Tasting Australia’s 2025 Town Square food vendors revealed
The Tasting Australia food vendors have been announced, and businesses like Gang Gang, Shibui, Francesca’s Pizza and Sandos and more are set to hit Town Square this May. See the full list.
CityMag can exclusively reveal the Tasting Australia food vendors for 2025 range from a list of newbies, festival first-timers and old favourites.
Tasting Australia – the 10-day festival with events highlighting the best food in the country with a heavy focus on South Australia – will be taking place from May 2 to 11, 2025.
The Tasting Australia hub in Town Square has a range of food vendors meaning anyone without a ticket to an event can experience and access the foodie goodness.
Karena Armstrong, festival director and local chef, told us last year the food vendor line-up is always curated to an “offering that you won’t see at other festivals”.
“There’s a very official process and scoring and all sorts of evaluation that goes through, but then when you look at all of the offerings, you just try and get some balance,” Karena told CityMag.
“[There’s] lots of different types of cuisines [and] lots of different types of people and their businesses.
“We really are looking for outlets to tell stories as well, and eat really good food.”
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This year, players like Braising Boy, Gang Gang, ONG NOI Vietnamese BBQ, Shibui, The Filipino Project and more are set to make their Tasting Australia Town Square return.
New to Town Square are Athena Greek Eats, Comida Hahndorf, Dolly, Francesca’s Pizza and Sandos, Le Cordon Vert, Motherlode Nuggeteria and more.
Athena Greek Eats head chef, Fin Sims. This picture: Jack Fenby.
Director of Athena Greek Eats, Raphael Korman, says being a part of the foodie festival for the first time is “really a dream”.
“It’s definitely a real privilege to have been invited and to have been accepted,” he says.
“Part of it’s to do with [head chef Fin Sims’] culinary experience. He was the head chef of Yiasou George, and he was sous chef-ing with Ottolenghi in his restaurant Rovi in the UK.
“He’s a fantastic chef and really, really, really specialises in this Mediterranean style of cooking.
“Having a synergy with Fin and my experience in doing events, it’s really allowed us to create something that’s pretty cool with Athena and we’re just really grateful to have been given the platform to showcase what we’re all about.”
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Raphael says their focus for this event will be “providing the best food and the best experience [they] can” and “taking it all in and just enjoying every minute of it”.
“I love what Tasting Australia’s doing. A big thing for us in what we’ve done has always been to try and elevate event food and to have a point of difference to the market,” Raphael says.
“To see a whole festival that’s geared towards really high-quality food experiences is just awesome.”
Part of the Athena Greek Eats food offering. This picture: Jack Fenby.
What’s on offer food-wise will be the Athena specialty – “authentic Greek cooking”.
“[It’s] all about really embracing the natural qualities and flavours of fresh vegetables, extra virgin olive oil, cheeses that are made from sheep and goats milk and fresh seafood…and meats that have lived their lives in the open,” he says.
“And so for Tasting Australia, we want to use seasonal, local grown veggies – we’ve got some beautiful Spencer Gulf calamari, lambs that were found on the Fleurieu Peninsula.
“We champion the absolutely amazing produce that we have here in SA.”
With chef Fin’s abilities, Raphael says this Tasting Australia menu “really celebrates the ageless characteristics of Greek cuisine”.
“We’ve got a few dishes that we’re really excited to share. We’ve got semolina dusted, Spencer Gulf calamari with garlic aioli, onion and saltbush,” he says.
“Fleurieu Peninsula lamb souvlaki, served with horiatiki salata – it’s like a Greek village salad with some onions, tzatziki and fresh pita.
“We’ve got a mixed grill of various meats that we’re cooking over coals, served that with a pita and a range of dips and feta me meli – which is a crispy fried feta cheese wrapped in filo pastry – and then we’re drizzling a Ligurian Kangaroo Island honey, and finish with some pistachios.”
Tasting Australia will take place from May 2 to 11. Head to the Tasting Australia website to see the full program and buy tickets, which are on sale now.
The full list of Tasting Australia Town Square food vendors is:
- Africola Canteen
- Athena Greek Eats
- Braising Boy
- Comida Hahndorf
- Dolly
- Francesca’s Pizza and Sandos
- Gang Gang
- Le Cordon Vert
- Motherlode Nuggeteria
- ONG NOI Vietnamese BBQ
- Phat Head Dumpling
- The Filipino Project
- Shibui
- Kha Nom
- Meet Me Coffee Co