Near North Food Tasting & Cultural Walking Tour

Rebecca was our guide and she was great!! Very good communicator and made sure everyone was enjoying themsleves. It was a fantastic combination of history, education and tasting the best Chicago has to offer.

Enjoyed the food, the walk and the history of the city/neighborhoods. Our guide, Nicky, was very friendly and enthusiastic. Comments on the food stops: Deli - great rueben. A pickle to accompany it would have made it perfect. Tea - Not a tea drinker, but loved the drink. Would have preferred they offered the sweetener at the start. Spices - Very interesting. Would have liked to try a piece of food that you could add a spice to. For example, a piece of cooked chicken which you could sprinkle different spices on. Oil - Really enjoyed tasting the oils, but would have preferred some food (bread) to accompany it. Chocolate - Good. Pizza - Good, but could have been warmer.

Not to much walking, not to much food. I twas a good tour learned some new things and had some food that tasted great.

YOU CAN WALK DOWN A STREET AND NOT NOTICE ANYTHING, BUT WITH YOUR TOUR GUIDE WE RECEIVED A HISTORY AND AN ARCHITECTURAL TOUR IN ADDITION TO BEING EDUCATED TO THE FINER THINGS IN LIFE AT EVERY LOCATION. HILLARY WAS EXCEPTIONAL IN ADDTION TO BEING A NICE PERSON.

This tour was the highlight of our trip. Rebecca was an EXCELLENT tour guide. Extremely knowledgeable about the different foods, the neighborhoods, and Chicago in general. This is a definite must while visiting. The 3 hours fly by. Not to mention a great date!

We learned much about the history of Chicago along with some delightful, informative, tasty stops on the near North side. Our guide, Arianna, was outstanding in her enthusiastic manner, knowledge of the city and warmth. We'll certainly try the Bucktown tour on our next trip to Chicago. And, we'll certainly try to hook up with Arianna again.

Began at Ashenkaz deli made Rueben sandwich with pastrami. Our guide Chris was great, but the staff at the deli was cold and made us feel as if we were in their way. Next to Tea shop, great ice tea and the best information from an individual store. The remainder of the stores our guide only discussed. WOuld have been nice to have that happen in each stop. Only negative was the other clerk who was a little rude and then yelling to someone on the phone. Tour thru the goldcoast and old town districts was nice and Chris did a good job of pointing out places and describing their history. Spice shop was great, what a wonderful aroma, so many good tastes. Oild and vinegar shop my least fav, but my girlfriend loved it. Fudge pot was great too, love chocolate and toffee, mmmm. Pastry shop fantastic also. The pizza at bacinos was marvelous. Amazed at how quick the time went by and very stisfied with the food and tastes. Would do it again in a heartbeat and highly recommend it to anybody, very unique experience. Truly enjoyed the progressive dining experience.

We had some hesitation about the tour because of the visits to tea, oil and spice shops. Are they really food? However, those stops were probably the highlights for us, as we learned a lot about each. Who would ever guess there were so many delicious combinations of olive oil and balsamic vinegarette! Our guide Hillary was awesome, not only knowledgable about each food stop but also about Chicago history and the sights between the stores.

The tasting was awesome. I really enjoyed it. I just wish I had more time to take the other tour they were offering on the other side of town. The restaurants were carefully selected to ensure that tourists will enjoy their trips. Very unique way of sampling foods that you won't normally try if you tour own your own. Hillary, our tourist, was excellent. I would recommend anyone trying this.

My wife and I enjoyed it very much. Clearly much thought went into choosing quality establishments, each of which occupies a unique niche in the Chicago food chain. The tour guide was very pleasant, knowledgeable and informative. Although I appreciated the desire not to overload our stomachs while much walking still lay ahead, I personally would have liked a little more eating (being a major foodie). Including a tea shop, oil shop and spice shop on the same tour was a little too much emphasis on specialty food shops vs. actual eateries. To be fair, many of the participants of our group actually seemed to like these stops best, but I can also imagine that for out-of-town tourists (which we're not) who come on the tour hoping to discover some great restaurants to come back to during their visit, there weren't many actual restaurants on the tour.