Wok Wiz Daily Tour

Our guide, Lola, was a delight! We learned about the history of Chinatown, its people, culture and traditions. She grew up in Chinatown, so her insights were an added bonus that you can't get in a guidebook. She brought along many personal objects that gave a hands-on reality to the tour (her grandfather's old Chinatown phone book, her wedding invitation, Chinese herbals, etc). In addition to the staple attractions that you automatically think of, we were able to see & experience more "real life" by going to the crowded sidewalks of the local market, alleys where behind closed doors there were mahjong games and sewing factories, a personalized instruction & tasting at a tea shop, a wall that had been reconstructed with bricks salvaged from the earthquake rubble, and the list goes on. Don't miss the opportunity to enjoy the Dim Sum lunch at the end of the tour. We are to our hearts content with course after course of delicious food (spring rolls, shrimp balls, bbq pork buns, rice noodles, custard dessert, etc).

I would highly recommend the Wok Wiz Tour. It was a great way to explore and learn about Chinatown. The lunch was very good.

This tour would be very worthwhile for people who have not really been exposed to a lot of Chinese culture before. That being said, there was also lots of good information specifically tailored about the San Francisco Chinatown which could be of interest to many more people.

Our tour of Chinatown was interesting. I went a few years ago and liked the guide then better. He told us a more about the architecture and people. When we stopped at a grocer, he told us about some of the vegetables that we might not be familiar with and how the Chinese used them. We saw the live chickens, fish, frogs. I loved sharing with my family the story of how some ofthe people would take live chickens home in brown grocery bags and butcher them at home. FRESH chicken! He told us about some of the superstitions of the chinese- from the architecture to the mirrors hung on the buildings to keep the good luck in. This time, I enjoyed visiting the fortune cookie store and the tea shop. Our guide was ok. though a big disorganized.

Think of how much you could possibly fit into a two hour tour! Our exhuberant guide Alberta led us on brief visits to about a dozen places of interest in Chinatown, some visits longer than others - the tea shop was the most informative visit with a tea tasting and a thoughtful explanation of the origin of fine Chinese tea - in contrast, we barely had time to set our foot into the herb shop and the art shop. We enjoyed our dim sum meal - Alberta jumping between the two tables to make sure we were comfortable, well-fed and well-informed. I brought 11 and 12 year old girls and it was just about the perfect pace and level of information for them. For me, I left with a better idea of the layout of Chinatown and great new ideas for places to show visiting friends in the future - this is just barely enough time to crack the surface, and it left me with curiosity to learn much more about the history and culture of Chinatown.

The tour was a fun way to get out on a beautiful, sunny day in San Francisco. The highlight for me was definitely the tea tasting at the lovely little tea shop, Alice (the tea purveyor) was enthusiastic, knowledgable, and adorable. Overall the tour was fine and lunch was pleasant with plenty of food, but it occasionally felt as though our guide was "winging it." All in all though we were glad we went.

The guide was unfriendly and did not give attention to the group; at times we did not feel comfortable nor safe. The tour was up and down hills (though described as "no hills"). She often loudly demanded that we get against the wall. The tour did not emphasize much about foods. Lunch was mediocre and totally not worth the price. I would not recommend this tour at all.

Took my visiting cousin from Virginia and we both really enjoyed the tour. Our guide took us to an art exhibit at the Hilton (as good as the DeYoung), fortune cookie factory, down alleys to look at interesting architecture, a temple and local shops, and a very, very informative and fun sampling of tea at a Japanese Tea Shop. Skip the Japanese Tea Garden, go on this tour and learn more and enjoy good tea!

Informative and interesting. Lunch wasn't amazing, but was good enough. Didn't appreciate the owner showing up at the end to hawk her new book.

My husband & I went on this tour on our recent visit to San Francisco. Our guide was very informative, we learned history of China Town, visited sites we would never found on our own, and came away glad we took the time for the tour. We went back to Chinatown after the tour and revisited some of the places on the tour. This is probably not a good tour if you don't enjoy walking or have difficulty walking long distances. The walking is pretty fast pace at times in order to see all of the sites. Bring good walking shoes. I highly recommend this tour to anyone of any age.