PNE Fair 2019
The PNE Fair is over so I’m really not sure how relevant this post is anymore, but if you were wondering, this is all the food we tried at this year’s fair.
Event info
The PNE Fair happens from August to September. All the shows and summer night concerts are included in your basic admission fare, which can range from $0 (on special promotion days) to $18 (regular adult admission). See here on special promotion days.
This post is going to be about the food we tried, but there are several shows I enjoyed, including:
- Reveen: The Superconscious Experience. This is a hypnotic show where audience members can get hypnotized. The show was 1.5 hours long and very entertaining.
- Superdogs. This is a dog show where they do tricks and races. Very cute, must see.
- Pig racing. Ok I don’t actually recommend this show because it’s like 20 minutes and the actual pig racing lasts about 20 seconds.
PNE Fair food
We tried all the newest trendy food items at this year’s fair. Here is my honest review:
Butter beer soft serve ($6)
Harry Potter fans be lining up for this new ice cream. I chose to order it in a cup because a waffle cone is an extra $1. They didn’t even have a black waffle cone so what’s the point?
I thought butter beer ice cream would be a good idea but in general, I didn’t find this ice cream unique at all. It is more like a basic vanilla soft serve with some caramel mixed in – tasty but nothing magical. I wouldn’t get it again.
Freakk fries ($12)
You know I love potatoes. Freakk fries offer foot-long french fries made of mashed potatoes. We chose their most popular flavour – the parmesan garlic. They also offer chipotle mayo, butter chicken, chocolate (um nty) and other flavours.
The fries were delicious and it definitely attracted a lot of attention from other people. However, when I told people they are $12 they shook their heads and unfortunately, I have to agree. You can get a whole burger and fries for $12 at other food vendors. And even though yes, the fries are very long, it doesn’t seem “worth it” for $12 based on the amount I got. I think around the $8 range would make it a more attractive price offering.
Famin’ hot cheetos corn dog ($9)
The regular corn dog is $6 and the hot cheetos corn dog is $9. They stick the crumbled pieces of cheetos on the corn dog by painting it with mustard to stick. I did like the flavour and the texture of the cheetos corn dog – it wasn’t too spicy at all.
Again, however, I don’t exactly approve of the $3 price difference. The regular corn dog at $6 is decent.
Wavy chips and shrimp ($12)
This baby we ordered at last year’s fair and we saw it again this year. They offer interesting wavy chips that are basically spiral cut potatoes (like an apple peel). They add chipotle mayo on top.
Large portions and enough to share with 2 people. Popcorn shrimp was a bit on the smaller side, but generally I think it’s worth the $12.
Giant meatball ($14)
We ordered the famous 1lb meatball last year from Crazy Italian food truck. It has mozzarella cheese stuffed inside.
My boyfriend was very excited because he likes meatballs. I didn’t like it too much as I found the cheese wasn’t even melted inside and the meatball itself tasted very dry. Definitely not worth the $14 (why would it even cost this much???). I also think they raised the price to $15 this year which makes it even less attractive to me.
Final thoughts
Basically, food is a rip-off in PNE. You will find that food and drinks are more expensive once you are inside and you will have to deal with it because it’s the PNE.
Price aside, there are a lot of fun and wacky foods to try out. Everything we tried this year and last year may not be reasonably priced, but I can’t disagree that it’s not creative and interesting. You won’t be able to get it anywhere else, really.