Taste of Park Ridge

Look forward to Taste of Park Ridge every year! Able to walk around uptown visit with friends, family, and Park Ridge officials! Great variety of food and drinks! The activities for the children are fun, diverse and some educational. Things to do for all ages, senior day, family fun day etc.
Music each nite is entertaining, and appeals to all ages!
Thanks to all who volunteered to help make this event so successful each year! Can find some good sales at the stores as well.

This year we decided to go to the «Taste of Park Ridge» and see what kind of food vendors were going to be at this «Taste.» The vendors were not really all that unique. I was very surprised to see a few franchise vendors, such as, «Subway» and «Diary Queen» at this «Taste.» Whatever. We had a beef brisket sandwich from JD Kads. The beef brisket sandwich was loaded with tons of meat on a slider-​size bun. Yes, it was tender, but very bland. I requested the bar-​b-​que sauce in a small separate container, because I wanted to taste it first before pouring it all over my sandwich. I am really, really fussy about my bar-​b-​que sauce and it better be worthy of 5-​stars in order to drench my sandwich in sauce. I’m glad I got the sauce separately, because it was the worst sauce I’ve ever tasted. It tasted like ketchup mixed with vinegar. It was very sweet. There was no kick to the sauce in terms of spicy or heat. It was also very watery (runny). Awful. Usually, bar-​b-​que sauce will «save» a bland brisket sandwich, but not in this case. Disappointing. The bun was too thick and dense for the meat. I ate it because I was very hungry, and did not want to waste food. This little sucker was worthy of 2−½ stars. My husband tried their ribs. He said they were «just OK» and not very meaty. These ribs were practically meat-​less! I asked him about the sauce and he said «I don’t care for it but it’s okay.»
I also tried a steak taco from «Ay Caramba’s» Mexican restaurant and it was loaded with tons of meat, fresh, cold crisp lettuce and a bit of sour cream. It was seasoned perfectly and the meat was very tender (though a bit on the dry side). However, I will rate it with 4 stars just for the flavor and tenderness alone. Then, I tried some Indian food from the «Himalayan» restaurant. We had vegetarian samosas, Tandoori chicken and some other dish (which escapes me now). The food at the Himalayan is worthy of 4.5 stars. Excellent flavors coming together for a happy explosion in your mouth! I thought «Rex» would be there this year, but it wasn’t there. Disappointing. None of the food vendors really made a lasting impression on me. Everything seems like a blur now.
It wasn’t crowded when we went for lunch, because it was a gray, overcast and rainy morning. In fact, the sun rarely came out at all, so I guess people stayed away thinking more rain would be approaching. It never rained while we were there though. We parked along the Metra tracks for free. We had no issues finding places to sit and enjoy our food. The music playing in the background was geared toward young children. It was somewhat lame. I get it though, but it was driving me crazy (the song, «It’s a Small, Small World» was playing, over and over again, and was starting to hit my nerves). It reminded me of an episode that I saw on «Curb Your Enthusiasm» where the Nanny goes crazy because she keeps hearing the same song in her head, over and over again, and she is finally pushed to the edge. The «It’s a Small, Small World» song kept playing in the background at the «Taste,» over and over and over again, so I had to leave before I got up and slapped someone’s kid!
This was a very small scaled-​down «Taste of» in a typical non-​diverse suburban area in downtown Park Ridge. I was disappointed at how small the venue was (is) and what few food vendors they had at this «Taste.» When I think of Park Ridge, IL I think of «upper middle class» suburbia where schools are outstanding and you pay taxes through the ass. I made the assumption that this «Taste» would have a lot more food vendors with unique offerings. Sadly, they did not. Also, the tickets were pricey and you didn’t get a lot for what you spent on tickets (some food vendors were requesting 8 to 16 tickets for one food item). Ridiculous! Would we go back again? Probably not. We went. We ate. We tried it, and once was enough for us.
I recommend this venue for people who don’t want to venture into the City for «City» festivals. It’s for people who don’t want to deal with huge crowds. It’s for people who want to stick to the «suburbanite» festivals. This is a small «Taste» which is perfect for couples with young children. You don’t have to walk a lot to get to the food vendors. There are plenty of tables with umbrellas (picnic style tables). It is clean. It is well-​organized. It is small. This «Taste» was A-​OK so my final rating is three stars. We saw people of all ages when we went for lunch, but we saw lots of families with young children (under the age of 9). There are no rides for the little ones, but I saw one or two games for little ones to play.

This is a pretty decent-​sized suburban festival. If you’re like me and hate crowds (think Taste of Chicago) but still want the festival feel and enjoy some food, you might want to try this festival out. Food is sold by tickets and they were selling 8 for $ 5. average menu items ranged from 6 – 14 tickets, drinks around 3.
i’ve been going the past 3-​years straight and it’s always fun.

This is a nice annual holiday street fair, and we just had our second visit here. Parking is easy, free, and nearby, and the fair is clean and well run, with musical guests as well. There are a lot of pizza vendors, but a lot of other local vendors as well (relative to the fair size) — eggplant, gyros, cupcakes, Mexican, sushi, Thai, BBQ, sandwiches, etc