If you’re craving a mix of history, culture, and exceptional eats, Ahoy NY Tours & Tasting’s Chinatown and Little Italy tour is the perfect way to explore these iconic New York neighborhoods. This is a fantastic food tour, and you’ll walk away stuffed with food and knowledge.
The tour lasts for two-and-a-half to three hours, as you walk less than a mile in distance but sample tons of bites from two very distinct neighborhoods. This food tour focuses on family-owned restaurants that are true representatives of the community and have been around for sometimes generations.
I loved the Ahoy tour of Chinatown and Little Italy, and I’m sure you will, too. Read on for all the details!
In full disclosure, Ahoy NY Tours & Tasting invited me to join on a complimentary food tour, but all opinions remain my own.
The Tour Is More Than Just Food
Throughout the tour, the guide stops at additional locations to provide more history. From tales of immigration to the evolution of Chinatown and Little Italy, you’ll learn about the cultural significance of everything from chop suey to mozzarella, understanding how food has always been a bridge between cultures.
The guide shared some bits of information I already knew but also included a lot I hadn’t heard about before. For example, I had no idea that the Chinese Exclusion Act is a big reason why Chinatown first formed and then became such a vibrant and large community. The anecdotes include the history of why streets are named the way they are, gang wars, the impact of a park on the community, and so much more.
The tours are small with a maximum of 12 or 13 people, though our tour had just seven in our group. It’s perfect to be able to ask questions and hear everything our personable guide had to share.
What If I Have a Food Allergy?
Ahoy NY Tours is able to accommodate your dietary restrictions. When you register for the tour, you can share any dietary concerns so they can alter the foods provided for you.
They are used to handling including common allergies like gluten, dairy, and nuts, but they can handle more than just those. Our fantastic guide Patrick confirmed they haven’t encountered an allergy they couldn’t manage.
The friend who joined me does not eat pork, and she enjoyed a taro bun instead of pork at one stop and had two veggie dumplings instead of a pork and a veggie dumpling at another. Be sure to let them know about any dietary issues in advance, however, as it is a challenge to scramble the day of to accommodate people’s needs.
What Makes This New York Food Tour Special?
Both my friend and I really enjoyed our time on this tour. I am a food tour aficionado, and I’ve done them everywhere from Boston to Barcelona, and this one is among the better food tours I’ve been on.
The food was great, and we walked away quite full. I really loved how they were small, local restaurants that have been around for a long time and how different the items were at each stop.
The guide was fantastic. Patrick has a great personality, and he had so much information about the area and the food off the top of his head that really made it come alive for us. Trust us, our group asked so many questions, and he handled them all beautifully.
We didn’t have to wait a long time for any of the food, and the guide made small accommodations for the weather to ensure we remained comfortable. We never felt rushed or like we didn’t have enough space to eat out tasty treats.
And again, the historical information the guide shared was fantastic. I had no idea about the Five Points area of New York and its history, let alone the swampiness of the area and its impact on the lives of those who lived there. It was great to walk away feeling like we really understood the entire area, not just the food.
How good was it? The next day, my friend and I brought her husband and daughter to two of the places we visited the day before to have an entire meal and pick up a snack for later. I have never done that on another food tour.
What Food Do You Enjoy on This Tour?
The tour includes a wide variety of food, some of which you have probably had before but there’s a good chance you’ll try something new, as well. We enjoyed samples from five different places in Chinatown and four different stops in Little Italy.
We were absolutely stuffed by the end of the tour, so when they tell you to eat just a light breakfast before the tour, they mean it. I also brought my own water bottle after having learned from my mistakes on a previous food tour in another city, but at the first stop, the guide did offer bottles of water to anyone interested.
The tour is pretty set according to Patrick, but they may change things up a bit, including the order in which you visit them.
Silk Road Cafe
This was our first stop, and we met the guide inside 15 minutes before the tour. He provided us with introductions and a pamphlet about our tour – the first time on any food tour where I’ve been provided with written materials to help me remember where I went and what I tasted.
Here we enjoyed a jasmine green tea in the most beautiful little tea cups I’ve ever seen. It is prepared in house by the proprietor and a perfect way to start out, as the Chinese belief is that you should always start your day with green tea to kickstart your metabolism.
