Taste of Greece

I’ve really enjoyed the food at the Taste of Greece. In the past, it really wasn’t a hassle to park nearby and walk through the short two blocks of the fest, but this year seemed to draw large crowds. I hear festive music, see people dancing, and scope out what people are eating, but it’s just an gyro and chicken kabob from Athena. Very delicious, but small portion for the price. We top it with a spinach feta pie from Atropolis. You may think that it’s the same Greek restaurants in Greektown, is it worth it to go? If anything it’s an excuse to be hanging outdoors in the summer, but go off-​speak lunch/​dinner hours if you don’t like squeezing through crowds.

The Taste of Greece is worth going to for the food. Some good restaurants are at this street festival each year.

Not as bad this year. Even though they shortened the fest route, Actually moved the overlapping Super Slide to W. Jackson, On the side-​Actually. As well as the arcade games, Which seemingly returned this year. The food stands were actually great, Even though I just tried the Parthenon’s DELICIOUS dolmades. The loukomades were great as a finish off.

Grilled octopus war– Santorini vs Greek Island. Greek island more tender, in olive oil so need the lemon to cut through, very nice char. Santorini’s in balsamic and oil a bit more flavor. Winner Would be the char of Greek island with freshness of Santorini’s but that’s not possible so I vote for the light fresh flavor of SANTORINI

3^rd largest Greek population in the world! Who knew! Every year this festival calls my name! And every year I get to confirm why! Best Gyro’s, Grilled Lamb, Grilled Pork, Greek Salad, Souvlaki.
Greek Music and Dancing! Just an overall great time!

My review concerns Unilocal’s «information» on the Taste of Greece. I was trying to find the date of the festival fearing I had missed it, but lo… no where on this page does it say when the hell the festival takes place!

It was FREE!
Plenty of delicious Greek food! Have you ever noticed everything is made with rice, lemon, spinach, and a heaping helping of starchy carbs… no wonder I love it!
Had a little bit of everything and finished it off with a giant portion of loukemades. Tons of food, great live music, a bellydancer, and plenty of raven haired hotties made this one of the best street fests of the year!
Loved it.

Taste of Greece is a festival that I look forward to every year.
Greek food, Greek music in the background, more Greek food and Greek Cocktails. To find a table can be a little tricky since the table are all communal. So looking forward to try the Greek Salad Dressing that I bought.
Believe or not… this one of the cleanest festival. None to very little litter on the street.
Hands down, the best people watching festival of them all. Hands down.
Looking forward to next year.

Is there nothing that won’t be roasted over hot coals in Greek culture?
With this question burning in my mind like the overwhelming aroma of the food itself coming from all over Halsted, I stumbled upon an entire suckling pig being roasted on a spit. The answer to my query was, therefore, found to be «no.»
For the braver than I, the Taste of Greece is just this sort of culinary treat for all the senses. These are not your daddy’s gyro stands (though there are a couple carnivalesque Greek food stands involved). All the restaurants of Greektown set up shop, oddly enough, in front of their dining areas (talk about redundancy) with all of the polyvowellabic fare they can muster (rounded up to the nearest dollar increments).
And the drinks are free flowing too — set up outside Greektown’s bars like Nine Muses and Spectrum. No wonder admission to this festival is free!
While the festival stretches the entire stretch of Greektown, however, there still isn’t much to see besides food. They did not add anything in 2009 that is really reflective of Greek culture (unless you count people selling olive oil). And while there were two stages set up, neither of them had any music on them the entire time I was there. Though there was Greek techno blasting from two stalls selling music (one outside of… wait for it, it sticks to the theme… Greektown Music)
About the only things I can truly recommend the festival for besides the food is if you’re looking to a) buy a handbag or b) meet a cop.
There were, and this is not hyperbole, five different stall selling purses. I guess Greek ladies enjoy their bags. I thought for a second that I had stumbled up to Bucktown Arts happening the same weekend. Which, had I done that, is not nearly as safe as Taste of Greece apparently. I have been to a lot of festivals and have never seen that many police officers. Three of them were even getting their photos taken with the suckling pig as I passed by.
I just thank goodness there are no pet stores along Halsted. Who knows what they might have thrown on the burning coals then?

On the eve of my bf’s birthday party, we needed lunch. Thanks to a Unilocal events posting, I saw that Taste of Greece was going on in Greektown. We walked over to Halsted to indulge some Greek food and enjoy the sites. The festival is small and mainly consists of food. On the first walk around, we stopped at a coffee grounds fortune teller and had a reading. It was a fun, expensive, and different experience. When the hunger pangs became unbearable, we went to the Rodity’s booth. Out of all of the booths, it was the most beautiful and bountiful. I ordered one of the sample platters for a whopping $ 13. Yikes! It was a whole plate of food that could barely be finished. I agree with Tom S., they needed to serve tasting portions at a street fest. It seemed incongruous to the whole «taste» festival mentality. The festival should have been renamed «Big Plate Full Price of Greece» instead of «Taste of Greece.» Overall, it served as a nice way to have lunch and to show our visitor Greektown with some of its offerings on display.

