Sacramento Greek Festival

I always come because admission is free with Sac Animé admission purchases. It is interesting to check out their odds and ends. I don’t think it would pay their usually price of $ 5 – 7 to get in as it’s fairly small and not super exciting.

Went here for the last few years and it was great food!
It has now changed.
The food quality has dropped. We had many dishes. One of them was a decent honey beef and cinnamon. I asked for it and didn’t notice till they dropped it on my plate… one large spoon was $ 13! Omg
It was not spectacular at all.
My own food came out to $ 32!!! And it was just one plate. I noticed the bad quality when eating it. After, we noticed all the commercial frozen trays. Yes, it was commercial food service food.
We won’t be back next year.

This was so much fun! We enjoyed the festivities but we wished that there were more crafts! The food was amazing. We tried almost everything except the coffee. The atmosphere made us feel like we were in Greece!

Looking at some of the signs from years past, I see that some have not changed. Well, maybe just the prices. Including a $ 5 entrance fee. (beginning today, I believe)
Located in half of the Sacramento Convention Center, everything was indoors and I imagine open tables will be difficult to locate when it gets busier. Since a ‘Sac Animé’ event was happening in the other half, costumes and platinum wigs were not out of the ordinary here.
My only complaints: it’s great that you have the name there in Greek and all, but what the heck is it? A quick, brief explanation would have been wonderful. (thank you fried cheese guy) I see explanations on a sign from 2010. Where’d it go? Luckily, the woman in front of me in the pastry line gave me her run down on what was good. Also, I’d ordered a spanakopita in the hopes of getting the one with spinach. The lady told me that the one given was the spinach one. It wasn’t. Not a huge deal, but maybe label your foods so you can give people what they’re looking for?
On another note, my gyro was wonderful. The long (and not so quick) line for pastries seemed worth it. I got some baklava and a few other things, but the names of those have escaped me. The kalamari was good, but I felt it needed something– a dipping sauce maybe?
Go enjoy some Greek food!

Not familiar with Greek food, but came one year! Hoping this right location, is a building across street from Sheraton Grand Sacra Hotel? If so, was nice! The Friday (was raining that year of 2010), free admission until 3:00 p.m. All kind Greek culture! Even purchased post card is Greek writing, but on back can use draw Animal Order picture for people at hotel! One lady she an author of a cook book! She say try the certain food she mentioning, «Come back after, let me know what you think, if you liked!» Yes I tried, $ 3.75 with tax! I guessing tax! Did not come back! Hey I understand Sheraton doing, they know me, so yes I come back! Her, my way think, «I not coming back, I not knowing her!» But did try! I like the shops! One shop has all kind books, many are children religious books! Like the Greek dancing as well!
Went the first day of 2015! They still have children religious books! Try something has big fat sausage on something call GYRO bread! All this, $ 5.00, big portion! They even had Greek dance lessons! How convenient, if this right location, a building just across street from excellent Sheraton Grand Sacra Hotel!

The Greek festival seemed a little bigger this year. The prices where the same as last on most things like the food bad at the market. They had a $ 2 off coupon that they said was out for Sunday but after repeat calls and messages I was not able to get one. I was told at the box that they are not accepting them anyway. Over all it was a good fair.

I started coming to the Greek Festival when I was two, and came year after year for a long time. It’s been many years since the last time I went, and there has been one pastry in particular I have been craving. I distinctly remember how sweet and delicious the Loukoumandes were as a kid, and I hoped I would be completely nostalgic when I tried them again. Oh my goodness. The man working the Loukoumandes station said I needed to photograph my reaction when first tasting these again. Heavenly! Fried-​dough with honey, cinnamon, sugar and walnuts– completely divine. I read that in ancient times, the winners of the Greek Olympics were all served these. I can see why.
The Greek Festival is a lot of fun and the proceeds go to the Greek Orthodox Church in Sacramento. Everyone who works the festival is a volunteer who has spent their time preparing all the tasty Greek food in hope of raising a significant amount of money for their church. Anyone who has an appreciation for yummy Greek food and some traditional Greek dancing will surely have a nice time here.

