Chinatown Food Tour
Explore the oldest Chinatown in North America with awesome food and amazing stories from the neighborhood's best restaurants.
Explore North America’s Oldest Chinatown with Awesome Food and Amazing Stories at the Best Restaurants
You Expert Avital Guide will lead you through Chinatown visiting 3 of the neighborhood’s best restaurants with a sprinkling of fascinating stories and history in between. You’ll enjoy both classic Cantonese and innovative fusion dishes, from dim sum to spicy noodles and more.
How it Works
What’s Included
- 3-Hour Walking Tour (approximately 1 mile)
- Expertly Trained Avital Guide
- 4-Course Meal with Appetizers, Entree, and Dessert
- 3 Alcoholic Beverage Pairings (optional upgrade)
- Delightful Sprinkling of Culinary Stories and History
- Team Building Games (complimentary, optional upgrade)
Example Dishes & Drinks
Our San Francisco Chinatown Food Tour includes 4-courses–two appetizers, one entree, and one dessert–with a sprinkling of culinary history and stories in between. Plus an upgrade option to include 3 carefully curated beverage pairings. We focus on quality over quantity, but we promise you won’t leave hungry! Here are some possible tastings to satiate your curiosity.
Crowd-favorite “Special Beef,” featuring top-choice sirloin marinated in chef’s special sauce
Shrimp fried rice with black truffle from one of best new restaurants of 2025
Black Sesame Cremeux with chocolate ganache, yuzu, & honey ice cream from Michelin-Starred Chef
Trio of tofu, eggplant, and hot peppers, stuffed with house-made shrimp paste and served in a savory black bean sauce
Scallion & beef dumpling, BBQ steamed buns, & chili oil wontons
Crispy avocado and salmon egg rolls
Tan Tan noodles with ground pork & rich, spicy broth
Chocolate xiao long bao (soup dumpling) filled with warm Ghirardelli chocolate
Sweet, savory, and crunchy honey walnut prawns with white rice
Chewy and crispy onion crepe pancakes
Variety of craft cocktails, beer, and wine
Example Restaurants
We’ll visit 3-4 of the best restaurants in San Francisco’s Chinatown, featuring hot spots (Avital guests skip the line) and hidden gems. All of our restaurants not only serve outstanding food and drinks, but they also have a rich story to discover and numerous awards (think James Beard Nominees, Michelin Plate, and Eater’s Top 38).
Osmanthus Dim Sum
TimeOuts’ Top Dim Sum in San Francisco
Empress By Boon
Michelin-Recommended Cantonese Cuisine from Michelin-Starred Chef Ho Chee Boon
Great Eastern Restaurant
Cozy, locals-only dim sum spot
Z & Y Peking Duck
USA Today’s 10 Best New Restaurants of 2025
606
Family-owned Chinese restaurant since 1989
House of Xian Dumpling
Xian-style Chinese food
Fusion Dumpling
Chinese regional fusion at OpenTable’s Diners’ Choice
R&G Lounge
Gayot’s Best SF Chinese Restaurants
Example Neighborhood Stops
San Franciso’s Chinatown is full of incredible history and stories. Beyond the restaurant stops, your Expert Avital Guide will take you to some of the most interesting landmarks with colorful commentary and fun facts along the way.
Portsmouth Square
Learn about the oldest park in San Francisco named for the ship that conquered San Francisco for California
Vital Tea Leaf
Visit a family-run tea house modeled after a wine bar. The family travels to China to source their teas directly.
Ross Alley
Historic hot spot for brothels and crime. Now it’s home to Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory (the last remaining location to make fortune cookies by hand)!
“Excellent tour. Did the China town walking food tour. Guide was very knowledgeable and the food was excellent.”
Kristina. via Google
Chinatown Food Tour
Where is it?
Osmanthus Dim Sum
Osmanthus Dim Sum Lounge, Broadway, San Francisco, CA, USA
Empress By Boon
Empress by Boon, Grant Avenue, San Francisco, CA, USA
Great Eastern Restaurant
Great Eastern Restaurant, Jackson Street, San Francisco, CA, USA
606
606, Broadway, San Francisco, CA, USA
House of Xian Dumpling
House Of Xian Dumpling, Kearny Street, San Francisco, CA, USA
Fusion Dumpling
FUSION DUMPLING, Jackson Street, San Francisco, CA, USA
Z & Y Peking Duck
Z & Y Peking Duck, Jackson Street, San Francisco, CA, USA
R&G Lounge
R & G Lounge, Kearny Street, San Francisco, CA, USA
Portsmouth Square
Portsmouth Square, Kearny Street, San Francisco, CA, USA
Vital Tea Leaf
Vital Tea Leaf, Grant Avenue, San Francisco, CA, USA
Ross Alley
Ross Alley, San Francisco, CA, USA
Our start location varies; you’ll receive your exact meeting location after booking.
