Hong Kong Foodie Tasting Tours

Hong Kong Foodie Tasting Tours

Hong Kong Foodie Tasting Tours
5
Cultural Tours • Walking Tours • Food Tours
Read more
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Monday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Tuesday
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Wednesday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Thursday
10:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Friday
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Saturday
9:00 AM - 3:00 PM
About
Recommended by the Hong Kong Tourism Board and led by true Hong Kong locals from this gastronomic mecca, Hong Kong Foodie Tasting Tours offers unique, small-group walking tours to explore and experience Hong Kong's culinary culture. Our mission is to lead hungry souls from around the world to wander off the beaten path in search of Hong Kong's favorite foods. We have researched throughout the city, tried many eateries, talked to restaurant owners, before putting together itineraries featuring many of the locals' most-loved foods. Along our journey, you’ll also get a taste of Hong Kong's other flavors - its history, culture, architecture and many hidden gems. We are a member of Global Food Tourism Association, Travel Industry Council and Hong Kong Association of Travel Agents. All our Foodie Guides are licensed. Join us on a memorable and unique experience of Hong Kong! For more information about the tastings, check tour availability or book a tour, please visit our website.
Hong Kong, China

Suggest edits to improve what we show.
Improve this listing
Tours and Tickets by Hong Kong Foodie Tasting Tours
Detailed Reviews: Reviews order informed by descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as cleanliness, atmosphere, general tips and location information.

5.0
1,288 reviews
Excellent
1,184
Very good
90
Average
11
Poor
3
Terrible
0

Susanna
New York1 contribution
Dec 2019 • Couples
My husband and I did the Temple Street Night tour with Carrie and had a wonderful time. Carrie was very knowledgeable and easy to talk to. She brought us to a bunch of great local places where we had great street foods. We really enjoyed talking to her about Hong Kong’s history and culture, and felt we learned a lot about the day to day life there. Definitely would recommend going on a tour with Carrie during your trip to HK!
Written January 7, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Rory S
Hong Kong, China35 contributions
Jun 2020 • Family
What a wonderful way to spend the afternoon with the family. Having lived in HK for a year we had tried some of these foods before but never knew why or how they fit into the local culture. It was a well thought through tour supporting local traders how produce quality food with age old traditions. A great way to engage our children in a food adventure where they could explore little side streets, cavernous food markets, taste the good stuff and hear about how food connects with the history and culture of Hong Kong.

Definitely worth doing if you are staying put this Summer!
Written June 30, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Evelyn G
Surabaya, Indonesia10 contributions
Aug 2023 • Solo
Cecilia is amazing guide. She is very passionate about her tea tasting profession. I learn a lot about tea in 2 hours than in years of drinking tea.
And she always gives positive feedback. That there is no wrong or right way in serving / drinking tea. You can be complete nervous wreck and still able to brew a nice cup of tea.
This tea tasting tour is new, available from last Christmas.
Give it a try, one does not have to be a regular tea drinker to enjoy the tour
Written August 14, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Charles D
Georgian Bay, Canada14 contributions
Nov 2019
The hotel recommended to explore the shopping area and had a great recommendation for tours. We were picked up from the hotel by a young lady, called Sarah. She spoke well english and showed us around. We tried some odd fruits, snakeskin fruit, dragon fruit and a few others.
Written January 7, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Mutton1023
Long Grove, IL121 contributions
Jun 2014 • Family
My husband, myself and our 3 college kids went on the private Central & Sheung Wan Foodie Tour. We started the tour searching 1-1/2 hours for the meeting location. We have taken numerous tours throughout Europe and Asia and the majority of private tours meet us at the hotel or for an extra fee can arrange transportation to the starting location. This tour only came with directions from the train station once we arrived on Hong Kong island. Our hotel was located in Kowloon. We took the ferry across the bay and when we finally found the meeting location we were all in a very pissed off mood. I did comment to both tour guides about the directions and the female guide had a sarcastic comment back that our hotel was closer to the train station than the ferry. Here's my question back, " since I don't live in Hong Kong, how would I know that?" I didn't like her attitude after that. The male guide was awesome, he went to school in our home town so we got along great. My second complaint is the fact that we booked a private tour which is for up to 8 people and we only had 5. So I paid for 8 but they only needed to supply food for 5 so the rest was profit for them. My daughter wanted to try turtle jelly which wasn't bad and they didn't charge extra for, but they shouldn't since they saved the food cost for 3 people but they were too greedy to pick up the cost of 1 can of coke that my son ordered. Really? Aren't you making a ton of money already on me. That's just greed!!! My final complaint was that I spent 820.00 USD on the tour and they charged me 110.00 USD gratuity for 8 people as part of the total. Although there were only 5 of us, again, Greedy!! The term gratuity is given as a tip when the service is above average. The gratuity should have been at my discretion and not forced upon me and taken when I signed up for the tour. The food at the stops was tasty, but not the best I've tasted. I did a fabulous food tour in shanghai by a company UnTours that was outstanding and Jamie was an awesome guide. There was a large part of history on the tour but my husband really enjoyed that. They did provide us with good directions by train to get back to our hotel across the bay. It was an enjoyable tour but for private tours they should give custom directions from my hotel, not generic ones.
Written June 29, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

