Local Tastes of the City Tours

Excellent tour! I loved the combination of food and history. The guide, Tom, really knew the area and introduced us to local artisans. Not only was the coffee, chocolate, and more was delicious, but I really loved learning how to find great food back home. Pros: Meeting local aritisans and seeing how the food is made more

One of the best tours I ever taken! My wife and I loved the combination of food and history. At each stop the guide got us behind-the-scenes, so we not only tried different foods, but we also learned how everything was made, from coffee, chocolate, breads, and more. The people at each stop were great and we felt like we really got to experience the area. I told all friends to take this tour! Pros: Good combination of food and history more

Tom the tour guide was late, a gaffe that was overlookable. The tour needs to be fine tuned to be better organized. The tour guide shouldn't be calling places on his cell phone to see if it's OK to stop by, that should be done in advance. We were often left alone sitting in some small shop looking at each other while Tom was off doing ""something."" And his ""pay as you go"" with the vendors seemed unpolished and amatuerish. Pros: The foods we tasted were very good Cons: Tour didn't flow well and tour guide needs better speaking skills more

We just took the North Beach tour with Tom at Local Tastes of the City Tours. I loved how the tour combined lots of food tastings (I was stuffed!) and learning how everything was made. We had a great time and I finally found out how to find a great latte, though I could easily camp out at the truffle shop for a couple years and be very happy. Pros: Yummy Food! more

I just took the tour with my wife recently. I was very skeptical, as I have taken food tours in the past and had mixed results. I loved how we tasted incredible cappuccinos, truffles, bread, olive oils, meats, pastries, and more, however I really liked seeing how coffee is roasted, truffles are made, and learning how to find great olive oil and bread. I immediately recommended this to my brother. He came back with rave reviews. Pros: Great Food and Learning How to Find Great Food more

My husband and I went on this tour as we visited SF for our one-year anniversary. I was so excited since we love food and enjoy seeing the ""behind the scenes."" For $60 a person we got a cappuccino, a few pieces of bread, half a maccaroon, half a brioche, a taste of olive oil and deli meats, some truffles, and half a chocolate eclair. Warm tap water was our only other refreshment. The woman tour guide was somewhat knowledgeable of the city, but it seemed memorized and boring. Most of the information could be read from a textbook or city guidebook. Seeing the brick-ovens was cool, but that's all we did. Looked at the ovens. Our guide also seemed like she was filling time at the end by taking us to random locations where there were no tastings of any food, and through Chinatown to see a place where they make fortune cookies, but since we were on on the Little Italy tour, they weren't expecting us, so there was nothing to see. more

My husband and I went on Tom's Local Tastes of the City Tours last weekend. I immediately told my parents about it and they booked their own! We visited places you can't find on your own! Fantastic. Tom was great and he knows his stuff. We had a blast. You can't go wrong with this tour! Thank you again Tom!!!!! Pros: Fantastic variety of food and access to hidden gems! Cons: None. more

Those negative comments are ridiculous. I just took their North Beach tour. One of best tours I ever taken. The guide, Tom, was excellent, lots of fun and took us behind the scenes at a coffee roaster, bakery, chocolate shop, and more. We had everything from cappuccinos, truffles, breads, pastries, olive tastings, meats, pastries, and more. And not only that, we saw how things were made and found out how to find similar food back home. For example, when I learned how coffee is roasted, I understood why the coffee that I tried was so good or when I tasted different olive oils, it made sense how to pair olive oils with different foods. Pros: Great Food and History, Learning How to Find Great Coffee, Breads more

""Let the buyer beware"". Tour goes to some good businesses with good food... but really how hard is good food to find in San Francisco? The tour guide... pitiful. His knowledge of food is straight from the Food Channel. I learned nothing that I had not heard or seen on the food network. The best thing about this tour is that it is over. Pros: Goes to good shops with good food But that's San Fran Cons: Tour was uninspired. more