this was the worst food tour I've ever been on, bar none.
TL;DR: No reservations, Often no seating, got whatever the stores had left, no unique items, middling food quality, but they did walk through interesting areas
We were rescheduled to a different tour than we signed up for two days before the tour, so we ended up doing the north beach tour instead of the mission district tour we signed up for. This could have been fine is the tour was good, but unfortunately it wasn't at all. I'll just list a general summary here:
- Because of super heavy memorial day traffic, our guide missed the timing for the coffee stop and instead waited in line for us and got us a single coffee each.
- For the gelato place, we were told to walk through a very busy walkway to look at the flavors, come out the other side and tell her the orders, instead of them having contacted the business beforehand and knowing some flavors. After this, the guide waited in line and we just awkwardly stood on the sidewalk and talked amongst ourselves. Luckily the gelato was actually delicious!
- For pizza, it was alright. If you've had good pizza then this is nothing too special, though it was unique. For this we sat in a very busy park, and again made conversation while our guide went to wait in line.
- On the way to the next stop, we walked through non-touristy chinatown which was a highlight in terms of experience. It felt immersive and alive there, unlike the showy displays of the main chinatown street.
- Dim sum came next, and it wasn't good. perhaps they were good in the morning when they seemed like they'd been made, but all of their skins were starting to dry and crack, indicating their age. For this we very luckily got a table, but our guide waited in line once more.
- finally, for the "secret food item", I won't spoil it, but it wasn't special. it was a super common asian dessert that's super cheap. It still would have been great as they're delicious, but THEY RAN OUT, so we didn't get any. No waiting this time, though.
what a good food tour has:
- special meals/experiences you could not have outside of the tour
- have reservations or pre-ordered food so there's no wait
- encourage inter-party communication, but don't force/require it
- great food
This tour had none of these. Every bought item could just be gotten by yourself. You could walk through that chinatown street yourself. It felt like we paid for someone to wait in line for us, which felt absurd. The amount of waiting forced us to talk to each other, which started out as nice, but as the waiting time increased we completely ran out of things to talk about. All this to have a couple good food items and some quite bad/missing ones too.
It seems ridiculous to just leave to chance that these tours can just go fully wrong like this, but it did for us. I feel like our terrible experience paired with a couple good food places and sociable atendees results in 2 stars for me.
Odpowiedź od gospodarza
Jun 2024
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback about your experience on our San Francisco Walking Food Tour, Garrett. We genuinely value your input as it helps us to constantly improve and refine our tours.
We’re saddened knowing that your experience fell short of your expectations. It's always important for us to ensure that every guest feels comfortable and fully immersed in their culinary journey with us.
Recognizing your perspective on enjoying food while seated, we really appreciate your understanding of the dynamics that can sometimes lead to sidewalk tastings. Particular stops were developed with the intention of allowing our guests to immerse themselves fully in the local atmosphere of San Francisco.
Additionally, as mentioned on our website, we occasionally accommodate adjustments to cater to the availability and seasonality of certain ingredients and our food partners, but always aim to provide suitable replacements to ensure minimal impact on the tasting aspect of our tours. We do understand your frustration when expectations are not met, and regret any inconvenience this may have caused.
While it's unfortunate that your experience did not meet your expectations, we want to assure you that your feedback has been taken seriously and will be used constructively to enhance the overall quality of our tours. We're constantly striving to refine our offerings to ensure that each guest has a memorable and enjoyable experience.
On a positive note, I'm glad you found the areas we walked through to be interesting. Exploring the vibrant neighborhoods of San Francisco is indeed one of the highlights of our tour.
It's also worth mentioning that we typically receive rave reviews for our selections, and we're disappointed to hear that you felt differently. Nonetheless, your feedback provides us with an opportunity to reassess and improve, and for that, we're sincerely grateful.
Once again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. If you have any further feedback or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to us directly. We sincerely hope that you'll consider giving us another chance to exceed your expectations in the future. If you’d like to discuss this further, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at
[email protected].