LA Street Food Fest

It pains me to have to give LA Street Food Fest ONE star but they really deserve it after a chaotic, disappointing and unsafe event.
This year was my third year in a row attending this event. The first time I went in 2012 was an absolute dream; what a fantastic event! After that, I would rave about this event to anyone that would lend me an ear. I was SO excited to attend this year and was met with horrible, horrible disappointment.
— We stood in a ridiculously long line just to get in only to realize that no one was even regulating the line nor scanning any tickets.
— Upon entering, we were bombarded with an immense crowd. The lines to get food were incredibly crowded throughout the entire event and did not give any space for people to walk through. It felt very unsafe.
— By 6:45pm there were many vendors that were already out of food. The event is supposed to go on until 10:00pm, how is that possible?
I have been to many different foodie festivals and have never encountered anything as terribly organized as this. What happened, guys? I LOVED your event in past years.
Unfortunately, they have lost a very loyal fan and supporter. I did my best to have a good time since we had shelled out $ 100+ to be there but I will not be attending again unless I know for a fact it is nothing like it was last night. I feel as though I was cheated out of money and was not rendered services advertised.

Well, so sad to report that my 23 yr old son actually had to be hospitalized due to the food poisoning for 4 days! And yes, it was confirmed to be food poisoning! He is a competitive road cyclist and thus extremely fit so for something to hit him like this is significant! Must have been some ugly bacteria! Of course, we have no way of knowing! I don’t think he will go again next year somehow…

Potential, and the ability to get way cooler.
Ok, so LA Street Food Fest was 75% awesome, and here’s why. Starting in the Latin section was probably the best move that could be made. The star of the show was found right off the bat after a couple of strikes. Pinches tacos, and the stall with the huarache (pardon if not spelled right) style salmon carpaccio left the palate wanting. Luckily, on the third try Mariscos La Mazateno was found, and I would drive to another country just to get more of these banging Baja California style treats. The motto for them must be, «do one thing, and do it well». TJ here I come! Another notable mention is El Chago, as well as the good olé standby Jarritos. Jarritos, I have to say, you saved me from the harsh wrath of Don Nacho, and his micro pouring minions. The folks at Loteria grill made some delicious torta action, along with a tasty Chile relleno. They did throw an unexpected curve ball by using mango in their margaritas, instead of the watermelon that was listed in the preview. Also good was Saritas Pupuseria, and Diablo Tacos for the popsicle. The Ceviche Project made a good taco too. Oh, and Casa Oaxaca, I love what you’re doing, but it needs some fine tuning. Keep it up, I’m watching the cool things you all are doing. The Rose Ice Milk was fun, and the Jamaica should be just a touch sweeter.
One notable burn that must be made, is Bull Tacos. The Oinkster Quadfecta sounds amazing, but the chicharones tasty like gummy worms, and the porks were just not cooked right. Please don’t get my hopes up with a rocking sounding name, then fall so flat on your face on delivery.
Moving out the Latin section section we find the American fare. The wings were delicious, thank you LA Wing Company, your first batch was delicious, your second was not bad either. Yes, I had to go back for more. Fig jam, and 3 cheeses was awesome, you did the grilled cheese justice. Cassell’s burgers, keeping the basics real, keep up the good work. Those are the notable ones, the rest weren’t bad, but just decent. Oh, there were two that were horrible. What was that hockey puck of a chicken nugget thing? Omg, I might’ve cracked a tooth if I hadn’t been careful. Where did your collard greens go? Also, Faith & Flower, seriously, you gave me what looked like a used cup with leftovers in it. A berry, a smear of yogurt, and like a flake or two of granola. Fail, you are on my never visit list. Btw, One Veg World… I really like vegan food, but that grilled jackfruit mess needs work. Lastly, the moron award goes to the BA that decided to blare the bullhorn right into the ears of potential customers. Thank you for the hearing impairment Churchkey, you’ll never see me near your place after that.
Ahh, into Asian cuisine we delve. Sticky Rice, you were yummy, Bling Bling dumpling, I will be looking for your truck, you had my attention at Korean. Mama Masubi, I’m sorry, but that was not your best work, I’m disappointed. See you at the 626 night market, apparently you make better food when people are paying full price. Singha beer, always good. Panni Puri did just not taste and smell right, maybe another try, in another place. Health-​Ade Kombucha, I’m very cool with your work. That Aussie place was forgettable, I mean hell, they served it in pizza boxes.
Dessert, this has only one shining star. Choctal, this stuff is amaze balls! Thank you for being awesome. Oh, and kudos to the Filipino crew, but put condensed milk in your halo halo next time… You know what I mean!
Lastly, love the Mariachi, hated the DJ. Plus napping on the greens of the Rose Bowl was the best! Califia farms kudos to your staff, they are good. See you next year, hopefully Colorado donuts makes more Ube donuts!

