Omaha Ramen Fest

I wanted it to be amazing, talked about it for days, invited as many people as I could. But sadly, Ramen Fest 2015, was so incredibly disappointing. I’m still trying to figure out what the $ 5 admission fee was for (we did bring canned goods to donate.) Was it for the mere opportunity to wait in ridiculous lines, pay $ 5 for half full bowls of under cooked noodles that did not remotely resemble Japanese Ramen. That was my impression.
The setup was poor, as no one could identify which tents where admission tents, food tents, beer tents. People would just queue in a line with NO IDEA what it was for. The volunteers who we asked questions were not able to direct us, and would merely point us to a random direction and say «that way».
We did try 3 different bowls, the Ramen from Dolce was out of the 3 the most interesting and had good garnishes. They were also the most organized. You paid for your bowls & were given tokens. Then traded those for the bowls.
At the Sara Blake table, I was rudely told that I could only buy 1 bowl at a time (as per event rules.) Apparently, I needed to make my 2 kids wait in a 20 min line with me, so that they can each hand over $ 5 for bowls that were not even ½ way full.
What we really enjoyed was Beer City. Great selection on local beer, much less of a wait.
There is so much potential and obviously an interest in this type of event, evidenced by the number of attendees. I hope they learn from 2015 and improve upon it for next year.

I’m gonna be the negative nancy on this one guys.
The setup was simple, you pay an entrance fee $ 5 ($ 3 if you brought a canned food donation) and then you go buy ramen at all these different stalls for $ 5. The execution was TERRIBLE.
I got there shortly after it started, but I know the line to even enter was formed for over an hour before it started (I went by on the bus earlier in the day twice). The line was well over 100 deep just to pay your entrance fee. The lines at each stall were 100 or more deep. I’m not joking when I say several thousand people all standing in line.
I couldn’t ask anyone what was in their food, and as a person with food allergies this is important to me. The volunteers for the place were very rude to me also, but I don’t feel like going into that.
Last year they had sample tickets and then if you wanted to buy a whole bowl, you had that option. This needs to be the style used if you’re going to charge an entrance fee.
All in all I got fed up and left. I refuse to wait 90 minutes — 2 HOURS in line for a 1 cup serving of ramen. I’ll wait for yoshi-​ya to open in the mall in November, thanks.