OC Weekly’s Decadence

Food was great… service for valet sucks. We paid online for valet and didnt get any parking and had to park far and walk because we didnt see where the shuttles can pick us up. Note: thats how far we parked. Anyway, if they were more organized then maybe ill go again.

Let’s start with the good.
1. I was able to get half price tickets so it only cost us $ 30 for both of us, not $ 30 each.
2. We were first. We were the first to park at Saddleback. We were first to the shuttels and had our own luxury ride to the event. We were first into the event.
3. Smoqued BBQ and Asylum Tacos
Ok, so now for the not so good.
1. The venue was way too small and there were way too many people.
2. It was dark and not enough lighting, safety hazard. And vendors like Slaters could not see to prepare their food. Slaters was serving briquettes on a bun.
3. There were massive lines everywhere, we could not tell what line we were waiting in.
4. Several vendors ran out of food and left early.
5. Piles of garbage EVERYWHERE. It was like partying in a landfill. I should’ve taken pictures, but all the tables were piled 18″ high with garbage. The walls were covered in garbage. The trash cans were overflowing and piled high with garbage.
6. There was a map, but didn’t show where the vendors were. Had a heck of a time finding many of them.
7. Loud music and a dance floor that was packed with people trying to get through or into lines.
8. Some vendors served items that would not be available, like Wildflour Cupcakes were serving sheet cake. I know there is a huge difference between the taste, texture, density, and frosting of a sheet cake and cupcake.
9. No signage, not at Saddleback for parking, not at the event to find ones way around in the dark.
10. Nothing to drink but alcohol and coconut water.
11. No sinks at the restrooms to wash after. How does this meet health code?

Hey everyone, put this in your pipe and smoke it for once: The glass is half full.
Yep, this venue had some tight areas that certainly couldn’t accommodate for this size of crowd, there were girls dressed like they were going to prom walking through dust and dirt in high heels, and the absolutely vital parking information was buried in the website where (probably) few people bothered to look.
However, think about it: You all paid (at most) 30 bucks to get unlimited food tastings, as well as, let’s face it, not-​so limited drink tastings. Many people left this event completely obliterated. Let’s see you get that drunk (and full) for 30 bucks anywhere else. Additionally, many people (like myself) only paid half that price via Voice Daily Deals.
Was last year’s Decadence much better? For sure. But I more than got my money’s worth, discovered a cool new venue/​area that I never knew existed, and enjoyed my brisk summer evening immensely. I’d definitely go to Decadence again next year, I’d just make sure to verify the parking information before heading over there. Otherwise I might have to *gasp*, look it up on my smart phone.

FIRE HAZARD — Event was overcrowded where you can barely walk in and out of the courtyard. The venue itself was beautiful, but the set up of the vendors were too close to each other. The lines were insane and it was hard to enjoy the event where you are squished like sardines.
Site for sore eyes — TRASH! The trash piled up on every table in the courtyard, disgusting! The event definitely will need a clean up crew during the event next year. If they did have a clean up crew, please hire more!
Direction and signs were pretty much non-​existence; the entire entry was almost dark. Am I going to a haunted Decadence??? Scaaary!
The event would have been fantastic if they cut off 50% of the guest, please have a bigger venue or a better layout next year if the event will be be overbook. It will be much appreciated!
Venue was outdoors with hills included, ladies — wear flats! Overall, 2013’s OC Weekly Decadence was a miss for me, but I haven’t given up hope. Here’s to 2014!!!
PS — I heard folks that prepaid for valet ($ 18) were turned away towards an hour into the event, lawsuit? I feel bad for both parties; luckily, the shuttles service worked out perfectly (free). Phew!

First, there were shuttles available to take patrons from the Saddleback Church parking lot to the event site, which was up on some hills… some dark, dark hills. More on that later. There were no problems with the shuttles. There were plenty to go around and the wait was minimal.
Check in was also a breeze and we got there after 7pm, but once inside, I overheard people talking about food running out… I think I got a good amount of eats despite there being tons of lines for everything. It was obvious some vendors had to switch tactics and improvise smaller samples to make sure they had enough to last the night. Also I wish the vendors got together to discuss what they were going to make — or there was a sign-​up list at least so that there wouldn’t be so many repeats. There were a lot of tacos, meatballs and ceviches being handed out that night. However, I was introduced to a new fav: Confetti. And American Tavern in Anaheim served up the best sample I ate all night.
The location probably seemed cool in theory, but in reality, the pathways were narrow, lighting was extremely insufficient and the road was uneven! Let me just say: heels + walkways made of cobblestone, dirt, loose gravel and hills = disaster. A little forewarning would have been nice.
Overall, overhyped and oversold.