Love the Boxed water and Chill fizzy cans that kept is cool and hydrated. Warm though not HOT and overcrowded like last year’s. The vendor booths were spread out this year. Whilst it makes for more breathing room, you go have to walk more. I only went thru half on one side of the bowl before duties called.
The popular booths had long lines but most booths, we pretty much had no wait or 2 – 3 ppl ahead of us. There were some good bites, some wow bites and some so-​so bites:
— The Church Key’s Pig Ear Cheetohs with Guacamole Espuma was light and melt-​in-​your-​mouth goodness and I don’t even like pig ears!
— Tom’s Urban’s 3 Cheese & Fig jam was delish
— Bachi Burger’s Kalbi burger was tasty, though way too salty…
— Comfort LA’s chicken wing was a nice fried bite while waiting in line
— Komodo’s Chicken Liver pâté on toasted Vietnamese French baguette was super yummy, my #3 fav of the night
— Status Kuo’s sticky rice was nothing special
— Scratch Bar & Gadarene Swine’s bite was my #2 fav: Green mussel and sea urchin sake shooter!
— Bling Bling Dumpling’s BBQ chicken dumpling was okay… I prefer my dumplings with soy and hot sauce
— Sweetfin Poké’s bites with siracha ponzu sauce, hijiki, avocado aweved over bamboo rice was tasty and as fresh as poke can be in this outdoor setting.
— Newport Seafood’s special lobster was ‘special’ but super messy and time consuming to eat
— Oh la la… Monsieur Madame! My #1 pick! I could gobble those Foie Gras bites all nite! Frozen foie gras was shaved over toasts of melting cheese & jambon (ham), pure magic!
— Mama Masubi’s Truffle tuna masubi barely had any truffle whiff.
— Pop’d Up’s artisan Popsicles were a welcome cold treat on this hot day. We tried Thai Coffee with Boba and Lychee Peach. And we went for seconds a couple hours later: pineapple basil and Thai Tea with boba! Yum!
— Salt & Straw’s sea salt & caramel and Rojo Mole Flan were super yummy
— Casa Oaxaca’s Nieve de Petalos de Rosa (rose petal ice cream) was heavenly!
— Arroyo Thai’s spicy pork belly tostadas had tiny bites of pork belly buried under the condiments, kinda disappointing
— Fred 62’s ahi tuna poke onigiri and warm rice ball with spicy tuna was flavorful and filling!
We were too stuffed to get to much of the sweet stuff such as donuts, cookies, cakes, etc. Maybe next year we’ll come prepared with a to-​go box.

Wow — they got it right this year!
It does take awhile to get in but I started at 5:30 which was half an hour after
the GA tickets started getting in and had no problem eating everything I wanted.
Nothing was sold out and if you used your smarts and did your research before
you arrived — you would know, as I did, exactly what booths to go to!
The longest line I was in was 5 minutes — but I didn’t go to eat burgers! I had amazing
seafood, drinks, and tons of dessert and will definitely be going to some of the places
with brick and mortar spots. I actually asked a few vendors for ½ portions because
I was too full!
Can’t wait until next year…