pillowsofwanderlust
Pasadena, CA2,001 contributions
Jan 2015 • Solo
This company offers 2 tours, which I took on consecutive days. Both tours have 6 official food- tasting stops, but both also have numerous other stops for local history, culture, and neighbourhood flavour. Both last about 3 1/2 hours. At the start, both give you a printed guide/map not only of the official stops, but of other restaurants/shops of interest in the area. Also you are given bottled water and a packet of tissues (as you may know, Hong Kong eateries are stingy with their napkins). Both feature food-tasting stops at places you probably wouldn't have noticed or tried yourself (the signage and/or menus are mostly only in Chinese). Local, mostly family-owned and operated places, often by multiple generations. Or the business itself may have a long history, or the building may be historic. Many places make their own offerings on-site and via old-fashioned, labourious methods. Food is the main thing, but you learn so much more--totally worthwhile.

CENTRAL & SHEUNG WAN FOODIE TOUR

Offered 4 times per week, 12 people max, 2:15 pm start (to avoid the lunch crowds). Our guides were Sylvana (she's on their website) and Ed, both excellent, both natives. Central is the business and financial centre of Hong Kong island, lots of recognizable high-rise office buildings. Sheung Wan is the rapidly gentrifying area west of Central--"hot" new restaurants, businesses and housing are quickly suffocating the old-style eateries, businesses, wet markets and traditional housing. More than once on this tour, we were told "take pictures now, this may be gone next time you're in Hong Kong", or "every week we see someplace new opening on this tour". Our tour had some Americans, an Aussie, and a South African/Canadian.

For me, the food-tasting stops offered many tastings familiar to me, but they were among the best I have tasted. The 6 stops were:

1) Wonton noodle shop. Located in a basement, outside sign in Chinese only, menu has English. Family-run and passed down for 3 generations, began as a dai pai dong (a classic open-air food stall still seen all over the city, kind of like an immovable food truck with covered seating). They make their own wontons, fishballs, broth, etc. We had noodles and wonton in broth .The shrimp wontons were HUGE, golf ball-sized, with almost whole fresh shrimp.

2) Roast meat restaurant. Narrow space, popular for take-away. Chinese/English signage, Chinese menu only. Roast meats of all kinds, hanging in the window. We had barbecue pork rice--delish. We were taken into the kitchen to see the large vertical roasting ovens. I would return here another day for take-away.

3) Sugar cane juice. An old business in an old colonial-style building, Chinese-only sign. Right in front a man was placing stalks of sugar cane through a machine over and over, slowly breaking it down. The juice was different, but tasty. The place also sells turtle shell jelly.

4) Preserved fruit shop. Here we were served a lovely kumquat/lemon tea and given a box of preserved fruits of various types, some of which I remembered from my youth.

