nominal fee to park in the lot — but it really all went downhill from there. First, getting our tickets checked and in the gate was a mass of confusion though we were lucky enough to have printed our advance tickets out vs showing them on the smart phone. Also, a tip to the organizers — if you’re expecting groups of people to be lining up in certain areas, try elevating your signs so people can more easily find the table they need to be at.
Of course after waiting and wading through the crowd to get into the event, you get to wait some more to buy tickets! Thankfully we only dropped $ 20 at the ticket booth because the lines were so long and chaotic for anything we wouldn’t have had the patience to stay and use up more than that.
Overall it’s a great idea! But the execution was not the best to be polite. Also, all of the mac and cheese contestants seemed to be restaurants based in Mount Pleasant which made the CHARLESTON Mac-​Off ads a little misleading.

Ok, so I lined up 45 minutes early because I had gone to the Mac Off last year and knew the lines would be outrageous within an hour. I had all of the Mac and Cheese samples within the first 30 minutes I was there and hardly had any wait, so my experience was actually quite pleasant.
That being said the average person should not have to show up 45 minutes early to have a pleasant time at an event such as this.
The event coordinators seem to be listening to everyone’s complaints, so I am hopeful that next year they can pull it off better. I am sure I will attend again.

Disasterous. The Mac Off is probably the least organized event I’ve ever attended.
The ATMs were broken, the crowds were large and disorganized, and a lot of places ran out of mac-​n-​cheese. By the time we paid an entrance fee and an ATM convenience fee, the math works out that I paid approximately $ 10 per ramiken of macaroni. We didn’t even get to try most of the mac-​n-​cheese competitors because the lines were so long and we were starting to get hangry.
It wasn’t a total loss because the weather was beautiful and the Jack Johnson cover band was great. Also, the Firefly vodka lines were a lot shorter than the mac-​n-​cheese lines and they had pony rides for the kids.
Basically I left hungry and broke and the Mac Off was a pretty big fail. Technically it could be considered somewhat of a success because I got Coleman Public House macaroni for dinner the next night. Let’s just say I’m not clamoring to go back next year.

This year’s event was ridiculously busy! We arrived right at 2:00 and it was as busy then as it was at 4:00 last year. Make sure you buy your entrance tickets ahead of time — we didn’t have to wait in any line and just walked right in. (The cost for the event is $ 10 entrance ahead of time or $ 15 at the door plus $ 1 for each mac and cheese tasting.) There were a lot of people there from 2:00 — 3:00, but no mac and cheese sample line took more than 5 minutes. We left by 3:30, and by then, there was a HUGE line just to enter, and I heard that places sold out of mac and cheese soon after. They definitely had way more people than anticipated, but just go early and you’ll have a great time!

Long lines, huge crowds, very disorganized. I have been to this event every year they have had it and this was by far the worst. the first few years they had Mac and Cheese from a lot of well known places and the crowds were not too bad. Now they have huge lines for samples from places no one has ever heard of. Way to crowded, awful parking. Never going back unless they do something drastic to fix it,

I’m sure this is the first of many low reviews the Mac Off will get this weekend, sadly.
Where do I even begin?
Thinking I was being smart and cost savvy, I purchased my tickets in advance online. I didn’t think to print them out because there are the days of technology and paper saving. Boy, I sure wish I had. The line for people who had their tickets pulled up on their phone was longer than the line for people who did not have tickets at all. Seriously, people who didn’t even have a ticket when they got there got into the event before I did.
After 20 minutes in line, we get in. The place is packed. It is so terribly laid out that you had no option but to cut across the lines that have formed for the various booths to get anywhere. We decide I will wait in beer line while my boyfriend waits in line to get tasting/​food/​alcohol tickets. He gets to the front of his line, tries to cash in $ 40 for 40 tickets, and is told sorry, we’re out of tickets. Someone just left to go get more. We ended up getting the last 16 tickets — sorry folks behind us.
We spent 2 hours here, and only got to sample 3 different mac and cheeses because the lines were so ridiculous. What a waste of time and money.
To the organizers of this event — please, I hope you read these reviews. This event was TERRIBLY run and TERRIBLY organized. It has clearly outgrown the venue, and you either need to put a cap on the number of guests allowed in, or organize the event so that the lines aren’t ridiculously long and in the way of everything.