This was my 3^rd year attending.
TIPS:
+Personally I don’t know that I’d enjoy this event with regular GA passes. The VIP with early entry limited to 1500 is the way to go. When doors open to GA some vendors are already out of food.
+Even so, arrive early. A line of 1500 people is a LONG line. It’s not like 1500 people can get through the (limited, could easily be expanded, 3 tiny entry lanes). We arrived 45 min early and waited. We were in with in about 15 – 20 min of doors opening.
** VIP entrance is a different area than regular
** Parking is free. If you have vip, park near there.
+Research. Look up all the vendors participating to see what places you can eliminate from your wishlist. You really want to try and focus on a few key MUST TRY places. The lines get long fast.
COMMENTS:
Research: 2015 fail = no comprehensive vendor list.
In 2014 they listed all the vendors and what they were serving. They had a map that showed EACH vendor location by booth number. This was AWESOME. This made planning fast and easy. In 2015 they only linked to the vendors websites where you have no idea what they will be serving or sometimes not even sure what area they will be placed in (Latin, Asian, American, etc). This year was torture trying to guess. Also, for some reason most of the vendors didn’t even have signs of what they were serving so you had to either wait in line to find out or wait in line and hopefully your pig out partner could go to the front to verify if they had something you wanted or could eat (I’m pescetarian).
Scanning: 2015 win.
This year they actually scanned the tickets. Kudos. The last 2 years prior, anyone could have used the same ticket printed over and over again to get in. This I’m sure added to the over crowdedness.
Lines: 2015 win.
Even though the line to get in was long, there really were not too many long lines during the early entry period. A few hot spots perhaps, but since I had no idea what they were serving, i guess i missed out.
Vip lawn Area: 2015 ?? lose?
So the inside rosebowl lawn was for vips? it was hot, empty, no shade, nothing. There were I think 3 vendors (1 was WIN WIN WIN on the tootsie roll cocktails) the others were far, barf jello shots).
VIP scratch bar area: WIN. nice area, tables, shade, food/​cocktails. Delicious
No Shows: lose. a few empty no show vendor spots
Where?: lose. a few places on the vendor list that were just non existent after multiple trips back and forth the entire venue. Or maybe just complete lack of signage, but I think they just didn’t show up.
FOOD: +/​-​Not as many great options as years past, but it «might» have been due to the fact I could not focus and hit certain places and wasted time going to each booth.
WINNERS: Greenspans’ Grilled Cheese (wow who knew fig jelly on grilled cheese could be so good). Mariscos el Mazateno shrimp taco’s!!! Colorado Donuts, Church Key (cocktails & donut). Salt & Straw and also Mcconnells ice cream win for best ice cream ever. A couple top chef’s had some WIN too! A ton of other yummy/​ok stuff.
tl;dr, sorry

Not worth the price of $ 60. We think $ 40 would be a more reasonable price for the quality & taste of the food offered there.
We had a good time but the food was not that great.
We went in around 5:30pm no line like at the beginning but we just didn’t find much food that was all that great to us. The sandwiches at this truck were the best & the tequila from green bar craft distillery was good but that’s about we all agreed on.

People will say to pay the «extra» for the VIP ticket. I suggest you DO NOT do that.
I came in with a game plan! Yes you heard right, divide and conquer!
Came here with my boo and we would find lines that had a close amount of people standing in line. We each stood in a line and waived to each other. When I got to the front, I would point over to my bf who was just a few steps away and ask if I could take one for him. No one said no to me and we got to try pretty much everything with NO VIP pass.
Now, if you have never been, you will think that this is a HUGE event, sorry to inform you that it is not. Too much hype and advertisement suggesting you «get there early» or what not. No, please refer to my first set of instructions. Not many vendors and the portions are a little bigger than Costco! Careful to not fill up on the ice cream and sweets, unless that’s your thing. The actual food trucks and stalls have lines! Remember the strategy. ALSO, if you have been there once, that’s enough. One of those, been there done that things.

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!

