Culinaria The Grand Tasting

The Culiniria Grand Tasting is pretty GRAND! If you can go to only one event to experience what Culinaria has to offer, it has to be this one. It’s deff worth the price tag IMO.
I had the pleasure attending this year and had a blast! The venue was amazing. The Grotto at the convention center is a semi outdoor space on the river. It was elegant, spacious, and airy. Ppl at the event all dressed nicely looking sharp. The participating restaurants were top notch including several well known establishments in the city. I was surprised to see restaurants from Austin, Dallas, and Oklahoma City. Guess they really branched out and expanded to do it big. That was deff unexpected. Food and drinks were abundant. Almost everything I tasted was delicious. Obviously everyone was on their A game! And I certainly enjoyed seeing well known local chefs hard at work all under one roof!
My favorites are Jason Dady’s Indian influenced dish which showcased his culinary talent nicely and Michael Sohocki’s innovative ice creams! The ice creams were not anything I’ve seen. One flavor «smoked ribs» tasted exactly like meat and the other one called «coffee and cigaret» was mind-​blowingly yummilicious as well! I went back 5 – 6 times b/​c I loved it so much.
The entertainment was the best ever! I’m not sure who decided to invite the San Antonio lion dance association. Regardless that person is a genius! Nobody would except to see Chinese lion dance at this sort of event but it deff caught everyone’s attention and brought a WOW factor to it. I loved it 1000%. The lion dance was amazing and it blended harmoniously with the Culiniria Grand Tasting which is an event about celebrating the beauty of diverse food and culture!
Five. Star. All. The. Way.

Great military discount! I enjoyed the event minus the really loud drum banging. We tried all the booths and it was very tasty. Great selections and cool location at the convention center along the river walk. I’ve been to better food tasting events in New York City and Phoenix at better prices but considering we went for half off I would say it was worth it. At full price I would have been a little disappointed. Thai topaz, paesanos, and a restaurant serving amazing truffle Mac and cheese were my favorites. Enjoyed the dressy but not too dressy atmosphere.

Booze. Scantily Dressed Babes. A Live Band. Bountiful Food. What else could you possibly ask for? This event was the event to end all Culinaria events and it lived up to the hype for me and my girlfriend.
Tickets cost over $ 100 a piece but the amount of liquor wine and beer served here as well as the quality of food and miscellaneous other amenities thrown in more than offsets the expense in my opinion. This is a dress to impress kind of event too so fellas wear your button ups and ladies, squeeze into your hottest dress n heels and get ready to get your drank on. The DJ was spinning some pretty good music but it wasn’t poppin’ off like at the club since most ppl there were too busy boozin it up and focusing on the food of course.
Me and the lady sampled all of the goodies and mostly everything was tasty, a few items were inventive and a couple things were revelatory. I really enjoyed the poblano and smoked gouda soup offering from a restaurant out of Round Rock, TX, it was creamy, rich and very delectable and both jello shots one place had were simple, with clean flavors and very smooth. The blood orange vodka cocktail was also crisp and enjoyable while the sake vendor had 4 offerings and the 2 I tried educated me on the vast array of possibilities within Japan’s traditional liquor.
There was so much wine here, I’m surprised that I didn’t see more cougars asking for White Zinfandel and Moscato. Lol. I had more than my fair share of drinks and was glad that my girlfriend decided to be the designated driver for us. The brisket from Smoke was very tender and the ice cream from The Gwendolyn was nothing short of spectacular, definitely one of the most creative choices of the night went to their smoked rib ice cream. Yeah you read that right and it was damn good too. The Red Velvet wine from Cupcake Winery was my favorite and another restaurant from Austin served up a memorable dessert by combining ice cream, black beans, condensed milk, salt and some sort of Japanese jellies for an unforgettable sweet. My g/​f wants me to mention how much she enjoyed the chicken and rice dish Thai Topaz had, she even came back for seconds! Haha.
In addition to all of the amazing gourmet food, we really loved the vibe this place had, the focus really was always on the culinary experience and chefs were mostly willing to talk you through each of their selections with attention to detail and passion which made me want to get in the kitchen and try my hand at some of their versions of classic staples. Kudos Culinaria. See you next year!

Worth every cent. The food was fantastic, and there was more wine than we could possibly drink. We didn’t do the bubble room, that looked like it wasn’t much incremental value for the extra $ 50, but we could be wrong. They got champagne, and a private room to sit in, but there was champagne for sampling even if you didn’t get the bubble room tix. We were glad that we noticed the dress code was cocktail-​ish attire at the last minute. If we had come casually dressed, as planned, we would have stuck out like sore thumbs. I would advise against stilettos, for the ladies. Seating is scarce, and my feet were killing me. If you have one of those plates that holds a wine glass, definitely bring it. They were for sale for $ 5 each at the event. All in all, we had a fabulous time and would definitely recommend it to anyone. The chefs really brought their A-​game! Great event!