Taste of Arlington

It’s fun to get out and enjoy the weather, meet some locals, and hear about some interesting places you might not have tried. However, Taste of Arlington is hardly worth it. I’ve been here the past two years and your money goes a lot further just eating in at any restaurant in the area rather than buying tickets for 2 dollars a ticket and getting bite size treats and baby beers for each one.

So I had received the VIP passes from a friend as a gift and I have to say that we were really REALLY REALLY NOT impressed. Honestly, WHAT A RIP-​OFF!
When we first ordered the VIP passes we were really excited about the event and it was written that there would be «unlimited food and drink» and being that there were many different food stations at the taste of arlington we were under the impression that we would be able to use our VIP passes for all the restaurants and eat at any of the stations, which for $ 75 would make sense; HOWEVER that was definitely NOT the case. The ONLY food and drink that we had access to with these «VIP passes» was in the small little area designated for VIP, and the only food that was provided in this small area was one restaurant which was handing out the smallest little samples, another one which you had to wait for a seat at an 8 person table and pizza.
We eventually ended up having to buy our own tickets to the actual taste of arlington event so that we could actually get some food instead of waiting around for some pizza, a seat at the table for 8 and small samples from the only restaurant that was actually serving food.
The actual taste of arlington event was fine, we ended up buying 10 tickets for $ 40 and another 10 with the ballston app for $ 30. so all in all we spent $ 220 at the taste of arlington. Honestly, can’t even think of bigger waste of money. The whole VIP pass rip-​off thing really pissed us off and ruined the whole mood, definitely won’t be back next year.
I hope I can save a lot of people money with this review so that they don’t buy the VIP pass thinking they can have access to the actual taste of arlington event.

Great neighborhood food fest featuring the DC area’s bustling restaurant scene. You can expect BBQ boar, Indian vindaloos, brats, burgers, French macarons, shrimp tempura rolls, craft beer and more! 10 tickets ($ 30−40/person) is more than enough to share between 2 people. Love the atmosphere and the tastes that Arlington & DC have to offer. Be patient and be prepared to stand in line; approximately 15 – 20 mins per stall.

3 stars is a little harsh, but I want to emphasize that you should not come to this event if you want to drink. Its a good deal for the amount of food you get. And the food is yummy. BUT. I was unaware of this and didn’t come hungry enough. Additionally I wanted to at least have a little buzz to enjoy my time, but it is impossible because the lines are insanely long for beer and wine and super disorganized. I’m sure this is by design because the food area is so well organized and smoothly run by contrast. My advice? Come hungry and take shots before you come! And yes the beer was served in basically shot glasses — by the time you waiting in a 20 min line — because they ran out of the «larger» cups which were still really tiny. I wasn’t trying to get wasted but forreal like they shouldn’t even advertise beer or wine.

My first Taste of Arlington and it was alot of fun! Though some restaurants was not worth my $ 3.50 it was still a great experience to try 10 restaurants in one day! Some of these places were even bookmarked so it gave me a taste of how some places would be. The packet was $ 35 for 10 tickets. The beer was a ridiculous price, 2 tix for a small ass cup of corona, so technically $ 7 for a cup of beer. And 1 tix was for literally a shot glass of beer. Next time, we’ll bring our own alcoholic drinks. Luckily, they had water stations so we kept refilling because we didn’t want to waste anymore tickets on beer.
Basically, you give a ticket for a sample amount of food. My favorite were the empanadas de carne at La Tasca, we have been to La Tasca before but don’t remember getting this, so next time we definitely will. But the best part were the apple cider donuts from Mac’s Donuts. We lined up for about 10 – 15 minutes — the longest line there and it was so worth it. 5 small delicious, decedant, fluffy, crispy, hot donuts with confectioner’s sugar on top. Oh em geee!!! I am already planning to go visit their food truck on the weekend.
We tried places from Willow, Nando Peri Peri, Atown, Which wich, Redrocks Pizzeria, Rustico, Lebanese Taverna and many more. It was just a fun experience overall and can’t wait until the next one!

