OC Tastefest 2012 — Orange County Culinary Festival




On May 4th and 5th, Orange County celebrated its inaugural OC Tastefest, a two-day culinary festival at the OC Fair and Event Center in Costa Mesa. General admission prices were $12 advance online purchase or $20 at the door, and additional taste coupons were sold in sheets of 10 for $5. Festival goers were able to sample culinary bites from participating restaurants, listen to live music from a variety of artists, and watch cooking demos at the celebrity chef challenge.

Being an inaugural event, the turnout was decent and not overly crowded, which made for some relatively short lines for food sampling. I love going to tasting festivals because it gives me an opportunity to try out food from some of my favorite participating restaurants and learn of new ones. I did not get to sample all the food there, but some notable ones I checked out are:

118 Degrees — living cuisine made with local organic ingredients.

Antonello Ristorante — old world authentic Italian cuisine.

Brasserie Pascal — traditional country French cuisine.

Maro Wood Grill — creative & sustainable farm to table cuisine.

Marrakesh — authentic Moroccan cuisine.

Port Restaurant & Bar — continental cuisine located in beautiful Corona del Mar.

Slater’s 50/50 — home of the 50% ground beef & 50% ground bacon burgers.

Spiced Bamboo — personal chef for all occasions.

Ten Asian Bistro — sushi and Asian fusion cuisine.

Villa Nova — waterfront fine dining Italian cuisine.

Wahoo’s — popular fish taco franchise originally inspired by Mexico surfing trips.




For a complete list of participating restaurants and sponsors, check out the OC Tastefest website.

To see more photos from the event, click here.




OC Tastefest
OC Fair & Event Center
88 Fair Drive (map)
Costa Mesa, CA 92626