Street food fest 2015
The organizers are clearly reading reviews and making attempts to improve the event and that is a positive thing. I think most of these reviews stem from people who don’t normally go to these kinds of events and therefore don’t know what to expect.
PRO TIP#1 This is like Disneyland, it’s expensive, it’s hot, there are tons of people, and you spend most of your time in line. If you can deal with that, go, if not, don’t go.
PRO TIP #2 This is like any food/​drink event. Again, it’s EXPENSIVE. When you pay at the door and everything inside is free, they will run out, its only a question of when. Have a strategy, expect food to run out, & plan accordingly.
PRO TIP #3 Do your research, find out which vendors you would like most and go to those first because again, they will run out of food.
PRO TIP #4 This isn’t an experience for small children, they’ll whine and slow you down, leave them with a sitter.
PRO TIP #5 This is a tasting event, expect bites, not meals at each station.
PROTIP #6– once again, If it says 5,000 tickets will be sold, you should expect crowds, plan accordingly.
We had the VIP experience.
$ 90PP is steep. But you get in earlier and see less people. The food and vendors are fresh and friendly.
Ticket limits don’t count the children under 7, who are free. So while they limit tickets, children can affect the final number and crowding.
We got the 21 and over wrist bands while waiting in line, no separate check in, this was a great idea and gave us something to do while we waited. I appreciated not having to go to another line to do this.
We got in at the VIP time and there were a few vendors not ready to serve and a few booths with signs, but no vendors.
There was PLENTY OF WATER– Love the boxed water, it was EVERYWHERE! We were able to hydrate NICELY.
This is not a vegan or vegetarian event. Limited meat free/​dairy free options, don’t be surprised.
The field was open, it was a nice place to relax
There were also a few spots with tables chairs and umbrellas, also very nice.
I found a ton of great food and beverage vendors, I liked how the beverages were mostly throughout the food areas, not clumped like dessert and coffee. I didn’t try as many desserts or coffees because they were clumped together and I couldn’t taste 5 different coffees in a row. A better option would have been to position them throughout the event. It would also help with the spacing of lines through certain popular areas.
We brought hats and sunscreen, it was hot, but we dressed appropriately, had a great time, and were done by the time they let the general ticket holders in. If you’re not a fan of crowds, go VIP, go EARLY, bring an umbrella and wait in line. If they sell 1500 VIP tickets. You still don’t want to be at the end of that line…
I enjoyed it, but I don’t see myself paying $ 100 pp to do it again, I noted my favorite vendors and will go straight to them.
SUGGESTIONS:
–KIND bars, hand out bars, not pieces of bars. Way to go FIG bars for getting that right.
–tell the people there will be vendors selling things like balloon animals and flower crowns, (someone should sell parasols and hats/​sunscreen next year) I didn’t bring cash because I didn’t know there would be shopping opportunities.
— Signs would be nice, we had to ask around to find the right entrance, tho if you waited long enough you would see the line.
–VIP lounges should all have seating
–The girls scanning the tickets need a little training on how to do so and how to recognize when the code is for 3 tickets, not just one and vice versa. Doing so incorrectly could result in allowing way too many people into the event for free.
— The girl in the VIP ticket area who let in 4 of her hipster boho friends for free, totally disappointing. How do I know they didn’t pay? Lets see, they walked up to the front of the line, waited a few minutes and were called in by name past everyone else who waited. Do that discreetly somewhere else, not in front of the people who paid $ 90pp.
— The parking lot was scary when leaving, no order or direction, cars driving wherever they wanted. More security is needed.
— Find a bigger venue, the loop around the bowl was congested even at VIP hour, the parking lot would’ve offered more space, though it would’ve been harder to control.

This event should be called the LA WAIT Fest. If you want to drink, you need to figure out which to go to to get wristbands. There’s no signs to let you know which line to wait. Once you get the wristband, you then have to wait in line AGAIN to get in. Its going to take over an hour to get in and thats before even doing any tastings. This is probably a delay tactic from the organizers to restrict you from tasting as much food as possible. You have a window of 3 hours and 60% of the time is spent waiting.
Read all the reviews before coming here. If you like waiting in line, waste 60 bucks then this events for you.

I have been going every year since it started. So fun. We always go VIP and leave at 6 or so when it starts getting crazy. Super fun, super tasty… it is HOT SO WEAR SUNSCREEN! See you there!

