Taste of Times Square

This was a great time! My only complaints / reason I'm giving it 4 stars and not 5 are that 1. why the heck is this event on a Monday night?, 2. Love their commitment to not canceling an event but would have loved if there was a rain date rather than rain or shine, and 3. I wish they let you buy individual tickets (not in increments of 5). Yes it was rainy and yes it was crowded (c'mon, it's times square after all) but still worth the trip on a work night into the city for a good time with friends and good eats (Lolz @ my friend holding my umbrella while I scarfed down food).

They sell in increments of 5, so I got 10 tickets for $10 which is what they advertised for and later went back for another 5 tickets. Most foods cost between 2-3 tickets each... to me, 10 was too few tickets and 15 was too much (thus why I would have liked to buy 10 and then get single tickets from there). If you really want to make the trip worthwhile and sample enough, go for 15.

Restaurant vendors I sampled from:
1. Patzeria Perfect Pizza - Tortellini with prosciuutto in the sauce (3 tickets)
2. Schnipper's - Mac 'n Joe (3 tickets)
3. Carmine's - meatball (2 tickets)
4. The View - Swiss chard Ravioli with truffle sauce (3 tickets)
5. Crossroads - Pretzel with "gooey cheese" (3 tickets)
6. Bubba Gump Shrimp - Birthday cake dessert (1 ticket)

Of all of them, I was most excited for the ravioli based on presentation but somehow ended up being my least favorite... too creamy (though I'd still want to visit that restaurant as it looks gorgeous, just would order something else). My friend and I thought the mac n joe was amazing (mac n cheese with sloppy joe) and that the pretzel w/ cheese was a great snack (mmm warm pretzel). Tortellini is one of my favorite foods in general so knew I'd like that especially with that sauce. Glad I got to finally try Carmine's- I've never made it there due to it being pricey but at least this event let me have a sample for a grand total of only 2 tickets!

Hope to return next year, on a sunnier day!!

I absolutely LOVE this concept!

30+ restaurants from around the Time Square area set up "booths" and serve some of their signature dishes. You purchase tickets ($1 each) and buy which ever dishes you like. Prices ranged from 2 tickets for a pulled pork slider to 6 tickets for seafood paella. So you're able to sample different dishes from restaurants you May have always wanted to try, without the obligation to buy an entire plate (or the price).

Wish I knew about previous years, but this will definitely be an annual thing for me going forward.

Finally came to the taste of Times Square and had a good time. I purchased 15 coupons for $15 and was able to taste a variety of dishes. The place was jam packed and I was supposed to meet some friends and was never ever to catch up with them. It's best to get their early because it was so crowded we could hardly walk in the narrow street to check out what each vendor had to offer.

Since I didn't wait to catch up with my friends I just checked out the longest lines and figured the samples had to be good. I was able to sample some tacos, chicken wings, sliders and water for $15. The food was good but hard to manipulate and eat with the crowds. I wound up standing in a corner to eat my food or sitting on the sidewalk to devour my chicken wings. There were different areas of live entertainment and New Yorkers and tourists seemed to be having a great time. Next time I will come prepared and wear a small bag and get there early to check out more vendors and get more food items..

I love , Love taste of time square! It's a foodies paradise in my opinion lol. Lots of great restaurant from the city gather to showcase their best dishes all in one place. The prices are great. You get to buy. A roll of tickets for $10 and every vendor has a dish ranging from 1-5 tickets. So you really get a lot for your buck. If you're like me, who loves to try lots of new things. Then I would suggest buying at least 20 tickets which would cost you $20. Which is nothing if u come to see. You could easily spend more than that at any given restaurant in the city for just ONE dish. This year will be my fourth year going and I look forward to it every single year. Definitely something great that time square does! My favorite event thus far.

The Times Square Alliance pulled off another successful event with this year's 2013 Taste of Times Square. Fifty two restaurants were represented along with a host of bands and street performers that provided entertainment along the 46th Street Restaurant Row route. As in past years, those who came were able to sample an assortment of dishes from restaurant kitchens in the area. And at an event this big it's always so difficult to decide what to eat, but here are the new places I tried this year:

Shula's Steakhouse (the Westin Hotel) offered Blackened Tenderloin Steak Tips along with BBQ sauce. The tips were cooked medium rare and tasted quite good. The selected sauce went well with the steak tips.

Brasserie 1605 (the Crowne Plaza Hotel) came with a Mini Truffle & Lobster Mac & Cheese dish. I thought that dish while flavored with truffle oil was too conspicuously short on lobster and cheese.

I gave John's Pizzeria another chance this year after a not so good encounter with them last year. Luckily besides pizza, this year they served some really good Meatballs in Marinara Sauce. The meatballs--well-seasoned with herbs and spices-- were nice and chewy with a real tomatoey sauce.

