If I were to run any race, this would have been it. Food plus running. Two of my favorite things. Unfortunately, I didn't run but I did enjoy hanging out with my friend Albert, some of the Yelp crew, and meeting up with some familiar faces. Irvine Park was a great venue. It was spacious and there were plenty of places to sit and ample shade. The White Rabbit truck provided some music and we got to sample from several trucks - Fresh Fries, The Lime Truck, Great Balls, Lobsta Truck, and Tapa Boy. Also got to run into my favorite, Chunk n Chip and take a ride in their truck. Woohoo!! The highlight of the day was seeing Adam Richman. I LOVE his show. We stayed to watch it being filmed and managed to get a photo at the end. That was beyond amazing. I loved every moment of that. Experiencing how the show is filmed, talking to the competitor, and watching it being filmed was just so cool. Can't wait for it to air in 4 weeks. I feel like a mini-celebrity. Great job Munchathon crew! You rock! read more

See all

Woohooo! It was food truckin' all the way this weekend in Santiago Canyon! Thanks to the awesome Hazel Q, I snagged myself some complimentary tix to the food truck festival at the Munchathon event this past Saturday! Although it took awhile to find this elusive event, as soon as I did, it was like finding a gourmet food oasis in the middle of the dessert! There were loads of gourmet trucks serving up tasty street fare to hungry athletes and spectators alike! With that said, I wasted no time in diving into the food frenzy and sampling some new tasty food truck fare for myself! I hit trucks like the Cheeseball Wagon, Short Stop BBQ, Lime Truck, Vchos Papusa Truck, Kona Ice and Tornado Potato to name a few! Everything I tried was fantastic and I must say I left totally full and satisfied! To my surprise, Adam from Man Vs. Food was spotted filming on the grounds and folks started snapping tons of photos! Unfortunately the crew trumped most of us from nabbing a snapshot of the food star. As you can see, I said some of us... I did in fact manage to get a photo! Of his back, of course! Buzzkill! In any case, it was good fun and although I missed my Yelp buddies, I was able to hit up some really awesome food trucks that I've never tried before! Here's to tasty new discoveries and awesomely good times! Happy Eats! read more

See all

I did not participate in the 5K part of the Munchathon, only the Post Munchathon Food Truck portion of this event. I did see a lot of my Yelp friends at this event that did participate in the 5K and they were very happy that they participated in this one of a kind 5K and eat type marathon. I heard they had fries and oysters on the 5K....LOL....sounds like a lot of FUN and my plan is to consider participating next year! As for the Post-Munchathon part of this event, I was able to try munchables foods from several trucks like the TapaBoyLA, LobstaTruck, White Rabbit, Great Balls on Tires, and the Fresh Fries trucks. As for freebies, I got tastes from Kern's Natural drinks and 8th Continent Soy Milk. This was already a Yelp Five Star event, but what made it better was that the White Rabbit food truck was able to get Travel Channel's "Man Vs. Food Nation" host, Adam Richman, to Irvine Lake to finish the filming of their Los Angeles episode. I was able to follow the production and filming of the episode. The episode is suppose to air in 3-4 weeks. Me and my fellow Yelper, Suki were even privileged to get a photo with the MVFN man himself. Needless to say....the photo is now my NEW Yelp & Facebook profile pic....YAY for a FUN way to spend a Saturday afternoon! A special TY to Hazel Q for giving me tickets to this FUN event! =) read more

A little belated review, but I felt that it was important to give some feedback. In general, the 5K course was alright only... I didn't care for the rocky trail, I ended up walking the course instead of running it. It didn't help that I had to carry these full sized food samples along the course (Honest Tea, Kern's, etc). I think the vendor spots could've been spread out a bit, there were stretches of nothing, and then a few vendor stops bunched together. But all in all, not that much food obstacles to say it's a true Munchathon. If you want to call it a Munchathon, then it would be the food truck gathering post-race. I felt really bad for a lot of the food trucks. There wasn't enough people to warrant THAT many food trucks. Also, what would have been smarter was if all the trucks arranged to have a special menu that day, serving smaller portions at a lower cost. Then people would have been able to try different trucks that day. If you had a full sized sandwich or so at one truck, you likely wouldn't hit up another. It was great that there wasn't a crazy long wait at trucks, but yeah, I can't blame them for leaving the event early to go make money elsewhere. We'll see what happens, if there's another one next year, and which trucks will really show up? read more

