Taste of Hillcrest

Awesome event!
I attended the 2015 Taste of Hillcrest in April. I love the «taste of…» events. I think they are a great way to get a glimpse into a restaurant, and get a taste of what they have to offer food and drink wise. It also helps get a bearing on a neighborhood that you may or may not have too much experience navigating.
This year had 33 purveyors of food and drinks participate. Getting to them all in 4 hours is actually a daunting task. I made it to about 24 of them.
Here is a rundown of the offerings. (I am sure they will change next year, but it can give you an idea.)
Gossip Grill — chicken fettuccine and strawberry lemonade cocktail
Oscar Wilde’s Irish Pub — mac and cheese
Hillcrest Brewing Company — wings & a taster of Pearl IPA
The T — sangria
Heat — crispy polenta
The whole hog — collard greens or black eyed peas
Baja Betty’s — chicken or carnitas street taco and a margarita or sangria sample
House of Kahn — drink or soup thing?
Wine Steals — margherita pizza (and a special $ 1 glass of champagne)
Lava Sushi — half a veg spring roll and a piece of sushi
100 wines — fried cauliflower
7^th Ave Pub — vegan grilled cheese and spicy tomato dipping sauce
Tajima Ramen — ramen and appetizer sampler
Lotus Thai — chicken curry and rice
Taste of Thai — pad Thai and satay
Baby cakes — brownie bites or mini cupcakes
East coast pizza — pizza samples and a cookie.
Crest café — soup
Juice café — mixed juice
Bearito republic — fruit nachos
Luna grill — Mediterranean salad (w cold cous cous)
Bread & Cie — chocolate biscotti
Tandoori hut — ran out of food
Urban Mo’s — ran out of food (although I heard they had wings)
Bombay exotic cuisine — idk didn’t make it
D Bar — idk didn’t make it during event
Trinidad tea — idk didn’t make it
Local habit — I heard they ran out
Einstein bagels — idk didn’t make it
Au revoir — idk didn’t make it
Fiesta cantina — idk didn’t make it (I heard they had chimichangas)
Empire house — idk didn’t make it
Evans place — idk didn’t make it
My favs were:
Gossip Grill — the staff was really friendly and they made us feel like we wanted to come back here for lunch or dinner
Tajima Ramen — good portions for a «Taste of» event. I will come back for their ramen.
Babycakes — I their cupcakes.
Honorable Mentions
Heat — the polenta was good.
Taste of Thai
Lotus Thai
Disappointments
The whole hog — how can you not offer barbecue meat? They were off the beaten path, but I made sure to steer our crew there anyway. I guess I had too high of hopes. I wanted to find crave worthy bbq. Is their bbq good and crave-​worthy? I don’t know because they served collard greens and black eyed peas. Waste of time.
The venues that ran out of food: Tandoori Hut, buffalo public House, urban Mo’s, Local Habit (rumored)

Taste of Hillcrest is a fun event and I think I’d return. The issue for me are the lines at each restaurant to get a sample. A 15 minute wait, at each stop, in the hot sun can be draining. We were at the event the entire time (12p-​4p) and we STILL didn’t manage to try every restaurant. And that was us HUSTLING from place to place.
So the variety of restaurants was great but the wait to try the restaurants was not. But gosh, I did have fun and it was great to have a chance to try out all these restaurants that I probably normally would not have.
A few of the best samples that Saturday:
TASTE OF THAI
Chicken satay with peanut sauce, cucumber salad, and tofu pad thai
EAST COAST PIZZA
This was a DARN good meatball. We couldn’t eat this thing fast enough. And their chocolate chip cookies was ridiculous good.
JUICE CRAFTERS
lemon, ginger, and cayenne shot
LUNA GRILL
This was a generous sample and I LOVED it. The little pasta bubbles were lemony and tasted bright. The skewered chicken were grilled nicely.
EMPIRE HOUSE
Pulled pork tacos were tasty and freshly made (hence the crazy long line)
TAJIMA RAMEN
A HUGE bowl of Tonkotsu Ramen!!! AN ENTIRE BOWL!!! Plus they gave each ticket holder a plate of gyoza, karaage, takoyaki. Boom.
100 WINES
Probably my FAVORITE item of the day. The roasted cauliflower were spectacular and I salivated over the pieces of pancetta and the drizzle of a sweet balsamic.