I went to Seattle to visit some friends for a few days in June. As I was doing my search for what to do in Seattle, I saw four companies doing “Food Tours” on Google. I couldn’t tell the differences from their websites but since I could only fit two food tours into my schedule, I did the Seattle Food Tours at Belltown & Pike Place Market, and the Savor Seattle Food Tours at Pike Place Market. These two tours are about 2 to 2.5 hours, around $40, and each group has about 16 people, but the style or the places they visit are very different. Let me share my subjective experience with you.
The first one was the Seattle Food Tours. The founder Bronwyn has lived in Seattle for 40 years and has been doing Food Tour for many years. We first meet at a bakery, and given out bags which have bottle of water, Hand Clean Wipe, and a list of Restaurants. The tour starts with a history of the bakery and taste of their signature bread. Basically, there are 40 restaurants featured on the list, but I think she mentioned or introduced half of them, and we tasted 7 total. What I like about this tour is that she showed some old photos of the Belltown and told us about the history behind it so while we are enjoying the walk and the street view, we also get better ideas of the place. The food portions are also very good – a good size of bread, half cup of Chowder, a cup of salmon, a mini burger, a cup of hand-crafted coffee, a whole piece of flavored chocolate, and a Tom Douglas coconut cream pie. I am pretty sure no one needs to have a lunch by the end of the tour. However, I wish the list would have more details other than just the name of the restaurant, the address, the phone number, and type of food -- such as the websites, the store hour and an intro of the restaurants we tasted, a list of the participant of the restaurants or the event website for the 30 to 30 event that was going on from April to November, etc.
The second one was the Savor Seattle Food Tours. The founder, Angela, loves food and was immersed in her family’s restaurant which is the reason for her to start a food tour. We first meet at a coffee shop near the Market entry, and given out a bottle of water, audio equipment, a tour list of merchants and dining guide, seasonal recipes, and at the end of the tour they give everyone a "Repeat Visitor" 10% off discount card (valid within 10 days after the tour). All totaled we visited 9 stores, claim to have 26 tastes but many of them are one-bite-portions which was fine with me. For the places we were visiting, the audio works great because the Pike Place Market is always crowed. Our guide is very knowledgeable about Pike Place Market. She told us about the history, the development, the reasons why there are not many Japanese farmers/vendors, why the floor tiles have different numbers or names on it, how do indentify the sexes of eggplant, etc. It was interesting. I felt the founder Angela has big vision as an entrepreneur because she not only trains other people to become a guide so they could have more groups per day and future expansion, but also created a line of side products such as pink umbrellas, t-shirts, hats, and aprons with their logo on it. Their website is nicely done with a 90 seconds video clip to show readers about the tours, and you can tell they put thought into the tour list that contain many useful information. In the end of June, they are starting to offer two new tours – Belltown, Pioneer Square & Chinatown.
If you have time, I strongly encourage you to attend both tours because they are different and you can taste 14 different restaurants and vendors. If you did plan to take both tours, I will recommend you take the Savor Seattle Food Tours first because then you can use the "Repeat Visitor" 10% off discount card afterward.
There are other companies offer food tours as well but I didn’t get chance to try myself. One is Taste Pike Place Market, and the other one is Gray Line’s Flavor of Seattle Culinary Arts Tour, and Diane's Market Kitchen Pike Place Market Tour and Tasting (9:30/4:00). If you have attended any one of Seattle Food Tours, I would love to have you to share your experiences with us
Also, I would like to recommend a book called “eat. shop seattle” written by Kaie Welman. It’s about 6 by 6 inch big, insides has maps, color pictures, information’s for 38 food places, and 52 cool shops.
For more pictures from my tours, please click on My Flickr.