Run of Show
1: Meet Expert Avital Guide & Introduction
Guests meet Avital Guide at pre-determined location. Kick off the tour with fun introductions!
2: 1st Restaurant for Appetizer & Optional Beverage Pairing
Arrive at the first neighborhood restaurant and sink your teeth into a delicious appetizer with a carefully curated alcoholic (or non-alcoholic if you prefer) beverage pairing.
3: Visit Iconic Landmark
Head towards your next restaurant destination, but on the way discover unique murals, historic statues, or hidden curiosities with rich commentary from your Avital Guide.
4: 2nd Restaurant for Appetizer & Optional Beverage Pairing
Enjoy your second small plate appetizer with another delicious beverage pairing as you hear stories about the restaurant, culinary scene, and the people who make it all possible.
5: Discover Neighborhood Story
As you walk to your 3rd restaurant destination you’ll continue your journey through the neighborhood with more awesome storytelling and fun facts.
6: 3rd (or 4th) Restaurant for Entree, Dessert & Optional Beverage Pairing
Indulge in your main entree course with another incredible beverage pairing as you chat, enjoy, and connect with your fellow diners.
Then enjoy a scrumptious sweet treat for your final tasting. Your Avital Guide will wrap up the tour, answer any final questions, and can recommend other awesome places to visit next time!
The Essentials
Availability
Private tours are available any day of the week, at any time! Public tours are not available right now.
Distance
The San Francisco Chinatown food tour is a flat route, approximately 1 mile.
Group Size
Private tours don’t have a minimum or maximum number of people. Ask your private curator for minimum spends.
Alcohol
Guests over 21 years can add the alcohol pairing upgrade which includes 3 carefully curated drinks.
Gratuity
Gratuity is included in your package price!
Lead Time
We can accommodate Private Bookings in advance or rush. Start your booking and we’ll get back to you right away!
Private or Public Tour
Our Chinatown Food Tour is only available for private groups. It’s great for team building, client entertainment, birthday parties, and large groups.
- Reserve Your Preferred Day & Time
- Any Group Size
- Private Avital Guide For Your Group
- Customize Your Package
Upgrades & Add-ons
Add 3 Alcoholic Beverage Pairings
Curated cocktails, beer, or wine enhance your dining experience.
Add More Food for Heartier Meal
Perfect for dinner-time tours. Available on private tours only.
Team Building Games
Booking this tour for a team building activity? Add 1-2 of our quirky-and-classy games for added fun and connection. In between courses, your Avital Guide will lead your team through fun and interactive team building games. Games last about 10-15 minutes each.
Dietary Restrictions
One of our core values is #BreatheCuriosity. We enjoy introducing you to new foods and old favorites in new ways. We very much encourage guests to be adventurous and try something new – we’ve even had an 80-year old man try his first oyster with us! Thus, while we love the diverse ways our guests choose to eat, we can accommodate some restrictions on public tours and many restrictions and preferences on private tours. You will be asked for your dietary restrictions during your booking process.
If you are unsure if we can accommodate your restriction, please email us at info@avitalexperiences.com. Please note that this tour may include nuts, dairy, seafood, spicy food, and pork. We can accommodate the following on public tours:
- Vegetarian
- Pescatarian
- Gluten-free
- Pregnant Guests
- No Pork
- No Seafood
Why Choose Avital for Your Chinatown Food Tour in San Francisco?
- Expertly Guided: Our Chinatown Food Tour is led by a trained, expert Avital Guide. You can sit back and enjoy as your host takes care of all the logistics with rich storytelling and group engagement along the way.
- VIP Experience: No waiting in lines and each course is served seated at a reserved table. Tours can be an intimate, small-group experience yet still have that same VIP feeling for large groups.
- Experienced Team: A full support team to ensure a turnkey booking and seamless experience from start to finish.
- Dietary Restriction Friendly: We understand dietary restrictions and want everyone to leave feeling cared for and full! We’ll ask for your restrictions after booking.