5) Dim sum. Family-run. Sign and menu in both Chinese and English. Here we were served dim sum classics, among the freshest and best I've had.--shrimp dumplings, pork/shrimp dumplings, deep fried spring rolls, and crispy BBQ pork buns (baos). For me, the baos were a revelation! We're all familiar with the classic steamed white baos, and I'v had many a delish baked bao in the States, but the dough on these baos was totally new for me--chewy with a slight crunch and sweetness not unlike Hong Kong's famous pineapple bun (served on the other tour)--I think it's both baked and fried. And since I would have baos similar to these twice more at other places (Tim Ho Wan, Lung King Heen), I consider this a veritable paradigm shift in the way baked baos are made in Hong Kong!. I must now research to see if such baos exist in Los Angeles! I would return here on my own another day. Go after the lunch crowd. You are given a menu and pencil to place your order; there are photos or each item on the tables. The baos here were the cheapest of the 3 places I tried.

6) Bakery/pastry shop. Chinese/English signage. For take-away, no dining area--we were eating on the narrow sidewalk and street. We were served a classic egg tart, but this too was new and revelatory for me because the tart had a shortcrust pastry, as in shortbread-like, as in butter, butter, butter! Egg tarts I've had before, in the US and here, must have had shortening or lard crusts, including some place we went to on my first visit here, guided by an English publication's recommendation, where we ate the tarts on the street as buses full of locals laughed at us. This was the best and biggest egg tart I've had.

Non-tasting stops included some dai pai dongs under the Mid-Level escalators (which the government is threatening to close for sanitation reasons), Graham St. wet market, also slated for redevelopment (massive construction already encroaches one side), a dried seafood shop, a Dr. Sun Yat-Sen shout-out, Man Mo Temple, Cat St. (which has 2 other names), a snake shop (for soup).

I had walked many of these streets before (this was my 5th Hong Kong visit), but I learned so much and discovered new places to return to in the future on this tour. Hopefully, they'll still be there next time.

As an aside, I would find out later that Sylvana is an Eilte-level Yelper. She kind of dissed a new restaurant in Central the International New York Times raved about (and was also mentioned in Travel & Leisure magazine) that I was planning to try. I ended up not going, not because of her diss, but because I was too mellow after a great spa treatment to leave my hotel. Maybe next time, if it's still there.

SHAM SHUI PO FOODIE TOUR

Offered 3 times a week, 8 people max, 9:15 am start. Our guide was the excellent Fiona. Sham Shui Po is on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong, somewhat north of the Tsim Sha Tsui harbourfront. It seems like kind of a working-class neighbourhood, with older walk-up residential buildings (complete with laundry hanging out of many a window), busy street markets filled more with locals than tourists, no modern skyscrapers like in Central. Much more local colour and flavour. The tour began in the MTR station, which Fiona told us all have restrooms--you have to ask an employee to guide you. Everyone but me on our tour was Aussie. Before the tour started, I did a restroom stop at a nearby McDonald's, where they served some quasi-Asian dishes and red bean pies, as well as apple pies.

These food stops offered a few tastings that were new to me. The 6 stops were:

1) Hong Kong-stlye cafe. No English anywhere. Here we had milk tea and pineapple buns. The milk tea was strong but good. The pineapple buns were outstanding. Some of us commented on how large they were, but there was nary a crumb left when we were through. It was like eating a soft but crunchy and sweet cloud. We got a peek at the buns being made, the ovens, and a man making the milk tea by straining it many times through what looked like a ladies' stocking.

2) Chinese-style breakfast. Tiny place, no English anywhere, long queue for take-away. No tables were free, so Fiona told us to look for a table that looked like they were about finished, and then basically hover and breathe down their necks until they were done. We ended up squeezing into a table where a single local man took his merry time finishing his congee. We were served rice rolls--sheets of rice "pasta" rolled up jelly-roll style and then cut into bit-sized pieces. You sauce them with peanut and hoisin sauces and a sprinkling of sesame seeds. They are eaten with wooden skewers (like a long toothpick) because they're too slippery for chopsticks. Delish, and new to me. Great local experience.

3) Soy product shop. No English. They only serve 3 soy products, which are made on-site--we saw the machinery/methods. Most of us tried the tofu dessert, ladled out of a big pot in thin layers, served hot with ginger syrup and sugar. Pretty good; I've had it before in the US, but not with ginger. Two people opted for the soybean milk, served warm or chilled.

