Chicago · Chicago food tours
The Best Chicago Food Tours for Grown-Ups
Chicago's food is half the reason to come: deep-dish pizza, Italian beef and a dragged-through-the-garden hot dog on one side, and some of the country's best restaurants on Randolph Street on the other. A good food tour covers both. Here are the tours we'd book and a self-guided day built from the places we recommend.
- Classics
- Iconic Foods of Chicago: 3 hours, from $85
- 21+
- Gateway to the West Loop: 3 hours, $129
- Walking
- 1.4 miles (Iconic) or 0.6 miles (West Loop)
- Self-guided
- West Loop dinner, River North steak, a tiki nightcap
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The Chicago classics in one walk
Chicago Food & City Tours' 3-hour Iconic Foods of Chicago tour covers 1.4 miles with full-sized tastings of deep-dish pizza, Italian beef, Chicago-style hot dogs and more, from $85 per adult. It's the efficient way to tick off the city's famous foods without three separate lines.
Chicago Food & City Tours
Walking tours in the West Loop, Chinatown, Pilsen and more
Chicago's original food tour company. The 3-hour Iconic Foods of Chicago walk (1.4 miles, from $85 per adult) gives full-sized tastings of deep-dish pizza, Italian beef and Chicago-style hot dogs; the 3-hour Gateway to the West Loop tour of Randolph Street's restaurants, breweries and dive bars is $129 for guests 21 and up.
Tip: Cancel 72 hours or more ahead for a full refund; vegetarian options must be requested when you book.
The West Loop, for grown-ups
The same company's Gateway to the West Loop tour walks 0.6 miles of Randolph Street, Chicago's restaurant row, with stops at much-talked-about restaurants, homegrown breweries and dive bars. It takes 3 hours and costs $129 for guests 21 and up. They also run Chinatown and Pilsen tours. Cancel 72 hours or more ahead for a full refund.
Our self-guided food day
A day of eating in Chicago
Every stop is a place we already recommend; book the dinners ahead.
Lunch
City Winery at the Riverwalk
Chicago Riverwalk, between Dearborn and State
A glass of wine and lunch on the Riverwalk.
A riverside wine garden and restaurant pouring its own wines on tap, with a retractable glass enclosure for cooler days. An easy sunset glass after the architecture cruise.
Afternoon
Art Institute of Chicago
Michigan Ave at Millennium Park
Walk it off among the Impressionists.
One of the great art museums in the world, strongest in Impressionism and American art. Pick a wing or two and pace yourselves.
Dinner
Girl & the Goat
809 W. Randolph St, West Loop
Stephanie Izard's shared plates on Randolph Street.
Stephanie Izard's shared-plates restaurant that helped turn Randolph Street into a restaurant row. Big flavours, lively room.
Nightcap
Three Dots and a Dash
435 N. Clark St (alley entrance)
Tiki drinks down an alley in River North.
A subterranean tiki bar reached through an alley, with elaborate rum drinks. The 16-seat Bamboo Room inside is the quieter, serious-rum option.
Big dinners worth the trip
Save one night for Monteverde, where pasta is made by hand in the middle of the room, and one for a classic Chicago steakhouse: Gibsons on Rush Street or Joe's for steak and stone crab.
Monteverde
1020 W. Madison St, West Loop
Sarah Grueneberg's pasta-focused Italian restaurant, with pasta made by hand in the middle of the room. Ten years in and still one of the city's most wanted tables.
Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse
1028 N. Rush St, Gold Coast
A Rush Street steakhouse since 1989 with white-jacketed servers, a busy bar and giant desserts. Noisy, clubby and very Chicago.
Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab
60 E. Grand Ave, River North
The Chicago partnership with Miami Beach's Joe's Stone Crab: prime steaks, seafood and cracked stone crab claws in a classic, bustling dining room.
Our advice
- Book the food tour for your first day: it shows you the neighbourhoods you'll come back to for dinner.
- Skip breakfast before a 3-hour tasting tour.
- The West Loop tour is 21+ at the adult price; bring ID.
- Check current tour times and prices before you go.
Everything on this page was checked on October 1, 2026. Event dates, show runs and tour prices change, so confirm before you go.
Questions people ask
What is the best food tour in Chicago?
For a first visit, the Iconic Foods of Chicago tour: 3 hours and 1.4 miles of full-sized tastings of deep-dish pizza, Italian beef and Chicago-style hot dogs, from $85 per adult.
How much does a Chicago food tour cost?
Chicago Food & City Tours' Iconic Foods walk starts at $85 per adult and its West Loop tour is $129 for guests 21 and up.
Is there a food tour in Chicago's West Loop?
Yes. The Gateway to the West Loop tour walks Randolph Street's restaurants, breweries and bars in 3 hours.