If you want coffee, you’re welcome to purchase it yourself, but that is not part of the tour. This is also the perfect place to use the restroom if you need, as this is one the few places that has one available.
Fay Da
Technically, we did not go to Fay Da. This bakery is very small inside and does not have a seating area, but the guide picks up the items from the bakery so that we can eat them inside Silk Road Cafe along with the tea.
These char siu bao are amazingly delicious and soft. They are a bbq pork bun with the most tender milk yeast dough wrapping around the filling, and I loved it.
My friend who was also on the tour doesn’t eat pork, so she received a taro bao with ube paste, and she proclaimed it delicious. Then she apologized to me for not letting me try it because it was so good, she devoured it.
We enjoyed Fay Da so much that we actually made a special trip there and purchased additional items, and after having been inside, I absolutely understand why we enjoyed them at another location. That said, go check out the bakery after the tour and bring something home for another time.
Noodle Village
This restaurant is another sit down stop, and while they are known for all sorts of delicious Cantonese food – come back another day for their rice hot pot, soup dumplings, and noodle dishes – here we sampled two kinds of dumplings.
The dumplings here are hand-made, and it shows. They are served family style with a rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, and ginger dipping sauce that was a perfect complement to the pork and chive and veggie dumplings.
Each person on the tour receives one of each kind, though again my friend enjoyed two veggie dumplings instead of a pork one. The dumplings are boiled then pan-seared, and the veggie with chopped cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, bean sprouts, and vermicelli rice noodles were a fan favorite.
Kam Hing Coffee Shop/Tonii’s Rice Rolls
We enjoyed the most delicious pandan sponge cakes at this tiny little shop. I had never had pandan before, but it is a plant used in a lot of Southeast Asian cuisines, and it provides a delightfully light, sweet flavor.
There were no seats inside, but there was plenty of room to stand and enjoy our treats. The sponge cakes are pretty large, so consider saving some of yours for later, but you’ll love the vibrant green inside that is the natural color from using pandan.
The sponge cakes are not made at this store, but they come from another Chinese bakery that’s just a little too far for the tour. They are sold in this store, however, so you can come back to pick up extras, as the sponge cakes are not like anything you find in typical American cuisine.
Hay Hay Roasted
This is another tiny little takeout restaurant where we didn’t have seats, but we didn’t care because it was such a cool place. Here we enjoyed roast duck served over rice.
The big warning we got before being served is that there will be bones in the duck, so be careful while you eat it. I always worry that duck will be fatty, but this portion absolutely was not and was cooked perfectly.
The Cantonese-style roast duck is filled with spices inside the cavity and marinated for 18 hours before they roast it for just 90 minutes. We absolutely loved the flavor of it, and the rice was perfect to catch the juices that fell from it as it cooled.
Piemonte Ravioli Company
Our first stop in Little Italy was the cutest pasta store I’ve ever been in. They make all their pasta from scratch, and the varieties they offer – and the ridiculously reasonable prices – were impressive.
We were served gnocchi with a homemade tomato sauce, which surprised me a little as I had anticipated a traditional pasta over gnocchi. The gnocchi was fine, but the pasta sauce was outstanding with the san marzano tomatoes and fresh basil.
This store used to supply Al Italia – the Italian national airline – with its pasta before it went bankrupt, so this is a legit source. This is yet another store I wanted to come back to spend more time and money in, but my carry on unfortunately did not have room for me to bring home any of the fresh buffalo mozzarella ravioli or gorgeous tortelloni or other pastas.
Di Palo’s Fine Foods
This small Italian grocery store is in its fifth generation of family ownership. I could have spent so much time exploring it, but while you can go in, you’re there just for a few minutes while the guide picks up the cheeses and olives to taste outside.
We enjoyed two kinds of cheese, a piave and a moliterno. Both are served with small slices, and I might have had seconds because they were so delicious.
The piave comes from cows that have to spend half the year in the mountains and the other half in the valley. It reminds me a little of a young parmesan cheese with a slightly sweet taste.
Moliterno cheese is another hard cheese, and this one has olive oil rubbed into the outside as it cures, which helps to prevent moisture loss and also creates a delicious rind. Both are cheeses you may not have tried before, but I know I will be looking for them again.
