Best Fest The Taste of West Orange

The festival was waaay better than I was expecting. After being let down by Bacchus Bash and Downtown Food & Wine Fest I wasn’t expecting too much from this festival. I had purchased a discounted admission pass and had convinced 2 friends to go with me.
I’m sooo glad I went. We paid $ 23 and at the door they were charging $ 46 and, to our surprise, all food and drinks were included in our pass. I loved that we didn’t have to pay additional $$$ to buy «tickets» to buy food and drink. This was a complete free for all after paying admission price. There were tables and tables of food and drink from restaurants in West /​South Orlando which I am not too familiar with. There were several chain restaurants like Tommy Bahamas as well as some local businesses like 4Rivers and San Jose Mexican Restaurant. The array of food was pretty impressive. My friends were even more excited when they saw that Disney’s food truck, Fantasy Fare, was sitting at the end, and part of the lineup of food.
There were also some local businesses with tables there. Representatives with West Oaks Mall were there letting visitors spin the wheel to win chances for gift cards. A DJ was playing music in the central part of the festival. When we were leaving there was an impromptu group of people dancing to the Cha Cha Turn to the left, Turn to the Right song (you KNOW what i’m talking about…)…
Like Andrea H. mentioned, there needs to be more non-​alcoholic drink options, more trash cans and more access to public restrooms. Also, the address on the voucher for the festival was rather confusing as it led us to the offices for the West Orange Chamber of Commerce. They may want to list the address for the actual festival to avoid the frustration and confusion that I had.
Overall, great festival and I’ll make sure to check it out again next year!

I was fortunate to get a great deal on tickets for this event and it was so worth it. There were tons of restaurants with food options. I walked away stuffed and didn’t even try half!
The highlight of the night for me was Disney’s food truck, Fantasy Fare. I had been wanting to try the corn dog. Sooo good!
Two small recommendations to the planners of this event. There needs to more more non-​alcoholic drink options. We only saw one place with cokes. And there needs to be more trash cans for the amount of food there was.
Overall, a great even and I’ll definitely be back next year!