Savor Santa Ana

I actually thought this was such a fun and awesome event! Of course I did arrive when it first started. Which meant no crowds, plenty of food and no lines. But I can understand frustrated hungry people that arrived a little later in the evening when food was out, lines were endless and stomachs were hungry!
I thought the event was very organized… the bright yellow maps helped out and it was fun to see everyone walking around downtown Santa Ana with maps in hand!
We tried the following places:
1. Native Son Alehouse: we shared an order of Jalapeño Fries. They were super delicious. I actually thought it was going to be fries with jalapenos on top, but these were actually strips of jalapenos deep fried like fries. The Alehouse was on top of a second story building, with a nice rooftop lounge.
2. Playground: we each got a piece of Uncle Lou’s fried chicken. This was my most favorite dishes. The chicken was perfect and super tasty. The line was already starting to form, but it wasn’t too bad.
3. Diego’s: they ran out of plantain fritters, they served a salad instead… and I’d have to say, it was one of the best salads I’ve ever had. We even decided to go back at the end to get another salad, but the line was incredibly long, so we opted not to wait.
4. Gypsy Den: Tomato tartine, I had no idea what a tartine was, but so glad we picked it. It was definitely the best tasting tomato! So good!
5. C4 Deli: pastrami slider… cute and yummy. This is not your ordinary deli, it was cozy and cute. I loved this place and would definitely come back to try other menu items and enjoy their bar!
6. Blackmarket Bakery: Lots of baked goods available and by the time we came back for some, they ran out of goodies. But super happy that their new bakery is right smack in the city and it’s huge! can’t wait to see what it will look like.
7. Robbin’s Nest: Bruschetta and a gorgonzola whip… also pretty good.
8. Civic: homemade lemonade, we had the guava lemonade and for some extra bills you can spike your drink. Refreshing.
9. VLVT Lounge: we ended up trying the slider, tacos and wings… and the wings came out as my favorite of the three.
By then we were stuffed and it was getting late… while walking back we ran into many Unilocalers and noticed that the lines were so long for everything now! So glad i came early… and if they have this event next year, I would suggest to come early, it worked out for me!

Like Vic C., I’ve been contemplating on this review and carrying around my SSA map to remind me. I’m in the area once a month or so and am always looking for new places– Savor Santa Ana sounded like the way to go! I was late from traffic but got lucky with parking and the Artist’s Village Lot (3^rd, between Main & Broadway) had after 7pm parking for only $ 4.00. After our complimentary coupon books were procured– thanks to CM Ryan– we commenced…
7:30 pm Little Sparrow was a hit with their alcoholic punch, pumpkin-​chocolate ganache macaroon and fast-​moving service.
8:00 pm Robbins Nest was just okay with their bruschetta and Gorgonzola whip appetizers.
8:15 pm Chapter One wouldn’t honor the Unilocal Check-​in offer of cheesecake– they said it was a «mistake.» We did get Chimichurri steak tacos– delicious. I’d eat there. And remind them about the missing cheesecake…
Gypsy Den was sold out at 8:30 pm.
9:00 pm — C4 Deli (adorable nautical-​themed restrooms!) was out of pastrami sliders but substituted turkey– which was tasty. Cute place– I’d go again.
Overall, I’d say it was a good intro for a couple places I’d go to again. If I do this next year: follow Ryan’s parking tip, get there early enough to browse the Farmer’s Market, bring more friends and maybe Tupperware to collect food at various places for each other. Damn, those lines were long!

It’s all about luck, strategy and expectation.
I didn’t sign up for this Elite event because I wasn’t think it would be fun (waiting in line for anything is never my thing) but with all the coincidence I happened to be there.
Parking on 3^rd and Sycamore St was manageable with a very reasonable rate $ 1 per hour. Still lot of parking left at 7pm. The parking structure itself was a little confusing at the beginning.
Been to DTSA only once with a tour guide while ago, I already forgot where where is everything so finding them on the map was kind challenging and fun.
Playground line was super long so we skipped it. (not regret it even everyone saying it’s the best fried chicken).
We started from 24 tickets:
Little Sparrow, 1 ticket for macron and 3 for cocktail. The line was just like 10 mins. This is one of few venues that allow you to sit inside instead just passing food outside. I kind regret i didn’t get more macrons since they were so good.
VLVT Lounge– The line looked alright but food did not look very appetizing (taco and wings) so we left.
Tabu– the line did not move for a while so my friend got a TV interview while waiting. This is probably the most clueless venue of the night. The girl at front table outside the door brought out 2 orders from the kitchen from far back kitchen at a time so it took forever.
When we were finally at the front of the line, we were told only 7 people could get the sliders that was what the had left. I wonder why they couldn’t tell anyone in line earlier. It’s not like you just find out you only have 7 sliders left!!!
We were allowed to sit inside while waiting for the food. Their food wasn’t that great but I think they tried. (3 tickets)
C4 Deli– The best team work venue of the night.
They had people come out taking head count, one people taking orders and few making sandwich in the back.
They supposed to have pastrami sandwich for 2 tickets until 9pm. I heard they ran out so they use turkey as a replacement which I think pretty smart for the situation.
We had 4 orders (so 8 tickets gone). The sandwich was delicious.
Eqeko — we passed by it earlier since there wasn’t a line we decided to go back. The guy awas closing so he gave us the rest of 4 orders of quinoa salad for 4 tickets (was 2 tickets for one).
After 2 hours, we only had 1 ticket left !!!
My 2 new favorite place to go next time when I am in DTSA are C4 and Little Sparrow.
It was an awesome idea to put DTSA into a treasure hunt map. There was quite some walk between all venues but it was a nice night to walk around which I like. I hope it is not the first and last year of the event and hopefully next yr those venues can be more well-​prepared.
Thank you Unilocal for such a great evening and thanks for Vince V for taking me as his plus one.

