A Manhattan Food Walking Tour

A Manhattan Food Walking Tour

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When I was on my (early) birthday trip with my friends in New York City we went on a food walking tour in Manhattan. I’m convinced food walking tours are one of the best ways to see the city. Not only are you walking, getting a close-up view of different neighbourhoods, but you also get to eat. What’s better than eating?

On our food walking tour, my friends and I visited Chinatown, Little Italy, and the Lower East Side in Manhattan. Here’s where we went and what we ate.

Mott Street in Manhattan. The narrow street and the curve kind of made it feel like we were on a movie set.

The tour was about 2 hours, and we were warned to bring our walking shoes because we did a lot of walking. There was a good combination of food we got to try from a variety of different restaurants. We tried some Chinese dumplings, beef scallion pancakes, cannoli, a pastrami sandwich, a knish, and a fresh matzoh cracker. One of the things I enjoyed about this tour was that the food samples were included in the tour price. We also stopped at a seafood market, a candy store, and a store that sells homemade pickles. At these places, we had the option to purchase more food, but there was enough to eat on the tour that this wasn’t necessary.

Little Italy in Manhattan.

The food portions we got weren’t huge, but we all had a bit of everything. I didn’t leave stuffed and wanting to die, but I wasn’t starving after either. The beef scallion pancakes were my favourite, but I also loved the little cannoli we got, and the pastrami sandwich from Katz’s was delicious too. The matzoh cracker was my least favourite thing, but I’ve had matzoh crackers before, and they’re pretty bland. It was neat that we got to try a fresh-made (and super hot) matzoh cracker though. It made me realize that the matzoh crackers I’d tried before (ones my mom had bought from a local grocery store at home) had likely been stale and had sat on the shelf a little too long. Fresh is best.

Russ and Daughters. One of the stops on our food walking tour.

Our tour guide was a local New York, who’d grown up in Manhattan and lived in the city for most of his life. He had stories to share about being a cab driver back in the ’70s when NYC was much more dangerous than it is now. He also had a lot of great restaurant recommendations, which sadly we weren’t able to check out because of lack of time (but it’s just an incentive to go back). We learned a few interesting things like were Martin Scorsese buys his cheese, and that the population of Chinatown in Manhattan is continuing to grow (and subsequently there’s only about a block of Little Italy that actually looks Italian).

The Lower East Side of Manhattan.

While I suffered a bit of heatstroke and got a sunburn (through my own stupidity of not drinking water or wearing sunscreen – even during April you should wear sunscreen) the tour itself was grand. I got to eat a little food. I learned a little and did a little walking. This tour was an enjoyable way to spend a few hours in New York with my friends.


Things To Know
My friends and I booked the Chinatown, Little Italy and Lower East Side food walking tour with For Your Brain and Belly, which is no longer available. My friends and I were the only four people who booked this particular tour on the day we went, which resulted in getting a private tour. Normally this wouldn’t happen on a tour unless you book a private tour; we just lucked out.
While in New York City we stayed at the St Giles Hotel, a nice mid-range hotel and only a couple of blocks from Grand Central Station. Of course, there is no shortage of accommodation in New York City you can book here.


Where would you want to go on a food walking tour?

10 thoughts on “A Manhattan Food Walking Tour”

  1. Ohhh…

    I haven’t been to the US yet.. But New York pizza, the big ones you see in the movies.. I live for the day that I try one of those. Oh man..

  2. Yes, it was a lucky fluke that it worked out we had a private tour. Either way the food tour was a delicious and fun way to learn about New York.

  3. Oh I do hope so. There’s nothing like it in Australia. We do have some great pizzas, but not like the ones I’ve seen in the pictures and TV ! D:

  4. I actually didn’t even eat any New York pizza on this trip. There are so many different foods available it’s hard to try them all. Hope you’re able to come to New York one day to have a slice of pizza. Thanks for the comment.

  5. I know they have two tours including the Chinatown/Lower Eastside tour I did, and one in Brooklyn, but they also do private tours. You can always contact them to find out if they can do a vegan tour (there’s certainly a good number of vegan restaurants in New York, so I’m sure it would be possible).

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