Chicago Food and Culture Walking Tour
Description
Start your immersive walking tour at a Chicago icon: the Centennial Fountain at River Esplanade Park. From here, your guide will take you on a culinary and cultural adventure. Our first stop is the famous Billy Goat Tavern, where we recommend trying their signature "cheezborger." Next, we'll visit Pizzeria Uno, birthplace of Chicago’s legendary deep-dish pies. Then see where locals go for their hot beef fix: Al’s Beef, a favorite since 1938. Along the way, you’ll hear about the friendly rivalry with New York's pizza scene, Chicago's meatpacking roots, 1920s speakeasies, gangsters, and more. We recommend you bring around $30 for optional food purchases throughout the tour. Your guide will have tips on what to try at each stop. Our tour ends with a sweet finish at Firecakes, serving up doughnuts made from a secret recipe dating to the 1930s. It’s a sweet finish to our fabulous Chicago food tour!
Tour Options
Itinerary
Admire the beauty of this scenic riverside park as you learn about its history and famous fountain.
This old-school Chicago joint is known for its excellent meat, but it’s also been featured on Saturday Night Live.
Coined as the original inventor of deep dish, this storefront has served deep dish since 1943.
Mr. Beef draws tourists, but locals know Al’s Beef nearby can satisfy their hot beef cravings and serve up food fast. Try a sandwich at this local favorite and see if you agree with their claim to being Chicago’s No. 1 Italian beef since 1938. It’s that good.
A roster of artisanal donuts and coffee drinks is available at this quaint, counter-serve spot. This small location is the first storefront and dates back to the early 20th century.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- Your ticket covers the walking tour portion of this experience. We recommend bringing about $30 for food, but it's up to you if you want to purchase what your guide suggests at each stop.
- This tour is great for families. Pizzeria Uno and The Green Door Tavern also offer kids menus.
- This tour isn’t accessible for wheelchairs. However, guests can bring collapsible strollers that can be carried when we take stairs.
- This tour covers about a mile and a half at a leisurely pace.
- Note that some venues may change their opening hours, and may not be open on all tour departure dates - in these scenarios, our expert guides will ensure a great alternative is provided
- Some venues may have queues during busy seasons, so please expect a wait for food at some venues.
Reviews(17)
Interesting stories along the tour. Highlighted foods Chicago known for - could have allowed for a little longer at the food stops.
Thank you for your feedback! We’re so glad you enjoyed the stories shared along the tour and the chance to experience some of Chicago’s most iconic foods. We appreciate your suggestion about allowing more time at the food stops. This is valuable insight, and we’ll certainly take it into consideration as we continue to improve the experience. We hope to welcome you back again for another tour soon!
Brydson gave me very good food advice. I was allowed to explain a lot about the history of food in chicago. I recommend
Bryson was knowledgeable and friendly! We all agreed that the tour was a perfect mix of the food Chicago has to offer. It was just the three of us so we were able to hit the spots in a perfect amount of time. We would highly recommend this! Thank you!
Thank you so much for your kind words! We're thrilled you enjoyed the tour and that Bryson made it such a fun and flavorful experience. We’ll be sure to pass your compliments along to him!
I love this tour my guide lark was amazing ! I visited from Mexico and the explication was awesome ! I think that this is a great way to know Chicago
Thank you so much for joining us and for your lovely words! We're so glad you enjoyed discovering Chicago with Lark. Hope you had a wonderful visit from Mexico!
Enjoyed the tour! Very interesting and great food! I learned a lot of information I didn't realize about different places in Chicago
Nice tour. Make sure you have your walking shoes because there’s a lot of walking but worth it. Our tour guide was very informative with Chicago history. The food stops were of good food and inexpensive. Only downfall was not being able to taste deep dish pizza but we did get a coupon for later. Overall good experience.
Lark was amazing!! Very knowledgeable and shared all the good food places!! I have been to Chicago before but had never done a tour like this one and it eas great!! Highly recommend!
Thank you for the wonderful feedback, Michelle! We're so glad you had a great time with Lark—she really knows her stuff (and where to find the best food!). It’s awesome to hear that even as a returning visitor, the tour offered something new. We appreciate the recommendation!
We enjoyed our walking food tour with Ben!!! We also had him as our guide on the architecture walking tour and he was also amazing.
Thank you so much, Wendalp! We're delighted to hear you enjoyed both tours with Ben—he’s a fantastic guide, and we’re lucky to have him. Hope to see you again on another adventure soon!
They should call this a "History of Food" tour. We were 90 minutes into a 2 hour tour before we stopped and actually had the option to get any food. After that we made 2 stops where we were told about food and given a history of food and even an Al Capone story (unrelated to food), but didn't have the opportunity to try anything. We were instead given coupons to come back another time. At the 4th stop, we could get more food, but by then we were over it so we left the tour and didn't bother going to the last stop. The tour guide himself was fine, so this is not a knock on him. But the "food" part was a disappointment. Other food tours make arrangements with the various restaurants to facilitate the stops and provide food/drinks etc. There was none of that here.
Hi Nadine, Thanks for reaching out. We appreciate your feedback and will definitely take what you said under consideration. We always strive for the best possible experience for our guests. Thank you!
Ben did a great job, the tour was interesting and informative, a little disappointed that the food on a food tour was an extra! That said I would still recommend.
