The best food tours in Chicago

There have been plenty of TV shows set in Chicago—but few have captured the highs and lows of working in the city’s restaurant industry like The Bear has. The series, which has won 21 Emmys throughout its three-season run so far, focuses on a fictional sandwich shop/high-end Chicago restaurant, but also features plenty of real eateries that fans can visit.

Yes, Chef! Chicago: A Bear-Inspired Food Tour takes guests to many of the real places actually shown on screen, including Mr. Beef, a River North institution where the show’s exterior restaurant shots are filmed, as well as other local favorites like Margie’s Candies. The bus tour, which is more than three hours long, costs $129 per person. While the show originally revolved around an Italian beef joint, vegetarians don’t need to fear—the tour can accommodate vegetarian diets with advance notice.

Chicago's culinary scene is more than just deep dish and hot dogs. There are lots of other tasty street foods throughout the city’s many neighborhoods, including Pilsen, and the Street Foods of Pilsen tour showcases some of the Lower West Side's finest offerings.

Of course, the tour brings folks to places for some top-notch Mexican fare, like tacos and chicharrones, but they can also sample Chicago-style pizza, barbecue and Vietnamese cuisine. The three-hour tour also explores Pilsen’s vibrant art community, and passes by some of the neighborhood’s most famous murals. The tour is $85 for adults who want to include a tequila tasting, $60 for adults with no alcohol and $50 for kids ages 7 to 12.

The six dishes on the Scret Food Tours: Chicago might not be a real secret for aficionados of Chicago cuisine, but the deep dish pizza, brownies and Chicago-style hot dogs that tour-goers can feast on are still a tasty treat. The tour also stops for Italian beef and popcorn. 

It’s not just a food tour, though. The guides also dive into the city’s history, stopping at important downtown sites like the Harold Washington Library and Willis Tower. The small group tour has a maximum capacity of 12 attendees and costs $79 per person. Secret Food Tours offers four departure times every day for the three-and-a-half hour experience.

Sick of pizza? Tired of Italian beef? Thankfully, those aren’t the only delicious foods that Chicago excels at—the city is also home to numerous mouthwatering doughnut shops, and the Fulton Market Delicious Donut Adventure tour stops at several of them. From old standby shops that always deliver quality doughnuts, such as Do-Rite Donuts, to newer fan favorites like Portland-based Voodoo Doughnuts, the tour takes guests around the Fulton Market District to sample the area’s best fried delights. 

The tour is organized by Underground Donut Tour, a company that also operates in other cities across the United States, as well as in Canada and Europe. The two-hour experience is offered on weekends, and costs $62 per person.

Sometimes when visitors travel to Chicago, they just stick to exploring the Loop. Of course, the Loop is great and filled with many of the city’s must-see sites for first-timers. But until you get out into the city’s neighborhoods, you haven’t really seen it all. That’s what’s great about taking a food tour—they often travel to many of the city’s neighborhoods and explore their culinary offerings, like the Wicker Park Food Tour.

Unlike many of the city’s food tours, the Wicker Park Food Tour is a private experience that can accommodate between two and 60 people, and costs $99 per person. The three-hour tour stops at several Wicker Park restaurants and bakeries, including Alliance Bakery, 5411 Empanadas and Small Cheval, where folks can enjoy tastings of the beloved burgers. It's operated by Sidewalk Food Tours, which also runs tours in River North.

There are tours that take you to the locations of famous shootouts, speakeasies and hideouts of the city’s most infamous gangsters, but there’s only one that throws in food samples as well. Tour-goers on the Chicago Gangsters and Food Walking Tour will sample food in a restaurant that used to serve as a hideout for Al Capone, and has a hidden tunnel to make a quick getaway. They’ll also have deep dish pizza in a former mansion—once owned by a Chicago gangster—that’s since been converted into a restaurant.

Tours are offered twice a day, at 11:15am and 1:30pm, and cost $75 for adults, $70 for seniors and $65 for kids between the ages of 7 and 17.

Chinatown is one of Chicago’s most distinctive neighborhoods. It's filled with shops, beautiful parks and cultural Chinese sites, including the Chicago Chinese Cultural Institute. And of course, it’s also home to a lot of great food. The Chinatown Adventure Food Tour, operated by Chicago Food Tours, stops at five neighborhood restaurants, where tour-goers can sample dim sum, Szechuan dishes and authentic Chinese sweets.

You'll also hear about the history of the neighborhood and visit some of its most noted landmarks, like Ping Tom Memorial Park. The walking tour, which spans 1.3 miles, is three hours long and costs $80 for adults, $50 for kids and free for children ages 6 and under.

Arguably the most famous food to come out of Chicago is deep dish pizza. But you’d be mistaken if you thought that was all the city had to offer when it comes to pizza. Our pizzerias are well-known for tavern-style pies, plus a wide array of other options. The Chicago Pizza Tour gives tour-goers a variety of slices to sample, including Neapolitan, Roman-style, and of course, deep-dish.

Chicago Pizza Tours has been offering both walking and bus tours since 2010, and according to founder Jonathan Porter, regularly has more than 10,000 guests per year. There are three different tours to choose from, but the most all-encompassing one is the Original Chicago Pizza Tour, a three-and-a-half hour bus experience that visits four pizzerias and includes at least six slices of pizza. Tours are typically offered on the weekend and cost $89 for attendees over the age of 13 and $70 for kids between the ages of 6 and 12.

We all know that summertime Chi is great, but winter’s not too bad either, especially when the city is decked out for the holiday season. If you’re a fan of feeling festive for the winter holidays, then Bobby’s Bike Hike's Chicago-Style Holiday Hike tour is an ideal way to see the decorated sights of the city while grabbing some festive and delicious food along the way. The tour stops at the Palmer House Hilton, the birthplace of the brownie, for the hotel’s signature treat, and also includes deep dish pizza sampling.

The experience ends at Christkindlmarkt, a Chicago holiday season tradition, where more than 50 vendors sell all kinds of handcraft wares, including Christmas ornaments, beer steins and knitted and crocheted mittens. And, of course, there will be more food to enjoy. Tours are three hours long and priced at $75 per adult, $65 for kids ages 4 to 11 and $10 for kids 3 and under.

One of the highlights of Chicago is that it’s home to a wide variety of cuisines from cultures throughout the world. But there are some staples that are unique to the city and must be sampled for a true Chicago culinary experience. The Bikes, Bites and Brews: Chicago’s Signature Dishes food tour helps patrons try some of the city’s most signature foods, and down some of the best beers on top of it.

The four-and-a-half hour bike tour costs approximately $80 per person, and takes folks through North Side neighborhoods like Wrigleyville, Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Old Town and the Gold Coast. Each tour includes deep dish pizza, a Chicago-style hot dog and a dessert, including brownies, which were first invented in Chicago for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. The entire length of the tour is approximately 13 miles and there are two different times: 11:30am and 5:30pm.

Hearing about some of the crimes that have happened throughout Chicago’s history could be enough to make one’s stomach turn. But for true crime aficionados with a stomach of steel, the Chicago Murder Mystery Food Tour is a great way to learn about the city’s more grisly side, solve a crime of your own by picking up clues at the tour’s stops, and enjoy some of the city’s most iconic culinary treats. During the experience, patrons will enjoy a Chicago-style hot dog and a slice of deep dish pizza before solving a murder mystery at Oak Street Beach. The daily tour is offered by Chicago-based company Magnifico Tours and costs $82 per person.