Chicago Food Planet Food Tours

What a great way to learn more about Chicago's neighborhoods and cuisine! Our 3-hour tour of the Near North neighborhoods, guided by friendly and knowledgeable Arianna, flew by. The food was fresh, produced as locally as possible, and delicious. We learned a lot about the foods, spices, oils, vinegars, and drinks that we sampled, and made note of the establishments from which we wished to make purchases. We met some terrific people from around the country and, as a bonus, Arianna kept us entertained between stops with stories of the history, architecture, and culture of the neighborhoods. There is plenty to eat, so come with an appetite!

This tour mixes a handful of Chicago's greatest little eateries and culinary highlights with a leisurely walk through one of it's best neighborhoods. It explores some history, a little architecture, and a few insights into the settlement of Lincoln Park. but, don't do it for learning about Chicago architecture...there are other great tours for that. Do this tour to get a "behind the scenes" look at some great local food businesses and their relationship to Chicago. I thought it was wonderfully planned and executed. I took the site's advice and ate breakfast. I am glad I did as the food along the tour was just sufficient for lunch. It will not make up for missing breakfast- even if you eat it while walking to the tour like I did. The food is spaced nicely throughout the 3 hours, with about half the stops not being food at all. Those stops were better than just food... we learned the truth about about how some of our basic food items are made and how it's gets to us... like olive oils, balsalmic vinegars, spices, teas, chocolates. We went back the next day to several of those and came home with some great stuff. All in all, it was well worth the time and money spent. I have already recommended it to several people. Can't wait to go on the other one when I am back in Chicago in July.

Our group recently went on the Food Tasting and Cultural Walking Tour...it was the highlight of our trip to Chicago. Our tour guide was very informative. We learned alot about Chicago and enjoyed great food. I would highly recommend for anyone visiting Chicago. I'm looking forward to going on the Bucktown/Wicker Park tour on my next visit.

Hello! We loved the food tour! What a great time. Nicki was outstanding! We were especially impressed at how she remembered everyone's name! She got the group involved by asking us questions and she was very knowledgeable. We will be recomending the food tours to our friends and will be sure to look for other food planet tours in other cities on future vacations. We have a group photo that we took at the end of the tour that we would love to send you for your website. Please let me know if you are interested. Thank you for a great time! Candy, Margarita, Evelyn, Joann & baby Isabella from South Florida

Kent, our guide, was knowledgeable of the Chicago neighborhoods describing the attractions & history along the route. Kent was enthusiastic & personable! The tastings were more than enough, even for our hearty appetites. The restaurants visited served on-time and held informative briefings of their establishment. Even though we are locals, twe thoroughly enjoyed the event. The narrative along the walking tour pointed out things missed while driving and with the stopping along the way the walk was easy. I am going to give this tour to my sons girlfriend who is moving here from Virgina so she can become familiar with a few of the Chicago neighborhoods, their restaurant offerings and history.

My sister and I were born in Oak Park but moved to California many years ago. On a return trip to celebrate a cousin's birthday there we decided to take the food walking tour and were so pleased that we did! Nikki was our guide and was a knowledgeable and enthusiastic hostess. It is clear that her experiences working and studying in several countries gave her the background and confidence to know how to present facts and details in an interesting manner. It is also clear that she loves working and living in Chicago! At each location she gave us the history of the area and of the establishment as well as the background of the founder or owner. Giving these presentations with these people present certainly meant that she had the stories correct! There was much sighing and moaning as we tasted the highlights at each location and we endorse these as choices to continue to visit. At the end, enjoying our Chicago-style deep dish pizza, Nikki called on each of us BY NAME and asked us what our favorite place was. Each place was mentioned by more than one person. It was a lovely, sunny, warm day to be outside and walking and tasting food!

We enjoyed the Near North food tour. Nikki our tour guide was awesome! All the food, tea, and spices were amazing. We all had a time. After the tour we walked back and shopped at the oil shop, the spice shop, and the tea shop. We will do this again when we can. It is a great way to enjoy the city! Thanks for a fun afternoon!