This is a toughie Unilocalers! I was a lucky winner of 2 free tickets via Unilocal.Oh so excited to go, it sounded fabulous! We bought a parking pass for valet, we dressed up, we arrived about 6:50 … and many things happened on the way to the circus. Oh wait it’s not a circus. But it was.
What was this supposed to be? Per website it was the 10^th Annual Decadence put on by OC Weekly. This year it was held at Rancho Las Lomas in Silverado Canyon, a resort and wildlife reserve. Limited valet parking, others could park at a church and shuttle over. Over 40 tastings of food and liquor, entertainment, dancing and cocktail attire, ladies encouraged to wear heals.
What was it actually? A sold out event, that was oversold, no organization, no signs, not near enough lighting, a backed up valet that actually turned people away who had pre-​paid and were supposedly guaranteed parking. Need more info?! I heard & have read others’ Unilocal reviews re the mass confusion of when/​where/​how re the shuttle. Food running out within an hour or so (for shame), long, long drink lines for teeny-​tiny, more like shots of alcohol, some people paid extra for «vip» and I heard grumblings of nothing VIP about it! If you didn’t arrive early, or at least before 7:00 pm, the check-​in was apparent mayhem with not a soul who had a fuc_​ing clue! The poor food vendors were practically cooking in the dark, massive overflowing trash (when you could find a trash receptacle), restrooms… what is that, apparently you should pee in the bushes like the wildlife. Lastly, some lines were so long that hubby and I skipped it and said we just couldn’t wait in another line.
Why 3 stars instead of 1 or 2: free tickets, so nothing out of pocket for us. Valet, which we did pay for, we got lucky and only waited about 10 minutes in line and then when we left, only waited about 5 minutes for the car. The venue itself was beautiful, the white tiger named Sumo was a magnificent beast, the parrots were chatting us up and there were some very worthy waiting-​in-​line tastes to be had: Ecco Pizzeria & Bar, delicious meatballs. Cream Pan totally went with «bring it on» & brought plenty of their ridiculously good strawberry croissants. Sailor Jerry Rum was practically giving a real full drink, choice of mai tai or lemonade. Taco Asylum was serving up «Ghost» chili pork tacos, so good, but so hot! They also had wild mushroom tacos, both full size and hubby loved the mushroom taco. I could go on, but these were some of the standouts for me. Some vendors had nothing, not even the taste you were supposed to get & some vendors clearly did not know what decadence means.
The word Decadence implies privilege, luxury and sin. Unfortunately this whole event had the potential to be MAJOR awesomeness. It just wasn’t. By the way, I didn’t get one dance, nor did I see any dancing.
Special shout out of love to my hubby, fellow Unilocaler Rohlin A. for creating this OC Weekly’s Decadence spot for review. Unilocal OC and the awesome CM Ryan, thanks for the win on tickets. Sorry we missed you Ryan! Thomas always great to hang with you for a bit and your friend Jen was fun.