A lot of people thought this wouldn't work out. Running and scaling obstacles, while occasionally stopping to eat.. But you know what? They made it work! On top of that, Hazel Q. and Yelp made this rad event even better! We formed a team of Yelp superheros; donning some sweet Yelp gear (including Yelp capes!), and chased two villainous food items throughout the rugged 5k course. Mike Q. and Drew M. (aka donut and hotdog, respectively) pretty much stole the show at this event as the food villains that we superheros were running after. A few highlights included the lack of shortage of hotdog buns (er.. I mean "puns") lobbed about throughout the day, and "Donut" successfully hiding from and surprising runners in the tire run. If you think a regular run is difficult, try keeping down items like soy milk, chips, ice cream, cupcakes, and yes, even oysters while running 3 miles. Let's just say I'm glad I decided not to drink the night before (the Yelpers who had; you know who you are.. My hat's off to you!). After the run, we lounged in the park area and sampled from a large variety of food trucks. All in all, a really beautiful day with some super fun peeps! read more

The Good: A fun 5k that had some interesting things to eat and drink along the way. Food trucks, a ton of them, with little to no lines. Runners having fun dressing up and enjoying a beautiful day in Irvine. The Bad: I was expecting more food along the course route. I think it was mostly liquids like water, tea, fruit juice or soy milk. I thought it would have food trucks with small samples along the way. With less food stops my friends actually jogged the course and with me out of shape paid the price. Why do they charge for parking? Oh yeah, more free money. There is a huge lot outside the course which didn't even get close to getting filled but $5 for general and $10 for preferred. The Ben: Full disclosure, I won tickets on Yelp. Thanks HQ and Yelp for that. It was fun just because I was with friends and this was a first time event. I loved the no lines for food trucks but some of my favorites didn't hold up, yeah you Ludo Truck. Nice try for a first attempt. Adam Richman showed up for a Man vs Food Nation filming, to bad I was long gone and nursing my aching legs :( read more

I was actually quite impressed with the overall layout and design of this event! The ground was quite rugged, with large rocks abounding, but thankfully no one who entered today was there to actually race through the course *COUGH COUGH* Sometimes it felt like it was a pretty long distance between food or drink carts, and other times it felt like a bottleneck, but there were obstacles to hop over, walls to climb, tunnels to crawl through, inflatable obstacles courses to bounce on, and various food vendors to give us the energy needed to continue. The weather turned out to be perfect, and our Yelp Team of caped crusaders and costumed culinary delights make short work of every obstacle thrown at us. The turnout was a bit low, but there were a lot of food trucks represented, a great DJ, lots of shade, plenty of bathrooms, and friendly staff. Everything to my eye went without a hitch, and our team had a blast! The fact is, if you're not in a costume for these events, you're standing out. Thanks Hazel Q for putting together some great costumes, and for all the Yelpers who came out EARLY and took over the show! read more

I may or may not have had too much to drink prior to agreeing to run this 5K. My mantra has always been, "Why run, if nothing's chasing you?" and yet there I was at 8:30 wondering if anyone would really notice if I left. But, as it turns out, I had a blast at this event. Sure, it was out in the boonies (tip: make sure you know EXACTLY where you are going before heading out to Silverado, because if you miss your off-ramp, the Toll Road gods are brutal) and yes, you do have to pay for parking. But once in, the event was awesome. The 5K had obstacles along the way (tunnels, walls, and even a bouncehouse-type inflatable!) as well as food trucks giving out samples for the runners. As we approached the Slapfish truck, I heard one runner behind me say, "Oh great. Now I can go shoot a couple oysters, throw up, and keep running." Sometimes it was easier to just pass the food. :) After running (or in my case, walking & bitching), we were rewarded with a bevy of food trucks at our disposal. I don't think I have seen so many in one place! I wasn't in the mood to undo all of my "hard work" on the 5K by putting down some Korean/taco/sliders, so I stuck to the Rolling Sushi Van and got my beloved California rolls. I hope the attendance was enough to warrant another event like this. It was great seeing a lot of people (not just the Yelpers!) in costume, and I can start to see why people do this voluntarily! read more

