Taste of Tacoma

It wasn’t a bad time, but like other reviewers have stated, this has little to nothing to do with Tacoma. 90% of the food is fair food from non-​local proprietors. If I wanted fair food, I’d go to a fair. I thought this was going to have to do more with Tacoma-​based restaurants. There is a lot of good food in Tacoma, and this seems like a major missed opportunity for these places to connect with the locals.
Aside from that, it was fun. There’s some good music, and some good beer and wine gardens. Glad I went once. May or may not go back next year.
Also, we highly recommend finding a park & ride from Tacoma Community College. Zero traffic, and we didn’t wait more than a few minutes for a bus.

Love it! Really fun place to bring kids! Wish there was more trail to walk but the food was amazing! Still pricey but thats with any festival.

Disappointing! My friend and I thought we were going to get a real taste of Tacoma, but instead got regular fair food. Thankfully, big boys filipino food truck was there. Their food is massive, a bit pricey but oh so worth it! We went pretty late and a lot of things were closing down.

Ah, the Taste of Tacoma: possibly the largest community gathering in the city, this FREE* festival is held each summer at the main entrance of Point Defiance Park.
Featuring dozens of food vendors as well as arts & crafts booths, various home improvement and other services, several live music stages and a comedy stage, beer gardens, and a carnival ride/​kiddie zone there’s something here for everyone. There is no admission fee to attend, and the festival is dog friendly (with the exception of the food court area).
Make no mistake, this is a commercial event that exists to part festival goers from their cash– but how much, if anything, one spends is completely up to the individual! Some of the best times I’ve had at the Taste cost me NOTHING– enjoying a nice walk through the mostly deserted interior of the park followed by some free live music, samples & swag from the booths, and Grade-​A people watching makes for an excellent afternoon without a penny spent.
If you do decide to purchase anything here, however, it’ll add up quick: most food items start at $ 3.75 for a «taste» and rise quickly from there. There is an awesome variety of comestibles to choose from, but if you intend to sample multiple cuisines it can turn into an expensive meal before you know it. It would be nice to see more local businesses represented here instead of the same assortment of vendors that seem to turn up at every stop on the regional festival circuit. Then again, those local businesses and the public park at which this event is held are open throughout the year, making it easy to have your very own Taste of Tacoma any time you feel like it!
Also, the chocolate-​covered frozen cheesecake on a stick is freaking awesome.

Warning: BYOC — Bring your own cash!
WHAT I LOVED:
Food selection — not quite «The Bite,» but for Tacoma, just right! Check out «Brevin’s Fudge» stand! Free samples, and you will walk away with a block! #ChocolateHeaven #ButterCream
Goods selection — Lovely market, with great, high quality items. My favorites were:
Sweet Home Soap Co. — Handcrafted, organic soaps. I first purchased soap from them at the Sequim market it 2013! Amazing soap!
Lilie De Vallee Bath & Body Products — I tried their «Milk & Honey» lotion with lavendar, my hands are still milky!
Katrina’s place — Bespoke, hand painted glasswear and antique windows. These were the most beautiful wine glasses I have ever seen. So creative, so unique! What an amazing idea! I wish they wholesaled.
Spin the Wheel — I love prizes. You can go over to the wheel stand (I forgot the name of the place, but it’s clearly visible) and spin for a vacation and do a «how many corks in the jar» guess for a free iPad. Always a nice prospect.
WHAT I LOATHED (A radical change from my usual, more subtle, «OPPORTUNITIES FOR GROWTH,» but oh how my gears were ground by the City of Tacoma):
Parking — NIGHTMARE! People out with street signs, «$ 10, $ 15.» Me, «Yeah Right!» Please don’t fall for it. If you drive down towards Ruston Way a few blocks past the parking beasts, there is plenty of free street parking and only a 3 – 5 minute walk.
ATM Charges — $ 3.50 to take out a $ 20? 17.5%? That’s more than my average tip on a Happy Hour bill. You’ve got to be kidding me. Plus the extra $ 2 BOA is going to tax us for taking money out from a different ATM. Umm… NO THANKS, I’d rather starve!
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Okay food selection, smaller than the BITE, but also less lines and crowds. Please find street parking and bring your own cash. But if you don’t, most of the stands selling goods take cards, and can give you cash back if you request it. Make sure you enter to win free prizes! 2 stars, because they’re charging me more to withdraw money than it costs to buy food!

Siiiiiiiiiiigh… Taste of Tacoma is not what it should be. What should it be, you may ask? It should be a festival that spotlights local, Tacoma restaurants and other businesses. It should be a festival that serves to give the people of Tacoma a chance to sample the many delicious cuisines of Tacoma. And there are so many fantastic restaurants in Tacoma!
Alas, taste of Tacoma is not what it should be. It’s basically a modge podge of non-​local booths selling their wares (think fabric lizards and caricature artists), and food vendors that are not from Tacoma. There were at least three «Greek» booths, none of which were from Tacoma. Where was Gateway to India? It’s Greek to Me? Mediterranean Palace? Indochine? MSM Deli?
Why don’t they just call this the Tacoma carnival? I mean, there are a handful of rides…
There is a BECU ATM, which was handy. But there really isn’t anything local here. What a disappointment. Also, like zero places to sit and eat your food.
Try again, Tacoma. :(

I had my first taste of alligator and moose here! Both were delicious! I look forward to coming back.