This was our first day in Boston. It was a beautiful day and we could not have picked a better way to start. Our guide was excited, enthusiastic, knowledgable and she really seemed to enjoy her job. We loved everything about it. The best part was the middle when we visited the spice house and Old Town oil. Those are places you don't find everywhere. We also really appreciated the information on the neighborhoods, the architecture and the history of the city. We ended up going back to several of the places on the tour and the list in the next few days

My wife and I have been to Chicago several times, but haven't done a walking tour there before. This was outstanding. Each destination was carefully selected. Fabulous samples were provided. It was a great pleasure visiting different neighborhoods and learning the culture and history. Shane was a great host, very friendly and knowledgeable. I highly recommend this walking tour to anyone visiting Chicago for the first time or the 20th time, even locals! It was a treat.

The tour was hosted by a very friendly and entertaining guide. The selection of shops and restaurants was excellent. A hot dog stand; a gourmet food store; a gourmet coffee shop; a pizza and beer pub; a middle eastern restaurant; and a unique ice creamery. It was so good we had to go back the next day to get more of the same treats provided. Also included was sightseeing of the local residential area. The guide was very knowledgeable with local history of the neighborhood architecture. The opportunity to visit and meet some of the local home owners was a definite highlight. I highly recommend this tour and I consider an essential activity for those who would like to know little more about Chicago and it's local neighborhoods.

My daughter and I enjoyed the tour and afternoon. We loved the combination of food tasting, custom shops, and architecture. The tour guide was great very personable. He seemd to enjoy what he was doing. Not just another tour! I will recommend to everyone that is coming to Chicago for a visit!!!

Great guide (Shane)... good walk and history along the way. Food was more than enough... by the time we got to Bacino's we were really full! Walking around Old Town and the ability to see a part of Chicago we hadn't intended made it even better. The beautiful day helped, but overall the tastings, information, and group were great. We (two friends and myself) even met some people we went and toured with afterward. Clearly a great adventure and highly suggested by all three of us.

We really enjoyed this time together without our children. Our children are 5 and 3yrs old too little to go on the tour but if they were older we would have loved to bring them. We live in wisconsin (just over the boarder from chicago) and we love chicago so we went there to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. We have done alot of the norm tourist things to do so we wanted to do something different. When I went on-line and saw the food tours I thought that would be a great way to learn the history of the foods chicago is known for and the neighborhoods there in. Plus I love the walking part. It is very easy and not hard at all. Our tour was pretty large I believe there were 15 people all together. There were couples, families, friends and even a single lady. It was interesting to hear where everyone was from. The family were from L.A. another couple were from Colorado Springs and I believe there were 3 couples from Minnesota. It was fun and of the beaten path of the usaual tours. We would recommend this tour for everyone. OH how could I forget WE LOVED OUR TOUR GUIDE CARRIE YOU ROCKED THANKS! She was very fun and upbeat. If you are looking for something different to do and love food then this is for you!! you will LOVE IT!

My husband and I signed on to the food tour as a lark on a recent trip to Chicago. What we got was a unique experience that was worth every cent of the ticket price, and the food was only part of it! The tour included some tastings you would expect--a deli, Chicago-style pizza parlor, bakery, a tea shop, and a chocolate shop. We wondered what we would taste at a spice store and an oil shop, but were more than pleasantly surprised. The amount of food was more than lunch fare, but the 3 plus mile walk helped to keep it from seeming like too much. In addition to the food tastings, we learned alot about the Gold Coast, Old Town, and Lincoln Park neighborhoods. We were educated on the different foods we tasted. And we got to meet people from many different places. Our tour guide was enthusiastice about the various places we visited, but also about the city of Chicago. I was amazed at how well she remembered the names of everyone in our group based on a one-time introduction. Next time we are in Chicago, we will surely sign up for the other food tour.

This is billed as a food tour but is that and more, including info on history, culture, and architecture of the city and neighborhoods. I'd guess that most tourists wouldn't normally get to Bucktown and Wicker Park, so this tour is a great way to explore these neighborhoods. The food tastings were overall quite good. A few of the items were really excellent and made me want to go back for a full meal, a few were a good taste of Chicago, and one or two were so-so. Our guide Carrie was enthusiastic and kept our attention for 3 hours, which is not easy. I definitely recommend this tour to anybody who is into food and wants to explore an interesting part of Chicago that they otherwise probably would not experience.