Gold Coast & Old Town Food Tour

Not only did we learn a lot about tea, spices, olive oil and balsamic vinegar and get to sample these (and chocolate!), we got to see and learn about interesting Chicago personalities, history and architecture. Our guides were VERY helpful and knowledgeable. The tour was the most fun of all that we did in Chicago!

Tour was good, well planned out and quite interesting. Very good guide. We are local but really like Chicago restaruants and food in general. Found some new places we will try, learned some new Chicago facts and had a good time. My only issue is that there is not enough actual food. Half way through the tour all we had was one very small tasting, a beverage and a peice of candy. They were all good, but we came hungry. If not for the pizza towards the end we would have had to go out to lunch afterward.

Want to eat yummy local food? Want to know about the history of the local food? Want to know about the history of the neighbourhood and its architecture? Then this is EXACTLY the tour for you! This food tour made our entire trip so much more fun. Chicago has now become our favourite city in the world, especially now that we know where to eat. Totally worth the price as you get so much in return i.e. food, knowledge and further discounts.

Jennifer was our tour guide and was well spoken, informative, friendly and helpful. We were traveling with two teens that enjoyed the tour as much as their parents. The stops made were diverse and certainly off the beaten path! The latkes were a delicious way to start and coat our tummies before we got to eat anything else substantial. We wanted a few more minutes to taste more of those oils and vinegars - an activity we don't get to do very often. The tea shop stop was quite educational and offered a nice cold tea on a warm morning, and it's proximity to the starting point allowed us to return for a purchase. The two chocolate places might be considered redundant but we are chocolate lovers and found the establishments far enough apart on the tour and different enough to legitimize two of them... without guilt! It's a lot of territory to walk, which worked fine for our group, but you might need to remind folks of the distance covered and we all had on flip flop sandals without any issues (which were not recommended). Our family had eaten Chicago pizza the night before the tour and realized there are lots of styles of C.P. that are fabulous! The timing of that stop was just right for our group (we had 11am). It was a good take! We stayed at a B & B in Oak Park (Harvey House- which we also recommend) that we suggested to them to send guests your way.... you might want to invite some of the innkeepers such as these to take a tour on you so they are truly familiar with it (as well as offer them some new vendors to use at their establishments!) It would be a win-win.

A lot of fun and history in this "promenade" around Chicago streets and shops. Some shop owners were more than entertaining, our guide Jen, was great as well. Next time, we'll do the other tour for sure !

Enjoyed the information and history. The food was good and the stops were better than we ever expected. A "must do" tour, regardless of where you are from!

My wife & I thoroughly enjoyed this unique experience of the great city of Chicago. Our guide was very animated and thoroughly knowledgeable. We visited 8 different food places, but I would like to recommend that they substitute at least one of the chocolate tastings for a visit to an ice cream parlour (very welcome during those hot summer days!) Our best tasting was the Tea Shop "TeaGschwender" which proved to be most informative for something we take daily and for granted. The iced-tea served for tasting was very welcome - Pity we did not have time to make purchases at the food-stops! WE LOVE YOU CHICAGO!

The food, mini-classes, history, neighborhood stories, and unique stores were fantastic. We greatly appreciated and used the coupons on the tour. Went back to four of the seven stops and made purchases. Hillary, our guide, was absolutely outstanding. She goes down as the perfect tour guide - ever. We were also grateful for all the details in terms of what to expect and what to wear on the tour previous to arrival. I will recommend this tour to anyone going to Chicago for a visit. We'll done y'all. Kate

A wonderful experience exploring the Gold Coast, Old Town and Lincoln Park. Our guide, Nikki, was informed, friendly and knowledgable about the area. We enjoyed the various tastes and flavours from the rueben sandwich at the deli in the Gold Coast to the Spices, Olive Oils and Chocolates of Old Town to the Stuffed Pizza in Lincoln Park. All of which were delicious. We learned much about the history and architecture of the area. We had an interactive and friendly group which made the difference. After the tour, we went back to the back to a couple of the food places on our tour a return visit. The tour was a fun and interesting way to learn more about Chicago and highly recommend it.

Truly, this was one of the highlights of our trip to Chicago. We did the Near North Food Tasting & Cultural Walking Tour. We also wanted to do the other tour that Food Planet offers but we just couldn't fit it into our schedule. Our loss! But, there's always next time. Our guide's name has slipped my mind but she was an adorable girl who's lived all over the US and in the southern hemisphere. She was engaging and very knowledgeable and this made the tour a truly memorable experience. We started out tasting an AMAZING Reuben at Ashkenaz Deli...I have never had much interest in a Reuben and thus had never tasted one. Oh. Wow. I was in deli heaven then and there. Next stop was a tea shop where we got an intense tea education and also learned about a new steeped product that contains no caffeine and I kid you not, tastes like dulce de leche in tea form. YUM! I went back after the tour and purchased some and am currently hoarding it in my pantry. One of my favorite stops on the tour was the Spice House. This was another spot that we walked back to after the tour. We purchased several proprietary blends as well as some amazing truffle salt that perfumed my luggage in a lovely way, and some holy-crap-what-else-can-I-put-this-in Vietnamese cinnamon that makes my mouth water just thinking about it. Our last stop was at Bacino's pizza for a stuffed pizza, a Chicago specialty. We all sat down and enjoyed the most gloriously decadent stuffed spinach pie that I've tasted yet. Seriously, it was so good that we ordered one for the road and it was dinner back in our hotel room. I don't kid about food, that's dead serious stuff. I would highly, highly recommend this tour for anyone in Chicago, including the locals.