The Great Monterey Clam Chowder and Calamari Festival

I love festivals, but this one felt like a lie. One kitchen and a few booths that serve the same food. Overpriced, and they do the «pay by token» method so it tricks you to think you are paying less but you are not. 1 token is $ 3 or 7 tokens for $ 20. $ 20 can get you: a clam chowder bowl, 3 – 4 small ribs, and only half a corn. It’s nice that admission is free so you can just look around and then head over to Old Fisherman’s Wharf for food cause at least you get to sample and food is more affordable and probably taste better. Street parking was not bad cause we went around opening time 11am and found a 2-​hour parking spot. I wouldn’t recommend the clam chowder (too thick), the fried artichoke (taste like from the jar and just deep fried), fried calamari was just okay, corn was overcooked and overbuttered ($ 3 for a small piece of corn), the only thing we all liked was the strawberry shortcake but taste store bought.

The concept sounded promising… unfortunately, it was the biggest disappoint EVER. $ 20 for 7 tokens, which hardly gets you anything but CRAPPY FOOD. We got the clam chowder, which pretty much tasted like it came from a can, but worst than Progresso… The fried artichokes were decent but definitely not worth the 3 tokens (=$ 9). gone in 60seconds.
Although the festival was free, I still expected there to be more. MOre than 1 clam chowder booth, 1 fried artichoke booth. 1 of anything kind of booth. HOw is it a festival if you only have one place to choose from. Going to Fisherman’s Wharf was more fun getting to try the different chowders than the festival.

This was entirely mis-​advertised as an event that would offer up different styles/​preparations of calamari & chowder. We were so happy that our vacation overlapped this event, thinking it would be something cool. I agree with the other reviews, not at all worth the expensive tokens, and there was NO variety at all. Really did not expect only ONE calamari option, and to have it come with a packet of tartar sauce and one of coctail sauce, really? Truly sucked. the chowder wasn’t bad, but not worth what we paid — and we had better chowder from free samples on the wharf. The best thing we ate honestly was an Italian sausage, which cost us 3 tokens ($ 9.00). The only good part was the music, seemed like good bands. But we weren’t going to stick around to pay probably 3 tokens to get a beer. Truly disappointing.

Cold flavorless calamari + watery chowder + unrefundable token payment system = FAIL
Didn’t know about the festival at first. Bf & I happened to be in the area, heading towards the wharf for some chowder…
We heard the music first. It sounded lively. Then we saw the banner.: «1^st Annual Great Monterey Clam Chownder and Calamari Festival!» OMG, I thought «we’re in luck!».I was so excited I actually clapped my hands together. There would be chowder samples from different restaurants, different types of chowder, different calamari styles with a variety of dipping sauces!!!
NOPE.
All of the booths served the exact same watery chowder and the same rubbery, lukewarm, flavorless calamari with a packet of tartar and a cup of nasty cocktail sauce.
I was so pissed. Wasted 7 ridiculous tokens ($ 20) on that @#$%. Couldn’t eat more than 3 pieces of that calamari. Ugh.
Bf and I hightailed it to Old Fisherman’s Grotto to order a cup of their delicious, hearty chowder.
Worst festival ever… foolin me like that. :(

We were excited to hear that there was going to be a festival that focused on clam chowder and calamari; both foods that I have grown to absolutley love since I moved to CA. Well this was a big disapointment. First of all tokens, tokens for EVERYTHING. While the concept seems simple, it still wasn’t proven to be beneficial as many people pawned off their unused tokens to everyone including our group, because we really didn’t want anything else and there are absolutley NO REFUNDS on tokens. So $ 20 for 7 tokens, 3 gets you calamari, 3 gets you clam chowder, 1 gets your fries, soda etc. and 2 gets you margaritas/​wine.
It would have been all worth it IF the food was good. It wasn’t, the clam chowder was really watered down, tasted like it came from a can and the calamari didn’t taste fresh but extremely fishy. Not the standards I know, as we love the wharf and go to The Grotto all the time! We love their clam chowder! Crabby Jims also has great clam chowder and Albolennettis has amazing calamari where you can choose buffalo style or garlic. Anyways we asked what restaurant this came from and they couldn’t say, and they said that it all came from the Wharf. Yeah right. We ended up walking down sampling clam chowder from our favs, and it was so delicious, not at ALL like the garbage from the festival. One thing that seemed interesting was the clam chowder ice cream, a little sweet a little salty and definatley something to try. I don’t think it was worth 2 tokens because the scoop was so small.
Anyhoo, we came with a party of 6 and we were all disapointed and agreed that anything going on at the plaza is bust.