Taste Of South Lake

Loved this event, good mix of bands and food. I went for the music and my favorite bands included Salt Petal and Los Amigos Invisibles, they both got me dancing. Cooking demos were cool as well and I loved that all activities were free with tons of sampling. They could have had more high end restaurants though, but overall a really fun day!

Fun, little food festival in a busy part of Pasadena. Lots of fun freebies, and a good way to try some of the neighborhood joints. However, I wish that more of local, non-​franchise restaurants participated. Most of the participants were franchise, lower-​end restaurants.
The free parking at the structure next to the fest is a nice perk!

This was my first time attending the Taste of South Lake on Sat. Oct. 12^th from 11am-​4pm. I didn’t know what to expect since it’s free to attend and free parking. I went there to try out some of the 20 participated restaurants and to my surprise there were some free samples or you would have to pay $ 1 – 2 for a sample. I didn’t recommend the restaurants that offered $ 4 – 5 for a big sample portion since it was a tasting event not a meal. You wouldn’t have room after to try other places. My favorite was the Sansai booth because they had 4 pieces of either spicy tuna or california rolls for $ 1! I really like lemonade stand where they had 3 samples for $ 2 and their lemonades were $ 2. Overall, it was a great place to try the participating restaurants and enjoy the fall weather.

This event is a great way to taste a little bit of everything on South Lake. The Event is FREE to attend and Parking is FREE. Yes you have to pay for some of the food but not all, a lot of the business offer free samples and the ones that are not free offer a discounted rate. The sansai booth was selling everything for a dollar so you could get a complete meal at their booth for only $ 3.00. What a deal! The South lake Business Association handed out free reusable shopping Bags and Diabolo French sodas handed out free cans of their soda and energy drinks. The bands and D.J. were great! It was a fun cheap way to spend a Saturday afternoon with the family.
The biggest rip off was the «Lemonade» booth that was selling small portions of what looked like pasta salads for $ 2.00 about 2 ounce portions yes 2 ounce portions for $ 2.00, while all the businesses around them are offering free samples or selling whole meals for $ 3.00 they had the nerve to sell sample portions for $ 2.00. Really!!! You are there to promote your business not turn people off from your business.
Other than that the event was great and I would highly recommend you attend the next one.

I came here to see Los Amigos Invisibles perform for this free event, and they were amazing!
Free parking, free shows, and $ 6 per alcoholic drink. The bartender
.UP! Pouring that liquor like nuffin. So. I had a good time lol.
I love how they were able to get the last slot from 3 – 4 (event starts from 11 ends at 4), but their performance went on until 4:30!
Yeah.please have them perform again next year: D

Love this yearly event. Great for tasting some of the local restaurant offerings. Listen to some bands and watch some cooking demos.
Here’s some pictures from the event: 2013

Free food & entertainment, yeah i’m in!

Taste of South Lake has been promoted for a while, both on Twitter and various LA/​Pasadena magazines, so I was quite excited to be part of this great event, hosted by The South Lake Business Association with the help of a bunch of sponsors.
There were a few notable food stands, such as Pie ‘n Burger which was serving up yummy pies (the Pumpkin Pie was delish!), and SanSai grill which was serving Sushi, Teryaki Chicken and Cole Slaw. For a $ 1 each, and a total of $ 3 for the «combo» plate which had 4 pieces of sushi, massive amount of chicken and coleslaw. steal deal, and delicious.
The music was great and kept the spirit up among the visitors. There was a kids corner and cooking demos next to it.
However, a few things were a bit off…
First, an event that clearly is geared towards food, and everything related to food. why would the main sponsor be a Realty business, and why would they have non-​foodie stands in the middle of the food stands?! I am talking about National University that is promoting education, Universal Protection Service, which was selling you protection services… and of course all the banks and whatnot.
So that was a huge bummer, to see stands in the middle of the «isle» that were just sitting, and literally nobody was interested in these services, as the main event was related to FOOD, and nothing but fun stuff.
The cooking demo corner was a great idea, but unfortunately the sound from the main music stage overpowered the tiny speaker that was available for the cooks, so the audience had a hard time to hear as the cook was explaining and talking. This corner could have possible be swapped with the kids corner, to make it a bit more private, or been shifted a bit to make it more enjoyable. Also, it didn’t help to have half the seats being exposed to the sun, so a lot of the seats weren’t used due to the fact that it got too hot, and hard to hear the cook.
Beer & Wine garden was also a great idea, but what’s up with the security checking every single persons’ ID? What’s the purpose of checking grandma’s ID and having that awkward moment where she looks at the security guard, as if she is a minor trying to sneak in to buy an over-​priced beer?! I stood by and saw several mature visitors that were a bit taken by the fact that the security guard checked the ID, and then made a joke, «Oh, is that you?! HA HA HA». Seriously?
Another interesting thing was that there were just a handful of food stands that actually served food. Well, other than one or two that I saw, that were charging twice as much as other food stands, for similar food. so that seemed to be unsuccessful as well. However, as an advice to the organizer, they should make sure that there are more food stands that actually serve food, than just promote their business. A lot of the marketing campaigns consisted of «Hey, put your name and email on this, and get this free xxxxxx».
Not sure how effective it was for the businesses to ask for name+email, but I have a hard time buying into your service/​food, if you don’t offer me something before I give my [real] email. Chances are, people will just give a dummy email, just to get that chocolate chip cookie *cough*.
So to sum it up,
— More relevant sponsors, that make people interested in having conversations and exchanging their information.
— Better planning of the cooking demo. This should be more centered, since it is more essential than having irrelevant businesses in the middle of the whole event, only because they sponsored the event. Priorities?
— More actual food stands that serve food and drinks. I think that sells better than brochures and menus, don’t you think?
— Make it more family friendly. Honestly, I didn’t see many kids, and kid-​friendly food and activities other than the kids corner which seemed… pretty empty?

I’ve gone to this great food event for the past 3 years and it’s great. This year’s event takes place on Saturday, Oct 12 from 11am to 4pm. About 20 restaurants located on and around South Lake Ave will be selling inexpensive food. I pigged out last year and intend to do so again this year. There is a beer & wine garden, cooking demos and live music. This year the crazy 80’s cover band Past Action Heroes will play at 3pm. If you visit Pasadena and the only place you go is Old Town this is the event for you. Old Town is not the only place with great places to eat. This is a great opportunity to try some really great food and by the way the event is FREE!