2014 a huge success. It was packed, and woe to those who did not get tickets in advance. Lines were huge. Best of the day were Willow flatbread, Mussel Bar pork belly sandwiches, Liberty Tavern hot dogs and meatballs and Daily Eats lamb ragout. Everything was delish and after 10 tickets for 2 people we were stuffed. Go. Next. Time. You won’t regret it.

I was so disappointed in the Taste of Arlington when we went. It seemed so disorganized. There weren’t lines, there were blobs of people. You had to determine who was in line and who was just standing around. I’m a vegetarian and there were very few signs showing what was available at a vendor. When we did finally find a blob for a specific vendor and were able to make our way to the front, I would finally find out what was being served… and it usually was nothing I could partake in. I don’t expect every (or even most) vendors to serve something vegetarian. It just would have been helpful to know which vendors did before I spent 45 minutes in a blob. I have been to many similar events in other cities. There are very simple solutions to improve the organization and efficiently of this event.

Thankfully the rain held off. It turned out to be a pleasant afternoon, even though it was a tad humid. We got there early, and had no wait in lines. Taste were $ 3 a piece, and for some booths it was well worth it, but for a few it didn’t seem like enough of a taste for $ 3.00 (like three tiny bites from Melting Pot, even though the strawberry was good, but one drizzled in chocolate for a $ 1.00 is a bit much).
You need to purchase a book of ten, and I highly recommend splitting a book with someone, because as Marianne L. said, we were stuffed and each had three tickets left over.
I loved, loved, loved Willow’s flatbread with onions and mushroom. They gave two huge, hot squares. I’ll definitely be checking out their restaurant in the future. The pasta with Brussels sprouts (from Rustico, I think) was delicious too.
Along with food, beer, and wine booths were craft exhibitors too.
Great event. Better than the Taste of Bethesda, which is two miles away from me, but I’d come back to Arlington in a heartbeat.

FUN afternoon!!!
Hubby and I bought a ticket-​book of 10 tickets (for $ 30) for this fantastic event. Taste of Arlington is located in Ballston, VA and premieres a number of vendors + 40 restaurants. We were SO pleased with the service, food, and overall day. Let me explain:
1 — Each restaurant can accept only 1 ticket/​serving. In our case, this meant we got to sample up to 10 different restaurants.
2 — The portion sizes were phenomenal. While you’re essentially paying $ 3/​pop, restaurants really provided. We sampled Cava Mezze, Willow, Sushi Rock, Buffalo Wild Wings, Corner Bakery, A-​Town, Rustico, Which Wich, and Rock Bottom.
3 — Hospitality! Almost every vendor had some coupon or incentive for us to come into their restaurant at a later time.
4 — Entertainment. They had some great singers belting out today’s hits on a local stage.
In addition to the above greatness, they had tents with beer and wine, along with raffles for great prizes. Vendors worked very quickly to keep lines and wait times to a minimum. While we didn’t end up winning any of the raffles, we really enjoyed our afternoon!

Great event and way to sample a lot of different area restaurants.
$ 30 ($ 35 if bought there) gets you 10 tickets each good for a sampling plate at one of the booths. In most cases, the portions were substantial and by ticket 5 I was getting stuffed.
Highlights:
Willow — 2 large slices of braised short ribs, mushrooms & onion on grilled flatbread. First thing I ate and hands above the best when the day was done.
Rustico — 2 Pork belly & slaw sliders. These were yummy but as I got to them later in the event I had to sadly forgo eating all the buns.
Sushi Rock — This was the only business I tried that I’d been to before the event. I just couldn’t pass up having the Light My Fire sushi roll again :-)
Cava Mezze — Juicy lamb chop, pita chip with their Crazy Feta and Kalamata Hummus. I was full on waddle after finishing here.
I tried a few other places but in the end 10 tickets were more than I really could use by myself. (Something I’ll remember for next year and maybe try to split a ticket book with someone). I ended up cashing my last 3 tickets in at the Corner Bakery booth and came home with 10 baby pumpkin bundt cakes.
There were also several booths making attendees aware of other Arlington Co dining & healthy living programs and many of the vendors were giving away coupons for something off a future visit to their business.
I’ve always wanted to go here and finally glad I made the time to hook up with fellow Unilocaler Libby F. to do it. Will definitely be back next year.