I wasn't sure what to expect with this event, but I was really impressed and had more fun than I expected! I've done my share of running events (a handful of 5k's and 10k's and two Half Marathons under my belt so far over the past year), so this event was more of a casual and fun workout compared to the hardcore, timed and full out run like I normally do for races. The course itself was very rocky and uneven, making me feel like I was going to fall a few times. There was a few food trucks and obstacles along the way, but not as many as I anticipated. Sometimes the trucks and obstacles were very far apart (I was expecting them to be every quarter of a mile or so, but they weren't), but overall I had a good time sampling food and climbing over walls, going through tunnels, climbing through an inflatable bouncy type house and hopping over fences. Our Yelp Gang dressed up as Superheros; complete with capes, a mask, Yelp shirts, wrist bands and headbands. The superheros where chasing after the villains, Hot dog and Donut. Awesome! Seems like Yelp for sure stole the show at this event, as everyone was taking our picture and asking what we were about. After the fun run, we hung out in the park and relaxed. Eating food from the food trucks, socializing, listening to the great DJ and just having fun. The weather was perfect for this event, not too hot and not too cold. My only disappointment was that it seemed like the turnout for this event was really low. So low, that when I left, I mentioned to a person that was working there "can't wait for next year!" and he responded in a very unhappy voice "yea, we'll see". Don't know if that means they aren't planning on having another Munchathon due to the low turn out or what. But, I hope they do this event again since I would consider participating again! All in all, fun morning with cool people! Cheers! read more

Please ignore every four-star or five-star review on this page. High reviews were either posted by Munchathon staff or volunteers, or Yelp volunteers/ free ticket recipients (Yelp partnered with the organizers to promote this event). Free ticket = extremely easy to please!! From an UNBIASED race attendee who paid full price, here's my opinion: My friends and I felt that the event was, not to mince words, a major disappointment and rip-off. We expected a gourmet food event, where we would encounter creative "food-themed obstacles" (as described in publicity materials), and delicious food-truck-supplied small portions that we would enjoy as we walked/ ran the course. Instead, we found "Munchathon" to not even be its own event, borrowing everything, from the banners to the course to the obstacles, from the Irvine mud run that would be held the next day. Munchathon didn't even have large enough signs to make it easy for us to find the event. We thought we were at the wrong fun run. But unlike the Irvine mud run, which at least would offer copious amounts of MUD, the Munchathon offered virtually nothing. Instead of small portions of delicious food truck food along the way, and an interesting course with creative food-themed obstacles, we found a desert-like pathway with practically nothing interesting to look at or to do along the way. And, oh, dear..... the "food." Apparently, the organizers thought they could pull one over on us participants by inviting companies that wanted to promote their products to show up and offer free samples, rather than to have ACTUAL FOOD TRUCKS give the participants small plates of gourmet food, which is what the event's advertisements implied. Only a couple of actual food trucks participated in the event itself, and they gave us (1) hummus and fries (tasty, but sort of random), and (2) a raw oyster. Many of the folks in my group were kosher, and could not even eat the oyster. In a word..... HUH???? Otherwise, we got a very strange and decidedly ungourmet mixture of Kern's nectar, soymilk in a carton, iced tea, packaged nutrition bars, and other random crap that no one was particularly interested in eating or drinking. This is stuff that you could get for FREE, as samples, at most public events. Not to mention the fact that the "obstacles" were nothing but random wooden barriers that looked like horse gates. (Except for the last one, which was sort of fun). What about a wooden horse gate, exactly, is "food themed"??!? And yet, we were charged FIFTY BUCKS for the privilege of attending this event. As none of this went to charity, this absurdly high price simply cannot be justified. Simply and plainly, I want my money back. I was so embarrassed to have invited my friends to this event, that I had to apologize to them profusely. The whole event would have been redeemed if the organizers had given the participants a credit towards buying food from a food truck at the end of the race. But no. The food truck grub was just as pricey as it normally would be. Oh.... and the best part was that the organizers (1) charged people extra to pick their race packets up on the day of the race, when this clearly cost them nothing extra at all; and (2) charged us even MORE to park, after we'd already shelled out $50 (they didn't warn us about this in advance). On top of all this, the Munchathon website had NO useful information on it with respect to race-day logistics, and the Munch staff was completely unresponsive to questions asked repeatedly, beforehand, by me and my other friends who attended. When we finally realized that the only way to get responses would be to post on Facebook, we asked what times the waves would begin, and were told that it would be "first come first served." Imagine, then, my friends' disappointment when we showed up at 8:30 am, to learn that the wave times HAD been set in advance, and ours was over an hour away (9:50). We came all the way from LA, and had to get up at 6:30 am to get there, only to realize that this early bird arrival was totally unnecessary. In a word, this event was absolutely appalling. I am so angry I could spit. read more

