Savor Seattle Food Tours (Review)

On my recent trip to Seattle I literally extended my stay a few days after seeing the brochure for Savor Seattle Food Tours at my hostel just so I could take one of their tours.

I would like to comment that I am glad I did because the Savor Seattle Gourmet Food tour that I went on was literally, with out a word of a lie the best food tour that I have ever gone on. (I will now also note that it was my first tour ever… hehehe).

Before launching The Taste Of Travel just a few weeks ago, going on a Food tour was never an idea in my head for something that I might do while traveling, not sure why. However I do know that beer and brewery tours along with Pub crawls always were high on my list… hmmmm.

My tour started in a comfy showcase type room, attached to The Yellow Leaf Cupcake Co. where we met our exuberant tour guide Mark and we were introduced to one of the Owners of The Yellow Leaf Cupcake Co. Michael Hein. Michael spoke with us about how he started his company, its success, and about the cupcakes I was anxiously waiting to consume.

We started with their Tomato Soup chocolate cupcake, taken from one of Michael’s family recipes, and surprisingly it doesn’t taste like tomato soup at all, it was moist the icing was out of this world. Continuing with the “put bacon on everything” theme we then ate the “Pancakes n’ Bacon” cupcake, not only was bacon “sprinkled” on the top but it was also throughout this breakfast flavored treat.

I probably would of stayed there eating cupcakes all day long if I could of but after those two were gone we were hitting the streets to find more eats.

Our next stop was Serious Pie where we tried the “roasted hedgehog mushrooms, truffle cheese” pizza and the “yukon gold potato, rosemary pecorino” pizza. What? Potato on pizza? Carbs on Carbs? Sounds odd yes, but with the pecorino cheese on top I couldn’t help but want more. An interesting thing about the Serious Pizza pizza’s as well is that depending on the pizza you order the dough has been sprinkled with “Murray river salt from Australia“, I’ve never had this kind of salt before (and I have a salt addiction) but it was a nice added touch to the pizza, that made it stand out from others.

Serious Pie is owned and operated by the famous Tom Douglas, known for owning 8+ restaurants in the downtown Seattle area, this guy truly understands the meaning of good food. (He even makes a cameo in the Savor Seattle video.)

At this point I would say my stomach was about 1/4 of the way full and happily we walked down hill to our next stop the “Icon Grill“. Inside this restaurant was “eccentrically” decorated with stuff everywhere. We dined upon a beef medallion with onions and blue cheese, washed down with an Orange drop martini and finished with a VOLCANO of mac’n’cheese.

I now needed a bit of a breather, my stomach was trying to convince me that I was full but I persisted knowing I still had room for more. Our next stop was the Truffle Cafe near the Pike Place Market where we tried truffle salt, cream, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. To learn more about it read my post HERE.

The truffle’s were fancy but so was the next stop. Il Bistro located next to the entrance of the Pike Place Market was opened just for us by their Chef and we were served red wine and saffron, clams and muscles in a northern style risotto. This did not last long on my plate… and I might of also then poured myself another glass.

A tip for if you plan on visiting Il Bistro go during their weekly happy hour between 5pm – 6:30pm or their late night happy hours Sun – Thurs 10-midnight & Fri-Sat 11pm-1am because not only can you get some great deals on their food but apparently their bartender also makes a mean drink.

Il Bistro was our 4th stop on the tour and we still had 3 more to go! Note: DO NOT eat before going on this tour, or  you will regret it.

Located around the corner and past the famous gum wall was our 5th stop and the entrance into the Pike Place Brewery, we got a speedy tour through how they make their beer before heading upstairs into their restaurant to sample a few of their brews paired with bread and cheese. They had one of my favorite beers that I had while in Seattle, and I’ll elaborate more on them in a future post.

Gourmet Food tour stop number 6, switched things up a bit from our American and European type foods that we had been eating so far with some Pad Thai at a Vietnamese restaurant called Thoa’s. Traditional Thai styled rice noodles pan-fried with chicken, bean sprout, cilantro, crushed peanuts, lime and onion in tamarind sauce, yummmmmmmmmm. We enjoyed this dish with a view over the water just as the sun began to set.

Last but not least we finished at a Gelato shop called Gelatiamo. Born in Northern Italy, Maria Coassin who owns Gelatiamo learned how to make gelato from studying under a world famous gelato master and all gelato is made on site. There were at least 14 different flavors of this icy Italian dessert on display while we were there (but I heard they have 80 flavors) and we got to taste three of them. The Raspberry sorbeto was the one I loved most and it was a perfect way to top off my stuffed belly.

Although the Savor Seattle Gourmet Food tour was the first food tour I have ever been on it truly was a delight. Mark was a fabulous tour guide that knew his food, was full of knowledge about Seattle and was able to answer almost any question posed to him. It was also noticeable that he was truly interested in each person on the tour and that he loved his job. Aside from the fact that he wasn’t allowed to eat along with us, he might of sold me on actually wanting to do this as a job too. (I wouldn’t be able to do it without being able to eat it all myself, each time.)

Each place also seemed happy to have us and we got a lot of one on one time with the chefs and owners of a few of the places which was a nice treat.

After the tour we were also given a card that allowed everyone on the tour 10-15% off every place we had visited along with other restaurants in partnership with them for the next week. I then shook my fist at the sky as I was going home that next morning at 7am.

The Gourmet food tour generally runs from 2pm-5pm, call ahead to reserve your spot or check out their other tours like the Chocolate Indulgence tour or the Pike Place Market tour.

Have you ever gone on a food tour? Where was it? Would you go on it again?

My tour with Savor Seattle Food tours was discounted however all views expressed, as always, are my own and my stomachs too.

 

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