Thanks Ryan C. and Unilocal for the free tasting tickets!
Mister and I walked around quite aimlessly looking for food. With our combined tickets of 24, we were pretty stoked about trying out the eateries DTSA has to offer. After being slightly overwhelmed with all the lines and more lines… we decided to just eat at The Playground. At the end of the night, we had 20 tickets combined left in our possession. This event was a little spread out IMO. The restaurants did run out of food and the night ended much earlier than anticipated.
Parking was not difficult, since we found a structure and it was super cheap. Keep in mind that it is CASH ONLY. Pooey… we never carry cash! So it was off to the ATM with a $ 3.25 charge to withdraw money for parking.
At the end of the night, we were really glad to run into our neighbor Richard M. and his friends! That was probably the highlight of Savor Santa Ana for me… fun friends and… aimless walking. Yup, we are NOT returning next year.

(Review based on 2.5 stars)
For a few days now, I have been contemplated what rating I would give the Savor Santa Ana event that took place in downtown Santa Ana this past Thursday (true story). I decided that 2.5 stars is fitting. Just as fellow Unilocalers before me had mentioned in pretty much all of their reviews is that it was rather unfortunately that the participating restaurants ran out of food (some provided substitutes to try their best to accommodate patrons) sometime around 7 pm, when this event was supposed to last until 9 pm.
Well, I came here with my husband around 6:05 pm and picked up our booklet of 12 food tickets (we were fortunate to score a free booklet each, courtesy of Unilocal & Savor Santa Ana). We also met up 2 of our friends and started our foodie venture of the following (in order of the evening):
Playground’s Uncle Lou’s Fried Chicken– Luckily the line wasn’t too long and our 2 friends were already waiting in line a few minutes before we arrived and picked up our tickets at the booth next to Playground (there was another location to purchase food tickets, which was $ 10 for a book of 12). 1 piece of chicken cost 2 tickets and I was rather disappointed that I got a small drumstick, but my husband and our 2 friends had a much bigger thigh piece (no one asked us what pieces we wanted, that was just what was given). But the chicken was fried and tasty. The green sauce on top of it was just okay, but our 2 friends really liked the citrus taste of it.
Native Son’s Jalapeño Fries– Walking over to Native Son, we found ourselves waiting in line for a while to only find out that they ran out of jalapeño fries and that it would be a 30 minute wait. So we decided to just leave so we do not lose more valuable time.
Taquerias Guadalajara’s Ceviche Tostada– Downstairs from Native Son, we waited in a short line for shrimp ceviche tostadas, only a mere 1 ticket (probably the best buy of the night). The guy slinging the tostadas was friendly and highly suggested that we add the Tapatio to our tostadas (not me because I don’t do spicy). The shrimp ceviche had a nice fresh taste and the fried crunchy tostada added a nice touch (but was a little oily).
Little Sparrow’s Macaron & Cocktail (Cubano Punch) — Was able to redeem my check in deal for a free pumpkin macaron (with a chipotle chocolate ganache that surprisingly wasn’t spicy to me, yay!) with purchase of their cocktail (or pay 1 ticket for the macaron). The macaron was delicious and I wished I had more (I tried to purchase more when I came back around 8 pm and unfortunately they ran out). They also make their macarons in house. The cocktail (3 tickets) was just okay for me, but my husband liked it. It was rather strong.
Robbin’s Nest’s Bruschetta & Gorgonzola Whip– While we were waiting in a long line at Chapter One, 2 from our group decided to walk down to Robbin’s Nest to get some food since we were hungry and because there was no line. But sadly the food offering was pretty depressing. The bruschetta was just 2 small pieces of bread with tomatoes on it (2 tickets) and the gorgonzola whip was also 2 small pieces of bread with a little whipped gorgonzola cheese (also 2 tickets). Although I liked that gorgonzola spread, it was not worth the tickets (nor was the bruschetta).
Chapter One’s Chimichurri Steak– We visited Chapter One twice since they were still providing food even around 8 pm when most of the other restaurants were done. I thought the chimichurri steak tacos were good (3 tickets each) but the steak was dry (I think I liked these more because I was still hungry, lol). The chef slinging the tacos was funny and friendly (so was the guy collecting the tickets).
Gypsy Den’s Banana Mocha– Since we still had a few tickets left, we decided to see if we could get the tomato tartine, but an employee told me that it would be a 30 minute wait. So we opted for the banana mocha (2 tickets), which was rather disappointing. The mocha smelled like banana but didn’t have a strong banana flavor until towards the end (should have been stirred up to be distributed throughout). The mocha didn’t taste quite right, nor did it taste like an iced mocha drink. It was rather chalky and a waste of tickets.
Overall, this event was not what I was expecting (rather disappointing). It was not well organized, but this was their first time around, which makes me more forgivable this time. But I hope the next time this occurs, they will make sure the restaurant participants have enough food to last the entire duration of the event (make sure you come early). Also $ 10 for 12 booklets doesn’t seem enough. I think 18 or 20 tickets would be adequate to get a good meal.
But despite some of the misses here, some of the hits of the night included a Thursday evening for my husband and I to do and an opportunity to check out downtown Santa Ana (I have only been here once and dined at Gypsy Den years ago) with a few friends.

