9th Avenue Food Festival

I love it. It was a lots of fun while walking in 9^th avenue. Only think I didn’t like is they don’t care about hygiene. Water is limited and they don’t wash their hands during the festival. Maybe they need to buy a hand sanitizer at least lol

Pretty nice street festival. Some of the same booths repeated every few blocks like sweet corn with mozzarella and crepes, but some unique places too. Most dishes are around $ 5, ok price given the size. Quality of the food is decent, not amazing but the atmosphere is worth going for. Lots of people, enticing aromas, music, and some good free samples too. Happens every May, worth checking out, especially if you have kids

A NYC classic. Who cares that there are several smoothie stands, shish kebab carts, etc. There are still several booths with fantastic and different types of food which I would not normally eat. I have been coming for almost forty years and regret the few times that I have been out of town and unable to make it.

There was definitely a lot of food on every single block, but some food and smoothie stands could be seen every block. Overall I’d have to say, be prepared to come with quite a bit of money as some of the stuff can get a tad bit expensive.
For example: lamb gyros were $ 9, and Takoyaki (6 pieces) were $ 8. But it’s an interesting place to come if you want to see some different kinds of food. I was just a little bit disappointed to see not as many restaurants as I thought had stands.
At the very end of the food festival there were various cultural performances and that was pretty awesome.

Food is the international unspoken language that unites all cultures. We live to eat, period.
Foodie is what comforts me in my darkest days as 2014, I stroll New York’s Ninth Avenue to see what edible gems lie. Two Empanadas at $ 5.00, yes! There were many local restaurants that partake this event. Clothing and kiddie games are available but not to my interest. Yes, family friendly. This event is recurring every year, so if you missed this year you still have the next to look forward to in the month of May.

More like a 3.5 star street festival. Like another reviewer mentioned, they pretty much clone each block and not many actual Hell’s Kitchen restaurants are represented.
However, all the food I tried was tasty and pretty reasonably priced. Also, there were a few food companies giving away samples of products. For example, Post cereal was there giving away coupons and samples of a few of their cereals.
While there I tried Arepa… I think that was the name. It’s basically a lightly sweet corn cake sandwich with mozzarella inside. Very tasty. I had some chocolate covered strawberries, a Jell-​O shot, really good chocolate caramel popcorn, fresh lemonade and a wonderful empanada from Empanada Mama. It was mozzarella with guava… sooo good!!!
Overall this is definitely a fun place to walk around for an hour or two. Tasty eats, some live music, free samples… all in all a fun way to spend some of your day! One tip is to come early when it’s cooler out and not as crowded.

Visited the 9^th ave food fest in May 2014. There were tons of people and plenty of food to be had! However, didnt feel like there was much of a variety. It looked like they cloned each block. There was the roasted corn, fresh lemondae, corn dogs, sausage… etc stands on every block over & over. I was looking for more Hels Kitchen restaurants showcased. This is a fest i recommend stopping by if you’re in the area but i wouldnt go out of my way to attend.

I work in the area and during my many walks from 59^th Street to the 33^rd Street PATH station via 9^th Avenue, I’ve marveled at all the happy hours and specials that the restaurants on this block have to offer. Having only ventured in a select few of my regular spots, I was excited about this festival, knowing it would feature not only international foods throughout NYC, but 9^th Avenue as well.
This 2012 weekend was a busy one!!!
In this neighborhood alone, there was a dance parade on Broadway and a tattoo convention on 52^nd. You know I had to hit up the tattoo convention!
With the little bit of time I had to enjoy this festival, I tried to take in as much as I could. I had a great time, don’t get me wrong, but I feel like I walked away with some disappointments:
** It wasn’t as «international» as its namesake had me thinking it would be (the FTR failed to give it its full name: 9^th Avenue International Food festival).
** I felt most of the food was typical festival fare and I would’ve been able to find them anywhere.
** I didn’t feel 9^th Avenue was featured at all. Most 9^th Avenue businesses may have put out some tents, tables, and chairs out front, but you’re ordering from the staff and menu inside. I guess I was expecting something other than just added outdoor seating.
I did have a bit of excitement. I was eyeing the alligator sausage stand at the Hoboken Arts and Music Festival, but didn’t get around to it. I was on a mission to find it out here… and I did. That was exciting, the «finding» part. The actual sausage was anticlimactic. It tasted like any other sausage. Having never had alligator before, I didn’t know what subtleties to look for. They could have given me a regular ol’ pork sausage and I wouldn’t have known.
Having no other years to compare this year’s festival to, I can’t say if things are getting better or worse. It may not have met my expectations, but I still had a good time and I would indeed do it again next year.

My wife and I had gagged down a poor breakfast at Euro café earlier in the day and had finished the Sunday Times. We were bored and it was raining so we left our hotel, walked a couple blocks and checked this festival out. It was 15 blocks of mostly the same crap you’d see at any county fair but the food selections were pretty good. We tried a couple things and all in all had a good time people watching and observing.
I guess it only happens once a year but I’m glad we were able to enjoy it. I liked the whole pig on the spit the best.

