Taste of Toronto Tickets

Expensive! Our tickets (about $25 each) only got us in to the event. We had to buy extra "crown" currency to actually be able to buy food. Also, the seating was limited, as was the shade. While the food I had was very delicious (courtesy of The Drake), it was all in all an overpriced event. Luckily, there was a tote bag give away, as well as free watermelon/lemonade courtesy of Metro, which slighly made up for the high price tag of this event.

Venue this year allowed for tables spread throughout the grounds in shady spots along with 2 hospitality tents. Lots of great vendors, many back from last year. Grounds were well laid out and kept magically clean by polite and helpful staff. Pre-paid Crown cards eliminate waiting time to pay and is a very efficient payment system. Cooking demos were fun and educational. Thought the food and drink servings were awesome value - literally a Taste of Toronto! Will certainly be back again next year!

The overall feeling was that too many tickets were sold for the event – as a result lineups were too long, not enough place to sit, or stand – to put your plate down to eat. The value of the food served vs. cost was not fair. Who in their right mind would eat small serving of Grilled Foie Gras Pita, from a paper plate with a plastic knife for 40$! Cheaper options were available, but still not a good value – for 10$ you got half of pita, spoonful of humus (btw: humus was delicious), two small (bite size) pieces of chicken - few olives, and a pickle. Really!? We ended up staying 45 min in total, spending the crowns in rush, all at one stand and rushing out. It wasn’t worth the parking, the time, let alone the money – two or us spent just under $100 for few bites and a drink each. Not a good experience, I will not be going back to this event.

Boring. Thought meals were samples. Too much money for nothing. Will never go again.

This was a fun event overall. A lot of variety, large space and perfect weather. However, next time I would not get the AMEX VIP. That was a waste of money! There was no front of the line access and you didn't get priority for any of the tastings, master classes, etc. If I had know that ahead of time I would have just gone with the general admission. There were sign up sheets, which you were not told about before hand, so I went along looking at the schedule and then getting in line before the class would start, to get turned away because all the sessions were booked for the rest of the day! The only perk of the AMEX VIP was that you got access to the AMEX lounge, which gave you a free expresso (that was the only choice, not tea or latte for those who dont like coffee), free bottles of water and bags of pretzels and not enough seating and then $25 added to your crown card. Not what I would have considered VIP for the amount of the tickets.

Although its nice to be able to taste some dishes from different places in one spot, it wasn't worth the cost in the least Payment for entry, then wait between 20-35 min in lines to pay to taste but a sample of a dish. My total cost for the evening was $200, I left hungry and unimpressed

The concept is great and the vendors are good however the line ups are unbelievable. The event is not very well set up there are obviously not enough vendors so you spend the majority of the event in long lines waiting to get a small tasting plate of something to eat which is uncomfortable in the blazing heat. They need to devise a better system to purchase food or increase the number of vendors so that its not a day spent lining up which it is. Also it would be good to have more areas to sit. There are also only a few decent drink vendors so once again you spend time lining up to get a drink to. Overall I'd rather make a reservation at the restaurants and get a comfortable seat and quick service to sample their food.

This was my and I third visit to Taste of Toronto and another wonderful day. Wide variety of food and drinks. What really topped the day off was a presentation put on about blending wines, by Jamie Drummond. He was wonderful, informative and entertaining. Couple small things I did not like. Fist your crown card to use it or top it up they charge you a one dollar fee. Sure it is only a buck but with the thousand of people there! Also they should have announced or told people that they stop serving drinks an half hour before the show closes. We went in the afternoon I still had 6 bucks left on my card and went to get a beer at 3:30 only to be told sorry. Yes I could apply for a refund but it would cost me $3.50 to get a refund

Very well run event. Super organized. Easy to navigate. Everything was within easy walking distance.

A fun event. Great way to be introduced to new foods, wines and restaurants. Found it a bit pricey but hey the experience is worth it!