Worst LA event I have EVER been to. DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY. This is SUCH A SCAM. They oversell it and when you finally do get in, there’s no food left.
It was so bad last year, there was an online group devoted to getting our money back. Got there an hour early and didn’t even get in until an hour after the event started. It was completely unorganized and people were just walking in without tickets, making it SUPER CROWDED. Vendors ran out of food before we even got in. RIDICULOUS.
DON’T DO IT.

Love the event! I went last year and it was amazing ya you have to wait in 5 – 10 min lines whatever every things free once you get in.

What a huge flaming piece of horses – t. DO NOT GO. I repeat DO NOT GO. My boyfriend, one of my best friends and I bought normal passes ahead of time online and all we got were a bunch of headaches and empty stomachs.
We got there about 30 min early and were greeted by the longest entrance line I have ever seen into the place. Even when the event started, it took like 30 min to even GET IN.
Then we were in, it was wall to wall people. If you hate crowds, your irritation level will shoot through the roof. Do you like Disneyland? Imagine Disneyland and Disneyland lines… but… without the rides. Or, rather, rides that last 2 milliseconds. This is no exaggeration. In some areas you had to take baby steps and push people out of your way – that’s how crowded it was.
They make it sound like it is AYCE but it is not. Yes, in a way it is AYCE… but it is more like All-​You-​Can-​Manage-​To-​Get or All-​You-​Can-​Scrounge-​Up, rather than All-​You-​Can-​Eat.
There were just WAY TOO MANY people. It would have been a nightmare if I were claustrophobic. Inside, we waited anywhere from 5 min to 30 min to get food. It was more the latter. The first hour we only managed to get like 3 or 4 pieces of food. Keep in mind, this place is open for like 3 – 4 hours and the last hour barely counts as ½ of the vendors have run out of food at that point.
Keep that in mind with the fact that most of the vendors aren’t using this as an advertisement event (which again, is what the promoters make it sound like). It looks like the vendors are actually trying to turn a profit so some of the vendors took their SWEET TIME preparing food, as if the slow down how fast they’ll run out of food. I’d rather they pass it out all fast and run out then waste everyone’s time by dilly dallying.
As for the vendors, I could not fault the trucks for just giving what they normally make. Some vendors had some cheapy offerings which was annoying. The only few restaurants that actually seemed like they made a real effort (of course of the ones I ended up trying) were Union, Picnik, Starry Kitchen, and one that served shrimp tacos (I forget the name).
Especially Picnik. I must say THANK YOU PICNIK for actually trying to make an interesting offering! If I owned a restaurant, I would have tried something similarly. Additionally Picnik took a bit to cook but I didn’t mind because they were ACTUALLY COOKING unlike everyone else who were doing some easy toss 3 things together dishes but still taking forever… I will definitely making a trip to that restaurant as the fact that they made an effort and had good food implies their restaurant is good.
Some fast/​cheap ones were actually quite good and gave quite a bit – I did like the Italian restaurant’s strawberry basil lemonade. They gave a fair bit and it was very refreshing and more than a thimbleful which was nice.
The second best offering there was the shrimp taco stand with the diablo sauce. Clean, simple, done very well – we were very impressed. Union had some nice roast pork that was memorable and the only other memorable thing was this sandwich place that had nice candied nut and brie sandwiches. Those ladies were nice too…
Everyone wanted to get the churro item but the line was so long everyone was put off so we avoided it.
The worst item we had was that greek salad from that truck in the beginning. The salad was lame as well as the dressing and the chicken was super super dry and tasteless. LAME.
It was very frustrating if you were thirsty. There was some Kombucha and Honest Tea but they gave tiny bits and I’m sure they wouldn’t have liked if I went in like 10 times to get a decent amount of liquid in my body. There surprisingly were bigger cups for the free booze which makes absolutely no sense. There was a stand with Mexican soda but all the cooled ones were taken and they taste awful and sulfur-​y at normal temperature so I drank half and threw the rest away. Alternatively there was some cold coffee – all cold-​pressed – so that seemed okay. I was amused no one offered ice coffees (i.e. with milk). That would have been nice. Again, though, I’m assume it’s because of the cold-​press craze + they are trying to save money by not buying milk.
The ONLY way I sort of saved our group from certain failure was the fact that I calmed everyone down and just looked for the shortest lines along the way. Requires a sharp eye but then at least you can get SOME food items instead of none. You of course have no choice in the matter – you take what you can get – but at least we weren’t hungry.
My advice to you – save your $ 55 and go to M-​Grill – a high quality AYCE Brazilian Churrascaria/​steakhouse and one of my favorite restaurants. Trust me, you’ll get like 10x the food, 5x the quality of food and be 500% more satisfied.