4) Braised meat shop. No English. Apparently a Chiu Chow-Hong Kong fusion. We had braised goose and pork knuckle served with a dipping sauce and rice. Delish. I think this is the first time I've had goose--it tastes very similar to duck, but is more expensive.

5) Traditional Chinese bakery. No English. Here we were given a packet of cookies--walnut, almond and sesame. Some gobbled theirs then and there, I saved mine for later--also delish.

6) Noodle shop. No English, but there was a photo of Samantha Brown with the owners in the window. Also a write-up and photo of an apparently famous and respected Chinese food critic. We started the tasting with pickled turnips, then had egg noodles with shrimp roe and broth served alongside. The noodles are hand-made with a bamboo pole by the owners at home. The shrimp roe was a new taste for me, a bit bracing but far more pleasant than Chinese dried shrimp, which I do not care for. Others were not so enthused.

Non-tasting stops included wet market streets with noodle shops and shops selling dried things, including a dried gecko-like reptile splayed out on a stick like a fan. We stopped at a kitchen supply store featuring knives of many shapes. The area has a lot of notions shops (buttons, ribbon, fabric, etc.), some pawnshops, local clothing stores and phone/electronics stores and stands (including a discount electronics mall). We also stopped at a snake shop that served snake soup and snakes in cages awaiting slaughter. Fiona also stopped and discussed the difficult housing situation for the city's poor, showing pics on her phone of "cage houses"--stacked cages meant to house large animals that some humans call home. Quite distressing, especially after seeing renovated loft buildings in Central that rent for $75,000 HKD monthly, and a tacky pink Bentley whose garage space rent isprobably nearly as costly.

Overall, very worthwhile tours. I would try to do one or the other at the beginning of your visit, so you can return to the places visited. Plus, you'll learn about so much more than food on these tours, about this always fascinating, always frenetic, always changing (not necessarily for the better) city.
Written February 1, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

22places
Berlin, Germany452 contributions
Oct 2017 • Couples
We would like to recommend this tour to everyone who travels to Hongkong! Yammy was a great guide to Hongkong's food, culture and people! Thanks for a wonderful tour!
Written November 7, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Geoffers61
Hoi An, Vietnam50 contributions
Sep 2013
We wanted to book the 'original' foodie tour, the Sheung Wan & Central tour on our 1st of 3 days in HK but it was booked up despite us requesting this day weeks in advance? We wanted to go on a foodie tour as early in our stay as poss so chose the next available tour on the 2nd day which was the Sham Shui Po tour. With hindsight we probably didn't understand what this tour was all about compared with the SW&C tour but it certainly wasn't a pleasurable experience! Sham Shui Po is a run down area of HK, on the verge of being a slum! The 'food' on offer is the basic food that the locals eat, most of which is prepared in squalid conditions & is either bland or unpleasant tasting. We wanted to taste a selection of good HK food which presumably the SW&C tour provides. Please be wary of booking this tour unless you are very adventurous & prepared to try the local food on offer.
The guide, Silvana is very good and knowledgeable about HK in general but we just the thought the food was too extreme for Western tastes. The area, although poor, was very interesting and the people very nice and welcoming but the conditions & cleanliness were a worry. The last place we ate in smelled of rotting food which made us feel nautious!
Written September 19, 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Dear Geoffers61, Thank you for your candid feedback for your recent Sham Shui Po Foodie Tour. We are very sorry to have disappointed you. We try to communicate upfront on our website what to expect, including a list of the types of eateries we would be visiting as well as tastings on the tour. The focus of our foodie tours is to take visitors to Hong Kong off the beaten path to taste Hong Kong classics and everyday local favorites including noodle dishes, breakfast pastry and roast/braised meat. Although different foods and drinks are served on our Sham Shui Po Foodie Tour and Central & Sheung Wan Foodie Tour, they both feature “basic food that the locals eat” instead of gourmet tastings. We understand many of our customers are less adventurous and, as such, we never serve innards or snake soup or anything similar on our existing tours. What we serve on our Sham Shui Po Foodie Tour, as described on our website, are pastry item (no weird fillings) and tea, Chinese pudding (made with beans), soy product, braised meat with cuts of meat common in the Americas and Europe (especially Germany). Perhaps the most “adventurous” item is on our last stop, which is a noodle shop that serves handmade noodles with a special seafood topping. We do provide substitutes for customers who are either allergic to seafood or prefer not to try that particular topping. We also take hygiene very seriously on our tours. We only visit licensed eateries, none of which serves outdoors. Please rest assured that all the eateries we visit on both our Sham Shui Po Foodie Tour and our Central & Sheung Wan Foodie Tour are clean and hygienic. However, we will continue to work with all our tasting locations to ensure we have a clean environment. Your comment regarding rotting food smell at the last tasting location really concerned us so we went back to investigate. We discovered it is the smell of pickled vegetables that the restaurant makes fresh every day. There is a jar that is placed at the center of each table and is a favorite of many locals as well as many of our participants. The smell is similar to other pickled vegetables consumed in western countries. This popular noodle shop is an award-winning restaurant previously featured by various local and international media. We visit this noodle shop when they open and just after they always complete a very thorough cleaning of the entire restaurant. Sham Shui Po is by no means a slum. In fact, it is one of the shopping areas known for its outdoor markets and promoted by the Hong Kong Tourism Board (http://www.discoverhongkong.com/us/shop/where-to-shop/shopping-areas/sham-shui-po.jsp). As described on our website, it is a working class neighborhood in Hong Kong which has escaped much of urban redevelopment, retaining its charm from the 60s to the 90s. Again, we are sorry to have disappointed you. We will take your feedback and further improve on our tours and our communications with our prospective customers. We will make it even more explicit on our website that the foods served are not gourmet items but local daily favorites. We will also take further steps to work with our eateries to ensure a clean and comfortable environment. Thank you again for your feedback. Regards, Cecilia Hong Kong Foodie
Written October 10, 2013
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

