Lakeview Taco Fest

$ 8 suggested donation which goes to some charity so… that makes me feel better about the high price tag for a so-​so festival.
They had a good number of taco vendors but all were quite expensive and the highly anticipated stands had really long lines. There wasn’t any seating when you finally did get some grub except for about 3 tables through the whole street fest. They need more tables to encourage fest-​goers to eat more. Tacos ranged in price but we found most to be on the high end of the spectrum.
Totally random & cool thing is there was a Judge Mathis booth giving out hot sauce and signing people up for the audience. My friend and I were all over that!
Thankfully, it was an absolutely beautiful day this year for Taco Fest so we didn’t mind walking around the fest. However, not enough music or other things going on here, plus silly admission, inflated food prices for not much food — I will be skipping Taco Fest in the future!

Meh. Lakeview has a suggested donation of $ 8 which is way too much for a handful of taco vendors. The vendors did serve their best tacos however the portions were extremely small and the price was double. $ 8 for a tiny lobster taco is ridiculous. Let’s just say I spent $ 20 and left hungry.
Best part of taco fest was the street wrestling. They have a ring set up on Cornelia and it was entertaining.
Just save your money and go to your favorite taco joint. Order multiple tacos for a fraction of the price.

Tacos
Music
Entertainment
Drinks
community
vibrant athmosphere
fun
I had a lot of fun here and would love to go back! If you are in town go check out the fun time, love stuff like this!

I was very excited to attend taco fest. Even with the poor reviews they received last year I decided to give it a try.
I agree with another Unilocaler most of the tacos were flavorless. The walking taco in the Dorito bag was disgusting!
You have to be a dog lover to attend because thay are EVERYWHERE!!!
I didn’t mind the $ 5 «donation» but if you entered at the other end of the fest you paid nothing.
The final straw was at 2am my entire family had DIARRHEA that lasted for about 24 hours. Two of them stayed home because there is no way they could go to work.
I don’t remember eating anything that looked undercooked so what that says to me is someone did not wash their hands after a trip to the bathroom!!!
Needless to say we won’t ever be attending again!

Good food, good people, good music! Good time!
Heard last year was a bust… figured they got it together THIS year, and they did.
Well worth the trip and all the tastings!
Tried alot of different tacos, cant say any where bad.
Go with authentic, you can NEVER go wrong!
Will do it again next year!

Came over on Sunday, had an awesome time! Soooo many great craft beers to choose from, and the selection of tacos rocks! ! !
Great neighborhood crowd! Fun times!

OMFG! This is my 300 review. Unbelievable! Taco junkies came to the second annual Lakeview Taco Festival in droves. Yay! I’m a fan of this Chicago street neighborhood festival. This was our first time attending. There were a myriad of taco vendors. Despite some long lines we did not have to wait more than 5-​minutes. All I wanted and longed for was a good grilled carne asada and carne arrachera (usually marinated with Mexican beer giving it a smoky flavor and helps tenderize the meat). I recommend going here for lunch (as opposed to dinner). We came to stuff our faces, like chipmunks, con mucho, mucho tacos. We tried the skirt steak taco, tacos con carne arrachera, tacos de cerdo, cactus tacos, tacos de pescado, taco al pastor and jerk chicken tacos! The tacos were freshly prepared, hot and flavorful. Definitely worthy of 4-​stars. However, there was one taco that was award worthy and blew us away. It was the jerk chicken taco! It was from a caribbean restaurant, «Garifuna Flava: A Taste of Belize» located at 2516 – 18 W 63^rd Street. I was really surprised that they did not have a huge banner boasting the following shows: «Check Please!; The Hungry Hound; Food Network; or Diners, Drive-​Ins and Dives!» The line for Garifuna Flava was non-​existent, which was fantastic for us, because we ordered our jerk chicken tacos, rice and black beans and sweet plantains. Service was obviously fast. We returned to Garifuna Flava to compliment them for how outstanding the food is (was) that we devoured. We gave it four thumbs way, way up! We strategically walked the entire area and were surprised how many food vendors there were to choose from. It was well organized. The tacos were not huge, which I appreciated. It gave us more options to try a myriad of tacos, which we did! EVERYTHING that we had from «Garifuna Flava — A Taste of Belize» is 5-​star worthy. We hit the jackpot by going to Garifuna Flava! This place was the highlight of our afternoon. Now, we are planning to go to Garifuna for dinner. It will be worth the drive. We left satisfied, gratified and happy!
The torture of it all — all those sweet goodies — dang! Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream pink truck was there with an interesting combination of flavors. My husband tried the salty caramel with a second scoop of the sweet corn raspberry. He said it was the «best» ice cream he has ever tasted. We found out that Jeni’s originated in Ohio and have been selling organic sweet treats for several years. They have not been in Chicago very long. They opened their first store last year at 3404 N Southport and opened another Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream shop in the Wicker Park neighborhood. They also offer frozen yogurt that was sugar free. I was excited! I tried the no-​sugar flavor, which was 5-​star worthy. Creamy, smooth as silk, and excellent quality. I liked that it was not super rich frozen yogurt. We had a super large piña colada made with real pineapples (non-​alcoholic), which was refreshingly excellent. The texture was like a smoothie.
The music was surprisingly very, very good. Excellent musicians. Great talent for sure. Upon entering the festival we noticed a sign «Suggested Donation $ 5» but it was not a mandatory donation. All proceeds go to the Lakeview Chamber of Commerce. We did not make a «suggested donation.» The crowd was a mixture of people in their 20’s, 30’s and 40’s and young families. We appreciated that it was a diverse crowd of people. Some of the lines were long, but they were moving quickly and there were plenty of people cooking, preparing and serving food. We only saw one ride for the little crumb snatchers (a large plastic slide filled with air).
This festival is dog friendly (we even saw two girls, about age 10, with an English Bulldog puppy inside a baby carriage). We saw all kinds of dogs here. If we would have known we would have brought our dog Annie to this festival. Maybe next year. Don’t let the other reviews, from 2013, deter you from checking it out next year.
I would imagine that a few of these taco vendors may be mom and pop hole in the wall taco joints where people go at 3 am after taking several shots of Jose Cuervo, gagging, and then punching someone in the face, because the line is not moving fast enough as they fist-​pump and shout «Move it!»