This event was a real mixed bag from the moment we arrived. I purchased a Valet Parking pass online which allowed the lovely Laina and I to avoid the expected nightmare that was the shuttle service from Saddleback Church (Valet also got us out of the event in five minutes flat). Once Valeted, my better half had some problems navigating down the long steep incline to get to the location of the event (she wore a boot with heels because it was supposed to be a «dress to impress» event … not everyone read that memo either). The line to check in was chaotic and slow moving as well, the lists weren’t matching up with the tickets holders and when they asked my name when we presented our tickets, she didn’t even find my name on the list (because we didn’t buy our tickets) and just gave us our wristbands, brochures (which were needed to get drinks, but no one informed you of this necessity) and in we went.
Rohlinism: Expect the worse and pray for the best!
I have read some of the reviews and while there are some valid complaints which I will probably repeat, there are also some things that simply come with this kind of event. The number one rule of events like this which every Unilocaler should know: Get there early! The early bird gets the worm and the late bird gets a pile of dirt! We were early birds. We able to sample half the food vendors, half the alcohol vendors and enjoyed ourselves very much. I am not going to list all the vendors we were able to sample from, but I am going to mention some of the highlights and low lights of the event. When you walk in you immediately run into several vendors with the standouts being the meatballs (
) from Echo, the Sea Bass Ceviche (
) from (
), the Mai Tai and Backyard Lemonade from Sailor Jerry (
) and the Strawberry Croissants from Cream Pan (
). Next we moved up a level and stopped by to check out these two guys (
). The next vendors worth mentioning was Hen House Grill with their Meat Sandwiches (
) and the ladies pouring Grapefruit Vodka and Cranberry Juice shots for Finlandia Vodka:
(
)
Finlandia and Tilted Kilt both provided some eye candy at their respective stations which was quite smart.
Lest I forget Taco Asylum which had two tacos: The Ghost Chili Pork (
) and the Wild Mushroom (
) which were both delicious (although my wife had one bite of the Ghost Chili and her mouth was on fire for 10 minutes).
The wildlife was pretty cool too. Several parrots, a White Bengal Tiger (no pic … damn my lousy iphone) and a zebra (
). It was really good to hang with Thomas O. and Jennifer … sorry we couldn’t find Ryan in the humanity and apparently I stole all the available cell phone reception so he wasn’t getting any Unilocal notifications.
Now for the bad: They didn’t deal with the trash very well and there were piles of it flowing out of the few trash cans provided and on top of tables. There was no seating. The lighting was poor after the sun had set which made walking around the grounds a bit difficult. There was too many vendors in what was supposed to be the dance area … the lines took up the whole dance floor (the band wasn’t that great anyway). The overall lack of information provided caused chaos at every turn. It was very unorganized for a high class event. Decadence is usually associated luxurious self-​indulgence … some of the vendors in attendance do not fit this description.
I am not sure if they over sold the event or they just weren’t organized enough to handle the crowd, I did hear from Aaron that several people were turned away with Valet Parking tickets … which would have made me extremely angry.
Through all the chaos, we were still able to have a very good time, but I will admit it would have been less enjoyable had we paid for the ticket.

***Pros:
Great venue, good variety of food, and lots of fun! Despite some vendors running out of food which we didn’t get to, we’ve sampled food from 16 vendors, drinks from 6 vendors, and scored freebies.:
Coffee Bean mocha and pumpkin ice blend
Ceviche #1
Ecco — meatballs
Wild Flour cupcakes — raspberry, Oreo, and red velvet
Sailor Jerry — mai tai and backyard lemonade
Caesar chicken wrap, spicy chicken wrap, veggie wrap, and artichoke dip with nacho
Creampan — strawberry with custard filled croissant
Strawberry salad
Italian ice with custard
Coconut Water
Meatball skewer
Sandwiches — beef patty, beef sausage, cold cut
Chicken enchilada and rice
Ceviche #2
Red velvet mini cakes
Liquor or vodka shot
Beer — original and light
Piña colada Italian ice
Little Sheep — lamp stew with shrimp
Chicken pâté with fig
Spicy taco
Henrich’s — Tropic of Capricorn Punch
Pretty good deal and a fun night! +1
****Cons:
Directions/​signage as to where the Parking where shuttles were picking people up was not very helpful/​clear. There were groups of people lost & looking for the correct parking lot as to where the shuttles should have been. –1
I believe this event was totally oversold after seeing the long lines to the shuttles & food tastings. I heard that even though it said Sold Out online, people were still buying tickets at the front entrance. –1
Some people were turned away even after they had paid for valet online. Boo. –1
Disorganized & Long lines started to form when the sun started setting & there was no direction as to which line went to which vendor. –1
Trash started to pile up everywhere & there was no one there to clean it up. –1
There should have been more drink vendors as opposed to food vendors; we were thirsty for most of the night. It didn’t seem like there were 40 vendors at this event at all. –1
Tip: Get there early to avoid the crowd, print out your tickets & Next time, ladies, wear flats! =)

We carpoolwd with some friends and got there at 7:05.Long lines to get in and by the time we got there it was dark already and no lights. She asked for my ID and I was thinking Why? You can’t see it anyway. But we got in an we went through a series of long lines, great thing we were a group of friends so we got to talk and have a good time over a few glasses of booze. The liked the food from the Roof top and the Little Sparrow and Cream Pan, but they were all good. The only full glass of alcohol we got from Jerry the sailor (or something, I couldn’t see it), best booth setup overall. Every booth had a sign with a number to txt to vote for them but no one could see those. It was so dark in some places that some vendors had to use their phones’ flash lights to show us the food plates. One couldn’t even tell the difference between their own plates, we took it anyway since we spent 10 – 15 min in line. We managed to get all the free drinks and like half of the food, but it was pretty much OK, I couldn’t drink more and drive anyway. Others had worse experiences finding the shuttle pickup place (we met our friends there and we had trouble finding them too) and even turned away from valet parking after they bought it in advance! So they overbooked everything and under planned and prepared most of it, they might go the way of the Taste of Newport next year!

