Gold Coast & Old Town Chicago Food Planet Tour Review

Chicago is a foodie heaven and there is A LOT more to it then just delicious deep-dish pizzas, however awesome they may be. I recently took a food tour with Chicago Food Planet Tours to explore the city with my taste buds and find some of its other delicious eats.

The tour I opted for was the Gold Coast & Old Town Food walking tour, which took us through the neighbourhoods of the same name. This tour is the most popular tour that they offer and after taking it I’m not surprised why. To learn about another tour they offer check out my friend Stephanie’s review over HERE.

Our tour began outside of Lou Manalti’s one of the most famous pizza chains in the city. Known for growing their own tomatoes so they can be as fresh as possible. While there we ate a nice salad and dove right into the deep-dish pizza. This was my first bite of a doughy, cheesy, saucy deep-dish pizza and I was not disappointed. We were served up a favorite, the sausage deep-dish with a buttery crust. Mmmm.

 

Our tour guide teaches us about tea.

Next up just down the street with Tea Gschwendner, a specialty tea shop. Inside we had a little presentation by them and I actually learned a lot of about tea and the different types and how and why they vary, it was actually kind of neat. We then all got a cup of bossanoba oolong tea to go. OMG I think I have found my new favorite tea. It was kind of carmelish and quite simply divine no milk or sugar required.

The door with the columns to the right was the fancy restaurant in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. 

Aside from just learning about the tasty food spots in the area we were also told quite a bit about the neighborhoods. We learned interesting information about the Chicago Fire, saw the doorway that was used as the main entrance to the fancy restaurant in the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and we stood outside of the original PlayBoy Mansion. We were told that apparently back in the day the other buildings around the PlayBoy Mansion had higher rent because they often came with free views of the bunnies sunbathing on the roof. Also a Latin inscription still by the door today reads “If you don’t swing don’t ring”. Interesting little fact for a food tour.

The next stop lead us to the Kamehachi sushi restaurant, one of the best places for sushi in the city. Kamehachi was also the first Japanese restaurant in the city, opened in 1967. We got to enjoy a couple spicy tuna rolls (my favorite) and had some saki to sip on.

Our following stops were to the Fudge pot for some tasty chocolate skor bar toffee type thingy. Whatever it was it was good.

 

We visited Old Town Oil where we tried numerous olive oil and balsamic vinegar combinations with my favorite of course always being the truffle oil. Another person on the tour also suggested I try a chilli oil with a chocolate balsamic, so good, I kind of didn’t want to leave.

Chicago Deep Dish Pizza Pizzazz Spice! Make everything you eat taste like deep dish pizza!

Lastly we went to the Spice House where we sampled a bunch of their different spices before getting a quick lesson on different spices and types of cinnamon in a back area of the shop.

Altogether it was a very informative tour and I learned a bunch from our tour guide. I wish that there might have been a few bigger samples to try or basically I just wish I could of eaten a whole deep dish pizza to myself along with ALL of the sushi. I definitely recommend jumping on one of their tours if you are looking for a fun and tasty tour to do while visiting Chicago.

Have you taken a food tour in Chicago? What is your favorite Chicago food?

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