Near North Food Tasting & Cultural Walking Tour

The food and culture tour is excellent, and we highly recommend it. The sites visited are excellent, the employees are extremely friendly, and the food provided as part of the tour is outstanding. The walking tour portion is very informative, and provides a tourist an outstanding experience with the local layout and makeup of several areas of chicago. Our tourguide was Emily, and she could not have been a better host. She was polite, gracious, and very educated on all the history of the stops the tour would make. She provided excellent commentary and information throughout the tour. She made an effort to ensure everyone in the group of 17 people were enjoying themselves and able to hear her comments and instructions. Of particular note, Emily made a particular effort to connect with each member of the tour, engaging the members in one on one conversation and various times during the tour to allow her to better understand the makeup of the group. We could not have asked for a better experience. Again we highly recommend this tour; we can see why it is number one on trip advisor, and we are sure you wont be disappointed.

My wife and I enjoyed the walking tour, our guide was energetic and well spoken. We think for the amount of food that you get this is not really a food tour. The spice and oil shops were great, however, we could have gone in there for free tastings anyway. The cheese and crackers, nothing special, we can get this type of cheese at home. Fifteen minutes for Pizza was not long enough, perhaps you should end there and let us linger with a glass of wine. We did enjoy it, but would not really say it is a must do.

From Nebraska, Everyone should take the Chicago Food Tasting and Cultural Walking Tour. I highly recommend that people make this the first event they do when arriving in Chicago. By doing this, it will allow you time to return to points of interest and purchase items you would like to take home with you.

Sorry I can not fill this out. I was very ill and unable to make the trip. I was told there were no refunds, which I feel is unfair, you should be allowed to reschedule. I did not even call because it clearly stated that. I was very disappointed to miss and would have liked to attend the event. Marianne Strzelecki

our group loved the mixture of tasting and walking and architectural and neighborhood information. we all want to go again!

This was the highlight of my trip. I loved the places we went to and the great samples we had. It was also so nice to have the little lessons on the tea and the spices, plus Jennifer did a wonderful job with the cultrual part and her knowledge of all the areas and places she pointed out was terrific. I hope another tour will be created with additional places for a future visit, I definatley would sign up!

Recently, three friends and I participated in the Near North food tasting tour. We enjoyed the experience so much we are anxiously waiting for more tours to be available soon! The tour was the perfect beginning to our weekend in Chicago. We loved the "insider" feel and the tastings. We could not choose a favorite place and ended up retracing our steps to visit them all again. This tour changed how we will all view future trips to Chicago. We have vowed to dive into the local neighborhoods and take a chance on small, independent shops and restaurants. Thanks for a great experience!

A little too long, and a little pricey for what you get. On a 3 hour, $40 tour, you only actually sample one drink and two food items. Would have preferred a more jam-packed tour - more food, more tastings, and more historical details.

My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed the walking food tour. Our guide provided plenty of interesting facts about the areas we walked through and recommended some great restaurants we were able to try at a later date. The stores and restaurants we visited on the tour were welcoming and unique. Highly recommend this tour.

We all really enjoyed the tour, but it was quite spread out. This caused some problems with our going back to actually do some shopping. We ended up having to walk about 5 miles to go through the tour and then double back to shop. Our shopping only took about 10 extra minutes per shop. I wish we were able to just do our shopping while on the tour rather than have to walk the whole way back.