Wok Wiz Daily Tour

When we arrived at the tour origination point, my wife, daughter and I were so surprised that Shirley knew our names. She said that she learns names ahead of time and recognized us as the only group of three. Hank, our tourguide, made us feel as though we were friends that he hadn't seen in a long time. His tour of Chinatown was knowledgable and enthusiastic. Walking by the open air markets and seeing all the women shopping for fresh vegetables and poultry for that night's dinner was a culture shock--no prepackaged foods. My wife's favorite stop was the tea shop where we got to sample white and green teas and bought some to take home. My favorite stop was the fortune cookie "factory." It's not really a factory--the cookies are folded by hand! The final stop was my daughter's favorite, a seven course Chinese luncheon. We joined up with Shirley's group and got to sit at a large table with other tourists from Germany and Russia. The food was outstanding and no one left the table hungry. The Wok Wiz Tour was the highlight of our week in San Francisco.

Our guide was a very personable, fountain of facts and stories. We enjoyed the tour and the lunch was delicious.

This tour was worth taking - it takes you around historic Chinatown and the tour guide really knew her stuff. Where the problem lay for me was that I had taken the tour some years previously with another tour guide from the same company. In the previous tour, the customers of the tour were, in addition to the walking and interesting history commentary, taken into various Chinatown businesses and got to taste Chinese tea, watch a traditional Chinese ink painting being made and watch fortune cookies being made. The tour ends up in a Chinese restaurant where you get to taste authentic dim sum (Chinese dumplings). Well, again, the tour years ago was like that. The lunch now seems really dumbed down - the food was more geared towards the usual Chinese-American food with more of a taste of dim sum. That said, the tour is very interesting and I do recommend it unless you want to see inside the local businesses. There is an option to take the tour without lunch, which I would recommend unless you are not familiar with dim sum, in which case it might be worthwhile going for the lunch option.

I loved the tour. My boyfriend and I had so much fun learning about the different culture and traditions of our guide Alberta. We loved just walking through the streets of Chinatown and did some more walking after lunch had concluded. The lunch was great as well. I tried some Chinese foods that I probably wouldn't not have tried on my own. I would definitely recommend this tour to anyone and would love to come back and do it again!! Thanks for the wonderful experience.

We especially enjoyed the personal stories relayed by our guide. I never would have entered a Buddhist temple on my own; I'm glad this was included in the tour, and I appreciated the explanation of the artifacts and the rites. Our delicious Dim Sum lunch was much more than we expected!

Overall was interesting, and a great introduction for people who never eat non-American food etc. It was amusing watching my tablemates struggle with chopsticks. I am a local, caucasian but very used to and really like Asian food and culture - I would have liked something geared more towards people like me - more fast-paced, more history, smaller group. I'll probably take some cooking classes next though to try to get this kind of experience.

Dorothy Quock was excellent. Her presentation of the historical and diverse cultural building of not only Chinatown but also San Francsco was very informative. And, she was not only informative but entertaining as well. Stories from her childhood added a very humanistic feel to the story of Chinatown and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute. I was sceptical about the lunch because it was part of a "tour." I found it to be amazing. The food was fresh, delicious, and probably one of the best Chinese meals that I have had the honor of being a part of. I not only would recommend this tour, but I would do it again.

Brief overview of Chinatown. We enjoyed the history specific to Chinatown, but didn't really need an overview of feng shui or architecture in general as most people already know it. Too crowded to actually enter fortune cookie factory which might have been interesting (16 people on tour not including guide). Tea shop was nice, there was a temple where they blessed little charms for us and the lunch was good.

Dorothy did an excellent job as our tour guide on our Wok wiz tour.My husband I thoroughly enjoyed it, got to see parts of Chinatown and received history we would have never seen nor heard without this tour! Thanks.Carol

Highly recommended