Was I super excited when I won free tasting tickets from Unilocal to go to this event? YES!
Was I super bummed out when restaurants ran out of food before I could get my tasting? YES!
Were my expectations a little high for this event since so many restaurants that I had bookmarked were participating? YES!
Should I be grateful & not complain, AS MUCH, since Unilocal hooked me up? YES!
Would I have been more pissed if I would’ve paid out of my own pocket? YES!
Was Little Sparrow one of the few restaurants that held up their end of the deal by offering Cuban Punch & Macarons til the very end AND honored the Unilocal Check-​In Special? YES!
Was Chapter One: The Modern Local totally confused about the Unilocal Check-​In Special & refused to honor it AND instead say that the only special that they’re offering is «tomorrow» and it’s a bone-​in ribeye? YES! (Whatever here’s your 3 tickets, give me my chimichurri taco and let me be on my way, which I must mention was pretty good)
Did I have fun & run into some of my favorite Unilocal friends & community manager? YES! (Btw thanks Ryan & Jeni for the tix & it was great seeing both of you)
Will I consider going to this event next year? MAYBE! If the sponsors take what Unilocalers had to say & make the changes necessary to make what could potentially be a really cool tasting event, even better next year!

Downtown Santa Ana is really chill. A local spot for fine restaurants and a stimulating bar scene, there’s never a dull moment when I visit. On a lovely autumn evening, Downtown Santa Ana sponsored this event — Savor Santa Ana. October 16^th from 5:30pm to 9pm, to be exact. When the food runs out, it’s time to go home.
The general public was able to purchase a ticket book (12 for $ 10) to explore Downtown Santa Ana’s culinary and arts district for a night of tasting at participating eateries within the area. You move from venue to venue and exchange your tickets for samples. Some of these restaurants include:
* Little Sparrow
* Playground
* Robbins Nest
* Chapter One: The Modern Local
* Velvet Lounge
* The Good Beer Co.
* Blackmarket Bakery
* Boldo
* Gypsy Den
* Life is Sweet Bakeshop
* The Copper Door
A few lucky Unilocalers were given FREE ticket books, which basically made it a no brainer to show up, assuming you got invited. I can understand some of the frustrations expressed by those who attended, but how much can you complain when it’s not out of pocket?
Yes, some of the lines were long. Yes, it was crowded in certain areas. Yes, some of the food ran out. Yes, not everything tasted to your liking. Yes, the portions were small.
However, it’s about having fun and I usually have good luck finding the right people for the job. Quoc H, Marcus L, Nick H, Maila H, Dustin V, Irene Y, Sandra S — always a pleasure my people. DTSA — thumbs up.

3.069 Stars I enjoyed the whole night, safe, easy parking, though some places began running out of food.
Safety is #1, I felt safe, props on being able to organize over sections of crossstreets and traffic.
Media, I saw one camera which interviewed me, oddly enough, I hope I can see it one day. They asked questions about the event and what I thought about it. Wonder if more media was there earlier in the evening, hope so, this camera intervied me around 9ish.
Maps, nothing seemed too far, the map was rather clear.
Parking, we parked at a $ 1/​hour lot near 4^th street, there was also street parking available and other lots.
Traffic on the streets, traffic was good as we arrived a little before 7ish
Unilocal, thanks for the ticket books. Unilocal community, fun seeing many of my fellow Unilocalers there.
Food, around 9ish some places began to run low and others began to run out, while places suchas C4 seemed to keep going strong.
Lines, the lines for Playground were way too long so we opted to go other routes.
Little Sparrow, props on the Macaroons, we loved them.
C4, props on still serving so many people, efficiently, so late in the evening
Tabu Burgers ran out, they mentioned they were clearly not ready for the crowds, not a good thing but I hope they will be better next year
Thoughts for next year, it seems some restaurants will be more prepared next year.
–I think some restaurants should make the lines go quicker
–I will show up earlier and look for street parking, though the lot was cheap.
–I agree with Steven N who mentioned this is a different Santa Ana, I hope they can incorporate some of the old Santa Ana into the event.
–I think they should put the prices of the food on the actual map
–Possibly have a sign at the restaurant with the grid location number
Overall, I feel it was pretty good for a first year run, I look forward to see what the event will be like in 2015.
Thanks Ryan C and Unilocal OC for the tickets. Thank you Savor Santa Ana, but next time, feed me more.
3 Stars this year, maybe a 4 or 5 star rating next year, I look forward to it
Song parody of Bön Jovi’s 1986 song «Livin’ On A Prayer»
Have em go and refill their docks
Was busy tonight
They ran ou of luck
It must, be tough
Unilocalers have been working all day
Eating is the plan
Don’t get here too late
Show luv, eat stuff
I say, we gotta go get, all that they got
Cause at the end of the night, they will not have a lot
Your opinion, it matters a lot
Next year, they’ll give it a shot
Whoa, they’re half way there
Whoa, next year will be better
Let’s come back, next year and I swear
Whoa, next year will be better
C4 had some good stuff in stock
Little Sparrow sweet
Love the macaroons we got
We loved, we loved
Everyone was giving away
Walking around all night
Calorie burn
Hey hey, its ok, great day
Gina dreams of running away
When she cries in the night
Tommy whispers,
«Baby, it’s okay, someday…
I say, we gotta go get, all that they got
Cause at the end of the night, they will not have a lot
Your opinion, it matters a lot
Next year, they’ll give it a shot
Whoa, they’re half way there
Whoa, next year will be better
Let’s come back, next year and I swear
Whoa, next year will be better
Next year will be better
I say, we gotta go get, all that they got
We’re glad our last stop was near the parking lot
Whoa, they’re half way there
Whoa, next year will be better
Let’s come back, next year and I swear
Whoa, next year will be better
Whoa, they’re half way there
Whoa, next year will be better
Let’s come back, next year and I swear
Whoa, next year will be better

