A delicious foodie jaunt through these two neighboring districts where any gourmand would be ecstatic to spend a few hours. Join us on the best and most authentic food tours of San Francisco, to two of the most iconic and best fed neighborhoods imaginable: Chinatown and North Beach. As you learn about the area's history and unique cultures you will sample the best foods that either neighborhood has to offer.
In Chinatown you will be deilighted by the bustling Dim Sum houses, the small cafes, and tea shops. In addition to these usual stops, we take you to the fortune cookie factory, and to off-the-beaten-path eateries, some where no English is spoken and some that don't even have a sign denoting their existence, you have to know that they are there. Luckily for you, we are in the know, as your guides are quite familiar with these areas, where they either were born and raised, or where they have spent so much time, the locals think of them as locals.
You can enter an alley in Chinatown and the signs are in Chinese, and you exit in North Beach next to a bar that Jack Kerouac frequented. Skirting the Barbary Coast, we proceed to the cafes, pizzerias, espresso houses, bakeries, and saloons of North Beach.
This portion of the food tour is mostly all about Italian cuisine as this is San Francisco's Little Italy. The locals are serious about their food, there is even a world-renowned pizza school that is possible stop for this culinary tour. Along the way you will experience Italian spoken as much as English, live small opera performed in cafes, the aroma of bread being baked, candy being made, coffee roasting, fans cheering at soccer games, milk steaming for espresso, and the wild parrots of Telegraph Hill flying over head.
I've lived in The Mission District since 1981 and love to show off the neighborhood and this wonderful city whenever I get the chance. Having worked in the restaurant industry for 20+ years, I consider myself an avid foodie. 3 years ago, I was working at a Union Square hotel, and soon I began to notice that visitors to this magical city of ours would be herded onto a ridiculous bus tour one day, then the next day would take the cable car to fisherman's wharf and Pier 39 and think that they had seen San Francisco. Then one day a customer asked me what there was to do in San Francisco after Fisherman"s Wharf, later the same day, I was asked by another hotel guest, if the reason that everyone in SF was so fit looking because there were not enough Dunkin' Donuts to be found, and btw- would I show them the way to Bubba Gumps for some good food. My friends and I decided to start a tour company that day. We started Explore SF to show our guests the same San Francisco experience that we would share with our own family and friends. We pride ourselves on giving the best and most authentic tours that can be found. We now have the best walking tours, running tours, food tours, drinking tours, and progressive dinner tours Full profile ⋅ Leave a Review
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