My family and I have loved going to the California State Fair on opening day for many, many years. We enjoy being among the first groups of people to see what the fair has to offer. This year, the California State Fair decided to do a State Fair & Food Festival. This is a great idea because of all of the “foodies” out there who might really only go to the fair to try some of the food and have some wine or beer.

With 29 locations and 34 items, there is a lot of variety to choose from when using your four food pass tickets. The pass runs around $28 before the service charge, but they say that it is a $40 value. The downside to the pass is that if you want something that is not on the list, you have to pay extra money for those food items.

Here are the food items that we tried using our California State Fair & Food Festival passes:

1. Pizza Funnel Cake

• Vendor:  Pennsylvania Dutch Funnel Cakes
• Pros:  The funnel cake itself was pretty good as it had a pillowy center and a light crispness on the outside.
• Cons:  The marinara sauce was bland and the cheese was not melted at all.
• Highlight:  The delicious pepperoni pieces added some necessary salt and crispy texture to the dish.

2. Burnt Tri Tip Ends Sandwich

• Vendor: Eat At Joe’s
• Pros: This sandwich was good because the bread was soft, the tri tip was tender, and the BBQ sauce was sweet.
• Cons: This did not seem like it was actually made with burnt ends of tri tip because burnt ends should look like bark on the outside of the meat, which gives them a burnt appearance. It felt like it might have just been an extra piece of tri tip that was chopped up and put into a sandwich roll.
• Takeaway: This sandwich was very simple as it had just a roll, tri tip pieces, and BBQ sauce. Overall, this was a pretty decent lunch item.

3. Elote Fries

• Vendor: Sharky’s
• Pros: The fattiness of the crispy bacon, sweetness of the corn, creaminess of the sour cream, chili flavor of the Tajin, light cheesy flavor from the cotija cheese, and the freshness of the cilantro that cuts through the fattiness of other elements in this dish all work really well together and make a bite that is sure to please your palate.
• Cons: None!
• Highlight: This was quite possibly my favorite item of the day! This dish literally takes the elements of elote (Mexican corn dish), adds bacon, and puts it all on top of fries.

4. Loaded Tator Tots

• Vendor: Golden Bear Grill
• Pros: These tator tots were pretty good. They incorporated classic loaded baked potato toppings, but put them onto tator tots. The bacon was crispy, the chives added a little freshness, and the ranch sauce and the cheese sauce added a little creaminess to the dish.
• Cons: The three points of this food item that were lack-luster for me were that the tots came across as a little too greasy and they could have been crispier, the cheese sauce lacked a good, strong cheese flavor, and the ranch sauce needed a lot more flavor because I honestly thought it was sour cream.
• Takeaway: Overall, if you have an extra food ticket and you want something that is a shareable snack, this is a nice option from the Food Festival list.

5. Deep Fried Banana Hot Dog

• Vendor: Hot Doggin’
• Pros: The strawberries were fresh.
• Cons: The premise of this one sounds really good, but fails in execution. The concept of a dessert hot dog is great, but between the slightly dry Hawaiian bun, the unseasoned fried bananas, and the unappealing whipped cream mess that was strewn across the top, it is an understatement to say that this food item felt like a complete waste of a ticket.
• Takeaway: Do not waste your time or ticket on this unimpressive and ultimately forgettable mess of a dish.

6. Jalapeño Bacon Jumbo Corndog

• Vendor: Rainbow’s End & Candytown
• Pros: This was a good corn dog as it delivered on the jumbo size and the nacho cheese dipping sauce was a great addition.
• Cons: We could honestly not detect the bacon flavor, but the jalapeño flavor was there. It was not spicy at all, so those of you who love spicy food might find that a little disappointing.
• Takeaway: A pretty good version of a corn dog.

7. Mangonada Shaved Ice

• Vendor: Shaved Ice
• Pros: The sweetness of the mango shaved ice, sweet chili flavor of the chamoy, and powerful Tajin flavor actually worked really well together, especially as the shave ice melted and everything combined at the bottom of the cup.
• Cons: It had a bit too much chili powder for me personally, but my sister and future bro-in-law loved the amount of chili.
• Highlight: This is a great and unique dessert option, especially if you love the combination of subtle sweet flavors with some chili spice.