This is hands down the worst event I have ever been to. It took us over an hour to find parking, walk to the event, get cash, and get our wristbands. Once we were finally able to enter, we then had to wait in a long line to get tickets. Our impression was that all food and drinks had to be paid with tickets. We found this was not the case after I threw my money away on tickets. $ 1 equals 1 ticket. 1 ticket equals 1 mac and cheese sample.
First I waited in line for Crave. After 10 minutes of waiting, I found out they ran out, but someone from the restaurant was coming to deliver more. You mean to tell me I’m waiting 10 minutes plus delivery time for an ounce of food?! Meanwhile, Crave was also selling full size portions for CASH — not tickets. If they had enough left to keep selling big bowls full of mac and cheese, why didn’t they use that for the samples people already paid for! In that sense, I feel like they were double dipping.
My next line took 15 – 20 minutes to get a sample. It was so disorganized that I don’t even know what restaurant it came from.
The line after that was for Coleman Public House. After waiting in line 10 – 15 minutes, my husband went to the front to find out why the line wasn’t moving. It was because they had just started boiling water to make more. WHAT?!
Some friends brought us a sample from another line and it was so disgusting I only ate half of it. In the end, we all just wanted to get out of there, so we spent what was left of our tickets on booze, chugged it, and got the heck out of there.
Everyone that attended deserves a refund. I will NEVER be back. I bet every single person that attended feels the same way.

I’m not giving 3 stars for the mac n cheese, I’m giving 3 stars for the Mac Off event. Event was from 2pm — 7pm, and I arrived around 3pm and left around 6pm. Paid for VIP parking near the Fish House, which was not really VIP parking because there was hardly anyone there monitoring it. Hitched a ride on the Ganja Wagon to the ticket counter where we showed our pre-​printed tickets and got wrist bands. No clear path to let us know which line to go to though, so we tried a few before finding the right counter. Once inside, we had to buy tickets to sample the food, to use for drinks, and other such goodies ($ 1 = 1 sample, and the sample varies in size by vendor). Other attractions inside were cash only. The issue that I have with the Mac Off isn’t with the vendors (chefs) or the food itself (which was awesome, and I’m currently suffering from a calorie induced coma), it’s with the way in which it was every man, woman, and child for themselves when it came to standing in line for the samples. No clear indication of which line was for which sample table, and you didn’t really know what you were waiting in line for unless the grapevine shared with you what they thought we were waiting for (obviously we were waiting for mac n cheese, but what was in it?). I’m not even going to complain about the wait time, because as it was long, it wasn’t as bad as the disorganization and quest for queso. Several lines were waited in for 20+ minutes before finding out that the mac n cheese sample at that counter was out, and that it would be some time before it was restocked. Overall, I’m very happy with what I consumed, but having gone with my family (two kids and wife), I am left wishing that there was more organization to help this flow more smoothly. Here’s to hoping that the 7^th annual event will allow me to upgrade my stars to 4 or 5 :-) Live long and Mac Off.

The location of this year’s Mac Off was great! There was plenty of space and it was a gorgeous day! Tickets are $ 1 a piece and one sample is one ticket. The samples are a good portion so I only tried around 5 total. There was no seating so I would suggest bring chairs next year. Overall, a fun event.

First time going to this event, but we were very excited about it! We purchased the cheesy Mac pack (step down from vip) $ 30 for 2 tix and 20 tasting tix. The samples they give are definitely enough to share between 2 ppl. Other wise you are going to get full real fast on mac n cheese. Some vendors or there aren’t taking tickets so you have to get cash (sno cone lady). The lines for the vendors could be better organize.
The music was really great, I went and got their business cards and info so we could follow them and see them at other venues. All the Mac n cheese participants were great. My fave won!!!
Parking wasnt as bad as others said, seemed simple and straight forward to me. Definitely looking forward to next year

This has to be one of the most unorganized events I’ve ever been to. It all began with the parking for the event as there were no parking directions on the website and the very few signs that were around Patriots Point pointed to parking lots not anywhere near the event; we opted to keep driving and paid $ 5 to park in the parking lot of the Yorktown. Finding the event was slightly difficult because after parking we had to find the event and there no signs or event staff to point us in the right direction; luckily we did see the top of the admission /​will call tents. After getting to will call to pick up our tickets that were left for us there was a lot of confusion as to where our tickets were, they were not in the will call line under the letter of our last name and no one was really helpful; finally they called some chick over that looked like she was in charge and instead of putting admission tickets in under last name there was another will call named «will call list» where the tickets were, under our last name. We asked about our tasting tickets we expected to go with the admission tickets, but there was misunderstanding about the complementary tasting tickets and were told that we’d only get the admission ticket. After entering we to the tasting ticket tent, which wasn’t too easy to find and ended up talking the staff there into giving us each 10 tickets at no charge.
After getting our tasting tickets things went a little better. We got a couple of drinks from the beer tent and went around to taste a few mac-​n-​cheese dishes. The restaurants on hand all did a pretty good job slopping out their mac-​n-​cheese concoctions; some great and some about like as good as boxed. We both ended up voting for Poogan’s Porch; they had about the best mac-​n-​cheese I’ve ever had with smoked Gouda, ham, bacon, and chives. We were excited to try Crave since they won the previous year, but when we got it was like some noodles floating in cheesy soup; not sure why it was so highly ranked the year before. If we could have voted for 2^nd place it would have went to the Green Goat.
When tasting the mac-​n-​cheese dishes it was a little pain to do so, it’s a little hard to hold a drink in one hand and tub of mac-​n-​cheese in the other; you need a third arm and hand to eat with. It would have been nice if they had set up little tables throughout to put your drink down while you ate; another failure on the event staff.
After parking and tips we spent about $ 10 to $ 15 which was worth it, but I would really been upset had we actually paid the $ 20 price of general admission ($ 30 day of event) plus parking and tips. This event was not worth that. Three stars for the event music, beer gardens, and restaurants present. Zero stars for event organization.