- Taste The Best: Instead of visiting a whole bunch of average places with tiny toothpick bites, we visit 3 incredible restaurants that not only serve steller food and drinks, but are passionate about storytelling and the guest experience.
All tickets are nonrefundable. Consider it like buying a concert ticket – that seat is reserved for you and we will be unable to resell it. As a small business with only 12 tickets per tour, it’s important that you purchase tickets when you’re sure you can go. If you can’t make it to the tour you purchased, the tickets are transferable.
Gratuity is not included. 15%-20% is customary in the tourism industry.
Yes! Our Progressive Meal is a full meal! The base package features appetizers, entree, and dessert (~3-5 dishes) and is great for lunch or dinner. For private tours, you can also choose the “add more food” upgrade for an even more luxurious and robust menu (~5-7 dishes) great for a heavy lunch or solid dinner.
Our pricing already includes applicable taxes! For private events, there is a standard $25 per person private event service charge noted. This helps ensure we can tip your guide and restaurant servers for larger/private groups. No surprise “booking fees” or hidden extras.
It’s okay! We can accommodate dietary restrictions and requests for non-alcoholic substitute beverages. We’ll ask for your requests and restrictions during booking.
We strongly discourage it. Everything in your pre-booked tour is ordered and prepared in advance to be ready on arrival at each restaurant. Orders placed after arrival take much longer, and come out with little time to spare before we head off to the next course. Guests end up disappointed, leaving cocktails behind or feeling pressure to drink up. Not a good experience.
Yes and no. Our experience takes the best elements of seated dining, prix-fixe chef’s tasting menus, blended with the best elements of a classic food tour, to create an entirely unique dining experience: the Avital Progressive Meal.
That’s okay! You can still book to reserve your date/time with an estimate and adjust later. We accommodate changes of +/- 20% from your original number. Ask your curator if you need special arrangements for larger changes.
That’s our job! We’ve spent years testing out all of the city’s awesome restaurants, finding those quirky characters, and building a culinary experience with story and purpose (that’s also delicious!) Trust us, that’s why you came here.
We’ll send your confirmed meeting address prior to your tour date. The menu itself, and featured restaurants, follow a prix fixe tasting menu style and are revealed as part of the experience itself as it unfolds. You can explore our example featured dishes to understand the caliber and style of dishes and cocktails we highlight.
Our North Beach food tour is a flat route with 2 slight hills, about 1 mile of walking.
Our Mission District food tour is a flat route with about 1 ½ miles of walking.
Yes! For private tours we accept rush bookings. If you’re looking to book a last-minute event, reach out to us and we’ll do our best to make it happen. Rush charges may apply.
Our public tours sell out fast so we recommend purchasing your tickets at least 2 weeks in advance.
In between delicious courses, your Avital Guide will lead your team through a fun and interactive team building game. Games last about 10-15 minutes each.
Tonight’s Special: Designed in-house by Avital curators who specialize in foodie fun and corporate team building. This creative card game gets players thinking like chefs as they navigate trendy ingredients to create mouthwatering menus. Collaborative and competitive, Tonight’s Special will get your team hungry for more fun!
Embrace Quirky: Our original, and all-time favorite Avital game, Embrace Quirky is inspired by our core values. This simple but effective get-to-know-you game challenges your team to find and embrace their own quirky histories, meanwhile sleuthing out who’s who among their quirky team! Someone here used to be hairdresser to the Queen, someone else drank rum with real pirates, and someone else always ties their left shoe first. Who can it be?
Note: Adding the team building upgrade does not reduce or impact the number of restaurants you’ll visit nor the number of dishes you’ll enjoy. However, adding the team building upgrade does cut in on your “mingling” time during the tour – the in-between moments where you might otherwise enjoy organic conversation time will instead be spent playing these fun and engaging games!
How to Book Your Private Tour
1: Explore Packages
Download the PDF proposal to view packages and pricing for each experience. Still have questions? Schedule a call with your Culinary Curator.
2: Start Your Booking
Submit your event details to get started. Upon submission, you’ll also have the option to make an initial, refundable deposit to reserve your date right away.
3: Finalize Details
A real human will be in touch to finalize your event details, like confirming your package, how to submit request for dietary or alcohol accommodations, and when your final headcount is due.
Psst! Looking to join a public tour? You can buy tickets here!
Start Your Private Booking