Locals' Favorites Food Tour: Eclectic City Tastings

Indulge in a 2.5-hour food tour of the city’s best local family-owned businesses. Experience sweet treats, international flavors, and more on this eclectic and decadent adventure!

Duration: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • Reading Terminal Market - The initial trio of culinary stalls can be found within the Reading Terminal Market. Subsequently, there’s a stroll through the central city’s storied area, leading to a cheese sampling and a delightful confection close to Rittenhouse Square.
  • Di Bruno Bros. - cheese sampling
What's Included
  • Complimentary bottled water
  • Tasty snacks included
Additional Information

Embark on a 2.5-hour gastronomic journey, visiting 5 of our city’s most loved food spots, which celebrate a mix of eclectic indulgences, all run by local families. Prepare your palate for an array of delectables with sweet delicacies, international cuisines, lots of cheese, and much more that will quench your sweet or savory desires.
Your knowledgeable…

Location
PNC Bank
Market Street
Meet INSIDE the PA Convention Center entrance on Market St between 11th & 12th St alongside the Hard Rock Café. Go through the lobby next to the Dunkin Donuts, past the escalators to the meeting place. Your Tour Guide will be wearing a City Food Tours shirt. Arrive 10 minutes before the tour begins.
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.5
(24 Ratings)
5 stars
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1 star
Anne_b
May 27, 2024
Locals On Tour - My husband, friends and I live in the area, and thought it would be fun to travel our own city. Matt was the perfect guide, sharing interesting facts about the foods we ate, establishments we frequented, and rich history of our city. Highly recommend whether you are from Philly or experiencing the city for the first time!
Review provided by Viator
Trudy
Mar 31, 2024
More cheese please - Great tour!! Matt was very knowledgeable about the city and took us to places that I wasn’t expecting. Very interesting. And the food was great!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Barbara_d
Feb 25, 2024
Great way to learn and taste your way through the city's great history - We had a great time with my parents (70s) and children (2yrs and 4 months) Our guide Steve was great and got us through the crowds on a busy weekend.
Review provided by Viator
Pharaohblake
Feb 27, 2022
Great tour!! - It was a great experience. Our tour guide was amazing, kind and knowledgeable. All the food really unique and delicious.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Meredith_s
Oct 23, 2021
Great guide and food! - We had a fantastic time on the Decadent Gourmet Tour! The food we tasted was delicious, and it was a great variety snacks, cheese tasting and desserts. The Reading Market and Center City were fun locations to stroll around. Steve was a wonderful guide. He was enthusiastic and knowledgeable about both the food and the local history and culture. Thanks for a great time!
Review provided by Viator
Christine_m
Aug 17, 2021
For Foodies for sure - The food choices were absolutely delicious! Especially the cheese selections (I strongly recommend buying yourself a glass of wine when you get to this location, and also taking advantage of the shopping downstairs!) other standouts were the Mediterranean food samplings, the cheese curds, and the desserts. Steve, our outstanding tour guide, was informative and friendly all throughout the tour. we learned a lot about cheese and also architecture and history in Philadelphia. The store is probably not for people who are looking to try cheese steaks! My only suggestion would be to exit Reading Terminal Market Via the main street rather than the tunnel, due to some unappetizing aromas outside.
Review provided by Viator
Paradise53903330805
Nov 13, 2022
Little Taste of many flavors - Our tour guide, Steve, was very knowledgeable and pleasant. His knowledge of Philadelphia and the Reading Terminal Market’s history was expansive. Food tastings were good and wide-ranging (from corn dogs to falafel and whoopee pies). Orders were organized ahead of time, so there was very little waiting. Walking tour proceeded thru Wanamakers to DiBruno Bros location nearby for cheese history & tastings & another dessert treat. All in all, a different experience for a small group of adult couples. We went early and stayed late after the tour.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Debbie_t
Jul 11, 2021
Fun excursion with friends - Attended this tour with friends from out of town. Fun way to samples some great food while learning about Philly’s architecture and history.