A food truck events with a variety of food trucks and no lines, ever? How can you not be a fan of that? You probably can, when you weren't expecting to drive this far, getting lost, and being told that you have to pay for parking on top of your admission ticket even though there was nothing on the event website that warned you about it. Probably worse for people who actually paid the fifty something bucks to participate in the obstacle course. Highlights of the event: - Yelp booth + Yelp stuff :) - Free stuff, lots of it. And since there weren't that many people, they didn't seem to run out. - Various food trucks The DJ kept saying that something special was gonna happen at the White Rabbit food truck. First we heard "an hour" then an hour later nothing was happening so we waited and waited some more and still nothing so we just left. Turns out, it was Adam from Man vs Food. I hope it was worth it for the food trucks to drive out here, there really didn't seem to be enough people to form the usual lines. On the plus side, it was easy to get our nom on! read more

Please, please, dear Yelp Gods on high, forgive me. For I have sinned. To all consumers of this diatribe, please be patient. This may be long and overly emotional. When my CM emailed me about this event, I was excited as can be. Excited as in "oh boy this is gonna be fun!" but also excited as in "wow, I'm actually really nervous about the physical aspect of this." Those of you who have ever read my reviews before know that I'm a self-deprecator. Yeah yeah yeah, she's fat, she's ugly, she's fatter now, she's uglier now, we get it. But what you probably DON'T know is that as much as I want to make you all laugh and feel comfortable trusting my opinion, a LOT of that stems from reality. Maybe I'm not Hunchback of ND hideous, but I am very VERY overweight. It's not that I can't handle my own with a physical challenge; I'm fairly strong, I like to swim, and walk, and I can dance along with the best of 'em. HOWEVER. I do NOT, under ANY circumstances, run. I hated running when I played bball in HS, and I hate it now, a million years and another lifetime later. So when I signed up for this thing, I thought, hey! 5K = just over 3.1 miles (yes, I am a math teacher to boot); I can DO this. I mean, there's supposed to be HELLA foodie obstacles and stops; with THAT many distractions and pauses, surely nobody is going to run! Of COURSE no one is going to notice! Or mock! Or leave me behind in embarrassment and shame! It didn't help that I was hung over as a monkey (my fault). It also didn't help that Alex P. and I showed up a bit late (also my fault). We dressed up awesomely and eagerly awaited the start. The announcer guy was pumped up! The other participants were pumped up! And in my gloriously hungover state, so was I!!! Sweet potato fries with hummus? Not ready yet. Oh hey! Water... with Michelob signs. D'oh! Soy milk? Cool. Kerns Nectar? Also cool. Popchips? Awesome :) Kind bars? Why, thank you. Funky tasting popsicles? Ehh, thanks anyway. More water with Michelob signs??? D'OH!!! Um... is that supposed to be an obstacle? OMG oysters? YES PLEASE. (Note: Yeah I was in a terrible state and felt like I was going to lose my lunch waiting in the starting queue. But am I gonna pass up fresh oysters? OH HELL to the NO!) ... And that's it. From the bottom of my heart I'd really like to thank Michelle M., her awesome +1 Rachel, Aaron L., and my best Yelp friend forever and ever Alex P., for trying their darnedest to keep my spirits up and make me feel better about myself. But at the end of the day, there weren't enough stops on the course itself to save face. Not enough "MUNCH" on the "ATHON" part. Sad face. I mean what else is there to do on a RUN if you can't eat? Well then duh you RUN! And that's what the team did. Except me. I left that day ashamed of myself. I am NEVER ashamed of myself. I tried desperately to be happy, to be funny, to bring smiles and uplifting conversation and laughter. But instead I was sad, I was depressing, I felt frowns and stinging tears and sobs on the inside. All for a misinterpreted and falsely advertised "fun run." The DJ was fantastic, the prospect of Adam Richman was exciting, and FINALLY getting to try the Lobsta Truck, Great Balls on Tires, and Tapa Boy -- also marking a great return to India Jones and Lime Truck. ALL OH SO VERY GOOD. I'm sad that this event went against LA's because I feel like more people would've shown up. This was so great and so plentiful! I hope they at least broke even. Big ups to Hazel Q., Mike Q., and Intern Elise for amazing costumes, keeping up the energy at a well-stocked and popular table, and for generally being awesome. Again, my forever gratitude to my crew for long walks on the grassy knoll and pick-up basketball games. Also to Albert E., Suki B., and Drew M. for putting up with my shrill laughter, impromptu karaoke, and wild dancing maneuvers. That one extra star is all for you guys. But in the very very VERY end (again, I warned you this was long, didn't I???), I'm so very sorry for saying this -- but Munchathon, I can't ever look you in the eye again. This was fun, but it's over -- either I lose weight and get in shape, or you deliver on your obscure promises next time. And believe me, I ain't lookin toward Jenny Craig anytime soon. read more