Walking down the hill into the event, seeing the white tigers I thought we were in for a special night… but, no, like Siegfried and Roy on their last show, I should have known something was wrong.
We were one of the lucky 100 or so who got there BEFORE 7pm so we a slightly different experience than people who showed up at 7:30 or later. The front rows knew that the massive mosh pit was actual 4 lines divided by last name. WTF?! V-​Z gets their own line? (My dad would respond by saying there were a lot of Vu’s and Velasquez’s). But the people behind us didn’t know this (or likely didn’t care) as they wiggled their weaselly asses up trying to cut ahead, dick-​diving like it was 405 freeway south exchange from the 605,
Oh, good call having 4 girls assisting the entire crowd and 3 girls assisting the empty VIP entrance.
So, yes, our FIRST 20 MINUTES there were great, and probably the way the most optimistic if not overly-​idealistic OC Weekly staff had planned it… the lines had about 0 – 12 people and there was room to move and sunlight to see. Finding a trash can at that time was only mildly annoying, like an Easter Egg hunt. (They should have put red and white striped sweaters on them so we could play Where’s Waldo.)
But soon, the sun set and people became piling in. The lines became so long (Knott’s Scary Farm maze long) that the smart ones would put one person in line, walk all the way to the dark food station to inspect what it was using their cell phone for light, and come back with the recon. «Sorry, honey,» I’d say to my vegetarian carb-​unfriendly wife who ate 2 things all night, «it’s just another sauce-​soaked meatball.» Other lines were so long that we had to avoid them or we would still be there. Or they magically wrapped around into themselves like some sort of MC Escher poster.
No, hipster fucks, MC Escher is an artist, not a DJ.
I did manage to get 2 yummy servings of iced mocha and pumpkin latte (Coffee Bean), chicken wrap and chunky artichoke dip (Tilted Kilt), 2 strawberry cream puffs (Cream Pan), strawberry salad, cookies and cream ice cream (Creamery), an interesting tangy shrimp ceviche with corn nuts (House of Big Fish), a meatball at two locations (Irvine Lanes?), a yummy sausage on Hawaiian roll (American Tavern?), 2 kinds of tasty Persian subs (Hen House Grill), chicken enchilada and cheese enchilada (Cancun Fresh?), and the food was good. While I am happy to have gotten more food than some people, I am bummed I couldn’t locate some vendors or tolerate the lines. I wish I liked cupcakes. There were more cupcake vendors than trash cans.
My wife eventually gave up waiting in the drink lines and just paid for the drinks and bars with half the line. I knew the «brochures» they intermittedly gave out with the wristbands had free drink tasting tickets, so I grabbed an extra. Others had 4 or 5. Assumably countless others got none. I gave my extra brochure to a couple in front of me who was completely unaware of the situation. I needed the good karma. I mean, c’mon, it was so crowded I had to assume Jesus was there.
Soon, the place was so crowded, with complaining people shoulder to shoulder that we left. At $ 15 discounted tickets, the amount of food I got and the experience for better or worse was worth it, but I felt sorry who paid $ 30 or more for VIP. Maybe the VIP lounge had trash cans– that’s what they paid for?
The stairs were dark and my wife felt sorry for the old people (the crowd was half old and half Asian— nothing wrong with that, though I’m glad it wasn’t a driving event). We saw an old lady saying «Step… step… step…» to her husband who was risking his last good hip on the dark staircase Riddick himself couldn’t see. He had to whistle down at the steps and listen for the echo.
At first, in the brief sunlit minutes, the vendors were collecting trash from people in line who were forced to carry it around like baggage. I felt like Larry David holding my empty skewer. Soon though, the trash started piling up at the cocktail tables like games of Jenga before spilling onto the ground, trashing the beautiful grounds. At that point, we were glad it was too dark to see.