Savor Santa Ana? I don’t think so
How about :
Starving Santa Ana?
SLOW Lines Santa Ana?
Honestly Santa Ana, why do you even tease us with pictures like this?
Nothing remotely good was here. Nothing.
I made a trip all the way here because I used to work down the street from here and I often visit downtown Santa Ana because I do my best to support the businesses I believe in. What I don’t understand is why you make my wife stand in line for 80 minutes at Native Son, just so that you can change charging tickets from two tickets to three (Which is fine because she didn’t use any yet) and when she got to the front of the line, she was the that got denied because you served the A ** holes that took 4 baskets of fries and we ended up getting none. She didn’t even get a sorry or a can I get you something else?
I was downstairs at Tequerias Guadelajara, hoping for a bite of cerviche. I love cerviche. Guess what? they had freaking tacos when I got to the line. Cold tacos. And when I go to the toppings bar, there’s hardly anything there.
So I go to Diego’s for their plaintains. I waited about an hour. Guess what? The girl in front of me got the last plaintains. At first, Richard said they were making more, so I waited another 20 minutes. Chilaquiles came out and nothing else. Had I known, I would’ve just left.
And of course, The Playground being ambitious as they are, I didn’t even see the bones or the garbage can from the so called fried chicken I heard about.
The places I got food from, the food handlers didn’t wear any gloves? I mean, I used to work in a kitchen myself and I understand the glove law has been recently repealed but honestly, I have no idea where you have been because you touch my food tickets and everything else including going inside and out.
I wasted 2 hours of my time and I ate practically nothing. Sorry I never really made it to the other side such as Chapter One because I waited in line for 2 places for almost 2 hours. But through social media, I didn’t hear anything great, so I probably didn’t miss much.
REALLY Downtown Santa Ana, if you really like to F*CK with customers, you did an extremely excellent job. Now, I vow not to even step foot into Native Son, I have no desire to go to get tacos downstairs. This was not fun. Parking was a pain. I hated almost every single minute of it. I will often give ideas to event organizers on how you can improve on events, but this event was so off, anything would be an improvement.
Please don’t do this event again. You’re gonna f*cked it up for more people.

It was like the 1^st 626 Night Market all over again. Great potential, crappy execution.
Good:
–easy parking situation
–Eqeko’s ceviches
–Diego’s plantains
–The Playground’s Uncle Lou’s chicken
–farmer market vendors for accepting tickets for produce
Bad:
–Chapter One for not honoring Unilocal check in and pretty godawful chimichurri taco.
–Tequerias Guadelajara for cold ungarnished chicken tacos
–vendors for not being prepared and running out of food/​not letting people know
We’ll see how the next one goes since I live 3 blocks away and would love it to be a success.

Everything has been pretty much said:
*Many places ran out of food early. I got there around 7:45pm and was lucky to try 2 places: Chapter Ones chimichurri steak tacos (sauce was really good but I hardly tasted any steak. It was more of a potato taco) and C4’s Turkey sandwich which was actually good but nothing super special
*Even though some establishments were close by, some things were blocks away with all the stores in between closed. Wish they had put some booths or some sort of entertainment in between
*Even though the map was easy to follow, I wish the participants had a clear sign outside their stores to identify themselves. Then again, my guess is if there’s a line, they’re probably participating
I hope they improve it for next time!

