The term āgastronomicā used is not the right one. I'm French, I know gastronomy and that's not it. It is important to clarify this. Gastronomy refers to high-end cuisine.
The guide will take you to fast food restaurants. To enjoy pizza, tacos, nuggets and pastriesā¦
In short, food that we all know and to which we all have easy access.
No need for a guide for this. Just take a tour to explore a neighborhood, then stop along the way using Google Maps or TripAdvisor to see reviews of a restaurant to see if it's good.
In any case, it is a visit that I do not recommend to the French, and more generally to Europeans, you will not discover anything special. Also, if you do not speak English, fluently, do not take the tour as the guide will only speak in English.
It's really abusive to do an activity worth $45 and have to pay every time you go to one of the establishments. This is typically what we call a ātourist trapā.
Fortunately, it's cheaper with the pass...
But regardless, it's still nice to meet other people. And this is actually the only positive point of the visit.
But hey, no need for a guide and paying $45 to meet other tourists!!
(PS: sending eight endless emails, after booking, to explain the same thing except for a few details, it's really excessive. Just because we're tourists doesn't mean we're idiots. And that's yet the feeling that you give us).
Response from Host
Dec 2023
Veuillez noter que nous utilisons la traduction assistƩe par ordinateur.
Nous sommes dĆ©solĆ©s que la visite nāait pas Ć©tĆ© pour cet invitĆ©, mais malheureusement, les choses Ć©crites Ć©taient soit fausses, soit nāavaient aucun contexte. Le mot gastronomique nāapparaĆ®t pas sur notre site. Nous ne sommes pas et ne prĆ©tendons pas ĆŖtre une visite gastronomique. Notre visite est un petit avant-goĆ»t de la visite de New York. Lāimpression qui se dĆ©gage est que cāest ce que nous avons promis. Nous ne lāavons pas fait. Les diffĆ©rences entre nous et un circuit standard sont notĆ©es partout sur notre site Web et dans les critiques. Quelquāun peut faire toutes les recherches quāil veut, mais la plupart des gens qui viennent ici et beaucoup de ceux qui font le tour viennent dāEurope et nos critiques sont Ć environ 95% trĆØs bonnes et excellentes sur 14 ans, car nous les aidons Ć trouver des endroits oĆ¹ la plupart des voyageurs nāont pas le temps ou le contexte de faire des recherches sur la nourriture ou oĆ¹ elle se trouve. Et nous allons dans des endroits locaux. Ce nāest pas de la restauration rapide.
Nous ne vous avons jamais non plus promis une visite en autre chose quāen anglais. Vous avez Ć©galement totalement dĆ©formĆ© les options de billetterie. Vous avez choisi de rĆ©server auprĆØs dāun fournisseur externe et nous vous informons que nous ne contrĆ“lons pas ce que les fournisseurs externes proposent. Si vous aviez rĆ©servĆ© par notre intermĆ©diaire, vous auriez pu commander un billet avec ou sans nourriture incluse, mais le contexte que vous avez laissĆ© de cĆ“tĆ© est que si vous aviez fait une visite gastronomique standard, vous nāauriez eu AUCUN choix et si vous nāaimiez pas ce quāils vous ont donnĆ©, ce serait en fait pire. Au moins, chez nous, vous choisissez votre nourriture. Pourquoi nous blĆ¢mez-vous parce que vous avez choisi dāutiliser ce fournisseur et son option ?
Vous nāavez pas non plus dit aux gens que vous aviez rĆ©servĆ© un jour avant, de sorte que tous les e-mails que vous avez reƧus ont dĆ» ĆŖtre regroupĆ©s. Votre utilisation du mot idiot est ridicule. Au fil des ans, des centaines de personnes nous ont dit Ć quel point elles Ć©taient reconnaissantes que nos e-mails soient complets, en particulier pour les points de rencontre et les transits. Et vous rendez-vous compte que parce que vous avez fait appel Ć un fournisseur externe, nous devons envoyer des e-mails supplĆ©mentaires afin quāil nāy ait pas de malentendus sur la faƧon dont ils fonctionnent. Nous ne savons pas non plus pourquoi vous nāavez jamais mentionnĆ© les recommandations de restaurants qui sont une grande partie de ce que nous faisons et qui ont aidĆ© des dizaines de milliers de nos clients au fil des ans et leur ont Ć©galement permis dāĆ©conomiser des tonnes dāargent.
Il y a une raison pour laquelle nos critiques sont si positives. Si vous nāavez pas aimĆ© la nourriture, nous ne pouvons pas changer cela, mais en ce qui concerne les attentes, nous disons aux gens exactement ce que nous faisons pour Ć©viter cela. Merci dāavoir fait la visite.
Please note: We use computer translation.
We are sorry the tour wasn't for this guest but unfortunately the things written about were either untrue or had no context. The word gastronomic does not appear on our website. We are not and do not claim to be a gastronomic tour. Our tour is a smaller item taste of NY tour. The impression given is that that is what we promised. We did not. The differences between us and a standard tour are noted all over our website and in reviews. Someone can do all the research they want but most people who come here and many who take the tour are from Europe and our reviews are about 95% very good and excellent over 14 years because we help them find places most travelers don't have the time or context to research food or where it is. And we go to local places. It is not fast food.
Nor did we ever promise you a tour in anything but English. You also totally misrepresented the ticketing options. You chose to book with an outside vendor and we let you know that we do not control what outside vendors offer. If you had booked through us you could have ordered a ticket with or without food included but the context you left out is that if you had taken a standard food tour you would have had ZERO choice and if you didn't like what they gave you it would actually be worse. At least with us you chose your food.
Why are you blaming us because you chose to use that vendor and its option?
You also did not tell people that you booked only one day before so all the e-mails you received had to be bunched up. Your use of the word idiot is ridiculous. Hundreds of people over the years have told us how grateful they are that our e-mails are thorough especially for meeting point and transit. And do you realize that because you used an outside vendor we have to send extra e-mails so there is no misunderstandings on how they work. We are also not sure why you never mentioned the restaurant recommendations which are a big part of what we do and has helped tens of thousands of our guests over the years and saved them tons of money too.
There is a reason our reviews are so positive. If you didnāt like the food we canāt change that but as far as expectations we tell people exactly what we do to avoid this. Thank you for taking the tour.