Such high hopes – most of them unrealized.
Time =: |
The event was advertised from 6P-​9P. 6P arrival at Saddleback Church proved a great start to the evening. There REALLY needed to be signs on Saddleback’s HUGE campus (versus just at the entrance to the one of 10 parking lots they have…), but one you discovered where parking was, the shuttles were lined up to service you. The service of the lot attendants and the drivers were excellent. Wish I had their names so that I could give them 5 stars.
Upon timely arrival by the shuttle vans, the event was NOT READY FOR CHECK-​IN. Huh? How do you advertise 6PM, it takes us 15 minutes from the shuttle drop-​off, we’re the…4^th couple to arrive, but you’re not ready? Apparently they had enough help, ’cause people in OC Weekly shirts were standing around, waiting for direction. What they needed was competent leadership. Let me tell you all that was NOT done, that should have been done: SIGNAGE to point people to the right place (VIPs vs. GAs, those with paper tickets versus will call, will call by last name posted high so the hundreds of people in line could see), TIMELINE FOR CHECK-​IN (someone had the bright idea to check in VIP at 6:30, but they didn’t know that. also, with hundreds of people to check in, it would have been best to check-​in upon arrival, but don’t allow entrance until you’re ready)
Venue =: *)
SPECTACULAR venue. Worthy of the advertisement. Bengal tiger to welcome you, parrots to complete the feat. Marvelous and spacious grounds that were ruined by OC Weekly’s lack pf planning. How do you have a tasting event for thousands without providing trash cans?!
Restaurants = :)
I expected more restaurants, but hey, you get what you get. I just think I tasted more than my share of cerviche for the evening. Where was the variety? Better organization would have used the venue space to actually space the restaurants out so you wouldn’t have 1000 people like sardines next to the band, hundreds more moving like trapped salmon through the walkways, because that was someone’s bright idea of good vendor placement. Also, for the 1% of us who don’t drink alcohol, the lack of water service was inexcusable!
Food =: *)
SUPERB! Once you got through the 45-​minute lines, it was usually worth the wait.
Overall Experience =: (
So poorly planned (start time, navigation of vendors, lack of trash cans=lack of table space and seating because that’s where everyone put their trash, VIP silent auction versus using everyone’s green money, cooking in the dark next to trees=tree surprises in some dishes, walking in the dark=muddy heels…) that it zaps ALL the stars away.
I’ve enjoyed this event in the past. I don’t know whether they have a new coordinator, or the venue challenged them too much, but this eve was a major fail! Come to Long Beach’s Taste of the City, let us show you how it should be done.

The event was ok, but it could’ve been so much better. The venue was spectacular. If it was at a lesser venue, this would’ve been a 1 star event.
Trouble started at minute one, 6:40 p.m. I parked at Saddleback Church for the free shuttle to the event. If you don’t know, Saddleback Church is huge. It’s like the Disneyland of churches. We park in the main lot by the church there’s 200 other people there standing around. 50 were there for church. The other 150 looked confused. As everyone rallied, I found out everyone was confused as where to park, because there was no signage or event people directing traffic. Once we were all out of our cars, we were confused as heck because there was no shuttle.
Where is the shuttle. Where is the shuttle.
We ask a girl carrying a box for Hapa Cupcakes with an OC Weekly sign on it if she knew where the shuttle was. She sure as hell didn’t either. Eventually someone got a message from their friend that there was another lot where the shuttles were at. We all scattered to find that.
After I found the correct lot, the shuttle ride was quick, smooth and the way to go. As the shuttle approached the venue, I could see that the entrance was jam packed with cars trying to get in. My first thought was, «If that is the VIP Valet Parking, I’m so glad I didn’t pay $ 15 for that mess.» If you asked me what had priority, it was the shuttles, as CHP stopped traffic everytime a shuttle arrived so that they could make their u-​turns and drop people off.
The prepaid valet parking looked like madness. It was backed up 30 cars, trying to go through a narrow one lane up a small hill. I was not surprised to find out later that there were people that prepaid for valet that got denied.
Once in the entry line, it moved fast. The will call and pre-​printed ticket lines were all the same and everyone was rolling their eyes, expecting more hell. Even though there wasn’t signage, it was easy to check in.
It was hard to hit up more than half the offerings because the lines got long, especially if it was one of the free alcohol tastings. There’s 30 people in line behind me and at every stand they were fully explaining the drinks to me. That’s admirable and understandable since this event is about marketing, but it would’ve been better if they skipped the speech and just filled the shot sized cups quick, like you would do at a house party. Line all the glasses together and just pour the drinks all at once… all 20 of them.
The food lines looked daunting, but were orderly and went much faster than the drink lines. It was crowded (which I expected).
Most of my favorite dishes were Gustavo Arellano’s picks at the top of the hill. The spicy pork taco from Taco Asylum really stood out as did a generous shrimp ceviche serving from House of Big Fish. The girls at Confetti hooked me up with extra italian ice servings (the Caramel Apple and Chocolate Reeses were both good).
Other logistics problems:
Where were the trashcans? Trash was left all over because they were barely any trash cans around. It was harder to find a trash can than it was to find food or drink. It was so bad that at one point I saw workers carrying around bags and hand picking items off of tables to throw away. We always see servers picking up empty dishes, but how often do you see them carry an empty black 30 gallon trash bag around?
Where were the bathrooms? There were no bathroom directional signs anywhere.
Where can I get water? Where can I get a soda?
Ever been to a neighborhood garage sale with only one sign at the street entrance, making you circle blocks and blocks until you find the house? This was the same thing, except you were circling blocks and aisles to find parking lot, the entrance, the bathroom, the trash cans.
The event went until 10 p.m., but at 9:30 p.m. it looked like 2/​3rds of the crowd had already peaced out.
The venue, Rancho Las Lomas is breathtaking. It’s done Spanish style, with staged/​elevated walkways that lead you to nooks and crannys and it even has caged, exotic animals all over. Tigers, zebras, birds…
As disorganized as this event was, I still had a great time. Gorgeous venue, perfect weather, and a good variety of bite sized food made it more than worth the $ 15 Goldstar deal (was originally $ 30 per ticket, not sure it would’ve been worth that).
Here’s to hoping the next time OC Weekly organizes a food fest, they stock it with more workers, put up signs for the bathrooms and put up signs to direct you to where parking is. Or just move the Tilted Kilt girls and have them each man a corner to tell us where to go. You know we’ll gladly follow.

