Michele Topor, Inc.

This tour made our trip to Boston.

enter the shops and markets where you would shop if you could. learn what to buy where. limited samples of pastry to cheeses. the information given was a bit drawn out and w/out samples of each food. restaurant info was not given which was explained but as a tourist was missed. in all the tour was enjoyed but we ducked out to run to get lunch b/c we were left hungry. Not given any advise on where to eat we ended up with a very bad meal.

Toured with Jim and loved every minute. Learned lots of new and interesting information about my favorite cuisine -Italian. Loved finding some great places off the beaten path. Jim really knows his stuff and had some great insights and recomendations for food shopping and cooking. Of course the tasting part was fun too. Gives you some good ideas about what you might like to go back and buy later. "Food for thought" if you are just in for the day -many of the stores close at 6:00pm so if you do the 3:00 tour you may not have time to get back to everywhere you want. Tried a recommended restaurant for dinner that makes fresh pasta Monica's Tratorria which was delicious.

A group of friends got together and did the tour as a going away party for me. I am moving out of state. We all had a great time and even though we live in the area we learned so much about the North End we didn't know. The tour was informative, entertaining and best of all delicious. The samplings were terrific and if I wasn't moving I would have certainly stocked up on many of the items. Our tour guide gave us a suggestion for dinner (there were 7 of us). It was a perfect place and we even got a complimentary dessert when we said we had been on the tour. I would go again in a heart beat.

This tour more than lived up to my expectations. Our tour guide Jim was extremely knowledgeable, funny, and courteous. The tour was perfectly paced and took into account the extreme heat! We were given informative hand outs. At the end of the tour, Jim recommeded a great restaurant for lunch. I am looking forward to attending the Asian markets tour that Jim leads in the fall. I would also take this tour again. Thank you!

It was extremely hot that Sat. Our guide, Beth, was very accomomdating to the heat factor. We were fascinated by all that we learned. Beth was very comfortable with her knowledge and shared it with ease. The 4 of us tried all kinds of things of new things. The shops were tiny and authentic, each with their own specialty. It was a great new adventure. We'll try the China Town Tour next year. Big thanks to Beth- she was terrific!

The variety of shops visited was great. The shop owners as well as the guide were friendly and informative. We went back the next day to several of the shops and got all the delicious ingredients required for a delightful picnic in the Boston Commons.

Enjoyed the tour. The tour guide was knowledgable and interested.

I would recommend it.

asd

I think Jim Becker does a terrific job. i went into this tour with a bit of trepidation. I love the North End tour and was not particularly enthusiastic about Chinatown (I got it for a friend of mine for Christmas - we did the North End tour last year). Jim hooked me from the start with his history of the Chinese in America, the Exclusion Acts, etc. He was extremely knowledgeable about the culture, history of Boston's Chinatown, types of foods, how to cook them and if they have some meaning (yin/yang, historical, celebratory and the like). By the time we finished the dim sum lunch we were stuffed! The herbalist visit was very interesting (in fact we went back after the tour and made a couple of purchases). All in all, it was a wonderful way to spend the morning and I would highly recommend the tour. Colleen Cannon

I had attended a couple of similarly described tours in New York (for less money) and was hoping for a similar experience. The Greenwich Village food and culture tour leaves you stuffed to the gills with some of the most amazing foods you've ever sampled; the North End Market Tour gives you tiny tastes of what you could go back and buy when you're done. Though I was grateful for the guide's extensive culinary knowledge and a little bit of background on the North End, I felt the tour could have been more animated, more interactive, more about eating and sharing more lore about the nooks and crannies. The guide claimed that this tour was far more informative about the area's history than the Greenwich Village tours (which he admitted he hadn't taken), but I disagree--I learned a ton about the history of the Village, Chelsea and New York City generally. Still, I would say this tour was a nice orientation of the North End and the handouts will come in handy someday, and I can't wait to return to try some of the suggested restaurants.

My wife and I enjoyed the North End Market tour last Friday and had an excellent time. We visited many of the hidden gems of Boston's North End including several small groceries, a cheese shop, a wine shop and a bakery. Each spot provided a unique sample of its products. Great information and unique stories and we went back to visit several of the shops after the tour. We highly recommend this tour as unique look into both historic and present day Boston.

My husband and I would highly recommend Michele Topor's North End Market Tour. Our tour guide, Jim, was fantastic. He knew the history of the North End and he really knows his food and wine. We learned so much about Italian food and the North End. I loved it and plan to give this as a gift to our children who love cooking.

This was an interesting tour of the North End but did not have nearly as much food tasting as a comparable food tour I took in NYC. Granted it focuses on only one type of cuisine, Italian, but you would think this might include pasta or pizza, which it did not. There was interesting history of the North End and information about Italian cooking but I did not enjoy it nearly as much as the food tour I took of Greenwich Village.