You don’t have to be a tourist to enjoy these culinary journeys
It’s one of the fun things you’ll experience on a Sidewalk Food Tours outing.
Los Angeles natives have always known that the city’s culinary scene is unmatched. But in recent years, Southern California cuisine has been gaining new global attention. The work of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jonathan Gold, in particular, has helped raise awareness of Los Angeles’ food culture. One of the reasons Los Angeles’ food culture is so noteworthy is its international fusion of different cultures, styles, and flavors. Not only is Los Angeles home to all kinds of food from around the world, but it’s also likely cooked pretty well.
That’s where food tours come in. Tourists who are curious about food will often book a multi-stop tour within a particular neighborhood so they can experience more than one or two restaurants during their trip. Of course, these tours are also great for locals who need a starting point to explore a new area of town, or for those who want to learn more about the history and context of the area’s restaurant scene.
One of the most popular and well-known tours in the city is organized by Culinary Backstreets.
The company is a global company that runs food tours around the world, but its long-distance walking tours of downtown Los Angeles are considered among the best in the city. In addition to guided tours, the company also produces editorial content about chefs and restaurants, currently operating in about 20 cities.
“At Culinary Backstreet, we love doing walking food tours in misunderstood cities, and Los Angeles was the perfect opportunity for us to dispel some long-standing misconceptions,” says the company’s editor-in-chief, Yigal Shleifer. “First of all, Los Angeles is not a walkable city. Secondly, the city is too big to describe or understand from just one part of it. With our Downtown Los Angeles tour, we were able to curate a walking tour that gives you a sense of how the city grew to become the metropolis it is today.”
Culinary Backstreets is always a great option, but whether you’re just visiting Los Angeles and looking for the best way to get a taste of it, or you’re a local looking to focus on historical context, here are our picks for some of the best food tours in the city.
Pearl River Deli in downtown Los Angeles is one of the many stops on the Culinary Backstreets food tour.
Gourmet alley
If you’re feeling energetic, Culinary Backstreets is the walking tour for you. At about 5.5 hours(!), this tour of Downtown Los Angeles doubles as a historical tour of the city’s expansion, and won’t leave you hungry. It’s a bit of a marathon, but it shows you two things: 1) LA is walkable, and 2) LA is a big foodie city, so 5 hours is more than enough time to explore one neighborhood.
As examples of establishments on the list, Schleifer cited two that stood out in particular: “My Dung, a Vietnamese grocery store in Chinatown that serves some of the best banh mi in Los Angeles, and Fujitsu-Do, a family-owned mochi shop that’s been in Little Tokyo since 1903.”
If you’re looking for a unique itinerary, try Melting Pot Tours. This company offers guided tours of Fairfax’s Original Farmer’s Market, walks through Old Pasadena, and even experiences in Long Beach and East Los Angeles. Because they don’t focus on more obvious areas like West Hollywood, Downtown, or Venice, these tours give you a more local perspective of the city.
There are five basic tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami. This tour claims to help you find that obscure sixth taste. It could be the memories made during the tour. But with a 3-4 hour tour that always includes up to seven restaurants, cafes, and shops, this claim is no exaggeration. Six Taste tours are popular because they can be booked privately for groups of two or up to 100 people, so you can get around the city just with friends and family. The company offers tours in a variety of neighborhoods, from Santa Monica to Hollywood to Glendale, and even has a cuisine-specific option: a guide to the delicious dumplings of Monterey Park.
Sidewalk Food Tours walking tours include stops in Downtown Los Angeles, West Hollywood and Venice Beach.
Sidewalk Food Tour
Focusing primarily on three neighborhoods — Downtown, West Hollywood, and Venice Beach — Sidewalk tours are both walking tours and celebrations of all things food. Originating from New York, the brand now offers experiences in Chicago, San Francisco, Paris, New Orleans, and its latest expansion is Los Angeles. The tour itinerary focuses on off-the-beaten-path spots and includes five restaurants serving both savory and sweet dishes in the selected neighborhood.
If you’re looking for a food tour with plenty of booze to boot, Secret Food Tours is the place to go. One of several companies offering tours in many cities around the world, SFT’s LA tour focuses on historical context and tasty local cuisine. With options on either side of the city (Venice Beach or Downtown), the tour includes a “secret dish” selected by your guide, with special upgrades for those who want to add a drink. Both tours last about three hours and make five or six stops, but there’s also a beer tour with 12 tastings in roughly the same time frame.
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