This was my first Taste of Tacoma event and it was wonderful! A hot sunny day, enough food vendors to the point where it wasn’t overwhelming, spacious, and great music.
We bought 2 discount books, which was a great idea to have at the event. Kaleenka Piroshky was delicious. I loved alligator on a stick and fried banana in coconut milk. We also had sliders from a food truck and lamb gyros.
Get the bottomless lemonade for $ 5. The most bang for your buck.
Instead of paying for parking, we parked on 51^st st and walked to the festival.
My fiancée and I walked through the whole event grounds twice and just felt so relaxed, despite the intense hear wave.
Definitely a great event for those visiting!

The taste of Tacoma is a tradition for us. There are just a few downs to this event.
#1 smoking. You will find a cloud of smoke every 5 ft or so at this outdoor event.
#2 music. It is usually not very good and extremely loud.
On the upside, the event offers an amazing array of food options and arts and crafts vendors.

Taste of Tacoma 2012:
I was a bit disapointed this year with the Taste of Tacoma.
1. They did not have discount coupon books
2. The vendors were allowed to raise their prices way higher than last year (although some stayed the same, others took a big jump).
Other years we’ve had a much better time. This year, every corner that we turned there was someone shoving a petition in our faces to sign. If you told them that you were not interested, they would say it’s ok I’ll follow you. If you said I already signed it, they would get in front of you, and ask you when and with whom you signed it with. They were super aggressive this year. Some of the other venders were almost just as bad.
Every year I end up buying a few dicount books, and every year, I buy more than I can use in one day, so I have to back on another day. Without the coupon books, I did not spend near as much as I would have on the coupon books, and so there was no reason to return another day either. I know that most of my friends ended up doing the same thing, where they would frequent the event more than once in the past, but they didn’t, and they didn’t spend as much this year either. So, that was a plus for us, not for them though.
I did want to note: That the Crêpe place was good, and pretty close if not the same prices as last year (thanks for the free lemonaid re-​fills). The alligator on a stick was good, but spendy, and they were not very nice (we usually get a few of them, but we only got one this year).
The corn on the cob, and the chocolate covered strawberries did good this year.
The deep fried candy bar place, was ok; their batter was doughy, and the candy bar was not even melted, so they did not cook them long enough.
The PIROSHKI place nailed it, they were by far the most improved, and the best food that we ate there, two huge thumbs up to them! (as much as I wish that I could personally eat all that food, this was based on a few items that our group of 9 people ate).
As it stands now, I will not be going out of my way to come here again, it was just not that great…

If you go at the right time and hit the perfect weather, this place is a nice place to get your tan on and listen to some old school rhythm and blues or old school pop. The food is ok… I always say if I can make that same food better than the vendors then I’m not paying for it… if you crave for fair food this is the place to go… but don’t stay too late, the little hoodlums start coming out of the woodwork, making for a fight waiting to happen. If you just hang on the hill with the music and sun it’s a relaxing experience. We found that parking streetside in the neighborhoods is better than paying for parking in marked off areas.

such a disappointment!!!
the way they talk about it on the tv and internet makes it sound like the coolest thing to go to.
food was gross and way too much, music we heard was awful and the people were rude and just no manors!
taste of scary is what they should call it!

Taste of Tacoma is basically a smaller version of Bite of Seattle. It’s at the Point Defiance Park which is a park on the water.
If you go to festivals around the sound you know there is basically the same vendors at all of them. I was really happy that the vendor that make it to all the big festivals was there, New Orleans Cookery who sales alligator on a stick. It taste like chicken, don’t be scared, it’s so good! And at the end of it you can tell people you like alligator!
The nice thing about Taste of Tacoma is that no single item is more than $ 6 and a meal is no more that $ 7 (it’s Taste of Tacoma law!). But as Lisa says it’s still overpriced. They also offer several stages with music with a huge field to sit and eat. Parking was $ 10, which is typical.
If you’re in Tacoma, go, if you’re not, you will get the exact same thing as Bite of Seattle but less, be warned.

Taste of Tacoma = fair food with a little food festival theme mixed in.
The festival is free and occurs in the summer, June this year. There is a long line to purchase Discount Meal Ticket booklets (pay $ 17 for $ 20 in tickets). They run out of booklets, seems like bad planning to me.
Amongst the long line of typical fair booths, there are some local businesses represented. Most booths offer a «taste» dish that is a smaller portion and cheaper than the other items, still overpriced in my opinion. There is a competition and winner every year for best dish.
Burt’s Bees and Sabra hummus had pretty awesome sampling areas set up.
–Sabra gave away hummus and pita chips and had a toppings bar available, good idea. The tables were hard to come by. Although there were a bunch, there were not enough for the amount of people.
–Burts Bees set up an elaborate tent which showcased their product well. They gave away free chap-​stick, sunblock samples and short hand massages.
The festival also offers a wine garden and a stage for musicians.
The parking and traffic around this festival is pretty horrendous. You know it’s bad when surrounding businesses are selling gravel parking spaces and families are selling bottles of water on the side of the road.
Not the best food festival, but it might be worth checking out if you are already in the area.