We also had the opportunity to sample green olives from Italy that are grown in a single river valley in the west of Sicily. They weren’t my favorite olives, but I’m also one who loves Kalamata, and I did enjoy them.
Benito One
This sit down restaurant is another small, family-owned restaurant with a lot of history. This is also your last chance to use a restroom, so take it if needed.
Here, we had our choice of beverage in addition to the food. You can choose from a house pinot grigio or chianti, as well as a selection of beers, pop, or juice, depending upon your preference.
We also received a generous serving of eggplant rollatini, which was surprisingly delicious to me, as I don’t usually enjoy eggplant. The sliced eggplant is lightly breaded and fried, then coated with ricotta and rolled up before being topped with fresh mozzarella and a rich tomato sauce.
I love that we tried so many of the more unusual dishes rather than the ones that may be more familiar to us, as I found a new favorite. We also had bread to go with it, though few of us had any because we had already eaten so much.
Ferrara
Our last stop is another one where we stood outside to enjoy the sample. Ferrara is a famous Italian bakery in the neighborhood, and while their typical cannoli are four inches long and the diameter of a broomstick, the food tour took pity on us.
We enjoyed mini cannoli that were much smaller and more manageable after the tremendous feast we had already enjoyed. The chocolate chip cannoli have candied citron peel in them, as well, though I did not taste much of it.
They were oh so crispy on the outside, and the three bites was a perfect treat to end the tour. I debated going inside and picking up more, but I managed to resist, and I suspect I’m not the only one who wants to return to all their favorites to take more home to share.
How Much Does This Chinatown Food Tour Cost?
This three hour NYC food tour costs $105. There is not a discounted rate for children, and everyone needs a ticket to join the tour.
Side note: While this tour is family-friendly, they strongly recommend that kids be at least eight years old to join this tour (and 13 to join their other tours), but know your child and both their taste in food and their attention span for a tour like this.
Do I Need to Tip My Guide?
So technically, do you need to tip the guide? Tips aren’t mandatory obviously, but they are highly encouraged, and Patrick – or whichever guide you have – absolutely deserves every tip he earns.
Just don’t be that person. Bring cash with you.
What Is the Best Way to Get to the Food Tour?
If you’ve ever been to Chinatown or Little Italy in New York City, you know that parking there is tough. Depending on the day, streets may be closed, as well.
Take. Public. Transportation.
The meeting spot is a relatively short walk from multiple subway stations that serve many lines. There are also bus stops that make getting to Mott Street in Chinatown simple.
How Far Do You Walk?
The tour covers just under a mile in the two and a half to three hours it takes. The longest walk is about ten minutes from the last stop in Chinatown to the first stop in Little Italy.
None of the walking is strenuous, although the sidewalks can be narrow and congested, depending on the time of day and season. That said, it is more challenging if you are mobility-impaired or in a wheelchair, though Ahoy NY Tours & Tasting can accommodate some needs, so reach out to them prior to booking.
The starting point and the ending point are not the same, but they are not distant from each other. You can easily return to any of the points on the tour if you choose, and you remain near public transportation to make it easy to return to your hotel or home after the tour.
What Happens If There’s Bad Weather?
This tour runs rain or shine, in any weather. Make sure you dress for it, including bringing an umbrella if it’s raining or wearing thick boots and dressing in layers if it’s cold like it was for us.
Does Ahoy NY Tours & Tasting Offer Any Other Food Tours?
Yes! In addition to the Chinatown and Little Italy food tour we enjoyed, Ahoy has a Tasty Global Bites tour ($105) that goes through Nolita (North of Little Italy) and a Market 57 food tour at Pier 57 in Chelsea ($80).
The Chinatown and Little Italy tour I did is the only one offered every day of the week, however, so plan ahead. The other two are offered just Thursday to Saturday
You’ll Want to Book This Amazing NYC Food Tour
The food tour isn’t cheap, but it is absolutely worth it. You get more than a full meal in your three hour tour with restaurants and dishes you likely have never tried before.
The guide we had was also incredibly personable, and Patrick promised the other tour guides are just as great as he was. We learned so much about the history of the area, as well, which made it a great and well-rounded food tour that I can whole-heartedly recommend.
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