Lakeview Taco Fest was poorly put together, and none of the restaurants involved were prepared for the turn-​out.
We showed up around 6pm and skipped some of the long lines and got tacos from Toons first, since we were hungry and the line was short. The smoked briscuit taco was cold and flavorless. Next we waited in line for tacos from Bodega Bar de Tacos, thinking an actual taco place would have better tacos. We waited in line for OVER AN HOUR for tacos. One of our friends showed up and got us some incredibly fatty pork tacos from another stand while we stood in line. Finally when we were about 4 people from ordering, they came out and said they ran out of tacos and it would be another hour before they had any more. We ended up leaving the festival and walking over to Café el Tapatio and ordering tacos instead.

Wasn’t a fan of getting dirty looks for not paying the donation so I could get to my apartment

Taco Fest was an absolute bust.
We went at 8 pm on a Saturday evening, and all taco booths were closed except for 2 of them. We stood in the shorter of the 2 lines and probably waited at least 30 minutes. We got whatever was available, and I believe only a few more tacos were served after our group.
Other than food, there were a few vendors. Only a few. It was a sad, sad fest.

I had such high hopes but by the time I got there at 7 on Saturday night, only 2 vendors still had tacos and they ran out soon after! I was told that the crowd was double what they had expected. Seems that was poor planning, since that area is usually pretty busy even when there is nothing going on! I hope the kinks get worked out and this fest will be back next year with TACOS!
1 star for the great beer selection and 1 star for the Freddy Jones Band!

Womp-​womp.
Went to Taco Fest to, you know, eat tacos. But, no tacos were eaten becase the lines were SO LONG. Like, ridiculously long. Like, I could’ve gone and had a sit down meal somewhere else in the same time it took to get street fest tacos long. Not enough vendor booths, at all.
1 star for how much crap there was to do for the kiddo’s we had with my group (grimy bounce house, sad pony rides, sadder camel rides & mini-​golf), even if I did see adults riding said camel on Southport, which I’m still confused by. And 1 star for decent beer selection.

Sure, you have your Sausage Fest and your always ubiquitous sausage fests.
Sure, you have your Burger Fest.
Sure, you have your Ribfest.
Now, you have your Taco Fest.
I know which one I prefer — at least in name. And now they have a whole street fest to fête this delicious import. What took you so long?
Anyway, actually, with street fests, they’re all basically the same deal with different names. And they’re usually the same people, portable toilets, bands and beer. Taco Fest was only slightly nuanced from the usual fest template.
This year was the inaugural year for Taco Fest. The fest was three blocks long — from Addison to the El — and only had one stage. What ended up happening was everyone congregated to the south end by the stage such that half of the fest (the half with the food tents to the north) wasn’t a fest at all and was almost entirely shut down by 9 p.m. Fests which have only one stage usually suffer from half-​fest syndrome in that all the play usually ends up at one half of the ice, with no flow to it at all. Taco Fest suffered from this syndrome. A fest with only one stage isn’t really a fest at all — it’s a de facto concert.
I didn’t get to sample any tacos since I ate just prior to coming to the fest. Pony Inn seemed to be the one food vendor still serving at 9 p.m., with quite the long line. I wish I could have tried Taco Joint’s tacos, as I’m partial to their al pastor iteration.
Beer wise, I have to hand it to this fest for having Sam Adams brews and a couple of craft beers. None of the usual Butt Lite for six bucks was seen. Well done, Taco Fest.
People wise, the fest drew a good ratio, with some of the usual suspects. It took the entire summer and all the way to the penultimate fest of the season for the first ex sighting of the summer to occur 10 seconds after stepping foot into the fest — within mere yards of The Cupcake Incident of yore. The needle was immediately removed from the vinyl and a hard right taken. Big City, Small World. How’s yer ma?
Music wise, they had Freddy Jones on Saturday night. What do you even call Freddy Jones? Dave Matthews-​ish? Rusted Root-​ish? Rubbish? Yes, I’m going with the latter. Not my cup of tea at all.
We’ll have to give this fest another year or two to see how it pans out — if it survives that long. Fests come and fests go, but they almost always stay the same no matter what the location. This one will definitely need to add more beef to the taco if it’s going to be around in a few years.
Three tacos.