It seems as though the planning wasn’t fully thought out… lots of things they need to hammer out, like where the hell is the Saddleback parking lot with the shuttles?! And why did you pick a place that has one lane in both directions going in and out?!
I got to try only a few things since it was suuuuper crowded by 7:30. Wait in line to get in, wait in line to get food. Some were really quick, but others were snail’s pace.
The organization is tough because of the varying venue year to year and growing popularity, but there was some pretty good food and a good amount of drinks. The big downside was that there ended up being trash everywhere! Garbage cans filled up and piled high until trash was starting to pile up in random areas all over the grounds.
Glad I didn’t pay for vip parking since many who paid for it but were turned away because it was too full. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, the lighting was very poor here. I do enjoy the intimate feeling (besides the hoards of people surrounding me at every second of the night), but the vendors couldn’t even see what they were preparing! To me, that takes away from their ability to prepare their dish to best impress their potential future customers. Unless it was for some sort of Food Network challenge, I don’t see why these vendors weren’t better informed of the lighting situation. At least there weren’t any fights or stupidity going on!
Thanks, Ryan C for the hookup to the event!!! I still had a good time and so did my gf!

Should have been called the OC Defecate Festival because it was a piece of shit. One of the most disorganized events I have ever been to. Nobody knew what was going on, most of the food ran out early, totally oversold. The VIP lounge was a joke. The promoters should be ashamed of themselves. Alison «MacieJay» J, you are right on the money. I forgot to mention the lack of trash cans, poor lighting and the Tilted Kilt girls. The best part was when you arrived, trying to find out where to go, absolutely none of the staff knew what was going on. Everybody we asked had a different answer or said «I don’t know» We should get our money back, maybe a class action suit!

I wish I could put «0» stars because it was a waste of a babysitter for a date night not to mention a waste of $ 30.
Worst event ever. I am very surprised that this event has been around for ten years because the way they slapped it together was so poorly executed. I should have known from the beginning before we even entered that it was going to be awful, the lines to get in weren’t lines, just a mass amount of people trying to find the correct line for their last name (will call). Has anyone ever heard of signage?
Then we got in to eat which made me feel like cattle being herded together to get a sample at Costco. I had maybe 8 samples, 4 of which were ceviche — probably should check what other vendors are going to sample and left feeling hungry and thirsty. I know alcohol was being served but you should also offer water.
The sad thing too was that I heard many people complaining about the event as they walked around.
It was clear that they did not think the event through at all. The tables were very small, there were close to no trash cans so people ended up piling trash on tables and anywhere they could find, and there was no light. The ladies at the tilted kilt were using their iphone flashlights to tell people what the food was.
Overall I wish I could get my money back, definitely not worth $ 30. The only positive was that the venue was beautiful, too bad you didn’t get to see much of it cause it was dark.
OC Weekly should be ashamed of themselves.