I had so much hope for this event and I was waiting all week for it. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to expectations like when Gary Payton and Karl Malone signed on to the Lakers in 2003-​04. It had so much potential but was poorly executed. Savor Santa Ana was a «food crawl» to show case Downtown Santa Ana’s new food scene. However, the only thing it show cased was the poor execution and the gentrification that has become more apparent in recent years.
Would this have been possible 10 years ago? Absolutely not. Would you have seen all these folks walking the streets of Santa Ana 10 years? Absolutely not. It’s unfortunate that the same people who were quick to call Santa Ana ghetto back then are now walking around Downtown Santa Ana.
To be honest, I like the old Santa Ana more than the new Gentrification Santa Ana. The old weekends where Chicanos and Chicanas used to fill the streets and cruise Bristol from Edinger to 1^st Street. The old Santa Ana had character and a rich culture instead of a bunch of hipsters/​yuppies trying to get street cred with their Santa Ana hats.
Anyway, Savor Santa Ana participating restaurants were only a handful and the lines were long. A lot of the restaurants ran out of food by 8:00 PM, which left people with unused tasting tickets. $ 10 for 12 unused tickets multiplied by how many unused tickets which pretty much translate to the event organizer making a quick buck.
The food. The restaurants were some of the typical ones you hear about in the area and still remained unimpressive. You would think they would bring out the big guns but the only thing they brought out was a big «Sorry! We ran out of food.» Why even participate if you’re going to turn people away?!
1) Chapter One’s Steak Chimichurri Tacos — This was crap. The steak was dryer than Ashy Larry from the Chappelle’s Show.
2) Nation Son Alehouse’s Heal The Bay beer — The Native Son was the first place I was told they stop participating. Why would you wait until people come in to tell them that?! Why not put a sign outside to indicate that? OH I know why! It’s so people could come in and buy your beer. The one thing that really pissed me off was it took the bartender 15 minutes to figure out they were having issues with one of the taps I ordered a beer from that I already paid for. Amateurs.
3) Boldo Bol’s Veggies Bowl — I don’t even know why they participated. It was a bowl of veggies or beans with some sauce over it. If I wanted veggies, I’ll go to Whole Foods or Trader’s Joe and pay for overpriced mass produced organic food.
4) Taqueiras Guadalajaras’ Ceviche — This actually wasn’t bad. The ceviche tasted fresh and only cost one tasting ticket. The guy was actually really cool and piled on the ceviche on the tostada.
5) The Little Sparrow’s Macaroons — This was the only thing I enjoyed of all the things I tasted. The Macaroon was really good and that’s saying a lot since I don’t like sweet foods. It was creamy and rich and really refreshing.
6) Robbins Nest’s Bruschetta — This was okay. The breads were off and on meaning that some of it were more toasted than others. It just seemed a half a$$ effort like this whole Savor Santa Ana event.
Overall, this was a poorly executed event and just reminds me of the gentrification issue in the area. I don’t feel bad for the restaurants that ran out of food because they will be compensated for their efforts. They were hoarding the tickets like rappers with no street cred trying to tuck their chains. To be honest, I would have been happier if this was a crawl for local Hispanic Mom N’ Pop shops and only giving them 2 stars because of the idea.

Before I arrived at the event I thought that it could go 1 of 2 ways. Either hardly anyone would be at the event since it is the first time it occurred, or lines would be extremely long. It went the second way. The event started at 5:30 and we arrived at 6:15. We were able to make 2 stops with short 10 minute lines before it got super crowded. Around 6:45 is when it got crowded and the issues started to occur.
The Good:
Picking up the tickets was easy. $ 10 for 12 tickets was a very fair price. You could definitely find places that only asked for 1 ticket. Places with larger portions required 3. The map they provided was easy to read and I liked that it listed what each place was offering. 2 Farmers Market vendors accepted tickets as well. Chapter One’s Chimichurri Steak tacos were delicious. It seemed like they had their serving process down. VLVT Lounge served chicken tacos, wings, and sliders. The tacos were my favorite. The Good Beer Co was serving beer tasters for only 1 ticket! This was a good spot to end our night.
The Bad:
Lines became 30 minutes long as restaurants ran out of food and were pretty much cooking it to-​order. Tabu Burger ran out of 2 out of 3 items and closed early. Some restaurants stopped serving as early as 8 or 8:30. A few restaurants decided to change what they were serving at various points of the night. C4 went from Pastrami sandwiches, to roast beef, to turkey all while we were in line. It was disappointing to arrive somewhere and find out that they were serving something less tasty than what was listed.
In my opinion the biggest mistake was that the restaurants underestimated the amount of attendees. They should have had a lot more food on hand. I felt that it would have been helpful for planning purposes if the map also listed how many tickets each restaurant required. Maybe next time they should cap how many tickets they sell on the day of the event and sell most tickets during a presale time. Overall I did enjoy my time here because I was in the go with the flow mindset. I enjoyed being able to sample restaurants that I had never noticed before. It was fun to just hang out with friends and walk around DTSA. We were able to use our last tickets right before 9 so it all worked out. I think I would give it another shot if they work out the kinks and throw this event again.