Carolyn A
New York City, NY12 contributions
Our tour with Carrie last weekend was excellent and focused on traditional Hong Kong “working class” specialties that were still made on site and to high standards. We spend a lot of time in Hong Kong and can definitely say that everything we sampled was a cut above, if not way above, the average example. Sham Shui Po feels like more of Hong Kong used to feel, with lots of bustling market streets, fun street signs, interesting building colours, etc.. The tour was well designed and paced and also included points of interest other than food. We highly recommend it.

NB: We thought morning tour time would be a great way to avoid any weekend protesters as they never seem to be up till afternoon. We did eventually see some later in the afternoon, hours after our tour ended and after we had walked down to Mong Kok, but they were extremely polite / nothing like you see on TV. All the neighbourhoods we walked through were business as usual and felt very safe. Was a lovely day...
Written October 19, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

flynnie86
Perth55 contributions
I had the pleasure of going on the Central & Sheung Wan Foodie Tour in late April 2018. Ed was the awesome tour/foodie guide and was more than accommodating in answering questions not necessarily related to food in HK but also about the rich history HK has. It was my first time in HK and this tour allowed me to experience a great variety of food that introduced me to HK cuisine. From mouth watering won ton soup , BBQ pork , steamed dumplings and fried delights this tour is a must do for any person new to HK. Ed is a very passionate tour guide who seems quite proud of his home town and kept me interested the entire tour. He even helped with directions on how to get to places once the tour was completed. I will definitely go on another foodie tour again when I am in HK next. 🥟
Written May 6, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hi Flynnie86, "Dor Tse" (Thank you) for your great review of our Central & Sheung Wan Foodie Tour and for the compliments for Ed. Great to know you had a great time not just tasting delicious Hong Kong eats, learning about some history and culture, but also picking up some useful Cantonese phrases! :) We are really glad to hear our Foodie Tour helped you experience the wide range of cuisines Hong Kong has to offer. We've only scratched the surface so definitely come back and join us on another Foodie Tour when you're in Hong Kong next.
Written May 11, 2018
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

Showing results 1-10 of 1,248

Hong Kong Foodie Tasting Tours - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (with Photos)

Hong Kong Foodie Tasting Tours Information

Excellent Reviews

894

Very Good Reviews

78

Hong Kong Foodie Tasting Tours Photos

750