The 51^st Annual Sacramento Greek Festival is an event with Greek historical vignettes, museum artifacts, classic Greek dancing, live music, and of course traditional Greek food.
I attended this festival on the first day, Friday August 29, because I figured it would be less crowded. Boy was I wrong! I saw children dressed in traditional Greek costumes, and groups of people gathered around blue checked tablecloth tables, having loud animated conversations.
The perimeter of this large convention center multi-​purpous room was aligned with various food, drink, and sweets booths. And in the center of the multi purposes room was a stage with a makeshift dance floor in front of it.
I went straight to the gyro booth, ordered a gyro with extra tzatziki, and found a front row seat in front of the stage. I devoured my meal while listening to the music from, Takis Kokotas, a traditional Greek band. The Tavera Suite dancers were very entertaining as well. I especially enjoyed the dance demonstrations with balancing a shot glass of Ouzo on their heads and smashing them to the ground after throwing back this Greek elixir. It was so fun joining in with the jeers and cheers of the crowd. oh how I wish I were Greek.
After the entertainment, I meandered over to the bakery booths to check out the baklava. The selection was bountiful and I wanted to try them all. Side Bar: If my step mother is reading this please don’t get mad at me… but I really liked the variety of baklava at this festival (stepmother is Greek BTW.)
I bought a selection of baklava and had it wrapped unpin a togo container. I also tried the honey soaked donuts as well. They are really sweet and rich and all I can say is yuuummmmo!!! I hope you didn’t miss this fantastic cultural foods event! Opa!

The Greek festival is over price on the amount of food they serve.. They need to have a band on Sunday not a DJ.
It is a good festival with lot’s to do

Great food, great wine, and great music! It’s no surprise this has been such a Sacramento hit for 51 years! A must try for any Sacramento resident or guest.

I went to the Greek Festival for my first time during my lunch break yesterday on Friday while it was free between 11 a.m. — 3 p.m. Since I work about a 20 minute walk away from the Convention Center and went in the middle of my workday, I couldn’t stay for as long as I would of liked to, but I was happy overall with the time that I spent at the festival.
On Friday, there was also an Animé Convention going on in the same area, so my co-​worker and I saw a lot of people dressed up and walking around for that. The only way I could tell which way the Greek Festival was located was a small white sign on the door that said to enter there.
When I walked in, I was given a piece of paper that listed all of the food that was offered and noticed that the food was located along the back wall with vendors selling and advertising other wares in the middle of the venue. My co-​worker and I noticed that they were offering $ 9 lunch specials just for Friday, so we decided to go for those. I was pleased to see that they was a vegetarian option available for the lunch special as well as labeling on this piece of paper of all the other vegetarian stuff available.
The vegetarian lunch special was delicious but it seems small for $ 9 and for a moment I actually thought maybe they forgot to put the main dish on my plate and only gave me sides. If this was my experience alone, I would most likely be writing a 3 star review. However, everything on the plate was extremely good and I was also impressed with the pastries they had available and the amount and variety they had (not part of lunch special). Even though I didn’t have a chance to look, I noticed that they set up a Greek grocery store too were you could buy things. Super cool.
I’d definitely be interested in coming back again next year since the food and pastries seemed authentic and high quality.

I’ve done the gyro thing at greek festivals before in the bay area, but I was shocked to see how much food the Sacramento Greek Festival puts out on its menu. It was like a encyclopedia of culinary greece. I give it 3 stars just for that.
Me and my friends being big eaters, we went ahead and ordered one of everything just for kicks. Most everything was excellent, butI have never in my life seen béchamel on a lasagna (its actually the greek pastitsio dish) that was 2 inches thick. Because my brother used to be in the restaurant business, I give that a star on its own. I can’t believe they would attempt to make that on a massive festival scale. They must be some mad professionals in the Greek community.
The last star is because I didn’t know about the SacAnime thing going on next door. Now my wife and kids wanna go which means i gotta come back.

Had two wonderful Greek lunches and many cookies to take home. The food is great. We have been going to the festival for years and always enjoy it. Lunch or dinner you will have a good and exciting mail.