It was only my second time coming to Downtown Santa Ana so I was pretty excited to try all the different places to eat. We arrived around 6:30pm and picked up our Ticket booklets. Each booklet came with 12 food and drink coupons. We took our little handy green map to help us locate participating vendors.
Every single line that we came across had to be an average wait time of 25 minutes or more. We kept walking to try and find a shorter line. We finally came across Black Market Bakery whose line was only about 10 minutes long. When we finally made it to the front of the line the vendor told us they were almost completely sold out of everything. Fortunantly we scored on a Large shortbread cookies assortment, which cost 8 tickets.
As we were looking for our next spot to go to, we ran into Ryan C, Jeni C, Niki S, Vince V. Chris C. and Quoc H. We played a little catch up, talked about the Savor Santa Ana Event and took some pics. Seeing everyone was the Best part of the night.
Afterwards we walked to Chapter One and waited 40 minutes in line for 4 tacos, which were 4 tickets each. The tacos were just mediocre. Once we left Chapter One there was not enough time to try one last vendor.
The lines were extremely long, the vendors were not prepared as they ran out of food and some participants closed early due to private events. It being the First Savor Santa Ana, issues were bound to happen. Had this event been more slightly prepared to handle a larger capacity, It could have been much more successful.
Looking at the brighter side of things, we got to walk around Downtown Santa Ana and checkout restaurants and shops for future visits, we scored free tickets to get cookies and tacos and got to spend time with the Unilocal Buddies. Although it wasnt what we expected, Unilocal provided us with Free Tickets. We made the best out of the situation and enjoyed ourselves.
Thanks Unilocal for the invitation!

I came out here to have dinner at the well-​renowned Playground w/​one of my gf’s but to our delightful surprise, it was Savor Santa Ana Night! I should pay more attention to the Unilocal event page. Might as well hit up a few places on our bookmark list, right?
For $ 10, we got 12 tickets to join the herd of foodie adventurers. We started off w/​a stack of 12 tickets cuz I did not want to re-​live LA Taco Festival. –_​–
Our first stop was Chapter One: 1 Chimichurri Steak Taco for 3 tix each. It was flavorful but kinda small for 3 tix. The corn tortilla needed more time over the fire or on the skillet.
Next stop, Gypsy Den: 1 Tomato Tartine for 2 tix. The lady in line in front of us at Chapter One really enjoyed the heirloom tartine here. It was quite tasty but once again, one bite for 2 tix seems a bit pricey. Also, if you compare pics of our tartines w/other’s who came here much earlier, you’ll notice we had some missing toppings. –_​– We picked up another set of 12 tix here.
Round 3 was waiting in line for 20 mins at Tabu Burger, and then notified that they ran out of food! We noticed a line later in the evening & we felt jilted.
Replacement to Round 3, VLVT Lounge: Came for sliders, ended up with tacos & chicken wing. Waited quite awhile for sliders but they RAN OUT! I give this place kudos for passing out $ 10 discounts to come back to enjoy dinner & entertainment. Also, for only charging 1 tix per item for running out of sliders.
Round 4, The Good Beer Co: Beer Tasting for 1 tix per tasting. By far the best value and fairly short wait time! We had Beer Salvaje: sweet fruit, melon, wild ale 7.4% & DTSA Citrus: India pale ale, citrus zest, 7.5%. Both beers rocked! Quite tasty! I’m definitely coming back!
Round 5 was suppose to be Native Son Alehouse for jalapeño fries but again after waiting in line for a bit, we were told they ran out of fries!
6 tickets left and still hungry at 8:30pm. We went back to the ticketing booth to see which restaurants still had food, although we were already tired of waiting in line only to be told, no more food. Non-​refundable tickets… I felt like throwing down, feeling frustrated and hungry. Luckily, the peeps at the ticketing booth felt apologetic and started refunding our tickets. That’s why I gave this review 3 stars, as a paid consumer.
IMO, shame on those reviewers for rating ones, who were given free meal tickets. Check out Joseph A’s review for LA Taco Festival… now that freakin suck balls! Pretty bad, especially for being their 4^th year hosting the event.-_–
Sure, this event needs a lot of improvements… especially, running out of food in front of their establishment! C’mon, no excuse for that! Take some tips from resto’s from Taste of Long Beach. They set up booths away from their est & still manage to get through the night, for the most part. Another plus for Taste of LB is that you can save your unused tickets for the next event, that is, if you don’t lose them by then. :)

Lines are way too long, restaurants were few and spread out and had already run out of food early on. Super disappointed. Long Beach stroll and savor during the summers is way better.
Parking structure on 5^th and Spurgeon is super inconsistent. The guy was charging people coming in and out without giving any proof of purchase. Also it’s $ 1 per hour but the guy charged us $ 4 to get in at 7:45PM even though this event ends at 9PM. Whaaaaa? [P.S. It said event goes till 10PM but all shops were closed at 9PM…]
Chapter One — didn’t honor the Unilocal check — soooo lame. 3 tickets for the tiniest taco ever. I didn’t even know they made tortillas that tiny. Just some chopped up meat that wasn’t steak and Chimichurri sauce on top without any other toppings.
C4 Deli — came in right as they were running out of turkey. They had already run out of pastrami and roast beef so we had cold turkey on rye bread with one tomato and a sad attempt at possibly mayo. Couldn’t taste the mayo or whatever spread they had put on there.
Little Sparrow — pumpkin macaron and a cocktail. They honored the Unilocal check-​in offer for both of these for 2 tickets — yayyyy!
Gypsy Den, Playground, Tabu Burger, VLVT Lounge & pretty much everywhere else ran out of food — wth!
And to top it all off, as we were walking back to the parking structure, we walked by many cockroaches! DISGUSTING!
Regretting coming here instead of Unilocal other event at Long Beach Improv!