Review provided by Viator
Vickiea329
Oct 24, 2022
Don’t book this tour - I have done city tours and food tours all over the US. This was without a doubt the worst tour I’ve experienced. The cost is not worth either the quality or amount of the food or the experience in general.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
810kirkh
Jun 9, 2021
Disappointing & Disconnected - “Decedent & gourmet” are fine to put in your tour name, so long as you acknowledge that you’ve created a customer expectation, which in our case was woefully undeserved. (Disclosure #1: I’ve been an architectural/history tour guide & we’ve taken many food tours throughout the US & Europe, so my expectations may be a bit higher, but no higher than I’d apply to myself in a similar tour guide type of role.) We started at the Reading Market with Matt & his assistant. - and Matt was a pleasant & enthusiastic guide. The Market was a great place to start, but it’s huge & crowded. They could have reconnoitered a little more; we saw (maybe) less than half the vendors, then were shepherded outside to the oppressive heat w/o any seating (couldn’t eat inside) had our 1st food offering: a MINI-corn dog (large cocktail wiener size) on a stick & couple of fried cheese curds. Are you seeing the disconnect between “gourmet” & corn dog, fried cheese . . . Then we went back in the Market to get a Middle Eastern offering: a stuffed grape leaf, falafel, hummus & few leaves of lettuce/dressing & totally uninspiring pita bread. (Disclosure #2: we live around Dearborn Mi, home to the largest Middle East population in the US, so we’re no strangers to great Middle East food, & good out-of-the brick oven pitas are heavenly.) The flat blah pitas you can get at a convenience store - that were part of the tour offering - not so much. Finally, before we left the market, a doughnut. Kind of the KrispyKreme variety, but not as good, like they pulled the doughnut out of the frying oil too soon & got an opaque sugary ring of chewy mush. I’m actually pretty ‘live & let live’ about food, but my wife & daughter are official doughnut snobs. My wife pitched hers after a couple bites, quietly complaining, I consumed mine w/a resigned shrug, thinking “maybe they just don’t ‘do’ doughnuts in Philadelphia”. She was still complaining a couple days later about the worst doughnut she ever had. Leaving the Market, we walked through the historic Wanamaker Bldg - now a Macy’s - to a very fancy steakhouse in a refurbished bank. No food, but an interesting ‘quickie peek’ at how the rich & famous wine & dine. Then on to a neighborhood grocery w/a closed restaurant on the 2nd floor, where Matt did a very interesting presentation on cheeses - easily the (singular) highlight of the tour. Note that I can’t cite names of proprietors, because this is the only food tour I’ve ever been on in which there was no handout: map, list of vendors, brief notes about the culinary offerings or food scene in Philadelphia, etc. From here, on to the final stop at a bakery (again, the name escapes me, & without any reference document . . .), but not w/o incident. Matt’s assistant held the group (seven, six of whom were female, most age 65+) at a busy street corner (no shade) for multiple light changes, while he gave the decidedly unabridged version of the story about the height of the city hall sculpture & the curse on sports teams attributable to the subsequent construction of a couple skyscrapers. This was a guide faux pax on several levels (don’t keep seniors who’ve been on their feet for a couple hours standing in intense sun getting buffeted by pedestrians while they listen to a drawn out version of a story in which they probably have limited interest). The tour ended at the bakery - again, can’t remember the name . . . w/a chocolate chip cookie, which was good. As non-Philadelphians, we were looking forward to a cheesesteak (depending on size, maybe one cut in half or thirds). No such luck. In fact, portions were noticeably smaller & in general, the volume of food was less than any tour I’ve ever been on. I had the feeling they were bolstering their profit margin by skimping on food, a strategy I’d expect from big corporate America, but not one that’s going to get you endorsements from your customers, and a Philadelphia food tour w/o ANY cheesesteak . . . Come on man! In summary, given that there are several food tours available, there HAVE to to options that are better than this one.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
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December 2024
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