This event should either be free to attend or paid to get in but free (or significantly cheaper) purchase options. You pay a hefty price to get in and then you pay full price to try little sample sized menu options from the different vendors. Completely overrated, overpriced and underwhelming. 8 of us came and left knowing we will never come back if things didn't change,

I had a great time here and great food on the Friday evening. The line was really long even at 5:15 to get in, but it went quickly. Disappointed that the classes filled so quickly, even though I went straight there, so hopefully they make the classes bigger. Had great noodles from Nota Bene and may other delicious treats. I really liked the brownies (Pina colada blondie) and making my own mustard was lots of fun. I was a little disappointed at the friendliness of some of the vendors that were sampling products (not the restaurants) as one was actively rude, but it was still an enjoyable day.

Every year, Taste gets bigger and bigger! There seemed to be more restaurants this year.It was fantastic! I got to try really different dishes this year. For example, Antler's dish of Venison was awesome, and most reasonable priced. Mamakas dish of shoulder lamb was very tasty, it was done perfectly! Not that many free samples this year! Some dishes, especially, the signature dishes were way over priced! Not worth it! If restaurants really want to let customers try their dishes, they should price it more reasonably!

I would rate it in between average and recommended, like "good", because lots of the bites were fatty and tough. Like the lamb, the duck and even the briskets. I still recommend to try it, and I still liked a lot of plates, like a crazy pizza slice...and the best empanada ever! I really enjoyed the entertainment, especially a Dutch chef on stage cooking Cantonese food, awesome and looked delicious...didn't make it to his booth :-( As for the products, the brownies were great, Bonne Maman had a good deal, 12$ for three jars of jams. Beau's beer! Free Espresso. Good setup and arrangements of the Festival.

i went to taste of toronto last year with my family and we LOVED it. so many restaurants & so many vendors.. and it took us the whole evening to try all the food. we couldn't wait to go to this year's taste of toronto. however, we went for the friday evening event and we were disappoainted.. it seemed a lot smaller than last year's event and we were done in 90 mins.. we were looking around to see if there were areas that we missed but nope.. it was just a small event. compared to last year, food was ok. there were multiple dishes we went back for more last year but this year there was none..

We enjoyed various restaurants and the food selection in one space. The portion size grew from last year which made it a bit more appetizing. I wish the cooking tables weren't so difficult to get into.

Glad I went but will not go again. Overall it's pricey for what you get. One dish of lamb was just plain awful. After admission and paying for food and drinks, around $150, I'd prefer to go a restaurant and relax and savour a meal. The card payment is a racket. They charge you to use it. If you have less than $6 left on a card the system won't take two cards to pay for it. You need to line up and find someone who has the access to combine the cards. 10 min in line for that.

We attended the first evening, on Thursday - and we loved it overall. Suggestions: Some confusion between many staff about where and when to open the gates. We objected to not being able to combine our crown card points at the end to make more purchases which we wanted to make. We loved the outdoor venue, sans the overwhelming construction right outside. Signage could have been much better approaching the event.

Prepare to spend a lot of money if your hungry! The atmosphere is nice though, but every plate ranges from $6-$10 and the portion is small.

I went to the afternoon session on Sunday and I must say I was a bit disappointed. There were not a lot of options in terms of food to sample which i thought was the whole point of the event. Im not a cheap person but i felt that the portion sizes for the options that I did pay for were laughable. The whole point is to get people to want to eat at your establishment but most failed miserably at this. I thought the setup of the crown cards was perfect and actually flawless which made navigating all the booths very easy. The VIP section wasn't VIP at all besides having a real washroom to use which surprised me.If you want people to pay for VIP you have to offer them an experience but instead, all i was given was some free pretzels. The AMEX lounge was the best part but was very packed and almost impossible to get a seat. I found it funny that VIP was COMPLETELY empty and the AMEX lounge was the life of the party. Overall I was looking for a lot more options that would give me some ideas to take my girlfriend out for the rest of the summer but i left there with more questions then answers...