Savor Santa Ana was Failure Santa Ana.
Not to look a gift horse in the mouth (free Unilocal tickets) but this event was a complete bust. For starters, usually these «taste of» events have restaurants/​vendors all grouped together, serving their tastes in one location. Not here. Here you had to walk blocks and blocks and blocks to random locations, hoping by the time you got to said location, the line wasn’t an hour long or they weren’t out of food. This also sucks because the restaurants are all open, trying to serve regular diners so they didn’t give a shit about all of us with our tickets. We were just filling up their doorways and taking up space.
Started at the Playground and wanted the fried chicken but the line was seriously 60 people long so we figured to head out and try something else and then come back. Bad idea.
Went to Chapter One first. Also a terribly long line for steak chimichurri but had wife wait here while I went elsewhere to wait. The line moved slightly faster but the steak was mixed with potatoes or something else on a corn tortilla the size of a silver dollar. Rubber. No real flavor. Bust
I waited in line at Lola Gaspar. They weren’t on the list but they still took part. Al pastor taco, freshly made by the lovely lady cutting pork off the rotating spit. Pickled onions, cheese, etc. and it was good. On the negative, the wait here was also ridiculously long. You’re making tacos? How is this hard or time consuming?
From there, it was just off the cliff bad/​clusterfck. Walked over to C4, waited and waited and then they come out, «oh, we’re out of pastrami.» This was 7pm. Event was supposed to go 5:30−9. F it, out of here, on to Little Sparrow, oh wait, a line out the door, around the building and not moving… at…all.
Ok, off to Tabu… They’re out of burgers. &^%^$$#@#@#$%&^*&(*
Alright, I’m done with this, lets suck it up, try playground and go home… Get to Playground, longer line, whatever, I’m waiting, then one of the Chefs starts walking back telling people they are out of chicken. FML. Does anyone leave? Nope. WTF. He finally makes it back to us, we ask are you serving anything else? He says no. So we ask, then why is everyone still standing in line? Are they just dumb? He nods his head yes… Awesome.
You guys should go ahead and cancel this crap. Either that or make the places set up booths in the same area and have runners run food back and forth from their kitchens instead of making us do a 5k around lovely Santa Ana.
— — -
To some of those saying you got it for free, you shouldn’t give it a 1, that is BS. I’m reviewing the event. Paid or free, it was mostly a failure. Whether you judge it by ease of access to the places, amount of food, quality of food, length of wait, etc. there is nothing that was remotely successful about this event except that it brought 1000+ people in Santa Ana… most of which left angry and hungry.

Thank you Unilocal for the opportunity to «savor» DTSA!
Though I didn’t expect to walk to each restaurant, I found that it helped me to work off what I ate, so no complaints :)
Since I arrived right at 5pm, I was able to hit many of the restaurants without waiting in long lines, which I saw later on, and was so thankful I wasn’t a part of it. I was able to enjoy the tastes of many flavors that highlighted some of the notable restaurants in DTSA like: Chapter One, VLVT Lounge, Blackmarket Bakery (coming soon!), Gypsy Den, Boldo, and Diego’s.
I met the chef at VLVT Lounge, Robert Duvall. Watch out for him! You might see him on TV soon! He has an incredible background experience and training as a chef. I immediately noticed by the soft, juicy and perfect flavor of the wagyu beef sliders paired with carrots and onions. It was so delicious! The chicken tacos were delicious too!
Gypsy Den’s banana mocha kept me awake as the flavor had more espresso than banana. Thanks for the energy boost!
Diego served a mixed green salad with red beets, nuts, goat cheese, and a caramel dressing with a mini sweet flaky pastry. It’s beautiful presentation made up for the fact that they weren’t serving their plantain fritters until later in the evening.
Boldo’s brown rice-​veggie-​curry-​flavored bowl was ok. I wasn’t too impressed with their flavors, unfortunately. The sauce was a bit too spicy for me and it wasn’t up to par with the rest of the eateries.
Blackmarket Bakery had a beautiful display of their bread loaves, shortbread cookies, Halloween sugar cookies, toffees, marshmallows, russian tea cakes, and assorted baked goods. This was the only place I found that ranged from 3~6 tickets, depending on the item.
Overall, I gained a decent «feel» for some of the restaurants in DTSA. I appreciated having to walk to each location because it actually forced me to familiarize myself with the cross streets, which would be helpful if I ever wanted to re-​visit any of the places.
Again, I greatly appreciate Unilocal for the experience! Thank you, I had a fun evening! :)