Much like some of the other comments from this year, I have to admit, the LA Street Food Fest this year was a complete mess compared to the previous year.
Last year, I had a terrific time at the Food Fest where vendors didn’t have too hard of a time sharing their food (with small to medium size portions) and a great open field to walk around and enjoy without too much crowding. This year, much of this changed.
(This review is written from a General Admission experience by the way.)
–So I get it, the venue had a last minute renovation change which prevented the use of the field. However, there are better solutions that what was implemented here. This includes having multiple entrances for people to funnel in and out of; better management of lines so patrons can actually move through to other areas (only one staff member actually was able to do this with several of the lines at the end); and better ticketing control (again, whoever was guarding the front gates took any ticket sheet or just simply looked at smartphones without any scanning or ID). I would suggest as well to please not tell patrons that the event is sold out and then sell extra tickets at the front gate.
–Sure, there were a couple of short lines… if you mainly were aiming for most of the dessert items. Many of the lines took 20 – 30 minutes (with the most popular vendors having lines of 30 – 60 minute waits) for usually really small portion sizes. Vendors also seemed overworked as the venue just seemed over-​ridden with patrons. More of a problem relating to the first point, people loved to cut in line or simply just hover around the front of a truck and just snatch food.
–The alcohol lines… my friend and I just completely avoided. Much like the most popular spots, those lines seemed like a fairly big waste of time unless you wanted to wait half an hour (or more) to get a small glass of beer or wine. And I had to love our luck getting to the tequila tasting at the very end (which still had lines) and having one vendor tell us he couldn’t serve us because he was prevented from serving alcohol, only to have the other tequila vendors continue to let users taste. Wacky.
–Speaking of weird things preventing us from eating/​drinking, most vendors ran out of food by about 8:30PM or earlier. You could be walking around and see empty booths or vendors chilling/​walking around as they had no more food to serve. At this point, those that are still serving food had even longer lines. Although I noticed one DJ playing in the middle of the day, he was gone by around the same time as when much of the food ran out and only a few vendors had some music playing from their own vehicles.
–Parking was all over the place. With no direction, drivers were kind of all over the place. The greatest part? I came back to where I parked after the event and I was pinned in from all sides. (sigh)
So long story short, the event was a nightmare. More staffing; more creative solutions (staggering the attendee list?); and more transparency are needed for me to consider coming back again in the future. :(

I would love to give this event 4 stars but it was so crowded you could hardly walk and the set up was poorly done. We were told last year they had the field open but this year it was closed off. You had to cross through the lines people were waiting in to get through the crowd. And the line to get in to the actual event was very long. We arrived early but still waited 45 minutes to get in.
Other than that, it was really fun! Everything we tried was SO good. Lot’s of great food trucks and drinks. It was best to make your way to the back first where it was less crowded then work your way back to the front. The 4 hour time frame was enough to pretty much try everything.
The sushi at Sushi Roku was very good and the crab was so fresh. I also loved the ice cream at ice cream lab. The best ice cream I’ve ever tried! I also enjoyed the Stella tent because it wasn’t that long and the beer was good. I would recommend just paying extra to be VIP so you can get in the venue earlier before you get packed in like sardines after 6pm. My favorite part was the photo booth where you could Instagram a picture using their hashtag and they would print it out for you. Genius idea!!!

Just like many of the other Unilocalers 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.

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!

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 Unilocal 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.