I look forward to the Ninth Avenue Food Festival every year. It is has the typical street fair stands. But local restaurants also have stands where you can sample their popular dishes. There is a wide variety of food to choose from.
I look forward to Dalton’s pork sandwiches. The pork is from a pig on a spit that they cook right at their stand. Juicy and succulent!
Southern Hospitality opened a restaurant in HK this past year and have a stand for the first time. Their ribs are to die for! I am definitely going there for dinner soon!

This is for the ’08 festival but might as well be for the four or five ones prior to that too. I skipped the ’09 and ’10 ones, but even so, I must say that the one for ’08 was the suckiest 9^th Ave Food Fest EVER!!! In all the past few years, I really couldn’t imagine this thing getting any worse than previous ones, but incomprehensibly, it was. ’08’s showing has got to be the worst representation of 9^th Avenue’s culinary diversity and deliciousness in the many years I’ve been living in Manhattan and attending this as-​of-​late sorry assed affair! Main reason why I skipped the next two and probably won’t waste my time with this year’s either.
Many moons ago, all of the varied ethnic restaurants that lined the avenue would proudly exhibit their tasty wares via stalls outside of their venues. As the years went on, more and more 9^th Ave eateries for some reason or other gave up on this opportunity. In came the sock vendors, cosmetic peddlers, carnival game barkers and just about every other blasé Manhattan street fair denizen that is so recognizable come every spring and summer in the city.
Result — a mile long representation of generic mediocrity, far from the Hell’s Kitchen street feast that this one-​time renowned festival formerly was. I started at 57^th street and walked down. I grabbed a decent spicy chicken empanada from Empanada Mama’s stall (one of the paltry dozen or so stalls that truly represented 9^th Ave restaurants throughout the «festival’s» mile long stretch) and it was pretty good for their everyday price of $ 2.50. A bit down the street, I sampled a bland chicken croquet from another local, Bali Indah Nusa. By the time I got to 43^rd St, I said to myself, «Eff this!» and crossed over to 10^th, doubled back up to 46^th and had some really great Mexican food at Tehuitzingo Deli Grocery:
. Wonderful food that you can get every day and the XX Mexican beer was just 2 bucks, not the $ 4 that the gyp-​joints on 9^th Ave were charging to drink in the street either!
This «festival» has become a waste and an unnecessary traffic tie-​up. Time to end this sham. It does not really represent the diverse dining experiences of 9^th Ave as it once did, so it’s outlived its usefulness.
Would have gotten only one star if not for the tasty spicy chicken empanada, but you can get those anytime at the same place but at a table with a server, so bleh!

The «9^th Avenue International Food Festival» is full of food, fun, festivities, and freakin’ delightful debauchery. More on that later.
On a semi recent business trip to New York, I sat in my hotel room frustrated that Southwest Airlines (Chicago) had misplaced my luggage the night before, and that I would be without my belongings until later that afternoon. So I’d have to live without my sensitive skin exfoliating face wash, clinical protection Secret deodorant, and expensive hair product. For the record, I am not a woman.
Going crazy in my hotel room, I opted to go for a walk around Hell’s Kitchen with slightly disheveled hair, a 5 o’clock shadow, and the same clothes I had worn the day before. Essentially, it’s sort like a «walk of shame» minus the fatigue, head splitting hangover, and general embarrassment of going home with a wildebeest.
Anyway, I am really glad I got out of my room. I happened to stumble across the «9^th Avenue International Food Festival» and this was an awesome way to spend a few hours. It’s full of little booths that sell a diverse array of food, snacks, drinks, and other items such as t-​shirts, souvenirs, crafts, and fake designer handbags.
Since I was starving, I was able to try the cuisine a full plate of tasty Indian/​Pakistani food from Bombay Express for $ 5. I had some sugary sweet lemonade from another stand for a $ 1.50. And for dessert, I enjoyed a couple of orgasmic explosions in my mouth, or in other words, two fried Oreo cookies for $ 1. All in all, one of the cheaper meals I have ever enjoyed in New York (that didn’t come from McDonald’s or a food cart).
However, the best part of the festival was diversity of the people, culture, languages, and the vibrant energy that can only come from New York. And one area of the festival in particular, captured New York City and the «9^th Avenue International Food Festival» for me.
Here’s the scene: There were some Latinos, ranging from Puerto Rican to Dominican, on the sidewalk listening to some salsa music. One Latino guy starts playing a bongo drum of sorts. And then another Latino guy starts shaking his maracas. Next thing you know, you have a group people dancing on the sidewalk and in the streets.
The energy and the vibe was infectious. A darker Latino guy with dyed blond hair, a tye dye cut off t-​shirt, and some (super short) white shorts starts really showing off his salsa moves. All of a sudden, a larger man comes along, dressed in a long dress with a blond wig and a parrot on his shoulder and small spray painted dog at his feet and he proceeds to shows off his dance moves. As they start to dance together, the crowd begins to cheer for both of them.
Out of nowhere, a small older Latino man dressed in a little tan suit straight of «Mad Men» starts to get down with his salsa moves. At this point, the crowd erupts into a frenzy. And I don’t blame them. This guy was around 80 years old, but could out dance anyone on the block. He was the coolest old man I had come across in a long time.
And in the end, this is the most fun I have had at a festival in a long time.
I’m definitely a fan.