This is a bit of a belated review, but after attending the piss poor event known as the OC Foodie Fest, I thought I'd give my review for Munchathon. From a foodie point of view, this was the perfect food truck meet-up. It was located in a grassy area where people can picnic and there is tons of shade. At first, the trucks were split up in two sections, but when the crowds were dying down, they moved all the trucks to one side. There were no lines and we were able to try about 6-7 of the trucks within an hour. There were tons of picnic tables and bathrooms available. I'm sure they were expecting more of a turn-out, but like I said, from a foodie points of view it was perfect. No lines is always a win in my book. read more

Very disappointed in this event. It was their first event, and you could tell. Info on the website was poor. Emails to the organizer were unanswered. Several on our team emailed about Start times and were told that it was "first come, first served". When we arrived early, we found out our team had been assigned a start time an hour later. They could have emailed that to us--even the night before! It was suppose to be a fun 5k with alot (hence the "ATHON") of food. There were only maybe 3 food trucks, but several tables with companies promoting & handing out their products and alot of drinks on the course. And there were NO food themed obstacles (as promoted) on the course. Nada. The race course (and the volunteers) were for a mud run the next day. Even all the signs were for the next day's event. The price for the 5k was waaay to high, $50 for a t-shirt andwhat you got in food and the obstacle course that really wasn't any fun. AND they charged $5 for parking (in a huge, empty dirt lot ) This was not mentioned at all on the website. And then they charged an extra $10 for race bib/shirt pick-up on the morning of the race! Yes , the lake was pretty but we jog/walked quite a distance between food stops, far enough that you couldn't see the next food stop.The race portion was sparsely attended. Yes, there were alot of food trucks for the after-race Food Fest. but even race participants had to pay regular prices for any food they wanted there. We could have saved ourselves $50 @ and just come for the Food truck fest. Even that part of the event was very poorly attended.There wasnt any energy or excitement about the Food Fest. Fail. read more

