Michele Topor, Inc.

I am absolutley delighted to recommend the North End Market Tour. The content was extremely informative and the tour guide....Beth....was the best!

The guide was very informative and had amusing anecdotes to share. We had a great meal at the dim sum restaurant and the tasters around China Town were fantastic. The timing was flexible so we could spend longer discussing queries as they arose or spend longer in the individual shops. I would recommend this tour to others.

My husband , myself, and our two teenage boys were delighted with our tour of Chinatown. Our guide was very pleasant and informative. He shared history, culture, and highlighted the most interesting aspects of Chinese eating. The places we visited were well chosen. We especially enjoyed the Chinese grocery store. Our "Dim Sum " lunch was an unforgetable experience. For an area that we knew little about and hadn't explored, we now have an insight and appreciation for Chinatown.

Our tour group included family members from age 70 to age 12 and everyone had a great time. We are familiar with the North End and have gone to dinner there many times. On the tour we learned many new facts about the North End and found some great shops and restaurants. This is a wonderful tour for Boston locals as well as tourists.

Beth, our tour guide, was obviously well acquainted with the North End Italian community and its merchants. Her choice of markets, her knowledge of Italian food and cultural details and her rapport with the merchants combined to provide us new appreciation for Italian cooking and an expanded knowledge of the Boston North End community. Handouts Beth provided gave us information about area restaurants and ways of contacting by mail or Internet the markets we visited. Primarily as a result of our tour, we stayed in the North End after the tour to enjoy dinner and returned to the North End the following day to continue our walking tour...and another meal. We would do a similar tour again.

A former North End chef as a tour guide gave real validity to this tour; plus, his knowledge of the history of immigration in Boston and the food culture that came along with it enhanced your understanding of how ingredient preferences developed and changed with immigrant assimilation into America. Then - oh my, the markets and ingredients....

Our guide Jim was superb, knowledgeable willing to learn things from others on the tour. I plan on taking the China Town Tour also that Jim does the tour. Thank You for an awesome tour I learn How Italian I am and how much I'am not, I'am the American/Italian and it's all GOOD. God is Good. Mark (6/25/08 2pm tour)

This tour is a great way to spend the morning with a good friend or others who share the love of good food and wonderful cooking. The tour is informative in various ways. It gives brief historical overviews of the North End and the people who have lived there. It introduces you to the best shops in the area for various cooking needs. It imparts various cooking tips that are practical and informative when shopping and actually cooking. It also clarifies some myths about products often used. The samples are tasty!

This was part of my sister's Bachelorette Party & it was a great activity choice. The tour was fun & very informative & we're all locals. I learned so many new things about the history of an area that I've often eaten & shopped in .Our tour guide Jim was phenomenal.... he kept things light & fun, while still providing us with numerous historical facts, shopping & cooking tips. Not too mention the great new places to shop. The stops on the tour were all friendly & inviting, & the samples they provided were all delicious. I will definitely frequent my new discoveries. I highly recommend this to both locals & tourists, you won't be bored. I'm going to tell everyone I know about this. I can't wait to take more of their tours!

We went on the North End market tour for my friend's bachelorette party-- what a great time. Our guide, Jim, was fantastic-- knowledgeable, nice, interesting. We could not believe how much we learned about the history of the area and about Italian food. The samples given in each store were terrific as well-- especially in the Salumeria. I'm going to give my husband tickets to the tour for his birthday.

I booked this tour as a gift to my mother on Mother's Day. The tour took place on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in June. We had a great time sampling different products at different stores. We also learned a few cooking tips along the way. One of the nice things about this tour is that we learned new facts about the North End that we hadn't known before. For instance we never knew that the North End had been home to a large Jewish population and that at 1 time there had been 5 synagogues in the North End. My grandmother was born and raised in the north End and it was nice to remember her and connect many of our familycooking traditions with the immigrant experience. Both my mother and I will go back and visit many of the stores we had entered on the tour so that we can buy specific products. Our tour guide was very informative and it was a great mother/daughrter afternoon. I would not recommend this tour to people with young children.

Learned about food, history and alcohol.

This tour was fun and informative, a great look at the inside history and culture of Little Italy, of Italian food and of Boston itself. The tour was led by a professional chef with a love and knowledge of Italian cooking and ingredients, and of the neighborhood; we left feeling we had a unique glimpse of the North End. We loved it!

Our guide was punctual, personable and very well informed. All the locations we visited were welcoming and perfect for the theme of the tour. The walking distances were well planned and within everyone's limits. Especially enjoyed the samples that were distributed at each stop. We went back after the tour to several of the shops to purchase some of the items we had sampled. I would definitely recommend the tour, however, I felt that the ticket price was a little more than it should have been. Several of the people in our party wouldn't have been able to attend if the tickets hadn't been a gift.

The entire experience is wonderful. You are given great information about the food and its history, not to mention the fabulous samples of food you eat during the tour. My only suggestion would be that the group be gathered in an area that is not distracting and noisy when the tour begins. There is a lot of great information given at the start of the tour and although the park is very nice, the water and traffic make it difficult to hear everything the guide is saying.