| Rating |
Date Attended [v] |
Reviewer |
Gender |
Age |
Where From? |
Group Type? |
 |
fabulous stops, great cooking and general history |
| |
Fri, May 23 10:00 AM |
conry6563 |
Female |
40-49 |
Local |
Group of Friends |
| |
LOVED IT! My second time (went about four years ago), but went with a different friend.
Dick was wonderful. The business owners were very welcoming. Since I am local, I will revisit these shop owners.
Thank you! |
 |
Hungry for history or just plain hungry? |
| |
Wed, May 21 10:00 AM |
anjalexandra |
Female |
40-49 |
Combination |
Group of Friends |
| |
This tour was fantastic! The information including all the hand-outs were excellent and we loved the chosen establishments. The guide was an amazing source of information covering the history and culinary history of the North End. We would have liked more time in each place to shop instead of having to go back and retrace the entire tour at the end, though. |
|
high point of entire weekend in Boston |
| |
Sat, May 17 3:00 PM |
garymary1950 |
Male |
50-59 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Family Without Children |
| |
After I initialy booked the tour I got to thinking "What would keep my interest for 3 hours concerning italian food ingrediants?" Well i soon found out. I could have listened for 6 hours. It was incredible. A must do for anyone one interested in food. Awesome !!! |
|
Fabulous |
| |
Sat, May 17 3:00 PM |
kayleamoore |
Female |
20-29 |
Local |
Other |
| |
Great tour and enthusiastic instructor. An inside look at the North End, Italian specialty foods and products. Very informative and very engaging. I highly recommend this tour. |
|
Wonderful tour! |
| |
Sat, May 17 2:00 PM |
BobGonPepper |
Male |
50-59 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Couple on a Date |
| |
Great tour to some wonderful shops, fantastic and knowledgeable tour guide (Beth), and tasty samples along the way. Lots of fun!! |
|
A very worthwhile, fact filled, fun event! |
| |
Sat, May 17 1:00 PM |
Marianna1983 |
Female |
50-59 |
Local |
Group of Friends |
| |
Although I live only 30 miles from Boston and have lived here my entire life, I learned some very interesting facts on this tour. Along with that, it was also great fun!
Our tour guide, a gentlemen who I apologetically cannot remember his name, was excellent. The shops we visited were great, and sampling the different foods offerings was wonderful.
A great way to spend an afternoon if you're visiting in Boston or are a local! |
|
Fun, informative tour of North End |
| |
Sat, May 17 10:00 AM |
marydonovan |
Female |
40-49 |
Local |
Family Without Children |
| |
Beth was a wonderful, informative tour guide who loves cooking, food and people. It was accurately described as a tasting tour and a great thing to do as a newcomer to the Boston area - not necessarily for tourists although they may find it interesting as well. Definitely helpful if you love to cook and experiment with food - especially if you have never been to Europe. If you are a frequent world traveler or a true gourmet chef, you might not find it so informative, but for anyone who would like a taste of life in Italy and looking to expand their cooking skills, it was a great way to spend t he day. |
|
Excellent tour |
| |
Sat, May 17 10:00 AM |
SarahMcGee |
Female |
50-59 |
Local |
Family Without Children |
| |
Learned alot! |
|
very informative |
| |
Fri, May 16 3:00 PM |
GinaMa |
Female |
50-59 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Family Without Children |
| |
What a great tour to intro my guy to Boston, my favorite city. We are "foodies" and learned so much at the different stops! Prompt, easy to get to and such a delightful guide, Richard. A definite recommend and thank you.
p.s. more time to shop would have ben helpful as the tour ended when shops closed
Gina Maria and Jim from Granada Hills, Ca 5/08 |
|
Great, broad orientation to the neighbrhood |
| |
Fri, May 16 3:00 PM |
kersteina |
Female |
30-39 |
Local |
Group of Friends |
| |
Six friends and family recently joined me on a tour of the North End. Our tour group was a total of 12 people. Our guide, Jim, was very personable and knowledgable about the history and evolution of the North End neighborhood,. His background information really set the stage for our exploration of the area. I found the tour enjoyable and the introduction to the specialty shops quite fun. I am a a foodie so I found that a lot of the product-specific information that was presented on the tour (the difference between extra virgin olive oil and other olive oil types, the difference between true balsamic vinegar and what one sees in the supermarkets, etc.) was familiar- so I was suprised when so many other people on the tour had never heard this information. I'm sure that the tour was more eye opening for them. It would be great if there was another similar tour for foodie types like me where we would have the opportunity to really explore the unusual offerings of the neighborhood knowing that we already had a fairly substantial foundational understanding of the basics of italian regional cuisine.
I also enjoyed some of the nibbles that we were offered on the tour, but would like to offer the comment that a product tasting is much more valuable when you have the opportunity to taste an array of similar products side-by-side. Again, for those on the tour who had never tasked extra virgin olive oil, tasting one variety was likely a highly memorable experience. However, since we spent significant time discussing the variable characteristics of, for example, the oils pressed from different types of olives at different states, it would have been more interesting to be able to taste several oils in order to really taste and consider their characteristic differences. The same goes for cheese, and for the wide array of apertifs and digestifs described but not sampled along the way.
My last comment is that I found the liquor shop that we visited to be a treasure trove, but I would be disinclined to shop there in the future due to the way that the members of our tour were treated by the shop clerks- who did not seem pleased to have a dozen individuals oriented to their shop by a professional chef! I'm not certain if their comfort level would be raised if one of their own staff were involved in the discussion of their merchandise. Perhaps in the future the liquor could be discussed in one of the neighborhood bars, and the wine shop could be pointed out as a source if people wanted to purchase something after the tour. |