I’m not sure high expectations are something to take to any street festival, but to each his own.
I made quick work of my visit on Sunday, opting to get a beer tout de suite and then walked around looking for a pork souvlaki, but not before I went into sticker shock at some of the prices posted on the booths. I suppose they were selling full-​sized portions and not «tasting» portions like at Taste of Chicago.
I found the same souvlaki David R. did and thoroughly enjoyed it. There was just enough tzatziki sauce on it, the red onions were nicely seasoned with herbs and just spicy enough and even the tomatoes were more like end-​of-​summer tomatoes rather than the Über-​sturdy supermarket variety. The pork had good flavor, but it was a tad overcooked and chewy, but I wasn’t going to wait around for the whole suckling piglet on the rotisserie up the street.

This festival is mainly about drinking and eating. I would love to see some more bands or some more Greek culture infused into this festival. But for now, I take Taste of Greece for what it is… a festival of eating.
I really used to love coming to Taste of Greece, but lately I have felt that if I wanted to eat at a restaurant in Greektown I would just go to that restaurant to eat. I wouldn’t have to balance my plate and my drink and have to deal with the crowds at the festival. I could just sit at a table and enjoy my food.

Thank goodness for festivals that don’t charge that bullshit «suggested donation.» Taste of Greece didn’t offer much in the way of Greek culture, outside of food. There were two stages set up, but no music. There was a guy at a booth in the middle of the row.
That’s okay, because I went for the food. I showed up with a ragingly empty stomach and left stuffed. I started off with mousaka and a pork shishkabob from Parthenon, and a Hillas beer. (By the way, beer prices were pretty good for a festival – $ 4.50 at one stand and $ 5 at a few others.) The mousaka was a bit too creamy for me; I like more chunks and a meatier flavor. The pork kabob, though, was very solid. It was a generous serving of meat served with a dollop of yogurt sauce, onions, and tomatoes, over a pita. I just pulled the stick out and rolled mine right up into a wrap. Delicious.
We wandered up and down the length of the festival, but there wasn’t much to see other than the food booths. We stopped at a couple of vendors, and I considered buying a long candle ($ 10 for 3 feet or $ 20 for 5 – you can’t beat that price). After a bit, I went for some grilled octopus at the Greek Islands stand. The flavor was a bit off, and I think that the pieces were overdone and then allowed to get cold. For $ 10, I had hoped for better. I didn’t even finish those. Oh well.
We made one last stop at the Artopolis bakery stand. I’ve been to almost all of the restaurants in Greektown, but I had never heard of Artopolis. I’ll be going to check out their full store ASAP, because I had one of the most delicious desserts of my entire life here – a bougatsa. It’s a fillo pastry filled with sweet lemon custard and baked with some sort of honey glaze. For $ 3.50, they give you a very generous portion (maybe 3×5 inches). Wow. It was the perfect capper to a satisfying day at Taste of Greece. The food was hit or miss, but there was plenty of variety to satisfy one’s Greek cravings.

Fun atmosphere! Great way to spend a weekend afternoon. I went on Sunday. Awesome Greek food and beer. Hillas was refreshing. Lots of people selling jewelry & knick knacks. I bought a very nice Greek basil plant and an «evil eye» bracelet.
Not as big as I thought it would be but still a great place to people watch, have some great food and drink Ouzo.

Greek Fest was very fun, interesting, and everything was so fabulouso… I really enjoyed it very much. Amy H. and I went here Sunday afternoon. It wasn’t that crowded either. They had just about everything you can think of: food, wine, games, dancing, people selling merchandises, and some are trying to get votes for official running. Oh how could I forget about fake sunglasses store; buy 1 get 2 free for $ 20+ tax! Cool huh?
I have never been to Greek Town and oh my, it’s not Greece but this place gets close to being Greece in Chicago. I highly recommend trying this area for restaurants. There was so much FOOD everywhere. People were having great time! OPA! OPA! OPA! Everywhere!
I tried some lamb and rice from Greek Islands Restaurant. Lamb was okay, chewy taste with lots of seasoning flavor. I guess it depends on how you cook lamb? Yes I do eat meat! I love that movie too «My Big Fat Greek Wedding» so funny.
I think Amy would agree that best food display goes to Rodity’s Restaurant! They had everything, whole lamb, lamb chops, lamb shish kabobs, grilled octopus, GREEK SALAD, holy smokes!!! HUGE salad bowls: tomatoes, feta cheese, peppers, etc. Wow amazing to see how they displayed it all. I noticed everyone was eating green spinach thing. I’m not sure what that’s called but I see this often at other restaurants. Must be really good, I haven’t tried it.
Wine! Greek people love wine. Red wine everywhere, bottles after bottles, surprisingly I only tried white wine because white wine was so good. At first I had bottle of water, people were looking at me like «forget about it, what ya thinking? drink wine!» LOL
Awesome experience and can’t wait to try more restaurants in Greek Town.