No burgers for Shake Shack--instead they decided with summer coming to showcase their cold custards. I had one of their Raspberry Swirl custards which I really liked. The custard was rich and creamy and surprisingly tasted homemade.

Even though I'm a regular at Junior's Restaurant for their cheesecake, I still couldn't resist having a slice of their rich and creamy Pineapple Cheesecake.

I also couldn't resist returning for seconds from Ruth's Chris Steakhouse and Meson Sevilla Restaurant, since they were both so good last year. You can read my previous review to learn more about them.

So at the place where the ball drops every New Year's Eve like clockwork, despite a short rain delay, this year's event went off without a hitch.

Dragged to the 2016 version and left saying 'told ya so' after swimming though 46th Street across a few avenues (it now extaends to 10th, contrary to the listing). The whole thing is a predictably awful, cluttered, disorganized, cash only affair, with more foolish bottlenecks than Times Square proper, and odd setups for the vendors with places either right in front of or far from their actual B&M frontage. There was only one line around 5pm, for Virgil's, and we still left frustrated (but fortunately bought no tickets and just ate nearby). Add random live music to offset the horrible Coca Cola and Gold Peak corporate nonsense, plus cops & Times Square Alliance folks doing absolutely nothing but getting in people's way, and you have a great waste of a few minutes of your life.

Usually, you wouldn't catch me in Times Square. I'm a real New Yorker, which means I will avoid large crowds of tourist, or any touristy location, as much as possible.

BUT, Taste of Times Square was worth dealing with the large crowd. A bunch of restaurants in Times Square were in attendance. Each restaurant had its own booth, and sold small plates of specific food choices from its menu.

Food can be purchased in exchange for food tickets (10 for $10). Ticket amounts vary for each restauraunt. My friend and I bought 15 tickets expecting to use them all, but our tummys were full after 9 used tickets. We sold our remaining tickets to random people.

Hopefully, I'll make it to the next one. In the meantime, I'll be searching for any upcoming food fairs in the city!

Probably a cool event for your average tourist, but for everyone else looking for good food, go to Smorgasburg. By the time I got there after work at 8, a few stalls already cleaned up! I guess they sold out of food, but most of the stalls were typical American food like barbecue sliders or ribs
or something. I wasn't feeling it, there was also "seafood paella", pizza, tacos, cheesecakes and desserts. The lines looked horrendous at first glance but some of them move pretty fast. The amount of people there was insane, but what do you expect, it's times square.

The food was pretty bad, the seafood paella was the most disappointing considering it was $7!! I just got back from Spain so I know how good paella tastes and this was just rice with mussels and clams. I didn't taste any saffron, it's very misleading. They didn't even use the correct rice!! They used a long grain rice, and they call themselves a Spanish restaurant... is beyond me. The banana bread pudding (I don't remember where I got it from) was a close tie to being terrible. It tasted like a slice of stale white bread soaked in condensed milk and drizzled with cheap chocolate and vanilla sauce. And they had the audacity to charge $3 for that... By that time some places were charging less to get rid of their food, we got pretty solid veggie burger for $1 but it was cold, but at least it tasted good. I was surprised they were still trying to charge $3 for terrible bread soaked in condensed milk, it for sure wasn't bread pudding.. The taco was pretty good, the tortilla was not fresh but it's to be expected. There were rice balls from this Japanese stall which I thought was pretty good. The cheesecakes from Juniors and another place I can't remember was good.

I went last year and remember it being so much better. This year was disappointing. Won't come back next year.

I finally went to this this year, and since it was pouring when it first started (and then finally went down to a drizzle), there were barely any lines. Tickets are $1 each. We got to try a meatball slider for $1, a plateful of ribs for $6, iced cake for $1, junior's cheesecake for I think $3, some more pieces of meat, mac 'n cheese, etc. There was so much to try!! But, we got full off of 20 tickets, which is what people recommended.

Might as well try this out, especially if you live nearby!

This is an amazing experience for everyone I must say. I just came across the event on facebook, and decided to attend not really knowing what it would be like. The weather was a bit off with some drizzle every now and then, but the spirit of the event and delicious food were more than enough to keep me and everyone else out there, going.

This event is a great platform for restaurants to showcase their food. The quantities were very apt for the prices at most of the stalls. Lively music and bustling crowds made the food experience even better. I tried quite a few different dishes, my most favorite being the bread pudding dressed in creme anlaise by Le Rivage. I also quite enjoyed the sweet potato casserole by Ruth's Chris Steak House, had it twice actually.

Overall, a great experience for any food lover. If I had to recommend something; it's better if you go there in a group so you can sample more food without feeling full very soon (which I most certainly did).