Hunting for Greek foods, I thought this festival will be great, apparently I had big expectation for festival.
Calamari from Meze booth is tender, but the best part was their tzatziki sauce.
Galaktobouriko (a light custard filling, baked in phyllo and sweetened with honey syrup) was really good, taste like Crème brûlée with flaky buttery phyllo on top instead of caramelize sugar.
Kourambiethes (melt in your mouth butter cookies, dusted with powdered sugar) it was ok.
Baklava (a rich buttery phyllo pastry with walnuts topped with honey syrup) it was ok.
Kataifi (shredded phyllo infused with walnut filling and a touch cinnamon) it was ok.
Greek yoghurt drizzled with honey and topped with crumbled baklava it was ok.
Festival starting today until Sunday.
They had Sac Animé next door too until Sunday.

You don’t want to miss this event. The food is great, homemade in the church kitchen. I know because I’ve watched the ladies and not a few men prepare the Greek food items over the past four months.

Wonderful food and hospitality! I love the lamb dinner and tiropetes. Can’t wait for this year’s event Labor Day weekend.

Food Festival is always fun. a great marketplace of authentic goods and food some imported. the food is amazing with a good selection. great music and dancing.

The greek festival was fun, the food was pretty ok for most part, but the funnest part, was watching people dance. Unfortunately, the dancing didn’t even start until later in the evening. Moreover this is a religious Greek celebration, so those who want the food, and the music without anything religious pushed onto them, might be out of luck. All of our purchases showed on the credit card statement as a purchase from a church, and we were not notified of that anywhere or anytime.

I love Greek food! I’ve been coming to this festival for the past three years and I absolutely love it. The food is amazing, of course! They set up in the Sacramento Convention Center, and it’s a great venue to accommodate the large amount of people to attend. It’s a three day event starting on Friday through Sunday. On Friday admission is free until 3:00pm, then it is $ 5 per adult and young kids get in for free. Sometimes there are coupons in the local paper to save on admission. They offer cafeteria style dining, where you pick and choose items a la carte. You can also order meals, like a protein, rice, vegetables, and bread. They also have other food booths for specialty items like gyros, appetizers, desserts, and cold drinks. My favorite are the lamb and beef gyros! They are the best gyros I have ever had! The beef and lamb mixture is roasting on a traditional vertical spit and freshly carved off. Then the meat is nestled in a thick, soft and warm pita and topped with diced tomatoes, crisp red onions, and then slathered in creamy rich tzatziki sauce! One gyro is so hearty that it will truly fill you up!
There’s also a children’s area where they can jump in a bounce house or go down a large inflated slide, and play games. In another area is a large selection of faith based books, crafts and artwork. I found some really good and inexpensive Christian children’s books for my son. Lastly they have a mini market featuring specialty Greek foods to purchase, such as honey, cookies, and other yummy treats. Overall this is a wonderful festival to take the whole family! I thought it was a great way to expose my children to the Greek culture and enjoy some of their yummy delicacies!

This is my second year attending the festival. It is located at the Convention Center. Indoors = no burning sun! It is best to come on a Friday between the hours of 11 – 3: free admission. They also have Friday lunch specials, which cost less than buying items a la carte. No worries if you can’t make it at that time because they have $ 2 off admission coupons on their website. I went on Saturday shortly after the doors opened. There is a long line at this time but it moved quickly.
The main attraction is the food. Food is expensive, so make sure you bring enough money. They do take cards, but you may hold up the line. The booklet, which can be obtained at the door, contains two pages that list the different types of food and pastries sold along with a description and price. Very helpful.
This year I had the Pastitsio (baked pasta with ground beef, cheese, and béchamel sauce) and the Horiatiki Salata (salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, Kalamata olives, feta cheese, and olive oil). I enjoyed both, even though the salad was very oily. I have yet to try the Loukoumathes (Greek donuts). I WILL be back for you next year!
There was a lot of gaudy jewelry sold by vendors. You will also notice a lot of jewelry with a blue eye. It is worn to ward off the evil eye. «The evil eye is a look that is believed by many cultures to be able to cause injury or bad luck for the person at whom it is directed for reasons of envy or dislike.» Source: Wikipedia
I was hoping to catch the dance performance but they were a bit behind schedule and the parking meter was running out of time, so next year it is.