Reviewing the 2010 iteration of the «INTERNATIONAL* FOOD FESTIVAL»:
I’d like to start by mentioning that I just love how tourists prance (if only they were so graceful) around Midtown content and naïve, thinking «Oh, this is New York, how enchanting».
Regardless, the food was mediocre at best, and the removal of the moniker «International» from the listing is telling, but here’s a cursory rundown for those who curr:
Louie G spelled «Canoli» wrong, but made it just right
Brickyard Gastropub stationed outside their place, and took forever to deliver decent Crabcake Sliders & Fig Mascarpone In Phyllo
Hallo Berlin’s Potato Pancake was served up in front of their store and illustrated some awful service
Rice & Beans folks were attentive but disorganized, and their codfish croquette was meh
Come and get it BBQ was hectic and their corn on the cob with lime butter was uncooked corn with a tub of hard butter?
Sadly, the standard street fair vendors were the best part, and I enjoyed my traditional candy Apple over things like Rachel’s Sliders’ Lobster Slider & Gazpacho Pasta Salad, though they topped the other wares here.

It was listed as starting at 38^th on their official website… it started at 42^nd.
Half the vendors I expected to see didn’t bother setting up. In fact a few had empty spots in front of their place, which settled that theory. I can imagine the cries of «oh it’s the economy, setting a booth up isn’t feasible» — yeah selling samples of your food at lower prices, which generates business as people now know how good your food is, isn’t practical. Give me a break. I can’t imagine that the sham-​wow tent or tea & spice fellas make a killing, but there they are at every street fair this summer.
Yes, it looked like every other street fair going on weekly around here. But then again, it was fitting. The hype and pride of a neighborhood has just been homogenized into the generic. Will defnitely not put aside time for it.

This would have been so much better if there had been more of the local restaurants. As a fan of 9^th Ave dining, I was hoping to see most of the restaurants represented. Unfortunately this was not the case. Not only did the majority NOT have booths, it was your typical street fair cuisine. Picture endless funnel cake stands, sausage and pepper stands, etc. Bah, Meh, whoopee…

Thought I should writean update on day 2. The weather has been great so the streets are packed. The food as always… hmmmm. I have already eaten in the restaurants of 9^th Ave represented. Their tastings were decent but in general their food IN the restaurants is much better.
While billed as an «International Food Festival,» there are more cheep jewelry booths, hats, wallets and belt booths, and even NYTime booths. Wouldn’t it be nice to have just a food fare?
Welcome to NY Street Fare season. Same stuff everywhere blocking off traffic. Hurray!

This was my first time going to a food festival, and it was definitely a good time. I had the onion rings/​loaf thing that everyone seemed to be carrying around ($ 7), which I only got to eat some of and then had to chuck it because I wanted something else, which was mac n cheese ($ 4), from one of the Caribbean vendors which not the best, actually, not even good. Or hot. Or had taste.
I was it all down with a VERY sweet bucket of lemonade ($ 3) and had strawberry cheesecake ($ 4) which was pretty good– kinda mushy then what I’m used to, but still good nonetheless. It was a pretty huge fair, and next time I’m going to make sure I smoke five blunts before I go here because I know there is a lot more that I need to pack in.
I also got to see Chris March from Project Runway who I think is an amazing designer and he was eating the same greasy crap I was! I love it!

It’s a street fair. You know going in that you’re going to get ripped off by just about everyone. Every block you walk you will see people selling sausage and pepper heroes, corn dogs, «authentic» Mexican cuisine, several types of deep fried goodness or nastiness (depending), and can probably get away with a little open container violation if you’re slick about it.
I spent $ 4 bucks on a chicken empanada that was pretty underwhelming (can a brother get some pico de gallo or somethin’!!!), dropped $ 5 on some fried oreos (my stomach is still angry at me for that one) and dropped another $ 5 on a cold, tasteless pulled pork sandwich from Dalton’s. I shouldn’t feel too bad though… they also tricked Michael Boatman and Steven Weber, on line in front of me, into buying their sandwiches (someone please find these guys some work!). The best thing I spent my money on was a Summer Ale.
I also saw a church bake sale of sorts around 44^th Street with some tiramisu and cheesecake, unrefrigerated and just hanging out in the danger zone… that is a BIG no-​no.

I felt the «international» was misleading. It’s more like a large carnival minus the rides and also what the hell was up with the Shamwow booths? That really ruined the idea of «food festival» for me. The Colombian booths were really tasty and if you love deep fried anything there’s definitely plenty of that here. The deep fried Oreos are one of the most decadent things I’ve ever eaten.

Same vendors you generally see around the city with a couple of actual restaurants from Hells Kitchen representing. But overall, a really fun street fair. There are free samples (not too many) and incredibly cheap eats.
Word of advice to my cheap-​friends: Go around closing time — vendors lower prices and are desperate to get rid of food. A friend of mine actually got a free sandwich and watermelon!