Did you hear the news? Knotts Berry Farm is open again… sort of. Knotts is selling tickets to a limited capacity food festival starting this weekend. The Taste of Calico takes place in the theme park’s Ghost Town area at their various quick-service food areas. The price of admission for adults is $25 per person. With entry, you get five tastings of your choice with a max of 2 alcoholic beverages per person.
Is it worth it? Let me first describe the experience. We visited on Saturday and arrived around 4 PM. Before reaching security, they ask if you have experienced any symptoms within the last 14 days. You and your party will then have your temperature checked. You are to wear a mask or face covering at all times, except at designated relax zones and while eating/drinking.
There are markers along the queues to help you maintain your distance from the next party. The first few lines took about 15-20 minutes to get through. However, as it got closer to dinnertime, the lines were getting ridiculously long. I had my husband wait in the queue for Sutter’s Grill. He waited for 50 minutes. In the meantime, I waited in a different queue. Other lines started sending people away because they had reached their limit. We ended up skipping our last tasting because we didn’t want to wait in another line.
Now let’s look at the food. Our first stop was the Wilderness Dance Hall Patio. I was initially going to get an alcoholic drink, but it was so hot that I ended up getting the boysenberry smoothie. I think I made the right choice since that seemed to be the largest drink available. We also tried the gumbo with chicken, shrimp, and boysenberry sausage.
Our next stop was the Wilderness Broiler. We got the pastrami sandwich, which was slightly bigger than the size of a slider. We also got the deep-fried potato chips with the onion dip—typical bar food vibe.
Sutter’s Grill has much of the food on its menu. We got the boysenberry BBQ wings, which were very saucy. We also got the samosas with boysenberry chutney.
Finally, we got dessert at Ghost Town Grub. We had the very sweet bread pudding. We also got the “mini” funnel cake, which looked like it was about the size of a regular funnel cake. This is the go-to item if you want to get full from the food here.
Like we mentioned, we skipped our last tasting. Instead, we stopped by Virginia’s Gift Shop right outside the park and picked up some boysenberry jam and boysenberry punch. Be on the lookout for future posts on fun drinks you can make with boysenberry punch.
So should you go to Taste of Calico? It depends on how you’re feeling about the pandemic. Although waiting in long lines was annoying, oddly enough, it gave me a sense of normalcy. It reminded me of the long lines we had to wait for rides at theme parks or panels at Comic-Con. Unfortunately, the number of people made it a bit difficult to social distance, which is why Knotts reminds its guests to keep their masks on.
Regarding the price, $25 is not too bad if you choose your food tastings wisely. I think the boysenberry shake and the mini funnel cake would be good picks to help get your money’s worth. But then again, if you hate long lines, you might give up waiting to use all your tasting credits as we did. So keep that in mind.
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