| Rating |
Date Attended [v] |
Reviewer |
Gender |
Age |
Where From? |
Group Type? |
|
Great tour and fantastic guide
|
| Sat, Sep 13, 08 10:00 AM |
Apung1 |
Female |
40-49 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Family Without Children |
| We each loved the tour guide and her personal experiences in ChinaTown that she was able to incorporate into our tour. The walk was the best way to see the sights, sounds and smells. It was great and we would definitely recommend the tour to others as it had been recommended to us.
Thank you for a great day in ChinaTown. |
|
Overall a very good experience
|
| Fri, Sep 12, 08 10:00 AM |
pamleahy |
Female |
50-59 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Couple on a Date |
| The 2 hi-lights of the tour was were our visit to the tea shop and Shirley's cooking demonstration. The owner of the tea shop was very knowlegeable and gave an excellent presentation and sampling of tea. The cooking demo and tasting with Shirley was a bonus for our group and we really enjoyed the food she prepared. Our guide was very knowledgeable and personable and I'm sorry I can't recall her name (Almost a month has passed since our tour.) Less enjoyable was the walk through the tiny fortune cookie "factory." It is interesting to see the women making the cookies, but the owner is very rude and gives the impression this is a big bother for him. He does it only to sell cookies. I also think a more interesting herb shop must exist in SF China Town and it would be helpful to have someone who could speak to the group about Chinese herbs, in a style such as the tea shop presentation. We had mixed feelings about the "meat and fish market as I'm sure others do as well. |
|
|
Delightful and informative
|
| Fri, Sep 12, 08 10:00 AM |
lindae |
Female |
60-69 |
Local |
Other |
| Our guide, Alberta, was charming and Shirley Fong-Torres popped in and out to make us feel special. Absolutely recommend the tour for locals and out of towners |
|
|
Different Life Styles - They are Not assimilating
|
| Fri, Sep 12, 08 10:00 AM |
patrick53 |
Male |
50-59 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Family Without Children |
| Interesting tour, it's like stepping into a Chinese town overseas. It is a warts-and-all view of a segment of society many people do not know exists in this country. I had the distinct feeling that the people in Chinatown have no desire to adopt any of the American ways, except to use public transportation and the use of tobacco. All-in-all. we were happy to have gone on the tour, as we had been curious about how Chinatown had been depicted in films. The tour guide was very fiendly and informative, she knew her stuff. Dim sum food was different, well prepared. |
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|
Surprised That I Liked It
|
| Sun, Sep 7, 08 10:00 AM |
ThomasDolan |
Male |
60-69 |
Unspecified |
Unspecified |
| Taking a Wok Wiz tour was my wife's idea. I generally don't care for tours of any kind. But Alberta, our tour guide (who was born and raised in San Francisco's Chinatown), was energetic, informed, and entertaining. She led us to a tea shop where we saw the Chinese way of brewing -- and thinking about -- tea; to a temple in which the celebration of somebody's 23rd birthday happened to be going on (unlike anything I'd ever seen); to an herbalist (Chinese medicine); to a fortune-cookie factory, which was basically a large one-room shop; to a meat market -- live chickens, fish, and frogs; to vegetable stalls (where she told us how things we'll probably never see again are cooked); past a jade store; and down an alley in which Chinatown scenes are often filmed. And she did all this among the Autumn Moon festival's enormous crowds. We finished with a dim sum lunch in a restaurant. This was fun and enlightening in itself, but it also plunked us down among the dozen-or-so other tour members so we got a chance to meet them.
If we ever get back to San Francisco (I used to live there) I might even consider taking the tour again. And if we do, I hope Alberta is our guide. |
|
|
Chinatown delight
|
| Sun, Sep 7, 08 10:00 AM |
sbsmith100 |
Female |
30-39 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Couple on a Date |
| Wonderful and informative tour! Our tour guide Alberta taught us so much about the Chinese culture and way of life for those who frequent San Francisco's Chinatown. We can't wait to do the second WokWiz culinary tour! |
|
|
Fun and interesting, but crowded!!
|
| Sat, Sep 6, 08 10:00 AM |
bindalinda |
Female |
50-59 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Family With Children |
| We had a fun, informative tour with our guide Emily. It was interesting getting an insiders view of Chinatown. But, a festive was going on that day and the streets were more crowded/congested than usual and it was hard to hear our soft-spoken tour guide at times. We especially enjoyed the tea shop, and sampling of the teas. |
|
|
Excellent
|
| Fri, Sep 5, 08 10:00 AM |
Houghland |
Female |
60-69 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Other |
| My husband and I had read about WokWiz in one or more of the guidebooks. I signed up hoping for an insider's view of Chinatown--the culture, food, history, etc. and that is what we got. It was entertaining, educational, and suddenly I felt like I was in a foreign country--and I've been to Chinatown on several other occasions. We learned about customs among families, food preparation, the cooking styles of Chinatown residents, and a bit of history and architecture as well. The luncheon was tasty and the fellow tourists were interesting and pleasant. |
|
Fun but not great
|
| Fri, Sep 5, 08 10:00 AM |
clawson62 |
Female |
40-49 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Family Without Children |
| Our guide had great personality, and we had fun on the tour, but I expected a greater thematic emphasis. We got a smattering of information of the foods we saw at market and a little introduction to some cultural ideas, but no real cohesive or well though out tour. Did love the tea shop experience, and heartily recommend a visit to Red Blossom Tea Company. |
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|
Entertaining & Fun
|
| Fri, Sep 5, 08 10:00 AM |
moemelnyk |
Female |
50-59 |
International Tourist(s) |
Group of Friends |
| This was our second trip to San Francsico (Canadians) and we wanted to see Chinatown. We decided that a walking tour would be a good way to get the history of the area and the people and also see how they live today. We were not disappointed. Alberta was our most excellent tour guide. She is American born Chinese and lived in Chinatown as a child. We loved her stories about the people and the customs of the Chinese and Chinese Americans. She is very personable and genuinely loves what she does. There were only 13 in our group, all adults which also made it a good tour. We saw everything promised on the tour itinerary and ended with Dim Sum. I especially liked the visit to the tea shop. The owners are very knowledgeable. They prepared several different teas for us to sample.
The Dim Sum lunch was well presented and the service was excellent. There was more than enough food for our group.
After the lunch Alberta offered directions if anyone wanted to stay and shop. We went back to the Red Blossom Tea Shop and bought some tea. While walking back to our hotel we saw many tourists trying to find directions from their guide books. I felt like telling them WokWiz would have been a better option. |