8. Unicorn Kettle Corn

• Vendor: Ye Olde Kettle Corn
• Pros: None . . .
• Cons: One of, if not, the most disappointing things we tried on this list. Why you might ask? About half of the kettle corn is just regular, unseasoned popcorn while the “unicorn” aspect simply means that they add Fruity Pebbles to the kettle corn; however, they add so little of the pebbles that they neither add much color to the bag, nor do they add any flavor.
• Takeaway: Do not waste your ticket or even your money on this because you can get much better kettle corn just about anywhere else.

9. Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich

• Vendor: Monster Cookies
• Pros: I really enjoyed this item because of the creamy soft serve vanilla ice cream and the large chocolate chip cookies. My favorite bite of all the dessert items from the day was the Oreo cookie that was hidden in the center of soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies and a little of the soft serve vanilla ice cream.
• Cons: The vessel in which this sandwich is given to you makes no sense because a piece of paper does not do much to stop melted ice cream from falling out of the sides. Also, the large size of it meant that there was no way to eat this like an ice cream sandwich.
• Takeaway: Overall, a great fair food dessert option –  just be prepared for it to be messy.

10. Bacon & Pecan Cinnamon Roll

• Vendor: Country Fair Cinnamon Rolls
• Pros: I did enjoy the little fatty, crispy pieces of bacon, the crunch and nutty flavor from the pecans, and the sweetness from the frosting and maple syrup.
• Cons: I have always and still believe that this particular cinnamon roll stand is more based on personal preference regarding if you like their cinnamon rolls or not. I personally do not like to get anything from this vendor because every cinnamon roll from this place is extremely bready and very dry. My mom, on the other hand, loves to get a cinnamon roll from them every year. So ultimately, personal preference might determine how you feel about their cinnamon rolls.
• Takeaway: I like this cinnamon roll better than their usual ones, but I personally would not purchase it.

11. Italian “Alps” Nachos

• Vendor: Pignotti’s Gourmet Snacks
• Pros: These nachos were pretty good. If you are craving a slice of pizza, but want the shareability and crispy chips of nachos, then go no further.
• Cons: Chopping or slicing the meatballs into some smaller pieces would have made it easier to enjoy across more bites.
• Takeaway: These offer a unique take on nachos that would best be enjoyed in the wine garden with some wine, or even one of the state fair’s delicious wine slushies.

12. Roasted Chicken Taquitos

• Vendor: El Pollo Vaquero
• Pros: I unfortunately did not get a chance to try this myself, but my dad said that they were pretty good. The tortilla of the taquito was super crispy, and the accompanying sides of rice, beans, and guacamole were really good.
• Cons: There was an extremely small amount of chicken in the taquito so he could not actually comment on the flavor and quality of the chicken filling.
• Takeaway: What I can personally say about the meal is that they smelled really good!

13. Grizzly Mac Attack Mac & Cheese

• Vendor: Montana Q Bar-B-Que
• Pros: The creamy mac and cheese was great, the BBQ pulled pork added a nice BBQ meat flavor, and the coleslaw added freshness that cut through the fattiness of the rest of the dish and kept you coming back for more bites.
• Cons: This dish could have used a slightly stronger cheese flavor in the mac and cheese and some more BBQ sauce.
• Highlight: My second favorite dish of the day! If you like mac and cheese and pulled pork, you will enjoy this food festival offering.

We quickly realized that four food tickets per pass adds up to a lot of food. I definitely recommend using the food pass to share between the people in your group. Between five people we had four food passes, but we were all so full that we ended up using the rest of the food pass tickets and taking multiple items home to enjoy later (this is why not all of the items have pictures). That being said, we were excited to try a lot of items to have a better idea of what the food festival pass had to offer.

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Thank you so much for checking out this post! Please leave a comment below regarding what items of the food festival you have tried and enjoyed (or not enjoyed so much), as well as where I should go to try and review some more great food in Sacramento County and beyond!