All the people who didn't come to this event--and sadly, that's a lot of people--don't know what they're missing. I didn't run the race (me? run? I wish!) but it was fun to see all of the costumes. There were dozens of food trucks and we got to try lots of different types of food, from Indian to Greek to ice cream sandwiches. If you go to this type of event, bring a friend to split things with; otherwise you'll get full really fast! We also got lots of free samples--soymilk, juice, some other kind of fruity drink--and plenty of swag. We rarely had to stand in any lines at all; usually we could order food very quickly and only waited a few minutes for it to be ready. I really enjoyed getting to sample things from food trucks I'd never tried before. Downsides: It was hard to find the location. We only saw one little sign, and we got slightly lost. It also wasn't made clear that there was a charge for parking; I only noticed it on the event's Facebook page (I think) just before we left that morning. Finally, this event wasn't very well publicized. I wouldn't have known about it at all if I hadn't won tickets on Yelp, and it was clear that there weren't as many people in attendance as the event organizers had expected. That's sad because we really did have a good time (and we definitely enjoyed the lack of crowds). I hope that the event organizers aren't discouraged from doing this again next year. read more

We attended as spectators / lunchathon members. Not the MudRun folks. Bought the tix because we liked the idea of 40 + food trucks at one location, where we could taste a lot of different truck foods. For that purpose: the event did not disappoint. We shared tastes from a lot of trucks: * korean tacos - short ribs and pork; * ludo bites truck - chicken balls (no, not the BALLS, but, balls of chicken) and a Rosemary Lavender biscuit with honey and sea salt = KILLER; * carlsbad oysters, and a fish taco; * banh mi sandwich from NomNom, of course! ; * samosa So many more to choose from we didn't have space for in our bellys: cheeseballs, bacon-wrapped everything; fries fries and more fries; fries with pastrami and cheese; filipino food; more korean taco trucks; spuds; yogurt things; shaved iced; sweets galore; greek food; barbeque; man, you name it and IT. WAS. THERE. I received an email before the event trumpeting 1,000 + tickets sold. I do believe it. I also know that 1000 + more could have and should have been sold, to make ti worth the time of the trucks. I felt bad for the truck staff! Man, I wish YOU were there. read more

Participating in a 5K and eating at the same time? Such a great concept! However, it wasn't that well planned out of an event to make it worth the entry fee of $50 (plus a surprise parking fee!). The website didn't initially offer too much information for all of the advertising and fliers that were passed out from the food trucks around So Cal in the months leading up to the event. You'd think that by the time the organizers of this event started posting information all around L.A. and the O.C. they would've had their stuff together. Nope! So by the time we signed up, we still weren't sure exactly what to expect. It seems everyone had different expectations of this event since the website was initially so obscure. To begin, the course of the race was basically the next-day MudRun course and obstacles. Nothing original or food related. People I talked to seemed to be under the impression that there might be food-related obstacles....or at least MORE food?! The best "obstacle" was the jumper at the end, which many people seemed to enjoy. My friends and I couldn't help but wonder if the Mud Run wasn't the next day, what would have been on the course? Just dirt and rocks, I'm guessing. As for the food trucks on the course, I think there was only three. Kerns, Honest Tea, and Pop Chips were at least generous with their samples, which are usually free anyway. I felt bad for all of the food trucks that showed up for the "festival" (really, a DJ and food trucks constitute a festival?) because it's obvious that there wasn't enough people to make this trip (or fee....please tell me these trucks didn't PAY to be there?) for it to be worth it for their business (I don't know how many non-racers the organizers expected to show up when it was $12 just to get into the "festival"). Several food trucks were also passing out samples. Why they didn't offer to do this on the course is still kind of confusing to me. Overall, this event had such potential to be great but failed (and this was apparent by the lack of participation). I know this was the first one of its kind so I can only hope that it improves from here on out or someone comes along and does a better job of organizing it. Until then, I can tell you that my friends and I won't be participating again. As we sat there and enjoyed the delicious food from the food trucks we jokingly talked about who took our money and ran....and regretted not thinking of the idea first. Oh, the funniest part? As we walked out we noticed the "volunteers"/organizers(?) of the event eating Costco pizza. Really? All of those food trucks, all of the money you collected, and the people helping you are eating Costco pizza? Hilarious! read more