Whether it’s on foot or by bus, there’s an array of local food tours that offer visitors and residents a convenient way to learn what culinary treats metro Atlanta neighborhoods have to offer.
Here are seven food tours that showcase Atlanta’s diverse dining scene:
1. BiteLines Atlanta Food Tours
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Nicole Gustin offers a Food and Street Art Tour that kicks off at Krog Street Market. The tour makes stops at restaurants, including Soul: Food & Culture, and winds its way down the Beltline to the Krog Street Tunnel.
Along the way, attendees can expect seven bites — enough to make a lunch, Gustin said. She and her tour guides also share stories about street art as they go. The tour proceeds at a leisurely pace for a little under 1.5 miles.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Gustin also has launched a Doggie Crawl food tour for four-legged friends “that allows humans” to come along as well, she said. Dogs and their owners can expect to visit two pet boutiques and two restaurants where pets and owners both get to enjoy treats.
bitelinesatlantafoodtours.com. $69-$79 per person.
2. Food Tours Atlanta
Credit: Betsy McPherson Photography
Credit: Betsy McPherson Photography
Inspired by a food tour she took in Paris, Cristy Lenz and her guides run tours of local restaurants around Inman Park and at Ponce City Market.
A former journalist, Lenz is still a reporter at heart, so her tours include plenty of history, with the Inman Park tour telling the story of Atlanta’s first suburb and showcasing the many Victorian houses that line its streets.
The tours include full-size bites such as an apple cheddar turnover from Little Tart Bakeshop and a veggie samosa and pani poori from Jai Ho, she said.
Food Tours Atlanta is able to accommodate most dietary restrictions, Lenz added. For people with limited mobility, she recommends the Ponce City Market tours, as Inman Park sidewalks are not easily accessible.
foodtoursatlanta.com. $95-$120 per person. $60 for children 12 and under.
3. Girl Dinner Food Tours
Credit: Social Bijou
Credit: Social Bijou
Despite its name, this “eclectic menu of bites” at Ponce City Market put together by Jordan Maser is open to all genders.
Maser offers both private and public group tours on weekday evenings, when Ponce City Market sees smaller crowds. The tours give locals “a fun and easy way to try all the restaurants they’ve had on their must-try list for years,” she said.
Stops on the tours include such restaurants as Pizza Jeans and La Metro, and Maser said to expect six to eight bites total that form something like a tasting menu, kind of a “fast pass” through the market.
girldinnerfoodtours.com. $99 per person.
4. Seoul of the South Food Tour
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Tour guide Sarah Park of Explore Gwinnett showcases the fact that the county is home to the largest Koreatown in the Southeast.
A limited number of Seoul of the South Food Tours are held throughout the year, bringing attendees to a variety of Korean restaurants where everyone tries eight to 10 family-style dishes that can range from home-cooked meals to Korean barbecue, street food and desserts, Park said.
She added that people bring containers and coolers for “to-go boxes to share with their loved ones.”
The tour already is booked up for this year, but Park has compiled lists of Korean-owned restaurants and businesses to visit into one Seoul of the South Pass itinerary that people can follow on their own. Participants can register online, then mark off the locations they visit for a chance to win prizes.
exploregwinnett.org/seoul-of-the-south-food-tour. $69 per person.
exploregwinnett.org/food-drink/seoul-of-the-south-pass
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
5. Southern Culinary Tours
Southern Culinary Tours’ Midtown Boozy Brunch and Midtown Food and Cocktail tours showcase Atlanta as an “international metropolitan area,” said founder Justin Hall.
The tours make stops at a rotating list of restaurants within walking distance of one another in the Midtown neighborhood, and Hall works with the restaurants to pick out seasonal dishes and cocktails to share with the group.
Attendees also can expect to hear about Midtown’s history, landmarks and architecture.
“It’s a nice way to get a good orientation of where you are, what the food is like, and talk to someone that’s got good local knowledge to find more recommendations,” Hall said.
southernculinarytours.com. $89.99-$124.99 per person.
6. Unexpected Atlanta
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Founder Akila McConnell said Unexpected Atlanta tours are “not going to take you to the same places that you’ve been to before if you’re a local. We want to bring you to the places that you wouldn’t go to on your own and especially to try the foods that you might not order on your own.”
She hopes her tours can break down stereotypes of what Southern food is by introducing attendees to a variety of cuisines and dishes. For the Atlanta Market Food Tour and Biscuit Class, the dishes range from hoe cakes to hot chicken banh mi, and at the end attendees learn how to make their own Southern biscuits.
And for her Prohibition Progressive Dinner, a guide dresses in 1920s garb and tells the story of the Prohibition era in Atlanta. McConnell also plans to launch a tour where people eat their way through Midtown while solving a historical mystery.
All the Unexpected Atlanta tours can be made accessible for people with limited mobility, McConnell said, and they also can accommodate any dietary restrictions.
unexpectedatlanta.com. $80-$225 per person.
7. Yum Cha
Credit: Kim Jensen-Pitts
Credit: Kim Jensen-Pitts
Pop-up chef Candy Hom and Howard Hsu, co-owner of Sweet Auburn BBQ, launched a food tour of Buford Highway earlier this year. A bus picks attendees up at Sweet Auburn BBQ for a tour of five to six spots along metro Atlanta’s famous stretch of international restaurants.
Attendees are exposed to a variety of cuisines, such as Chinese dim sum, Thai, Vietnamese and mini tacos. Guests also have time to explore the different stops on their own, sometimes with guidance from guest chefs.
Hom said the Yum Cha tour is great for locals who want insider details on where the best produce can be found, how to navigate Buford Highway Farmers Market and even where to find a stall with cheap lobster.
Even if you have lived in Atlanta your whole life, “there’s so many areas that you can explore,” she said, and it makes you feel “like you’re a tourist again.”
instagram.com/yumcha_atl. $100 per person.
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