Give the downtown Santa Ana organizers credit for planning this novel outdoor event. I thought the idea and intention were spectacular — an opportunity for emerging Santa Ana restaurants to showcase their signature items, and a fun event for local residents to discover new dining options while sampling multiple items («tapas») in one night at affordable prices. This event coincided with the Santa Ana Farmers Market, so it was noticed by many people for the first time. At least a dozen vendors brought their homemade creations and vegetable/​fruits to sell at the farmers market area.
Savor Santa Ana was essentially a «neighborhood food crawl». Participating restaurants were scattered all over the downtown area, so it required people to roam the streets of Santa Ana and interpret a map to track down the different eateries that offered tastings. This process actually helped me become familiar with the locations of popular restaurants in Santa Ana as I maneuvered between 3^rd and 4^th Street.
Unfortunately, the event’s execution was not very ideal. Some of the local businesses (North Left, Nueva Reyna De Michoacan) that I looked forward to trying backed out at the last minute. When I arrived at around 6pm, there was only a 15 minute wait at the Playground for Uncle Lou fried chicken (one of the most popular vendors) and a 3 to 5 minute queue at Taqueria de Guadalajara for ceviche tostada. However as the night progressed, more and more people showed up and most of the restaurants’ inventory became depleted. If you were looking for food after 8pm, most likely you were out of luck. The line at Chapter One consisted of at least 100 people waiting for just a tiny street taco. I don’t think most of the restaurants were prepared to serve such a large turnout. At 9pm, people were obviously upset and frustrated because they were left holding unredeemed tickets.
The most disappointing tasting was at C4 Deli. After lining up for nearly 45 minutes, at 7:30pm, we were told that the restaurant was out of their specialty pastrami. Shortly after, word on the streets was that there were no more of the second choice roast beef. Everyone else in line was stuck with cold turkey sandwiches for 2 tickets. Although C4 was generous enough to serve backup ingredients, the unoriginality of a turkey sandwich and their rock hard bread might have given people negative first impressions.
The worst planning award goes to Tabu Burger. Almost 50 people had lined up for over 30 minutes, and at the very last minute, they were turned away because the restaurant «had no more burgers or flan remaining» to feed the hungry mob outside. Couldn’t management have made an announcement earlier to let people in line know if they would make the cut?
The best values of the night? Diego’s Latin-​American inspired beet salad and plantain fritters with a chili dipping sauce, for only 1 ticket each. These two fusion appetizers were filling and tasted very unique, in that they were much less predictable than the vinegar fried chicken served at the Playground or the steak street taco prepared by Chapter One.
Eqeko wins the trophy for the best surprise that people did not really notice. There was no line at the booth, and their ceviche and tiradito were steals. The portions were relatively small (two scoops each) but raw Peruvian seafood is not cheap, and Peruvian-​Japanese cuisine is not easy to find in the area. Tiradito was my favorite of the night, it was like a zesty carpaccio but with slightly more meaty fish. This is a Peruvian tapa restaurant that I will consider dining at in the future.
The Savor Santa Ana event reminded me of the initial 626 Night Markets because it was a creative and brilliant idea that unfortunately failed because the vendors were unable to keep up with the demand. The kitchens making food-​to-​order must have been overwhelmed because they were dealing with this event and their regular dine-​in customers. In addition, organization was a problem at nearly every single booth because many customers had no idea what was being offered, how much it cost, and what the ETA would be (banners or signs would be helpful).
I am grateful to Unilocal for allowing me to attend this tasting event. It helped me become more familiar with the food scene in downtown Santa Ana that has been labeled by some as an up-​and-​coming neighborhood designed in the mold of Austin and Portland.

Trick or Treat (foodie style)
Smell my feet
Give me something good to eat
If you don’t, I don’t care, I’ll pull down your underwear!
Thank you Unilocal for hooking us up with free ticket booklets to experience DTSA. Very cool Elite perk. The concept of the event was cool, but the execution was a bust.
Fortunately, we found metered parking right away. AND the lady at the food cart gave us change. SCORE! Getting our free food tickets was painless and the gentleman manning the booth was friendly and generous.
It was a delight to see a lot of big names participating in the event. Unfortunately, the lines were ridiculously long and some places ran out of food. How is that possible? That’s like saying, sorry we’re closed because we ran out of food. Miscommunication somewhere…
**The FOOD GIST**
*Playground: I finally got to try the Uncle Lou’s fried chicken here. The countless times I’ve been here, I didn’t feel like ordering fried chicken. BEST item of the night. Big piece of Juicy and tender chicken w/​a hint of lime and sweetness. They ran out of food at about 7:30pm.
*Taquerias Guadalajara: shrimp and mango ceviche tostada. BEST deal of the night. Only 1 ticket for a good size tostada. Yum! Line moved quick too.
*Native Son Alehouse: Cool place to hang out on top of the roof, but they took forever and a day getting those jalapeño fries out. We waited for about 20 minutes and bolted.
*Chapter One: longest line of the night. Only one guy serving small chimichurri steak tacos for 3 tickets. They were pretty good, but probably not worth the wait. Ran out of cheesecake :(
*Blackmarket Bakery: ran out of goodies :(
*C4 Deli: they ran out of pastrami, but supplemented with a pretty darn good turkey sandwich. Yummy bread and mayo. KUDOS to them for thinking of a quick backup.
*Gypsy Den: 2 tickets for ½ a paper cup of «banana» mocha? Ouch!
*Robbins Nest: bruschetta and gorgonzola whip on teeny tiny crostini. Not sure it’s worth 2 tickets each. Decent tasting.
On a brighter note, I’m grateful for the food in my tummy and the opportunity to experience something new, hip and fun. A good lesson to remember, «the early bird catches the worm,» and «beggars» shouldn’t be choosers. Hehe!