Bucktown/Wicker Park Food Tasting & Cultural Tour

I did a Zerve food tour in NYC earlier in the summer and loved it. When I booked my trip for Chicago, I immediately searched to see if they offered food tours in this city as well. I went on the Bucktown/Wicker Park tour with extremely high expectations. Not only did this tour fullfill my expectations, but it also exceeded them. I loved all 6 of the food tastings, especially iCream. I also really enjoyed how it wasn't all back-to-back, but also included the walking tour of the area with information about the transformation, local opinions and the historic houses. It's a great way to pace yourself with all of the food and walk off some of those empty calories (since when you are on vacation, calories don't exist). My boyfriend and I went on the tour with our friend who lives in Chicago. He was skeptical since he knows the area well, but he enjoyed it just as much as we did. I would recommend for any tourist or local to do the Bucktown/Wicker Park tour. And if you have Carrie as your guide, she is excellent!

Do not eat before the food tour. Each stop had wonderful and filling food and drink. The guide was knowledgeable and made the tour a lot of fun. Enjoyable activity for families with older children.

We had a great time on this tour. Kent was our tour guide and I couldn't imagine anybody doing a better job. He was funny, intelligent, witty and kept the entire tour entertained for the complete 3 hours. The stops along the way were all unique and very tasty. We went into the tour with an empty stomach and left both very full. We had a great time and would definately reccommend this to anyone going to Chicago. Also the tour included a lot of information about the history of the city and the food along the way was great. A great day of weather certainly did not hurt!

I can't say enough about how much fun we had on this walking tour. The portions were large, the variety was nice, and the guide, Kent, was pleasant and informative. I'm still thinking about the drink we sampled at Hot Chocolate (my favorite stop).

Our tour guide was terrific...knowledgeable and enthusiastic. We thought the food would just be a tasting, but it was lunch and more. The food was excellent. In addition, we all enjoyed the tour of the neighborhood. We would all highly recommend it.

Chicago is not only downtown, interesting to visit

We come to Chicago every summer from Tampa. Last year we took the Gold Coast tour and enjoyed it very much. This year we took the Bucktown/WickerPark tour. Our tour Guide was Kent, he was the same guide on our tour last year. This was another area that we have never explored. This tour has more food and it fills you up early in the tour, before you do most of the walking. It would be nice if the food was spread out some more on the tour, however due to the layout i understand this would not work out well. If you eat breakfast before you go, be sure to eat early! Great variety of food and beverages. Look forward to another tour next year....hopefully they will develop another tour quickly! Great job!

My boyfriend and I were in Chicago for a week and we did eeeevery tourist thing possible--shedd aquarium, adler's planetarium, field museum, sear's tower, handcock observatory, architectural cruise, etc....but the food tour was the BEST!! The tour is perfectly designed to include interesting facts, delicious food, and the opportunity to leisurely walk some of it off while we toured the neighborhood. =) Kent was AWESOME. He lives in the area, loves the area, and has no problem showing us tourists around and sharing all of the local secrets. A good tour guide definitely makes the experience. It was raining and we still had a great time. Don't forget to tip him...he deserves it!! The food portions were INSANE. I had to take some of the "samples" home in my purse! The first stop was a full-sized hot dog with all of the fixings (chicago-style). Then we got a full-sized chocolate drink with homemade marshmallows, some pasta salad, a huge slice of pizza with beer, a huge falafel, and some ice cream!! We didn't even eat dinner that night (and my boyfriend can EAT)!! Another great surprise was that we all got coupons to the places we visited (to be used after the tour). Right when we finished the tour, my boyfriend and I backtracked and bought goodies for gifts and ourselves. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this tour to anybody who wants to try some great food and something different from the typical tourist activities.

Thoroughly enjoyed the tour, great food, very interesting facts about the neighborhood and people. We did this as a getaway with our 18 yr old daughter before she leaves for college and we had a wonderful time. Nice way to learn more about Chicago other than the Magnificent Mile.

This was a great tour. I rarely do tours as I normally would research places I visit and explore on my own. With this tour, even though the places visited were listed and I could have easily visited on my own, I really enjoyed the non-food parts of exploring the neighborhood and learning the history of some of the homes and buildings on the route. I would not have gotten so much out of this neighborhood if I had not taken this tour. Equally helpful was the listing of recommended restaurants that was given out with the tour. The only stop that I would recommend the tour replace is the visit and tasting at Piece Pizza. Pizza was not that good.