The Asian Food Fest keeps getting a little better every year – this year features around 13 food vendors as well as several non-food vendors (games, massages, etc.) and on-stage entertainment and demonstrations in the center of the festival. Like last year the Asian Food Fest is at The Banks on Freedom Way between Paul Brown Stadium and The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

Entrance is free however donations are encouraged to give to support the charity of choice – this year being Thrīvera, a non-profit organization that helps young people build self-confidence and strength by expressing themselves through telling their stories. For a $3 donation you can get a little “passport” coupon card good at some of the food vendors for $1 off certain items, up to $5 per card.

It’s spring again and that means festivals – in particular one of our favorites – the 4th Annual Asian Food Fest! Sample fare from local restaurants from Japanese to Indian and Chinese to the Philippines.

Like last year The Asian Food Fest is going to be held at The Banks in Downtown Cincinnati on Freedom Way between Elm and Rosa Parks Streets, or between the Paul Brown Stadium and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. There’s no entrance fee although guests will have to find parking at one of the many nearby garages or street parking.

It’s spring and you know what that means – festivals! There are so many we can’t devote separate posts to all of them so we’re doing them all in a new “roundup” type post where we give you the essentials.

First up are all the events going on in the Greater Cincinnati area (which are a lot!) followed by what we could find of all the events going on in the Greater Columbus area.

Taqueria Mercado has been our favorite lunch place in Downtown Cincinnati for a while, it’s ridiculous it’s taken us this long to finally share our love of their delicious tacos and burritos with everyone else. For that, we sincerely apologize.

What makes Taqueria Mercado great isn’t the fact that they are cheap, or the easy to get to location, nor the fact that they are huge and have a ton of seats. It’s the flavor and quality, and they are mind-blowingly amazing, especially since the majority of Mexican restaurants in Greater Cincinnati are in that “just okay” area and tend to copy each other. There are other great places, definitely, but Taqueria Mercado is one of our absolute favorites.

Mirage has been around a long while – and we’ve known about it for a good while too – but for some reason we had always just skipped over it. It’s one of those places we always kept meaning to go to but just never got around to. Once we finally made it, we realized the mistake we had made.

Located in Harper’s Station Mirage’s exterior is pretty nondescript. Unlike it’s neighbor, Korea House, there’s not much in the way of decoration or anything really eye-catching. But, looks can be deceiving and the saying is particularly true in this case.

Once you finally make it inside, Mirage Mediterranean has a gorgeous interior. It’s dimly lit with honey colored walls accented with bold red silk table cloths, green plants and earthy tile and wood flooring. When we arrived the place was empty, but began to fill up as we ate. There is even a small stage and a few disco balls above us where they have performers on the weekend. It can get fairly packed on the weekend, but on this particular visit it was a weeknight and they had just opened for dinner.