I, like the other reviewers, was a little disappointed in this event. It really could have been so much better. We got there about half way through and the parking situation was completely haphazard. We had no idea where the actual event was located so we didn’t know what was a good spot and what wasn’t. There weren’t signs or personnel directing people and since Patriot’s Point has a lot going on, it just lead to a lot of confusion. Normally, I feel like you can just follow the crowd, but if you did that here, you could end up *gasp* at a soccer game instead of stuffing yourself with Mac N Cheese.
On the bright side, I didn’t experience the negatives that others did with customer service getting in. Will Call had our names and tickets (though I was confused as to why they would be at Will Call when I printed the tickets per my instructions?) and we were able to prance in uneventfully (after the debacle trying to find the place.)
I thought the organization inside was a little haphazard as well. Most tents had more than one vendors with Mac N Chz but the signage wasn’t always uniform or clear. Some places had other options and others didn’t, and again, it wasn’t always clear as to who had what and which line went where. Maybe it would have been better with short ropes separating the start of the lines for each section of the tent? That sentence doesn’t make sense. I could explain it in person. Probably. Perhaps the confusion was caused partially by the space being just too small for how much was going on and how many people were there. I got pretty claustrophobic. Also, several places had already run out of stuff when we got there around 4/4:30, which I find unacceptable considering the event went until 7. I also wish the vendors selling things would have taken tickets instead of being cash only — I’m looking at you, SnoCone lady…
I agree with other reviewers that there could have been little tables or something set up to help sample. I would also say there weren’t nearly enough trash/​recycling cans around either. We always had to hunt them down. Taste of Charleston a few weeks ago had hand sanitizer stations set up as well, which would have been nice as eating out doors can always get a little gross.
And I feel bad complaining about this one, but I’m gonna. Mac N Cheese is a very filling comfort food. Considering how many vendors there were, I don’t know how people were physically able to taste them all. My friend and I split a portion at each place and still didn’t even make it a third of the way through them all. And I can eat. Instead of troughs, they really should have been smaller portions.
All in all, I only spent $ 15, so I still say it was worth it because the weather was nice, but it was a disappointment simply because it could have easily been SO MUCH BETTER!
PS — Mosaic was my favorite — pimento mac n cheese, yum.

Ok event overall, but definitely not worth full price admission. Samples were all one ticket, each ticket $ 1, and trust me when I tell you that after 3 – 4 samples you will likely not eat mac and cheese for at least several fortnights. The parking situation seemed a little tricky, but we got there early enough that we didn’t have to deal with it — pretty sure most had to pay and take a shuttle though! After it was all said and done, if you planned to make a day of it, eating plenty of mac and having a few drinks, the VIP package was the best deal in my opinion. Why these food events charge admission is a bit silly to me, but at least with VIP you just paid and sampled/​drank whatever you wanted without worrying about tickets. I voted for the green goat, btw. Super delish.

If I could give the customer service I received at the Mac Off zero stars, I would.
As a Unilocal elite (full disclosure), I was offered 2 free entry passes along with 20 tasting tickets for the event. My husband and I were pretty excited for the Mac Off– excited enough to miss the 2^nd half of our football game and drive from West Ashley to go.
We got to will call to pick up our entry tickets, which we got. I asked about the tasting tickets, and we were directed to the lady in charge. Apparently, due to a «misunderstanding», we would not get the 20 tasting tickets promised, but we were welcome to go in and purchase tickets. The lady did not apologize or offer any sort of compromise.
The tasting tickets were cash only, with a fee-​based ATM on site. All the samples were 3 – 4 tickets ($ 3 – 4), even after paying the entry fee for those who paid. The macaronis were unique and the samples looked tasty. It seemed like a nice event as a whole.
But… based on the lady’s treatment, I wasn’t spending a dime at the Mac Off. I’m a stickler for customer service and treating people right– and if you have to, making things right.
The vendors don’t have anything to do with the Mac Off’s policies, but if I want their delicious macaroni, I’ll support their restaurants than support bad customer service and bad business practices.