| Rating |
Date Attended [v] |
Reviewer |
Gender |
Age |
Where From? |
Group Type? |
|
Do it!
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| Thu, May 14, 09 11:30 AM |
bseg151 |
Male |
20-29 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Other |
| The tour was better than expected. It was nice to be out of downtown Chicago for a day and experience some local culture. The Bucktown/Wicker Park area has a lot of charm and the history of the area is quite interesting. The length of the tour is perfect and takes you to places you might not otherwise go when visiting Chicago. Our tour guide Kent was great too, he made the tour interesting and exciting. Having lived in the area, you knew you were getting some first hand knowledge from a local and not some tourguide that picked up his information from a company handbook. I would highly recommend this tour to anyone looking to fill up a day with a fun activity. |
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Very filling, lots of points of interest...
|
| Sat, May 9, 09 12:00 PM |
RitaRak |
Female |
50-59 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Family With Children |
| Was surprised at the size of the tastings...whole hot dog at Georges, each getting a cup of hot chocolate at Hot Chocolate, and a piece of pizza and a flight of beer at Piece. Plus each getting two truffles at Coco Rouge. We enjoyed the demonstration at i cream....what an interesting concept!!! Our tour guide Kurt was very knowledgeable and entertaining. |
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Great guide, Good food, but a few downers
|
| Sat, May 9, 09 12:00 PM |
michelletsao |
Female |
20-29 |
Combination |
Couple on a Date |
| I've done both the food tours now and have to say I enjoyed the downtown tour better.
Food-wise: River North tour brings you to a greater variety of places and gives you a tutorial on spices, on olive oil/vinegar manufacturing, on what goes into you deep dish. Bucktown tour I was REALLY disappointed in the description, and flavor of some of our samples. Several stores weren't welcoming (Goddess & grocer), and we didn't even get to enter Milk & Honey (one of the listed eateries). If I just wanted samples, I could have gotten them on my own and not paid to go on a tour just to walk past the restaurant because "it's too busy at this time". I was also hungry soon after the tour.
Culture/learning-wise: While both tour guides were wonderful, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable, there was just a lot LESS to learn about Wicker Park/ Bucktown area. I also found that we were told a lot less about what makes the eatery we visited SPECIAL or different!!!
Walking-wise: There is much more walking to do in the downtown tour, but it makes you feel really good! You get enough time at each eatery to finish your samples. The Bucktown tour was much less walking and I felt hurried at many eateries to finish and leave.
Overall, I'd recommend the downtown tour because i felt like I got my money's worth from BOTH food and culture. The bucktown tour gave us hit-or-miss samples (Pizza was fantastic, beet salad not-so-fantastic) and made me feel like I should shove my food down and go or eat on the run! However, I enjoyed MOST of the eateries selected by Chicago Food Planet and may return to the several more special ones. |
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Bucktown / Wicker Park - Good mix!
|
| Sat, May 9, 09 11:30 AM |
hlgerisc |
Female |
20-29 |
Combination |
Other |
| Overall, this tour was a good mix of historical facts about the development of the culture/neighborhoods, as well as food tastings at various establishments. The group that I went with was a mix of out-of-towners, as well as locals. Even the locals learned a thing or two about their very own neighborhood. We enjoyed how the tour went though some neighborhoods to look at various homes' architectural style/history. A little more of that would be great (more about specific buildings, etc.)! The food tastings were very generous...we were by no means hungry when we left. We didn't need to eat lunch that day and we were fine until dinner time. I will say the hot chocolate was delicious, but VERY rich! The pizza was wonderful! The ice cream sample at iCream was very unique and flavorful. I would definitely recommend giving this tour a try! You'll find some great little places to eat and learn some history that you may have otherwise never known about. |
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|
Awesome!
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| Sat, May 9, 09 11:30 AM |
ptucker |
Male |
40-49 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Family With Children |
| We've been to Chicago many times but for the most part stayed in the downtown/Lincoln Park area. If you want to venture out and see a different part of Chicago, this tour is for you. Our guide was extremely knowledgable and well spoken. I can not think of one thing that I did not like. Next time we're in Chicago, we're going to do the other tour. My only advise is to come hungery! We ate an entire Chicago style hotdog, a huge slice of pizza, a cup of very strong hot chocolate, homemade Granola, pickled beets, 2 chocolate truffles, and ice cream. |
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Bucktown/Wicker-- tasting
|
| Fri, May 8, 09 11:30 AM |
Richndee1 |
Female |
40-49 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Family Without Children |
| We love the food tasting tours. We did the Near North Tour last fall and it was excellent! Which is why we came back. This tour provided a generous amount of fabulous tastings. Favorite is HOT CHOCOLATE! Wow, how do they do that? The ice cream stop is an awesome concept yet the flavor we received did not complement any of the tastings or make me want to go back. We were told about an awesome flavor from "that Florida Guy" but having not tasted it, I would not go out of my way to stop again. Over all great fun! |
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Great food sampling
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| Thu, May 7, 09 11:30 AM |
fideliah |
Female |
30-39 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Family With Children |
| We thoroughly enjoyed this tour. With our informative guides (Ben & Kent), we were able to explore a part of Chicago that we may not go to on our own and got to taste great food from local businesses. We liked all the different tasting but really, really like the beer at Piece and found iCream especially memorable. The owner of iCream happened to be there and she gave us a more indepth and personal introduction to her store and made us an additional batch of fresh ice cream to taste. Should we visit Chicago again, we'd probably considering staying in or near the Bucktown / Wicker Park area. It's such a cute neighborhood with great restaurants and boutique stores.
We wished we had time to do the Near North tour as well. |
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Fabulous activity - not to be missed
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| Sat, May 2, 09 11:30 AM |
Lauren54 |
Female |
50-59 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Other |
| This was such a great tour. I can't rave enough about it. The food was all delicious (plenty of food, at least for a female). Learned a lot about this beautiful little area of Chicago. I went primarily because my grad school daughter is planning to move to Wicker Park. However, I recommend this to anyone as a great activity to really learn about Chicago and taste some GREAT food. |
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Fun way to enjoy the neighborhoods!
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| Sat, May 2, 09 11:30 AM |
Fperetti |
Female |
20-29 |
Local |
Other |
| The tour gives you a good feel for Bucktown/Wicker Park from its history to all the yummy eats. It was a really great way to spend the afternoon. And, they didn't skimp on the food portions!
Complaint: When I asked the tour guides where was a good place to eat for Cinqo de Mayo they couldn't even recommend a restaurant, not even the Mexican restaurant on the tour. That just left a bad impression. |
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Fun Tour
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| Fri, May 1, 09 11:30 AM |
KrisNag |
Female |
40-49 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Group of Friends |
| We enjoyed the Bucktown/Wicker park tour. We had also taken the Near North tour so we had high expectations since we enjoyed the other tour so much. We enjoyed all of the places we visited. It was my first Chicago style hot dog so that was a treat. The hot chocolate was unbelievable and the Icream was very interesting. I missed visiting the shops like you do on the other tour and I felt like you got more info on the other tour. I think the tour would be better if they replaced a couple of stops. I didn't like the one with the beet salad and the granola was fine but it is no fun when you can't even go in. |
